For at least a month now, Chevrolet dealers have known GM would release pricing for the 2023 Corvette on Wednesday, March 23rd.
However March 23rd came and went, and as of this morning, March 24th, dealers still have no clue what the new pricing will be for the 2023 Corvette. BUT, thanks to trusty car magazines like Motor Trend, Car and Driver, and Road and Track, Chevy dealers found out late yesterday morning that the MSRP for the 2023 Corvette would increase by $1,050.
This morning, Chevy dealers are still basically hearing crickets from GM.
Yesterday at around 5:30 PM ET, dealers received the following communication from GM:
TO: ALL CHEVROLET DEALERS
CHEVROLET IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE INTRODUCTORY PRICES FOR THE 2023 MODEL YEAR CORVETTE STINGRAY MODELS. CORVETTE Z06 PRICES WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT LATER DATE.
SPECIFIC PRICING INFORMATION INCLUDING DEALER INVOICE, DEALER PRICE AND DESTINATION CHARGES ARE AVAILABLE IN GLOBALCONNECT. DETAIL OF THE WHOLESALE FLOOR PLAN RELATIVE TO 2023 MODELS WILL FOLLOW UNDER SEPARATE COVER.
As of this morning, this is what dealers can see in GM’s Global Connect system:
Order Workbench
GM Price Schedules in Global Connect
As you can see, pricing for the 2023 Corvette model year is nowhere to be found in GM’s Global Connect system unless they’ve broken tradition, and hid it in some obscure part of the system that dealers know nothing about.
GM’s Lack of Communication Poses Issues for Both Dealers and Customers
According to reports we received last night, some of the high volume Corvette dealers were inundated with calls for customers wanting to know how much their 2023 Corvette order was going to cost with all of the options they chose.
Guess what the Chevy dealers’ responses were: “where are you seeing that pricing from? We have no pricing from GM as of right now?”
Do you have any idea how stupid that makes Chevy dealers look in the eyes of the consumer?? When customers want information on GM’s products, who are they going to turn to? GM’s dealer network. But what does it say about GM’s dealer network, and GM as a whole, when their dealers don’t even have the information to give to the customer, but alas, the customer is getting it from a car magazine?
2023 Corvette Ordering Starts TODAY!
As we reported last week:
“GM will begin accepting 2023 Corvette orders with the March/2 consensus cycle which will begin the week of March 31st. Dealers will be able to start entering 2023 Corvette orders on March 24th.”
So how’s that going to work, when dealers don’t even have pricing!?
In order to place a Corvette order, the dealer needs to confirm the final build with the customer. As expected, most customers are always concerned about final cost – as they should be, but how can a customer make a final decision on what options they want, when they don’t even know what the final cost of the car is going to be?
Can you imagine what some of the top Corvette dealers have to go through in order to contact up to 200+ customers within a few days to finalize their builds and get them entered into GM’s Order Work Bench system within a small window of time?
Communication is Key to Establishing Customer Relationships
I shouldn’t even have to say it, but communication is one of the key components to establishing good, solid relationships with a customer.
GM’s all about trying to gain market share by pulling it away from the competition, and that starts at the dealer level.
GM: your dealer network is the face of the corporation in front of the consumer. If you don’t give your dealers the necessary information to give to the consumer – and allow the dealers to do their jobs accurately and efficiently, you’re essentially making failing at communication at a very basic level.
The fact that customers found out about model pricing from a car magazine ahead of your dealer network, is nothing short of an epic fail on your part.