[G Fo12ce]

I've been done with the ordering process a while now and am waiting for my car to get built. I thought I would share the tips I used during the process. Except for my Excel spreadsheet this is just a collection of posts/info that helped me all in one place. Much of it was collected from these members so below is credit where credit is due:

This confirm's my pricing:
Camaro News-'16 Camaro Price Breakdown

cartem2-Two VERY important things to ask when ordering
My87z28-Tips for when you go to either order or buy you new '16 Camaro
My87z28-The dealer accepted my offer
BeckyD@RodgersChevrolet-2016 Camaro Full Pricing (w/ options/packages) - - Eff. Start of Model Year Prod.
BeckyD@RodgersChevrolet-2017 MODEL YEAR VEHICLE PRICE EFFECTIVE WITH START OF 2017 MODEL YEAR PRODUCTION
Sledgehammer70-Buying a 2016 Camaro? Check out this video
Laborsmith-A bunch of useful things from various threads. Anyone who might see their contributions on my guides who I forgot, THANKS!

The first thing I suggest you do is get comfortable with the numbers. I made an Excel sheet I will link below to make things like invoice price, fees, incentives and a finance calculator to make things easier.

All you have to do is fill in the boxes with the orange borders and the rest will calculate automatically. Just note the descriptions and options are for the car I built so feel free to change them to your liking. You can download the form by clicking the 3 dots... in the upper right.

• On the first line leave the 4% and 9% unless you want to use this form for another vehicle.

• The "GM Advertising/Adjustment" was something I was not aware of and will vary depending on where you are. Other forum members have verified it's a legitimate fee. In a metropolitan area like Orange County CA it's $945.40. This did not matter to me because my dealer factors this into his invoice cost and still gave me a price better than I was expecting.

• "$ Offered Off Above Line" is if the dealer says "your price is _? under invoice".

• "Est License" you can get from your local DMV website but will not usually include some little fees like tires and random stuff so go with what the dealers says.

• The section called "Dealer #'s" is estimated from the info I found here.

Camaro Pricing Breakdown - Excel

After you used the spreadsheet and know what the car costs and verified the payments are OK for you read over the order guide below. Making the email I mention I made easy. I linked the one I used so you can copy/paste. Feel free to change as needed:

My Camaro Ordering Guide

Camaro Dealer Email Text. I mention the Mustang there because that was true and it's considered the main competition IMO. You can get Xplan with a $50 Mustang Club of America membership, so invoice is the worst you can do on that car.

If you would like to see how it worked out for me my ordering post is HERE. I hope the info helps, if there are any questions let me know! Good luck

[SuperSound]

Thanks for posting this. Will be using in the next week to help with my order.

[thescreensavers]

Awesome post!

[G Fo12ce]

Originally Posted by SuperSound

Thanks for posting this. Will be using in the next week to help with my order.

I heard a stereotype the goes something like "people are usually good at verbal/communication skills or math, but not usually both". Let's just say I won't be working for NASA soon lol. I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to math but I like tools like Excel because I want to feel comfortable with the #'s. And in some nerdy way it's satisfying when you make a spreadsheet that works well. I don't use the program for work a lot so I don't claim to be any kind of advanced user, but I'm pretty pleased how it came out. The only thing I couldn't get perfect was payments come out as a negative number on the finance calculator because it's a payment but it works. Let me know if they helped you out after you order!

Originally Posted by thescreensavers

Awesome post!

[Glen e]

Excellent -this will now be the post I'll post when we get a new order member now....

[G Fo12ce]

Originally Posted by Glen e

Excellent -this will now be the post I'll post when we get a new order member now....

Thanks! I think you just like that I went all "Glen e" with the Dropbox links

[laborsmith]

Thanks for the kind words.

Something to keep in mind: there are two numbers that dealers get, the first is the guide number for floor planning, and that guide number is the number of allocations the dealer can expect to order over the course of the model year and the second is the actual number of units the dealer can order over the course of the weekly dealer ordering process.

For some dealers, the two are one and the same. Actually they are, but two different perspectives. So when asking about allocation, try to determine if the answer is the guide number. If the dealer has a guide number of 18 Camaro coupes there is a good chance the weekly allocations will be less than 1 a week, given there are more than 18 weeks in a model year.

Also, the dealers are told how many units of their guide number they can use every two weeks but not told how many they can use each week until that weeks ordering process begins. Fortunately all of this only applies to each Chevrolet vehicle line otherwise it might be hard to follow. LOL.

Laborsmith

[whiteboyblues2001]

Thanks for posting all this great info!! This will be of great help for many people. My only suggestion is to change the one link to the 2017 pricing info instead, since you can't order a 2016 any more.

[thescreensavers]

Originally Posted by laborsmith

Thanks for the kind words.

Something to keep in mind: there are two numbers that dealers get, the first is the guide number for floor planning, and that guide number is the number of allocations the dealer can expect to order over the course of the model year and the second is the actual number of units the dealer can order over the course of the weekly dealer ordering process.

For some dealers, the two are one and the same. Actually they are, but two different perspectives. So when asking about allocation, try to determine if the answer is the guide number. If the dealer has a guide number of 18 Camaro coupes there is a good chance the weekly allocations will be less than 1 a week, given there are more than 18 weeks in a model year.

Also, the dealers are told how many units of their guide number they can use every two weeks but not told how many they can use each week until that weeks ordering process begins. Fortunately all of this only applies to each Chevrolet vehicle line otherwise it might be hard to follow. LOL.

Laborsmith

Very interesting! Wish it could be as easy as asking for their guide numbers haha, every dealer I've been too have said they will absolutely get it and have no issues ordering even after mentioning allocations just depends how long I want to wait

[fsusmithc2]

I've been reading through all of these threads and it's very good information, thanks. There's just so many numbers and many different people's opinions I'm getting a tiny bit lost. Each dealer and each customer will have a different process I know but I'm looking for a ballpark.

I saw 96% MSRP being equivalent to invoice so I'm just going to use that across the board, including options, though I know dealer cost may be less on options. My real question is, where do the hidden fees pop up?

Here's my math so far:

2017 2SS coupe: 41905
50th Edition: 1795
Sunroof: 900
Auto trans: 1495

MSRP: 46095 = 1382.85 holdback

If I take 96% from 46095 as an estimate, the invoice is then 44251.20. Aside from tax and tag fees, what else should I brace myself for? This is assuming the $995 destination charge is burned into the MSRP, not added later. I've seen dealer fees estimated at a few hundred dollars and the marketing fees as well. Should I assume that a good deal doesn't have to worry about those?

[Glen e]

Never forget that if you're worried about getting a good deal, you can go to truecar.com and look at in your area what cars are selling for... it's a bell curve and you can look at where you are On the curve. It is reasonably accurate, For a volume car

[laborsmith]

Originally Posted by thescreensavers

Very interesting! Wish it could be as easy as asking for their guide numbers haha, every dealer I've been too have said they will absolutely get it and have no issues ordering even after mentioning allocations just depends how long I want to wait

I have had dealers tell me their guide numbers when I asked but the problem seems to be when a consumer asks about allocation and the dealer responds with their guide number.

MSRP AND Program Pricing include shipping and regional fees. Invoices show the regional fees as separate line items. For the most part the regional fees range from 1% to 2.5% although there a say a dozen GM dealers who do not have these fees. These dealers are easy to find, drive until you reach an area where cell phone connections become more miss than hit (usually in the mountains) then drive to the nearest GM dealership.

Documentary fees range from $75 up. $75 is what Chevy allows for employee pricing and for other program pricing unless a state law allows a higher fee.

If you are shopping an invoice pricing dealer, ask what their documentary and regional fees are, or, figure invoice pricing on one of the internet car sites, get your dealer invoice price, then calculate backward to determine the fees.

And by all means contact Becky, describe your situation and then go from there. Even if you do buy from her you will have an excellent idea of what should be as you shop your local dealers.

Other fees such as extended warranty or special exterior/interior treatments should be illegal.

Laborsmith

[G Fo12ce]

Originally Posted by whiteboyblues2001

Thanks for posting all this great info!! This will be of great help for many people. My only suggestion is to change the one link to the 2017 pricing info instead, since you can't order a 2016 any more.

Link has been added to the original post.

Originally Posted by fsusmithc2

I've been reading through all of these threads and it's very good information, thanks. There's just so many numbers and many different people's opinions I'm getting a tiny bit lost. Each dealer and each customer will have a different process I know but I'm looking for a ballpark.

I saw 96% MSRP being equivalent to invoice so I'm just going to use that across the board, including options, though I know dealer cost may be less on options. My real question is, where do the hidden fees pop up?

Here's my math so far:

2017 2SS coupe: 41905
50th Edition: 1795
Sunroof: 900
Auto trans: 1495

MSRP: 46095 = 1382.85 holdback

If I take 96% from 46095 as an estimate, the invoice is then 44251.20. Aside from tax and tag fees, what else should I brace myself for? This is assuming the $995 destination charge is burned into the MSRP, not added later. I've seen dealer fees estimated at a few hundred dollars and the marketing fees as well. Should I assume that a good deal doesn't have to worry about those?

If you assume 4% on options instead of 9% you are leaving money on the table. The dealer I went to was very transparent and printed me this temporary window sticker. In addition to MSRP it had invoice and those prices matched my spreadsheet to the penny on the car and options.

Everything was perfect except initially I was unaware about this GM Advertising Fee/Adjustment line which he said in our area is added to every car (this may be different in your area). So his invoice price was like $945 higher than regular invoice. That's why I added that GM Advert line to the Excel sheet so I could see if what he was offering me was still under what I considered to be regular invoice. When it came down to the bottom line I didn't care what that fee was because he offered me a dollar amount under what he considered invoice (which was invoice + his GM advert fee) in writing and it was less than regular ($0 GM Advert fee) invoice. Does that make sense?

Originally Posted by Glen e

Never forget that if you're worried about getting a good deal, you can go to truecar.com and look at in your area what cars are selling for... it's a bell curve and you can look at where you are On the curve. It is reasonably accurate, For a volume car

What Glen said is true. TrueCar or Cars.com will get you close also.

[G Fo12ce]

Originally Posted by laborsmith

Thanks for the kind words.

Something to keep in mind: there are two numbers that dealers get, the first is the guide number for floor planning, and that guide number is the number of allocations the dealer can expect to order over the course of the model year and the second is the actual number of units the dealer can order over the course of the weekly dealer ordering process.

For some dealers, the two are one and the same. Actually they are, but two different perspectives. So when asking about allocation, try to determine if the answer is the guide number. If the dealer has a guide number of 18 Camaro coupes there is a good chance the weekly allocations will be less than 1 a week, given there are more than 18 weeks in a model year.

Also, the dealers are told how many units of their guide number they can use every two weeks but not told how many they can use each week until that weeks ordering process begins. Fortunately all of this only applies to each Chevrolet vehicle line otherwise it might be hard to follow. LOL.

Laborsmith

No Thank you! In my case my Salesman was the Internet Sales Manager so he had the allocation #'s. He even showed me his chart and said too bad you weren't here a few days earlier I had 7 Camaro allocations. Like you said he had to wait for the next ordering cycle to see if they would have more that week. He went on to say we just got a lot but if don't don't get one we'll call and get one and ram it down their throat. The guy has been pretty awesome so far, I been referring to him as male Becky lol. I assume since they are a larger volume dealer they can get one advanced to them from the guide # or maybe just get an extra.

In any case I did get in that next order cycle and it went with the accepted blade spoiler so I was happy!