[NamraJab]

I live in Ontario, Canada. This is my first time buying a car.

After months of shopping, I finally settled and was ready to purchase a 2020 Camaro.

I signed a contract last week. I got my credit check done which was also approved.

Just this week, I was told they cannot find what I was looking for and are no longer taking orders for 2020 Camaros and they can only offer me what they have on the lot. No additional deals were offered. I thought signing a contract also meant it was a done deal.

Am I getting the wrong information here from my dealer? Should I find another dealer? I feel like giving up Chevrolet completely and looking into other car companies. The whole experience was a roller-coaster. I was over the moon and excited for a new Camaro. Was even told it could take up to 2 months before I get it. Then to tell me otherwise was super depressing. I'm not even a huge car guy, but that felt as bad as someone breaking up with you LOL. Just feels like I'm dealing with sales people and not car people at my local GM.

Would appreciate the advice. Thanks.

[ember1205]

How did you "sign a contract" if there's no specific vehicle? Contracts have specific details about a particular vehicle -or- they will be in reference to a vehicle that has been / is being ordered. Unless you are actually sitting down to sign the finance papers, NEVER have your credit checked (your credit score takes a hit from what is called a "hard inquiry" and a single credit check from a dealer can result in 2-4 hard inquiries).

Orders for 2020's stopped a couple of weeks ago. If your dealer didn't know that, shame on them and/or they purposefully lied to you to get you to buy something off of their lot.

No, there are no "deals" right now for 2020's because supply is very limited. If you want something specific, you can try a search (I scoured the US using Chevy.com and a ZIP code in the middle of northern Texas as my search base) to see if what you want is out there, ANYWHERE. I had very little luck in finding what I wanted and ended up having to decide on a couple of areas where I would be flexible for options.

You may want to consider walking away from it all right now, and even finding another dealer. I would personally be suspicious of a dealer that "didn't know" that Chevy wasn't taking orders for the current model year any longer...

[Wierd Harold]

Sounds like they just want to flog the ones on their lot.what city do you live in?

[Wierd Harold]

What city do you live in?

[NamraJab]

Originally Posted by Wierd Harold

Sounds like they just want to flog the ones on their lot.what city do you live in?

London, ON.

[Wierd Harold]

You may have to go out of town for what you want and want to spend.Im near Hamilton.One dealer has 3 .All 2ss.2 are white .1 rally green..Dealer in Calidonia has 1 white LT1.

[MrChrisLS3]

This process is called a dealer locate or dealer trade. It typically goes off very easily, but we are in strange times.

A dealer does this when a customer wants something very specific. A dealership can see real time inventory of other dealers. By putting in the filters of what the customer is looking for, they can find the car. Once the car is found, usually only takes a few minutes, the dealer goes through the sticker, with options with the customer, agree that it's the car they want, and sign paperwork for it. Then the dealership arranges to get the car, either by trading inventory, or outright purchase the car from the other dealer.

The caveat is that while this is happening, that car is still for sale, as this is costly process for the dealership, and they will not trade for a car until they have a signed commitment. If that car is not available, the dealer will keep looking until they find one by extending the search range.

It looks like in this case, the car they found was no longer available, and due to current circumstances, either there is not another one out there, or the dealer that has it won't trade for it. So, the OP has a couple of options here, either change some of the "must haves", either options, color, whatever, which may open up the field. Or walk away, as the dealership has not provided the car, there is no contract. The other is to just do your own search, which can be very difficult and time consuming for the customer. You will need to scour through all the car websites, Cars.com, Autotrader, Car Gurus etc. The trouble with these, as well as chevy.com is that the listings are not real time, so the car you see may have been sold as much as a week, even a month ago.

As far as the credit goes, yes a hard pull will effect the score, however, when talking about a big ticket item like a car, multiple inquires are expected. Keep in mind though, that when buying a big ticket item, it's your credit profile and history that weighs heavier than your actual beacon score. If you're a 700 or above, you really have nothing to worry about.

Right now, inventory is tough. They haven't been building cars for a while, and getting them to dealers is taking some time. I imagine it's even tougher in Canada. If, other than finding the right car, everything else has been good with this dealership, I would continue to work with them. Unless you need the car now, maybe ordering a 2021 is the way to go. Or, just change a few of your requirements. Bottom line, if the unicorn doesn't exist, there's no point in continuing the hunt.

[johnnytuinals]

Make NO sense in buying a 2020 SS.
Once you drive the car off the lots its a year old.
Best to wait a few weeks and get a 2021 since they will start showing up
in late Aug and Early Sept.
I have been checking Camaro 1SS online and looks like Most dealers are giving you about $800 - $1000 off of the MSRP(not counting the $1500 rebate}Every car I have bought was Invoice pricing so the Camaro should be $1500 or more off of Msrp.
I am not sure if there will be rebates on the 2021s when they first come out butttt I feel
that they should be out since many people are losing their jobs or have no job or will have no job for sometime in the future.I am sure GM will not want to be shipping Camaros to dealer lots and nobody will be buying them.Too me I would wait for a 2021..............JT

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by johnnytuinals

Make NO sense in buying a 2020 SS.
Once you drive the car off the lots its a year old.
Best to wait a few weeks and get a 2021 since they will start showing up
in late Aug and Early Sept.
I have been checking Camaro 1SS online and looks like Most dealers are giving you about $800 - $1000 off of the MSRP(not counting the $1500 rebate}Every car I have bought was Invoice pricing so the Camaro should be $1500 or more off of Msrp.
I am not sure if there will be rebates on the 2021s when they first come out butttt I feel
that they should be out since many people are losing their jobs or have no job or will have no job for sometime in the future.I am sure GM will not want to be shipping Camaros to dealer lots and nobody will be buying them.Too me I would wait for a 2021..............JT

I bought a 2 SS in early June. I would buy it again right now. The dealers that are giving about a $1000 discount are the ones with lots of cars in inventory, and the petty discount is why they have them.

While the deal I got wasn't at the $4000 off amount that I could have gotten on a couple of cars that weren't in the color I wanted, it was much more of a discount than what you're suggesting is the norm. And it doesn't matter if it's a year old when he drives off the lot or not because the car depreciates 30% immediately anyhow. The other thing to think about is that it doesn't matter how "old" it is at time if delivery if he's expecting to keep it a long time.

On the flip side, for someone that logs a lot more than the "typical" allotment, you take a big hit on mileage at trade in our sale time. Believe it or not, having a model year older can actually HELP the value because the expectation is to have another year's worth of mileage.

[johnnytuinals]

I don't get yea point???
If you buy a 2020 SS off the lot today the car is a year old.
If you buy a 2021 in Aug the car will hold more Value when you sell it.
You can also find dealers that still have 2019 SSs still in stock for little off the Msrp,drive that off the lot its a 2 year old car and get screwed if you decided to sell in a year over a 2021.........................JT

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by johnnytuinals

I don't get yea point???
If you buy a 2020 SS off the lot today the car is a year old.
If you buy a 2021 in Aug the car will hold more Value when you sell it.
You can also find dealers that still have 2019 SSs still in stock for little off the Msrp,drive that off the lot its a 2 year old car and get screwed if you decided to sell in a year over a 2021.........................JT

You would think that's always true, but it isn't. Here's a real-world example that happened to me:

I bought my 2006 Acura TL brand new in May of 06. In December of 07, I went looking at a Tundra and had them appraise my car for trade-in. They quoted me a ridiculously low number and I honestly laughed out loud when they told me. I asked why and they said it was because of the mileage (at the time, I had about 40k miles on the car). I asked for justification and they showed me the actual numbers right out of the NADA book that they used, including the deductions for being over a certain number of miles.

I asked them a basic question: Would my car be worth MORE money or LESS money if it were older? The sales guy looked at me confused and said "... well, less, I would imagine."

I asked him to run the numbers on my car if it were a 2004 (TWO YEARS older). The trade value was close to $2000 higher!

When you drive a lot, buying a leftover or at the end of the model year can actually HELP you at sale/trade-in time because it reduces the massive hit you take for being over a certain mileage threshhold.

Still, as I said, it makes 0 difference whether the car is "a year old" when it leaves the lot or not if the buyer plans to keep it for a while. If they get a price they like and are happy with the car, that's all that matters.

[ember1205]

Originally Posted by MrChrisLS3

This process is called a dealer locate or dealer trade. It typically goes off very easily, but we are in strange times.

......

Dealerships are generally NOT doing locates / swaps right now, at least in the states. With so many states having different guidelines about how people from out of state are accommodated, it's difficult to do. And, the reality is that it's an expense they just don't need right now plus the runners don't want to do it.

Yes, big ticket items have multiple hits to the credit report and it is expected to occur that way. The problem is when something happens as did to the OP. The dealership ran his credit and his credit report takes a minor hit (as long as there aren't a lot of other hard inquiries on there as well). Then no sale.

He returns to a dealership a month later, ready to do a deal. Those previous inquiries are still there and have no corresponding loan. The impact to the score is present and banks are getting more stringent about lending. A borrower can seldom "explain away" something like that to a larger bank. The only time that a conversation will overcome it is typically when the finance manager of a dealership is willing to explain it away to a local bank...

No one gets my information to run credit until I'm ready to sign. That's just how it goes for me.

[johnnytuinals]

Yes, big ticket items have multiple hits to the credit report and it is expected to occur that way. The problem is when something happens as did to the OP. The dealership ran his credit and his credit report takes a minor hit (as long as there aren't a lot of other hard inquiries on there as well). Then no sale.

I have NO clue about people and their Credit(Mine is 830 from Credit Karma}
But whenever I tradin a car I write a Check for whatever is owed.
I wanna get a 2021 2SS but think I should get a decent deal on a 2SS from a local dealer thats if KBB is correct lol..................JT

[johnnytuinals]

Originally Posted by ember1205

You would think that's always true, but it isn't. Here's a real-world example that happened to me:

I bought my 2006 Acura TL brand new in May of 06. In December of 07, I went looking at a Tundra and had them appraise my car for trade-in. They quoted me a ridiculously low number and I honestly laughed out loud when they told me. I asked why and they said it was because of the mileage (at the time, I had about 40k miles on the car). I asked for justification and they showed me the actual numbers right out of the NADA book that they used, including the deductions for being over a certain number of miles.

I asked them a basic question: Would my car be worth MORE money or LESS money if it were older? The sales guy looked at me confused and said "... well, less, I would imagine."

I asked him to run the numbers on my car if it were a 2004 (TWO YEARS older). The trade value was close to $2000 higher!

When you drive a lot, buying a leftover or at the end of the model year can actually HELP you at sale/trade-in time because it reduces the massive hit you take for being over a certain mileage threshhold.

Still, as I said, it makes 0 difference whether the car is "a year old" when it leaves the lot or not if the buyer plans to keep it for a while. If they get a price they like and are happy with the car, that's all that matters.

If all the Camaros have the same mileage (19,20 and 21}at Tradin
You should get More with the 2021 SS
I buy a New Car every 3 years and would hope I know what I am talking aboutssss......JT