[Allez]

I've never ordered a car before - always have bought off the lot. I assume it is done through the dealer? Other than getting exactly what you want (which I know is big), is there any other advantage (eg price?) compared to buying off the lot? How long of a wait is it usually (I know we're waiting for the 2017s)?

[laborsmith]

Orders have to be placed through a franchised dealer.

The advantage of doing a SRE (customer) order is simply this: it is one of the best roller coaster rides an adult can experience in a lifetime. There may be other advantages, but that (to me) is the one that counts.

Laborsmith

[Ace01]

Originally Posted by Allez

I've never ordered a car before - always have bought off the lot. I assume it is done through the dealer? Other than getting exactly what you want (which I know is big), is there any other advantage (eg price?) compared to buying off the lot? How long of a wait is it usually (I know we're waiting for the 2017s)?

Well you can get want you want. For instance none of the dealers I know order a 2LT with Performance package and RS package together on a 2.0 This package gives you the looks of an SS with leather interior and tech package plus brembo brakes and extra engine oil cooling. Perfect SCCA track car for around $31 grand after discounts. Go figure.

[greg72982]

I'm a little disgruntled but I'll give you my opinion. I have ordered a 2017 Camaro. It is the first car I've ever ordered and the also last car I will ever order. The only advantage I see is the one you mentioned, you get a car with what you want, nothing more and nothing less. That said, at this point I have no idea when I will get it. When I want to buy a car I will research for months, even a year with one of them, until I'm ready to buy so when I'm ready to buy I am READY TO BUY.

I first went to a dealer the end of March wanting to order a 2016 and the dealer actually suggested that I wait for a 2017. I was a little concerned about the first year issues I was reading on here and though I found out they fix them as they go and not for the next model year, I still decided to wait. I also have the feeling I won't have it forever so having the newer year will help the resale/trade-in value down the road (hopefully).

At this point I wish I would have just bought one from a lot with more or less options. In hindsight I would have paid a little more money to have it right away. To each their own tough, to some people ordering is the only way to go.

[Allez]

Is the price any better or worse with ordering? Can you cancel after ordering? When do you pay - when you order or when it arrives?

Greg72982, did they give you any general idea of when you would get your car, or is it completely up in the air?

Laborsmith, I'm not sure if when you say 'rollercoaster' if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

[Zodiac]

Originally Posted by Allez

Is the price any better or worse with ordering? Can you cancel after ordering? When do you pay - when you order or when it arrives?

Greg72982, did they give you any general idea of when you would get your car, or is it completely up in the air?

Laborsmith, I'm not sure if when you say 'rollercoaster' if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

I know you weren't asking me but I can give you a little info. You negotiate price when you order just as you would when you buy a car off the lot. There really isn't any difference in pricing. The only thing is you get whatever rebates/incentives are available when you pick the car up, not when you order.

You pay when your car arrives, most dealers usually require a $500 refundable deposit to order the car. You can cancel after ordering as well.

Most dealers will tell you 6-8 weeks, if your dealer doesn't have an allocation then it could be much longer. The last car I ordered took 4 weeks from placing of order to receiving. It's different for everyone.

The rollercoaster is the ups and downs of the whole waiting process. Finding when it's built, getting excited when it moves up in the process, and then depressed when it sits too long at another process, such as getting held for QC.

If you found a car you want on the lot, no reason to order if it's just as you would have it built.

[Glen e]

It is this simple: if you can find a car that has been delivered to the dealer in the last 30 days that is free of visible defects on the lot that has what you want, there is no "advantage" to ordering.

A few on forums will brag they order as the dont "settle" for an on ground car, which is total BS if you can find a stock car that meets your needs.

I have ordered a Vette and took a camaro off the lot. The in stock car was fine and I didn't wait 5 -6 weeks.

The price CAN be better if it's a new stock car, especially if there is inventory pressure at that particular dealer.

[70454]

If you a very particular person in regards to what you want and you buy exactly what you want the only way to go is to order one.

I only wanted a Nightfall Grey Metallic 1SS 6 spd with NPP and MRC as the only options and I knew it would be near impossible trying to find that on any Chevy lot. Don't get me wrong you can find several SS's on car lots but if you have specific criteria you should probably order one and just deal with the rollercoaster ride like laborsmith stated. The rollercoaster ride definitely left a bad taste in my mouth but that was GM's fault. I ordered mine back in November and didn't get it until middle of March because it was in qc hold forever and GM consistently kept lying to me about it. I have ordered a few cars from other manufacturers and GM definitely was the worst and Dodge actually was the best.

If you don't care if you get a sunroof or not or have MRC or the NPP exhaust then go find one on a lot but if you care or want specific things you definitely need to order one. I also negotiated price first before I ordered my SS but you can also do that with SS's on the lot. The only other reason I can think of at this moment is if you live in a rural area and don't have many Chevy dealerships that close to you to select from.

[ChevyRules]

For me, I don't want a car that has been sitting on the lot for a long time, want it configured exactly the way I want it, and in the Camaro's case, don't want anyone to have test driven it knowing how they are most likely going to drive it.

If I can find one in the exact configuration I want( willing to settle on the wheels though), hasn't been sitting on the lot for long, and only has the miles it had when it came off the truck, I'll buy it off the lot. But I am planning to order my Camaro next year.

[mjw930]

As many have said, the only advantage ordering a car is getting it exactly the way you want. For some it's the only option because their criteria rarely match what the dealer inventory managers usually order. Dealers order cars based on their market with the colors and options they know historically sell, it's that simple. In most cases, if you find a particular car on the lot loaded up with options it's most likely a special order that got cancelled. Smart dealerships rarely order edge case cars. Edge case cars are those with a combination of high dollar options on lower content models. For example, MRC on a 1SS is an edge case, you aren't likely to find one on a lot.

There is a down side to ordering aside from the unsure date of delivery, it's getting a car with your name on it that has a problem or was damaged in transit. It those cases things can get ugly. Sure, you can always refuse to accept delivery but in a lot of these cases you end up in a battle with the dealership regarding deposits, remedies, etc. it's rare but it does happen, hence the term "roller coaster". Remember, you ordered a car because you couldn't find one on the lot equipped the way you wanted it. That means if you don't take delivery the dealer is stuck with a car that may be hard for them to sell.

From a price perspective there's really no difference aside from incentives. When ordering a car the price can be negotiated but you can't include incentives active when it's ordered so you roll the dice hoping it's either extended or a better one takes its place when yours shows up. In addition, most dealers are much more interested is moving a car off their lot then ordering you one and will sharpen their pencils to move in stock inventory whenever possible. Historically you should be able to get a better price buying off the lot than ordering unless the model is in short supply and hot.

One other thing, if you are planning on trading a vehicle things can get messy. Most dealers will not agree to a trade in price at order time unless they are taking delivery of your trade when you order. That can create a number of hardships, lack of transportation, your car being worth a lot less than you need it to be when your ordered car shows up and potentially losing any tax advantage as in many states that car traded early can't be applied to the sales order 8 weeks later when you take delivery of the new car. The tax issue is a state by state thing and make sure you ask the state or a tax lawyer before you close a deal because the dealers don't always play buy the rules.

[Allez]

Wow, this has been very informative - thanks to everyone. I'm pretty flexible time-wise, which is why I'm considering different options.

[Wheel Team 6]

For me it was a great experience. The only down side was a family medical issue came up and almost prevented it from happening. Ultimately I got it and am happy with the car. With the nightmare I dealt with at 2 previous stealerships I went back to the one I had good luck with. Not only did I get the car I wanted I got to enjoy the anticipation of tracking its progress. Thanks to Becky for making this tracking even more fun. I received my car and my dealer went above and beyond to make sure that I was a happy customer. That's not always easy to do.

After having my ordered car a few weeks I was curious so I searched 2 other dealers then found the cars I was previously interested in are still sitting on lots and nobody has bought either in 5 + months.

So when I had reservations be it the salesman lying to me about why the cars had over 100 miles on them from the first time I viewed them at 20 miles to the next time I viewed them it reinforced the decision was the correct one. Told me no we don't joy ride these. We have a demo car. Or why the vehicles are so filthy inside the floor boards. I literally watched from my own eyes salesman getting in tearing the plastic away mud all inside then cold start dry revving and abusing the cars from doing donuts in the parking lot to taking them on the access road doing WOT pulls in a brand new car that's not even broken in yet. Then the sheer pressure and lack of listening to me just trying to force a sale that instant for a car I wouldn't have been happy with. This versus selling a truly highly optioned car and gaining a customer for life. Fortunately I found a dealer that understands this who did gain me as a customer for life.

[Tr6]

Pros:
No one else drives it, it's a sold order aka no test drives (not suppose to at least lol).
EXACTLY what YOU want, custom tailored for YOU (which is a HUGE thing. Just one example... dealerships won't order their cars for what you want and for the general population, for me that is aka 95% in auto and sunroof).
Vehicle won't have been sitting on the lot for any time at all


Cons:
Most likely will pay full MSRP.
The "I want to bang my head on the wall because of the wait" period.

My suggestion is to look EVERYWHERE for the specific options you want first. Since you have waited a while, there are dealerships that have camaros on the lot, I didn't but that doesn't matter because of my specific wants, I would've had to order mine anyways. Don't just shop local, look at all the States around you if needed. Fly up/down which you can fly anywhere under 150 bucks really and drive back (I ordered mine from Dallas, 380 miles away), got lucky and got flown down with the wife but it would've cost me 120 bucks to do so.

If you are going to order, I would strongly recommend that you order from Becky @ Rodgers Chevy in MI. Hell, check with her anyways to see if she has some on the lot that you want. She can deliver the vehicle to you or you can go get it and drive back. The reason I didn't order from her is because, well... 1000 miles away vs 380 lol. Dallas was the closest market that would've had 100% allocation which Becky will always have allocation to order because of her sale volume.

[mjw930]

Use cars.com for a wider search, the GM search site limits distance. We wanted a Nightfall Gray 2SS, A8, NPP and NAV, nothing more, nothing less. We found one 80 miles away in stock for less than 2 weeks with 4 miles on the clock. It did have the $200 gray wheel option which, as it turned out, we liked better. All the cars close had another $1000 or more in crap options like sunroof and various RPO options.

When I did my search I found more than 10 within 500 miles optioned the way we wanted but our build was pretty simple. If you want MRC or a manual without every other option under the sun then ordering is likely the quickest way. It all comes down to your desired option combo.