Photo: Chevrolet
Ever since Chevrolet announced the sub-$60,000 starting price of the C8 Stingray, the midship sports car has been a target for flippers. You know, the peeps who buy at MSRP and immediately sell for a tidy profit.
Worse still, dealers joined the club with increasingly ridiculous markups. GM tried to address this problem back in January 2022 through Steve Carlisle, the President of General Motors North America, but his problem-solving expertise leaves much to be desired because redirecting allocations to honest dealerships is a slap on the wrist rather than a compelling solution.
Carlisle still hasn’t come up with an efficient way of tempering dealers, but on the other hand, the high-ranking executive is dropping the hammer on C8 Z06 flippers. A dealer memo signed by Carlisle reads the following:
“When vehicles are quickly resold, particularly by unauthorized dealers or other resellers that do not adhere to GM’s standards, the customer experience suffers and GM’s brands are damaged. As a result, on certain high-demand enthusiast products, we are limiting the transferability of certain warranties and barring the seller from placing future sold orders or reservations for certain high-demand models (as identified by GM) if the vehicle is resold within the first 12 months of ownership,” said Carlisle.
midenginecorvetteforum.com contributing member Corvette Ed approves. “I, as a Corvette retailer, welcome this change.” Be that as it may, there are many pitfalls. According to senior contributor CMG_C8, “that just fuels the markup fire for dealers.” Whichever way you look at it, General Motors has to come up with a new strategy to calm down both dealers and flippers.
The question is, what should GM do? What would be your solution?
In addition to the C8 Z06, the dealer memo further mentions the Cadillac Escalade-V and both versions of the larger-than-life GMC Hummer EV.
Carlisle still hasn’t come up with an efficient way of tempering dealers, but on the other hand, the high-ranking executive is dropping the hammer on C8 Z06 flippers. A dealer memo signed by Carlisle reads the following:
“When vehicles are quickly resold, particularly by unauthorized dealers or other resellers that do not adhere to GM’s standards, the customer experience suffers and GM’s brands are damaged. As a result, on certain high-demand enthusiast products, we are limiting the transferability of certain warranties and barring the seller from placing future sold orders or reservations for certain high-demand models (as identified by GM) if the vehicle is resold within the first 12 months of ownership,” said Carlisle.
midenginecorvetteforum.com contributing member Corvette Ed approves. “I, as a Corvette retailer, welcome this change.” Be that as it may, there are many pitfalls. According to senior contributor CMG_C8, “that just fuels the markup fire for dealers.” Whichever way you look at it, General Motors has to come up with a new strategy to calm down both dealers and flippers.
The question is, what should GM do? What would be your solution?
In addition to the C8 Z06, the dealer memo further mentions the Cadillac Escalade-V and both versions of the larger-than-life GMC Hummer EV.
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