Courtesy Delivery?

SD SOL said:

Could anyone explain how this program works, I mean how do you set it up? I've spoken to several people at Pontiac and GM customer service as well as a couple of dealers and no one seems to have heard of this program. Can anyone elaborate?

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It is not really a "program" as much as it is a "procedure". It is very rare in retail selling situations. I have never been involved in one, but did hear of one. (A local resident purchased/ordered a Buick from the nearby dealer and had it delivered to a dealer in Arizona, where thay spend the winter)

It is used for Fleet deliveries. For example, a local man will be a sales representative for 3M. 3M is headquartered in Minnesota. The car is ordered through a dealer in Illinois, for a lease company in New Jersey. The car will be delivered by GM to a dealer here in New England for the driver to pick up. Many times the dealership that makes the delivery will also handle much of the paperwork for plates, etc. The delivering dealer will be paid a fee for thier services.

Here is how it works for the above example. Lease company calls a dealer near the driver's home or office. If dealer agrees to accept the delivery, they state their fee for the serivce. If the fee is acceptable to the lease company, they get the GM dealer shipping code infomation. The lease company has their dealer of preference for purchases order the car from GM. When the car is ordered it is specified that delivery should be to the dealer near the driver.


Now in a retail situation, you would need a selling dealer who is willing to allow a car that they are responsible for ($), to be shipped somewhere else where they have no control over it and it will be treated as an orphan. You need a buyer who is willing to pay what it takes. Finally you need a delivery dealer who willing to accept the car. As you have found out there are also potential Emissions Regulation implications to this. Becuase of sales, registration, allocation and franchise implications, it may not be easy to find dealers to agree to participate.

That should answer the question, I hope.

If you're talking about ordering the car from one dealer and having it shipped to another, I can tell you what's going on with mine.

I'm purchasing the car from Dealer X in Silver Spring Maryland (names changed to protect the innocent) and having it delivered to Dealer Y in Seaside, CA.

Dealer X has arranged to have the car delivered to Dealer Y, and I will pay Dealer Y a fee to prep the car for delivery, handle the paperwork on their end, etc. Dealer Y is charging me $200, which I think is reasonable. I will, nonetheless, try to negotiate with them to get that fee credited toward GMPP products at their parts counter. Even though I'm ordering the car in Maryland, and registering it in Missouri (I'm military, MO is my home of record) the car has to be configured with CA emissions since it is being shipped to a CA dealership.

Does this help?

Yes, thanks.

So, I guess it's something you just need to work out with both dealerships - provided you can find two that are willing to work with you. I think that part is going to be the most difficult for me... finding a dealer that's willing to order a Sol with Cal emmissions AND a San Diego dealer willing to accept the car, even though they're only getting a small fee for it instead of the cost for the entire order.

I called Pontiac and GM to try and get the names/numbers for all the Pontiac dealers in the U.S. but they indicated that they don't give that info to the public. They suggested that I go to the postal service site and look up zip codes then use the dealer locator to find dealerships. Yeah, that's great if I know the towns/zip codes that have a dealership in them - but how do I find the little guy that might have some slots left in their initial allocation? :crazy:

This just gets more complicated all the time. To think... I thought I was ahead of the game because I ordered during the EOP week, now come to find I'm further behind people who are just now ordering, but are lucky enough to find a dealer with spots in their first 4 month allocation! YIKES!!! :brentil: :brentil: :brentil: :brentil: :brentil: :brentil: :brentil: :brentil: