Your dealership and order experience...

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mngopher

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Hey everyone...

I'm a new visitor to this site and hopefully a new owner of a Yukon/Tahoe some time this decade. I wanted to see what other people's experience has been with the dealership and how their orders have been handled. We just had our order cancelled and were told we would need to wait a couple of weeks for the 2023 order bank to open. We had already waited two months and never had our order accepted. Needless to say, we're extremely frustrated. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks calling every dealership within 1000 miles looking for orders that have fallen through and somehow every single one that exists has been sold, is reserved, or won't be built for at least another two months. It seems like some have had luck in getting reasonable service with reasonable expectations being set upfront. What I've gathered over the past two weeks after talking to probably 50 dealerships are the following:

1. GM is micro-targeting what features can be ordered by specific dealership based on I'm assuming market data of some sort. There are several dealerships claiming they haven't been able to order air suspensions for a year now. Meanwhile, I see several in-transit on GMC's inventory site that have air suspensions going to specific dealers. The same applies to the 6.2. I had a dealership tell me I can still order the rear entertainment package too...they're claiming their allocations make them one of the few in the country that can. Talk to them about what options are available the soonest...they're different for every dealership. Maybe this isn't a surprise to people but it was to me.

2. In the upper-midwest, there are a lot of very low mileage (< 500 miles) "used" 2022 Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon (XL) for sale at dealerships and used car lots. I talked to a buddy about this who has some insight and he said that he knows a few dealerships where the owner has buddies buying these up at discounted prices and reselling only to share the profit. This makes sense to me too based on some of what I've seen. Highly custom stuff...coming in one month and ending up on a lot two months later on the other side of market going for $10,000 or more above what it would've sold for new MSRP. They all deny it but I had one dealership refuse to sell to me with my supplier discount and this was the reason they gave me. They thought I was going to turn around and resell it. If you have a discount, bring it up early so they're honest and upfront with you about what pricing you won't get.

3. The rural areas seem to have the dealerships who care the most about customer service. We tried ordering in a metro area and were told upfront..."we're going to take a $1000 upfront non-refundable deposit, run your credit to make sure you qualify, and then when the vehicle arrives, we'll ask you and others to pay the whatever the market rate is on your vehicle." In essence, the price I was going to pay was going to depend on who bid the most for it. I've never encountered something like it and these salesman and sales managers don't seem to see anything wrong with it. I hope people aren't actually okay with this because it sets the example that this behavior is okay even though it's incredibly stupid and ruins it for everyone.

4. One dealer told me that if I didn't pay cash, they wouldn't hold the vehicle for me. Another wanted 10% over MSRP ($90,000+ for a GMC!!) and another told me that they had a vehicle...took my deposit...and sold it anyway because I couldn't make it until later in the day (was going to drive 400 miles for it). Thankfully, I was only 150 miles in when they were polite enough to call and tell me it had been sold.

5. They're intentionally populating publicly viewable inventory to drive people into the dealerships. I don't know how many times I've been tricked into thinking that a vehicle not in-transit is actually available. 1/50 are available in my experience...the rest are "spoken for."

6. Quarterly production numbers for both the Tahoe and Yukon seem to be down only slightly compared to where they were before the pandemic. Has anyone asked why sales counts being down 10% lead to a market that would suggest a shortage far more severe? I was told it's because they're restricting who gets what in order to increase lead times to make it appear as if there's a shortage when in reality...most of the vehicles are complete and sitting in a lot somewhere. Even delivery isn't as nearly as bad as everyone says it is.

Bottom line is that the dealerships that are gouging are allowed to no matter what GM says. GM wants it this way and is intentionally keeping stock artificially low. We're extremely disappointed and frustrated. We're either going to buy an Expedition/QX80 or cancel our cross country trip this summer/next. Anyone have any advice on how to get one of these without waiting a year for one and paying over MSRP, I'd love to hear it!
 

Rradford45

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Ordering was easy. I actually built on the GN website and took to the dealership. Finally got accepted in March, built in April and been sitting in Midlothian since. Dealership is not good at giving any information. I knew from the GM chat most of the steps before he would notify me. Texted him Thursday and asked if my Tahoe showed up yet and he said he was fixing to call me and ask what GM said because we made a complaint. I told him it said in transit to contact you. He never responded. Texted him Friday and still haven’t heard a word. So tomorrow we have to call GM and talk to the lady that is handling our case. So once I get my vehicle I will be letting people know the horrible customer service we have received. I called every dealer in Texas and no one has any in stock that does not have a hug mark up. It’s frustrating and almost depressing especially since I have no vehicle to drive.
 

selectsplat

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Call local dealerships, ask for the ordering manager, tell them what you are looking for, and ask them to contact you directly when they have an available allocation.

There’s no sense in placing an order until they have an allocation for something close to what you are looking for.

Be prepared to settle for less than what you want. Decide the 2 or 3 things you can’t live without and be flexible on the rest, including trim. I got my color, 6.2, and 22” wheels. I gave up the sunroof and RST trim (in favor of a High Country)

Expect to pay MSRP. I wouldn’t pay more than that, but you’re not likely to get any type of discount. The demand is not fake.
 

acapote86

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I went to AutoNation and no BS. Yes order takes forever, and all things you want get slashed, but that’s not the dealers fault. My order was placed in January, accepted in March, built in May. I am still waiting on delivery of the Yukon but that’s due to transport shortages, not the dealer.

I would suggest finding an Auto Nation near you to place the order. Don’t settle for the Ford or Infiniti. I’ve driven them all through rentals and they don’t even compare. Any of the GM SUVs are by far the best driving experience.
 

todayusay

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had a 2021 Yukon AT4, wife had been wanting one every since they announced them a couple years ago. Had it 15 months, put 45k on it, and when we sold it it had a couple issues that we had given up on and had been in the shop over 17x for numerous other reasons

say that because the dealer we bought it from was going to help us get "something else" back in dec.

Ordered a Yukon in early December from them, had the RSE on it, so it of course never got picked up
Ordered a Z71 tahoe from them in early Jan when I figured out the whole allocation/constraint process. That one, to my knowledge, hasn't been picked up yet either...this dealer wasn't requiring a deposit, but then again I also never got a vehicle from them

Then ordered a Z71 Tahoe in mid Jan from another dealer ($1k refundable deposit) - got picked up in Feb, built in March and delivered in April

I probably contacted 30+ dealers in Jan and most were over sticker on both available units and custom orders, anywhere from $4k to $10k. Found a dealer in MO that was at sticker and they actually contacted me twice in March about Tahoes that had became available - which at that time we were only weeks away from ours being built so we passed.

Did have a dealer in houston, pricing theirs at $4k over, offer quite a bit on our Yukon, net to us would've been $2k, which is what we ended up with the one we ordered....in hindsight probably should've gone that route, the whole paying over sticker clouded my judgement (had trade in offers ranging from $60k to 73k within a month or so) the dealer we bought the tahoe from actually offered the $60k, ended up selling to a larger metro dealer for $68k

I suggest placing an order at several dealerships as long as the deposit is either minimal or guaranteed refundable...have a talk with someone at the dealership and find out what the realistic timeline is on ordering (how long is their waitlist and how many allocations are they planning on)....another local dealership I was going to place an order with told me they normally sell 5 or so Tahoes a year (very small, rural dealership) and they had over 20 on order that hadn't been accepted.

realistically I wouldn't expect any 23s to be delivered until late August at the earliest - and Halloween or Thanksgiving is probably a more realistic timeline
 

Stbentoak

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Do you know why you can get an Expedition or QX quickly? Because they are not as desirable. QX is still about 5 years behind times and is a total gas horse. Expedition is an acceptable alternate, but if you are looking for space such as Surburban or XL, there is no substitute. Not to mention there is NOTHING out there that can compete with the MPG deliverable of the DMax. Diesel is 5.55 locally, but Premium is 5.95. While these are all stupid numbers, at + 8-10 MPG of Diesel, the dollar per mile numbers cannot be denied....
 

Joseph Garcia

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Welcome to the Forum from NH.

Lots of knowledgeable folks here who freely share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. Knowledge is power.

I hope that you will become a participating member in the Forum's discussions.

You are already receiving sage advice from the knowledgeable folks on this Forum.
 

bunky319

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Do you know why you can get an Expedition or QX quickly? Because they are not as desirable. QX is still about 5 years behind times and is a total gas horse. Expedition is an acceptable alternate, but if you are looking for space such as Surburban or XL, there is no substitute. Not to mention there is NOTHING out there that can compete with the MPG deliverable of the DMax. Diesel is 5.55 locally, but Premium is 5.95. While these are all stupid numbers, at + 8-10 MPG of Diesel, the dollar per mile numbers cannot be denied....
Exactly where I'm at. I just can't get excited about the Expedition, as much as I might want to. And the diesel option really pushes the GM solution over the top....BTW, I just noticed only a 10 cent difference yesterday between regular and diesel at a local gas station.....
 

Stbentoak

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Gas up .50 this week alone. Some places diesel is up .70…
IN ONE WEEK…..
 

StephenPT

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We *almost* bought an Expedition Max. Talked to the dealer about it one day and the next day went to go look at it. It was sold earlier that morning. Had it not have been sold, there's a chance we would have bought it. In hindsight I'm so thankful we didn't, because right now there's an open recall on most all '20/'21 Expeditions because they can spontaneously combust. Ford is asking all owners to park them outside away from structures while they still try to determine root cause...

I've also noticed your observation that there are a lot of LOW mile used GM full-size SUVs available. We went to a dealer that had a row of them. As we looked at each one, some of them had ~50 miles on them, the plastic wrappers covering things like the screen, hvac knobs, etc. hadn't even been removed yet. They were not USED, but they were being sold as used so the dealer could throw a huge markup on them and not get in trouble with GM for gouging above MSRP. They had a Suburban RST 6.2L used with less than 50 miles. It was just a tad under $100K...

As far as our dealer and our experience - we have an open order for a Yukon XL SLE w/ Duramax through Robideaux Motors in Idaho. They offered supplier pricing ($300 over invoice) and up to this point our order has not been picked up yet, but it's only been 2 months since we ordered and based on what I've read on these forums, unless you walk into a dealer that has an open allocation and you get your name on it, the wait from order to production seems to be a minimum of three months. It will probably be longer for us as now it sounds like the Duramax is on constraint. Either way, the savings is worth it for us and although we haven't gone through the whole process with Robideaux yet, I don't have any reason to believe they are going to pull any shenanigans on us. They were very straight forward and honest upfront and there are other forum members here that have gone through the whole process with them and have said it's been the best car buying experience they've ever had.
 

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