2022 Tahoe order process

[Mattadam24]

Hey there, new on this particular forum but that’s because my wife and I recently placed an order for a 2022 Tahoe z71!

Anyways, a couple questions/concerns?

We placed (or supposedly placed) our order for the Tahoe in November of 2021. A few months passed so I wanted to check in on the order status. I email my salesman at the dealership on February 4th 2022 asking for a copy of the build/order number/etc. He then emails me a generic build of a z71 with the packages we picked however the wrong exterior color. He states he was busy and just did that one quickly at his desk and our actual order was the correct color. Still did not provide me with a order number.

In March, I call the dealer and ask for the order manager and ask for my order number which he provided to me right away. With that I go to the Chevy chat and check the order status there. They say that my order was submitted by the dealer but not accepted by GM for production. I know everything is delayed and constrained and all but Chevy chat stated my order was not submitted by the dealer until 2/4/2022.

So my question is, when you order a vehicle at the dealership.. do they put the order into GM that day or is it possible it takes ~3 months to just put the order in.

Or did they just forget to put our order in and when I reached out on February 4th they just put it in?

Thanks in advance for any feedback and answers!

 

[firsttimetahoe]

Each dealer is allocated a specific number of cars that they'll get in their allotment. I've heard allocations are given weekly to some dealers -others it can take months to get an allotment - depends on how big the dealer is and what they typically sell. In the allocation the dealer is assigned a specific number of each car by trim. For ie: One week they may only get allocated 4 Tahoes - one LT, 2 RSTs & 1 High Country (these are assigned by GM). If you are building a car, then you would be part of a future allocation they will be given when that trim is part of their allocation. In this example if you ordered a LS, they cannot submit your order because they were not allocated one. Now if their next allocation had a LS and no one was ahead of you in orders, they would likely place your order in that allocation.

Now if you placed your order in November and it wasn't sent by the dealer to GM by February, it is likely because of one of many reasons.

1. there were a lot of people ahead of you who ordered cars before you and they do not have the capacity to assign those orders to future allocations quickly. this is common and a dealer will reluctantly let you know this
2. something that you included is on constraint list, where GM is not accepting orders if your car had this included in your order. In this case the dealer didn't bother to send in your order because it was not going to be accepted.
3. they just don't get a lot of allotments in general so they couldn’t submit you order until now
4. someone ordered a car after you but they were willing to pay more over MSRP...so they jumped you on the line in the order process

I will say - my dealer is reluctant to provide me any info and I already have a TPW. Like they legit tell me sorry we have no updates as soon as I call. They still tell me my order isn’t even accepted yet.


Some dealers give you updates along the way.

I’d pester chevy chat and even call them every week asking for updates Regardless of what the dealer tells you. Eventually your order will be accepted. That is out of your dealers control. Half the battle is getting the order submitted.

 

[Mattadam24]

Each dealer is allocated a specific number of cars that they'll get in their allotment. I've heard allocations are given weekly to some dealers -others it can take months to get an allotment - depends on how big the dealer is and what they typically sell. In the allocation the dealer is assigned a specific number of each car by trim. For ie: One week they may only get allocated 4 Tahoes - one LT, 2 RSTs & 1 High Country (these are assigned by GM). If you are building a car, then you would be part of a future allocation they will be given when that trim is part of their allocation. In this example if you ordered a LS, they cannot submit your order because they were not allocated one. Now if their next allocation had a LS and no one was ahead of you in orders, they would likely place your order in that allocation.

Now if you placed your order in November and it wasn't sent by the dealer to GM by February, it is likely because of one of many reasons.

1. there were a lot of people ahead of you who ordered cars before you and they do not have the capacity to assign those orders to future allocations quickly. this is common and a dealer will reluctantly let you know this
2. something that you included is on constraint list, where GM is not accepting orders if your car had this included in your order. In this case the dealer didn't bother to send in your order because it was not going to be accepted.
3. they just don't get a lot of allotments in general so they couldn’t submit you order until now
4. someone ordered a car after you but they were willing to pay more over MSRP...so they jumped you on the line in the order process

I will say - my dealer is reluctant to provide me any info and I already have a TPW. Like they legit tell me sorry we have no updates as soon as I call. They still tell me my order isn’t even accepted yet.


Some dealers give you updates along the way.

I’d pester chevy chat and even call them every week asking for updates Regardless of what the dealer tells you. Eventually your order will be accepted. That is out of your dealers control. Half the battle is getting the order submitted.

I appreciate the response and explanation.

My dealership is the same way and will not provide any updates and only tell me that there are no updates.

What’s suspicious to me is that I reached out 2/4/22 to my dealership about the order status as I have the texts with my salesman and the Chevy chat told us the order was placed on exactly that date. Either a freak coincidence or they forgot to place the order originally in November when I reached out to them to do so.

 

[drmoose]

i am sure there are others who know better, but i would tend to agree with your suspicions. I think a dealer can place an order, but the order will sit at "1100" (submitted but not accepted) until they have an allocation for your order, and your order is not constrained.

I suppose it is possible that the dealer will simply wait until they have allocation for your build before they submit, but I can't really understand why they would do that.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

I appreciate the response and explanation.

My dealership is the same way and will not provide any updates and only tell me that there are no updates.

What’s suspicious to me is that I reached out 2/4/22 to my dealership about the order status as I have the texts with my salesman and the Chevy chat told us the order was placed on exactly that date. Either a freak coincidence or they forgot to place the order originally in November when I reached out to them to do so.

I mean, it is possible. What did they tell you initially when you ordered the car in terms of time frames?

Also, did you happen to follow up anytime before February?

 

[todayusay]

yep - sounds like it was either never actually ordered (the first step) or even worse - it was ordered and sold out from under you.

In your first post says that it was submitted but not accepted by GM - so that means 2/4 was when it was first entered.

Agree that they may have just been waiting on an allocation to enter it - but that doesn't give you any confidence that they won't pass on your build

Not ideal - but my recommendation would be to place an order at a couple dealers if you have a few options to choose from - maybe one from a bigger city and then one from a rural dealership. As long as the pricing is competitive and they aren't charging a ridiculous deposit.

While contacting various random dealers, I've had a couple of them contact me back weeks later saying they now have an allocation for a similar trim level (ordering a Z71 - one dealer said they had an AT4 allocation almost a month after i contacted them) or they in transit sold units become available.

 

[Mattadam24]

I mean, it is possible. What did they tell you initially when you ordered the car in terms of time frames?

Also, did you happen to follow up anytime before February?

They said around 6 months which is average I believe. And nope, February was the first time we reached out to see thinking it was 3 month since we placed the order.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

They said around 6 months which is average I believe. And nope, February was the first time we reached out to see thinking it was 3 month since we placed the order.

That’s a long time frame, most places told me 3 months that can stretch as long as 6 months. My guess is they didn’t want to tell you there was a long list of orders ahead of you. I mean, it’s not ideal but your only other option would have been to go to another dealer and put in another order.

 

[Rradford45]

My dealer put my order in on 1/25 and we had an order number that day. He even emailed the order. He did us when we ordered it could be 8-12 weeks. We are on week 8 and we got accepted by GM last week. No TPW as of today. My salesman would tell me when I asked how many were in front of me.

 

[stevenmcdonald256]

I ordered yesterday and it’s just a plain LS four-wheel-drive. The order manager told me since it was a low option vehicle I’d probably go right to the front of the line with his next allotment. He said this day these days it comes down to what they can build due to the chip shortage and parts availability. They want to sell the most amount of vehicles and so the ones that they can build the fastest get produce first

 

[AgentOrange86]

OP, I hate that for you but yeah, your dealer never submitted your order at the beginning. Dealers don't wait to submit orders in the system just because they're waiting on allocation. I ordered my Z71 on 1/05 and got my order number along with the submitted build sheet for review the very next day. You need to review the build sheet and make sure they submitted it correctly because I had to make several corrections on items they inadvertently added that I didn't want.

Two weeks later, my dealer let me know I was at the 1st spot in line with their customer orders which mean if they got an allocation for a Z71 with all the options I wanted then my order would be accepted by GM. A few weeks later my order was accepted by GM with Target Production Week of 3/7. It was produced and sent down to the storage lots in Midlothian Texas on 3/11 where it waits for any more of the chips or parts that may not have been available as it went through the production line.

I received word yesterday that my truck was completed on 3/18 and was given an Estimated Time of Arrival date for 4/2. This is the date it's supposed to be delivered to the rail yard hub in my region (Memphis) and then the dealer sends a truck to transport the vehicle to their lot. However, the ETA date is tricky because that Midlothian lot and the subsequent rail yard where it's delivered is basically like new vehicle purgatory and when there's a delay, it seems most dealers are either in the dark on the cause or when it's going to get there. They'll make up something to tell as to not appear stupid from most of the accounts I've read so far.

If I were you, I'd use this as a bargaining chip. You're going to have to wait a few more months on your 22 and the dealer is going to want to put an extra "market adjustment" price on top of the MSRP which could be an additional $5-10k depending on your market. You could play the nice guy approach and say "hey, everybody makes mistakes - but I only think it's fair to waive any market adjustment fee and I'd like to draw up a mutually agreed upon pricing sheet with signatures".

 

[firsttimetahoe]

You're going to have to wait a few more months on your 22 and the dealer is going to want to put an extra "market adjustment" price on top of the MSRP which could be an additional $5-10k depending on your market. You could play the nice guy approach and say "hey, everybody makes mistakes - but I only think it's fair to waive any market adjustment fee and I'd like to draw up a mutually agreed upon pricing sheet with signatures".

Isn’t it customary for you to discuss the price when building the actual car before submitting the order? If dealers are adding unexpected markups when the vehicle is delivered and it’s time to sign the paperwork, than I wouldn’t do business with that dealer out of principal.

 

[JamiGirl3]

Same boat with dealership conversations. I ordered my 2022 Tahoe rst January 21st. Contacted the dealership couple times he says no news. Last week I checked with chat they said order is submitted but no tpw yet. Contacted chat yesterday because I'm anxious and said the order hasn't been accepted yet. This is all very frustrating but trying to be patient. So I feel your pain

 

[AgentOrange86]

Isn’t it customary for you to discuss the price when building the actual car before submitting the order? If dealers are adding unexpected markups when the vehicle is delivered and it’s time to sign the paperwork, than I wouldn’t do business with that dealer out of principal.

That's how it should be done, but when you say "customary", remember that it's a car dealership and their primary goal is to milk you bone dry. It's up to you to make that happen if they don't bring it up. My dealer didn't and my build sheet order only showed MSRP so I thought all was good. But then I read more from others who had agreed on a pricing sheet with signatures before the order was placed. Others who have scoffed at the market adjustment price when "their" vehicle was delivered were simply told take it or leave it, we have customers lined up to buy this car at this price if you don't want it. And they really do, unfortunately.

Once I found out that they were selling other vehicles at $10k market adjustment, I called the dealer and let them know I felt like they had mislead me. We negotiated it down to $5k and they waived a standard $1800 service and paint protection package that comes on their new vehicles.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

That's how it should be done, but when you say "customary", remember that it's a car dealership and their primary goal is to milk you bone dry. It's up to you to make that happen if they don't bring it up. My dealer didn't and my build sheet order only showed MSRP so I thought all was good. But then I read more from others who had agreed on a pricing sheet with signatures before the order was placed. Others who have scoffed at the market adjustment price when "their" vehicle was delivered were simply told take it or leave it, we have customers lined up to buy this car at this price if you don't want it. And they really do, unfortunately.

Once I found out that they were selling other vehicles at $10k market adjustment, I called the dealer and let them know I felt like they had mislead me. We negotiated it down to $5k and they waived a standard $1800 service and paint protection package that comes on their new vehicles.

I see. Every dealer I spoke to / visited I verified whether or not they were charging over MSRP before I even decided to start the ordering process. Almost every one said they were charging more, some specified exactly how much while
Others said market value but we can negotiate. I refuse to pay over. I finally found one who said they do not sell over MSRP and that’s that - meaning no wiggle room going under MSRP either. My car is still being waiting to be built, but I guess I am just taking them for their word when the moment comes to sign on the dotted line. Although I asked them numerous times throughout that there’s no chance they’ll go over MSRP, because I refuse to buy it if that’s the case and they kept assuring me they wouldn’t. If they would - I don’t know why they’d lie just to build my car. It’s not like they can’t just get one anyway that’s not customized

 

[BobS255]

Hey there first time on this forum, my wife and I purchased a 2022 Tahoe LT that was listed in transit at the dealer on 2/8/22. There sales manager explained it would be about 3-4 weeks before the vehicle would be arriving at the dealership so when I checked back on 3/8/22 I was told GM in Grand Prairie Texas has the vehicle on hold for inspection with no estimated release date.I have the vin number I know the vehicle has been built. Does anyone have any insight other than the dealer on how I can find out more information on the shipping status of my car. Thank You!!!

 

[mickheff73]

I had the same situation Mattadam, ordered a 2021 Tahoe Z71 in August 21 with a planned delivery date of December 2021, it was ordered but never "Accepted." Then in Oct we were informed that no more 21's were being built, so we had to re-order a 2022. That also was never "Accepted" by Chevy, we kept calling with no status change, all the way through January 2022. We figured out that ours was due to the rear seat entertainment package, they were not being built and were way behind due to chip shortages. We ended up finding exactly the Tahoe we wanted 600 miles away from us the day it was advertised as "in transit" on the Chevy website. It was also unallocated, so we put an immediate deposit on it and picked it up 3 weeks later when it arrived at the dealer. We then cancelled our order from our local dealer and got our other deposit back. It seems that the best way to get a Chevy is put in the filter and find what you like, and call that have one in transit, see if they are spoken for,. the dealer we got ours from said they haven't sold a car off their lot in over 6 months, they were all sold while being shipped to them.

We had a laundry list of must haves / must not haves that made it harder to find a deal we wanted:
MUST Have Z71, Rear Seat entertainment, gray, black or silver
NO dealer installed options (jacking price up by 1000s)
NO "Market Adjustment" fees (same as above)
Happy to pay MSRP
Trade in price at or better than KBB

We got all that, but had to make the 10 hour drive to get it, which I don't regret 1 bit. People are buying cars 1000s of miles away to avoid the 6+ month wait. In the 5 months from our order to the time we abandoned our order and got luck, the base price went up twice from the Chevy build, so when demand outpaces supply, especially in this hot car market, dont expect miracles. The dealers dont want to tell you the truth, as they dont want to lose your business. If they say, yeah, it will be a year or so if you are lucky, they know you will walk. Good luck, but in this aggressive buying environment, passively waiting for cars to arrive doesn't seem to pan out.