GM automatically posts an "In Transit" vehicle on a dealers website after it is produced and "In Transit" to that dealer. Is it common practice for a dealer to remove the vehicle from their website if it is a sold/customer ordered vehicle soon after it gets posted by GM?
Dealer removal of ordered/sold unit from their website?
- Thread starter genestoy
- Start date
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I've made phone calls seeing if a vehicle listed on their website is available and they tell me it's already been sold. I'll check again a few weeks later and the same one is still listed.
It is probably dependent on the dealer. I found one dealer that had a vehicle that was my #2 choice and I asked them if it was sold and they said yes. That was almost 6 weeks ago. It’s still on the inventory website as “In Transit”.
On the other hand, my local dealer had some vehicles show up on a Thursday, got sold over the weekend, and they’re now gone from the inventory website.
So … probably 100% on the dealer.
On the other hand, my local dealer had some vehicles show up on a Thursday, got sold over the weekend, and they’re now gone from the inventory website.
So … probably 100% on the dealer.
Why not just contact the dealer and ask them?
Stbentoak
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They WANT it to show that, while mostly knowing long before, that it is sold. 99% of vehicles showing "In Transit" are presold vehicles. Not ALL of them are, but the very vast majority are.
Why would they show in transit anyways? Because they want you to call so they can potentially talk you into something else that they do have available. I called about many "In Transit" vehicles, but by the lucky grace of God, the one I got wasn't sold yet. They had 4 incoming on the carrier and listed on the website, 3 of the 4 were presold 6.2's, the last was a Dmax orphan. But little did they know that was the only one I wanted. Just blind luck really.
I also believe that as soon as they get a VIN they can list it as "In Transit" even though it may take 4-6 weeks or longer to actually get on the ground.
Why would they show in transit anyways? Because they want you to call so they can potentially talk you into something else that they do have available. I called about many "In Transit" vehicles, but by the lucky grace of God, the one I got wasn't sold yet. They had 4 incoming on the carrier and listed on the website, 3 of the 4 were presold 6.2's, the last was a Dmax orphan. But little did they know that was the only one I wanted. Just blind luck really.
I also believe that as soon as they get a VIN they can list it as "In Transit" even though it may take 4-6 weeks or longer to actually get on the ground.
I think OP’s question got confused. He asked is it common for a dealer to remove that unit from their website if it’s a pre sold unit? I think some dealers do yes cuz they get annoyed with 10+ callers per day asking if available. Some dealers like people calling like stbentoak said to tell u what else is incoming. I was lucky on my 21 Tahoe, our order got denied by GM so we searched and I found exactly what we wanted to order minus summit white instead of iridescent, called dealer they said sold. Next day same salesman called me back and said we have exact same one coming, they had ordered 2. Feldman in michigan, huge dealer. We bought on the spot.
Square1Services
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I was told by a dealer after calling about an “in transit” vehicle that GM showed on the corporate website for the dealer that GM requires them to keep it listed on the dealer website until the vehicle has been delivered and paperwork has been signed. When a dealer says it is “sold” already that just means someone has put down a deposit on it already. Even though it’s highly unlikely, there is a chance the deal doesn’t get done once the vehicle is delivered for a number of reasons (customer doesn’t come for pickup within a set timeframe, financing falls through, customer changes mind once they see in person etc.). Don’t bash me if this isn’t 100% true. It’s just what I heard and it seemed to make sense.
TL;DR
GM requires the vehicle to be listed on a dealers website until the vehicle has been delivered and a customer has taken possession of the vehicle.
Our Tahoe would periodically disappear from our dealers website and chevys inventory. It reappeared a couple times but never for more than a day. I never asked the dealer about it, but my assumption was the same as others… they didn’t want to be bothered with a bunch of calls on a sold vehicle.
PaulGA
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My Yukon got taken off the site about 2-3 days after I made the deal.
Stbentoak
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Yes, this is also correct, many times they will take backup names on presold vehicles as original purchaser may have found something else, or not happy with unit as arrived. A fair share of the ones I talked to still wanted my information if something didn't work out with the buyer ... which happens more than you would think. Another reason to keep it listed but "not available"....
Hornman120
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I ordered a Suburban High Country diesel in June of last year. It was converted to MY 2022. My dealer received an allocation in early November with a constraint on the Air Shocks, I accepted that and it was built in mid-January; When it went to Event Code 4000 (ready to ship) it actually showed up on the Chevrolet Inventory Web Site and also on my local dealer's inventory as "In Transit" with ETA of Feb 4. It arrived at the dealer late on Jan 31. On Feb 1 it showed on dealer's site as there (not "In Transit") and I took delivery that day. On Feb 2 it no longer showed up on the dealer's inventory.
DenaliCountry
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The vehicles are automatically posted to the dealer websites when they ship whether they are pre-sold or not. My dealer shows them as marked up by $5K if it is presold which usually deters any callers asking if they are available as most dealers in the area are selling at MSRP so no one is really going to call on a unit that is $5k over sticker. Once they arrive at the dealer and assuming it is pre-sold, the dealer can remove it from the website (mine was removed the day after it arrived and it was obvious I was coming to pick it up). At that point it is up to the dealer to decide whether to leave it up or take it down. But the in transit units typically stay on the dealer website whether they are pre-sold or not.
UsualSuspect
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My Dealer said all of the units in-transit were orders that are already sold. They leave them up in case someone wants to be on the waiting list, but he said their list is 300+ and grows all the time.
Blackcar
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I'm pretty sure GM has control of build and inventory website we had truck built in December and dealer said it was on hold but on website stated it was in transit for 2 1/2 months and it was purchased end of February took 2 days to be removed after sale, always said it was in transit and dealer had it for sale.
This is actually controlled by GM directly with their D2C2 inventory integration. Once a vehicle ships, GM controls their Dealer Inspire site and inventory feed. There isn't a way for a dealer to remove it if they're on the DI platform when they removed the forced contract with CDK Global and their Cobalt powered websites.
genestoy
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I started this topic and spoke to my dealer yesterday and they "in fact" can and do remove the vehicle from theirs and GM's website. Mine was removed because they know it is already sold and don't want salespeople to be bothered answering calls "is it still available?"
My order just popped up today on the dealer site, but I have no ETA. I was hoping this meant it was actually “in transit” but it sounds like that’s not the case based on other threads. I guess it could sit there awhile even though I’m 3 hours away.
