Calaway Aerowagon

Oh, that ain't good at all.

Two updates.
First, the dealer has really and truly figured out how to order the car and has accepted my order and deposit. When the order gets accepted by GM is anyone's guess right now. When the car actually gets to Callaway and gets the extra bits added is a further mystery.
Second, I did get a chance to do a really good walk around of a C7 today and I'm more in love than I was. I'm very happy with my decision.

Complimentary test drives for GRM members when you get delivery, right.

Absolutely.

mazdeuce wrote: Two updates. First, the dealer has really and truly figured out how to order the car and has accepted my order and deposit. When the order gets accepted by GM is anyone's guess right now. When the car actually gets to Callaway and gets the extra bits added is a further mystery. Second, I did get a chance to do a really good walk around of a C7 today and I'm more in love than I was. I'm very happy with my decision.

Congratulations, what a unique car. I couldn't find any information, do they do any performance modifications or is it cosmetic only? Not that the C7 needs more go fast parts, haha.

Cody_D wrote: Congratulations, what a unique car. I couldn't find any information, do they do any performance modifications or is it cosmetic only? Not that the C7 needs more go fast parts, haha.

From the Callaway website:

Q: What drivetrain modifications are included with the AeroWagon Package?
A: None. However, the Callaway Corvette may be ordered with the AeroWagon Package as an option.

Q: What are the performance specs for the Callaway Corvette AeroWagon?
A: Pre-production horsepower for the 2014 Callaway Corvette is rated at 610 bhp (SAE). Performance data will be released following testing and validation, later this year.

Yup, the Aerowagon is cosmetic, the engine package is the 610 setup. That also comes with a different hood and carbon arches. I kind of liked the look of the arches and asked Chris at Callaway if it was possible to see a render of a car with the Aerowagon and the arches and he's said he'd talk to some people and see what he could do. The customer service from Callaway is something I'm not quite used to yet. Super nice guys.

GM says I'm at order status 1100, preliminary order accepted. Basically it means the dealer has decided to order the car but GM has not yet decided to build it. The Bowling Green factory has a bit of a shutdown over the holidays so I'm not expecting that to change until after the new year. I think I'd suck at having to wait for a supercar.

mazdeuce wrote: I think I'd suck at having to wait for a supercar.

I think you kind of are waiting for a supercar.

Kind of. What I meant is it's not like I'm waiting for a Pagani where I fly my jet over and lunch with Horatio and get told that it will be a year or two. I would suck at that. Good thing I don't have a jet.

mazdeuce wrote: Kind of. What I meant is it's not like I'm waiting for a Pagani where I fly my jet over and lunch with Horatio and get told that it will be a year or two. I would suck at that. Good thing I don't have a jet.

When that happens you have multiple garages full of other cars to tide you over. I think I could handle it, :D.

I'm stuck in dealer allocation hell. Going to the Houston auto show on Thursday so I can stare at the Corvettes and feel bad.

Will they be making a "zo7" version of this?

It's just a replacemt hatch so I assume it would work on the new Z06/07. That's more car than I'm willing to buy right now, but it would be a pretty sweet car.

Well one of the biggest differences about the z07 from the other two levels of z06 is that it has tons more aero. I'm not sure how easy it would be to translate that to a wagon version without going to extents that would be them essentially just testing and designing their own.

Tomorrow will be two months since the dealer cashed my deposit check. They assured me repeatedly that they had plenty of allocation and ordering the car would be quick. It's hard to express my frustration. I did finally find a C7 in the toy aisle. It's an Adventure Wheels. I don't even have good luck with toys.

So, have you found another dealer that has one in stock and told your dealer to work something out with them? They're not losing money on your C7 purchase, so it might be worth their while to work a deal with the other dealer in order to have a satisfied customer. How much was the deposit? How much is it worth to you to use another dealer and skip the deposit for the bird in the hand approach?

Bryce

The deposit was $16.5k. The cost of the Aerowagon and paint. It's refundable in full as long as the order has not been accepted by the factory, which it hasn't, which is the problem. Tomorrow will be two months since the check cashed. I had a talk with my sales guy today. Some of it I felt OK about, some of it was blowing smoke up my behind which I called him on. The dealer gets more allocation Thursday. We're going to talk again then. I'm ready to go ask for a check next week and I think he's aware of it. At some point, and this point is close, the overwhelming memory of ordering a car will be that of dealers lying to me and jerking me around and that makes it damn hard to feel good about the car.
Am I willing to wait three months if you tell me at the outset that it will be three months? Absolutely. Am I willing to wait three months if you tell me you can get the order in next week? berkeley no.

I also hate to be lied to. That money should have been in an escrow account?

That would have been one way to do it. I think there's layers of not telling the truth here. Information has to pass through three different people before it gets to me and I think things have been bent at every step by people who just want to sell cars.
Honesty is the most important part of any business transaction for me, and we're shying away from that now, so I'm getting ready to walk.
When I bought my Mazda2 I asked the salesman, and then the sales manager for the best price. I don't want to haggle. Just tell me what you can do and I'll pick the dealer who can do best. He gave me his price, I said thanks, shook hands and walked out. Only when I was buckling my kids in the truck did the sales guy walk out with an offer for less. I told him no thanks, he should have been honest like I asked for and given me that offer inside. Had he done that, he would have sold the car. I paid $300 more, but I bought from a kid who was straight with me from the very start.

In reply to mazdeuce: in his defense "gimme your best price" is craigslist for "price buyer starts negotiating from"

In the case of the 2, I walked in, told them I wanted a base car (this is when they had cars sitting for 18 months on the lot) these are the four dealers I was shopping, and I was shopping purely on price. One guy didn't even get up from his desk because he didn't want to bother. Another guy gave me an OK price. The kid talked to his sales manager for 20 minutes and came back with a good number and the last guy did the parking lot trick. Two of the four did their jobs, one had a better price and sold the car.
The guy who is selling me the Corvette is the same guy I bought my truck from. His wife and my wife used to work together. I walked in, told him what I wanted and that my wife had the A plan through her grandpa and he found it for me in Dallas. He had it driven down, I wrote him a check and we shook hands. He knows me. This time I told him what I wanted, he had to make sure he could do the Callaway thing and was totally honest about not being sure until he was. He does fleet sales so he had to ask the main dealership the status on Corvette sales. I think he told me what they told him which was "plenty of allocation, no problem with orders going to GM when placed". I shouldn't be talking to him about anything right now other than how slow Callaway is being about getting the hatch installed.

I am sorry to hear of your troubles getting what looks to be a sweet car.

Tell the dealership you will forget all about it if they throw in a CTS-V wagon for no charge.

Yesterday was an allocation day. Today I asked exactly where things stood. They said they get two Z51 allocations every period, I didn't make it this time and I was 4th on the list. So THAT means that best case scenario, no constraints from the factory, I'd be looking at another month before my order was placed. Why the berkeley didn't they tell me that a week ago when I asked and they said to check back in two weeks? The knew damn well when the soonest it could be build and just let me hang. berkeley that.
I called up the dealer that Callaway initially suggested I use. Super nice guy (though in all honesty, every has been nice, even when jerking me around) and he had one of his Z51 allocations open from yesterday, the order would go to GM on Tuesday. He's super excited about selling an Aerowagon because he loves them and was great to talk to about shooting brakes in general.
Just have to go through whatever hoops there are to get my deposit back from the first dealer. Shouldn't be a problem as he hasn't actually ordered anything and there are people behind me to take my place so someone gets to be two weeks happier.

Were you previously dealing with Hennessy GM?