Walking into a Chevrolet dealership and asking to test drive a brand new 2008 Corvette Coupe will most likely NOT get you rolling down the road. Unless you are rolling down the road in the same car you drove into the lot with.

We stopped by Parks Chevrolet on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, the dealership was actually open. We briefly looked at the 2008 Corvette and tried to explian to the sales guy and sales manager that were indeed serious about the car and wanted to test drive it. We sorta figured we would get the “No” answer and be asked to make and offer or something to prove that we were serious.

The sales guy comes back and gives us the same story that most any dealer should give on the new Corvettes. “We usually don’t allow test drives of the new Corvettes, without an offer, and most people want to buy them with ZERO miles.” OK, we sorta figured that. So we informed the dealer that we just finished test driving a new 2008 Infiniti G37 and wanted to rule it out. Well this perhaps got their attention a little. The dealer runs over and checked with his sales manager working that day. When he came back, he informed us that he was going out to the lot to grab a used one to let us test drive it. I’m sitting there thinking , cool, maybe it will be a 2007 and at least some what comparible. NOOOOOTT……The guy comes back with a 2004 Corvette.

Once, he pulled up to the door, I asked what year, and he told us. I spoke up and said this deal needs to end right here. Exactly how is someone supposed to drive a 2004 Corvette and compare it against a new 2008 Corvette. Sure it’s a Corvette but any car has changes from year to year. I thought for a moment and figured, it couldn’t hurt to at least let them take my wife for a ride. She agreed and went for a spin. When they came back we told the dealer that there was no way we wanted to buy a 2008 Corvette without at least test driving it. Back to the “make us an offer story they went”.

Monday morning comes along and banging on the internet for 2008 Corvette Coupes. Eventually I stumbled on to the Chevrolet web site and found a build your car page. I plugged in the options we wanted, what we were willing to pay as a down payment and at the end was presented prices and better yet a way to submit my request for quotes to over 10 different local Chevrolet dealerships. The ironic thing was that Parks Chevrolet in Huntersville was the first dealer listed. I proceded to post my details to each of the dealerships. It seemed like 10 minutes later, the general sales manager of Parks Chevrolet was calling me about the request. I filled him in on Sunday and he seemed to know a little about it. He wanted to know why we put 50,000 as a down payment when the car wasn’t actually that much in price. Without going to deep in to conversation, I basically told him we were interested in buying a new 2008 Corvette LT2 Coupe and wanted to make sure that each dealer took us seriously. Obviously he wanted us to come back up and talk.

It didn’t take much longer for other dealers to start calling. After talking to a few, I asked one sales guy, “What would it take for us to drive the car, especially if we were going to drive 45 minutes.” The dealer replied, just show up and I’ll let you take two rides. Obviously, it seems this dealer was willing to take us seriously.

The next phone call was back to Parks Chevrolet in Huntersville. I asked for the general sales manager and explained to him what transpired on Sunday. To his defense, he reiterated their general policy about test driving the new Corvette. I replied that we understood and at the same time informed him that several other local Chevrolet dealerships had invited us to come and drive with no stipulations. The next response was “What time can you be here? Call me at least 30 minutes ahead of time and we will back the car out of the showroom and have it ready for a test drive.” Fair enuff! We drove up to Parks Chevrolet, Huntersville on Monday after work, talked to the general sales manager and each of us went out for a quick test drive.

One general rule of thumb on buying cars from dealers is to not show them your excitement or emotions during or after your test drive. Let me tell you now, this rule can not apply to a 2008 Corvette Coupe with 436 horsepower under the hood. Holy cow!!! It will get your blood moving in a matter of seconds.

After the ride, we pretty much said we wanted to go home and discuss it. I give the sales manager credit, He seemed very laid back, plugged us for some information but pretty much laid off from the sales pressure mentality. Many of the dealership will do their best to not let you leave the lot. That’s their job and their game.

Discussions went good and we started pricing the car on Tuesday morning. I called Parks… and tried working out a deal on the showroom 2008 Corvette. the interior wasn’t exactly what we wanted. The car came with only the glass top option. Unfortunately, I also noticed a pretty good size scratch in the driver side door. The dealer insisted they would do their best to take care of the scratch and proceed to give us the best out the door price on the Corvette.

At this point we had two options. 1. Work out a good deal on this car and take a chance on the scratch coming back and live with black interior and a glass top. 2. Special order the 2008 Corvette with Grey / Titanium 2 tone interior, split 5 spoke wheel painted carbon grey and the two top package option.

The out the door price on that showroom Corvette came back at 48,300 and change. Not bad for starters and for a car that was part of existing inventory. We thought about it for a bit and just couldn’t agree on the black interior, the scratch and the glass top only options. Later that day we decided to special order the car, take our chances on the UAW strike, and wait 6-8 weeks on the exact car that we wanted.

Back to the pricing table we went. This time we explained the options and I made sure the sales manager knew that I would take his price and then call 5 other Chevrolet dealers and have them price out the car as well. The quote came back from Parks Chevrolet, Huntersville at 51,200 and change. We immideately started calling other Chevrolet Dealerships, banging on the internet pricing sites and exploring options.

Tomorrow I will post quoted prices on the same 2008 Corvette Coupe LT2 specs. More importantly, you will see why it is so important to make dealerships work against each other and how the phone and the internet can help you do it without ever leaving home.

Meanwhile, we are waiting patiently today to get confirmation that our order allocation is in place. Wish us luck.

JF