ordering cars--a throwback?

With no actual dealers, and a fairly thin population of factory display rooms on the ground, I think most people buy new Teslas from their webpage as I did.

As I bought a couple of years ago when they were much more popular relative to production I did have to wait and did not get a very specific promise is to likely delivery date until they suddenly told me "you need to pick up your car on this day."

I had ordered a Land Rover Discovery with specific options and the build/delivery took 6 months, so 10 weeks isn't bad,

I have ordered almost all of my cars. Only a couple of times when there there were so few options available that a dealer checked with other dealers to get the color and exact match. So actually I have never gone to a dealer and purchased a new car off their lot.

It can be tough to find exactly what you want on the lot. If you're specific about the options you want, it may be necessary to order.

Time is also a factor. If you need a vehicle right away, off the lot is the quickest option if you're willing to compromise.

Dealers will often deal on price for vehicles they have on hand. It's been my experience that they are less likely to negotiate with factory orders.

Went to the Chevy dealership on Saturday and placed the order.

Zero pressure whatsoever. The sales manager said since you say you haven't driven this Tahoe before (2021+), why don't you take it for a spin yourselves (wife and son), and come back, I'll be here.

So we went 5 miles up the road, parked and checked out the features, came back.

The test car had 9 miles and was a Premier 5.3 V8 with an odd white interior. Unique, but not for us. I could see white in a fancy Euro car or something. Ours would have the 6.2 V8, yes with DFM.

Of course since our last new car was a 2011, the 2025 is quite amazing having screens for the dash and center console. I could not even figure out how to use the rear AC, and turned it on from the rear console.

Apparently this vehicle would come with 8 years of google maps free (On Star), and has Alexa to do everything.

It is absolutely nothing special to drive, and I've never been a fan of electric power steering, but am OK with it based on what happened to our last GM (steering rack replaced at 27k and then a widespread issue with it). Again truck SUVs aren't exactly sports cars.

The thing that drew us to this vehicle is the fact that with the 3rd row folded it has 73 cu ft of cargo. We are used to 66 with the Enclave.

Seems it will be quite a process. They'll put the order in today, and it will be accepted when the dealer has their next Tahoe allocation. After acceptance, and I see this from the forum, there will be a wait for a "TPW." Targeted production week.

They are using 4 months as an ETA stating we don't want you to be disappointed if we tell you something shorter. This would be a desirable vehicle from a GM standpoint since we opted for the High Country with air ride. Just not the other typical options like 24" wheels, entertainment and technology etc. There is an exact match in VA Beach so this isn't a strange vehicle, just one that lacks those options that add on and bring the price to something unimaginable.

I really like to have at least one made in USA vehicle, just me, and I got it from my dad. So let's hope local 276 is having a good week when they assemble our future car lol

btw since it was all chit chat no hype etc., and they even added $500 more off with an educator discount for my wife, they said they ordered a Corvette for $176k list a couple weeks ago. To me, they have to roll out the red carpet when they deliver that one, unless the buyer is picking it up in KY. I had mentioned the $75k over list on Z06's and was told at this dealership they never sell above list and that is something that occurred during the pandemic and there's no reason for it today....

New car is a once in a 15 year thing for our family so we can wait patiently....

I ordered my 1994 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 in Canary Yellow (which I still own & drive to this day...just passed California smog check for registration). That color was very new in 1994 and no dealers had it...so I ordered it exactly how I wanted it. Dealer said 6-8 weeks. It was delivered to the dealer exactly 8 weeks after the day I ordered it.

I was able to stop them (the car was just off the truck when I went to the dealer to see it) from mounting the front license plate bracket and drilling the mounting holes in the bumper (something I did NOT want)...but it was pointless since later on, CA required the front license plate to be displayed/mounted on the vehicle, likely due to the red light cameras that were coming into play.

How to tell dealers (this is only the 4th new car in my life) not to put your name on the new car. Decal-wise. On the used car I bought in 2016, it was easy to remove, however. Half the time the person prepping puts it on crooked.

On my 2007, the vehicle got off the ship and delivered the 2 days later. They called me would you like to pick it up tomorrow--I checked the forecast and pouring rain, so I said no, we'll come on Saturday. Then they told me that's fine we just need to let you know there'll be one more mile on the odometer because we have to drive it down the road to our storage facility. It had 4 miles when I picked it up. Hopefully the Chevy has something near that. The one we drove on Saturday had 9, and that's already been driven. What does one do if they order the car and it has 20 on the odometer? I think I'd not take it. I'll bring this up--please don't have anyone test drive it etc., there are times to no be shy, as it's not exactly inexpensive these days to buy a new car.

It's been a month, and I've read countless threads online, and the GM ordering system is quite inconsistent and mysterious. I even had someone say back in the day they got 18% off list with employee GMO pricing, and he ordered 15+ cars in his lifetime. 18% is really quite a lot--our discount is not even 5%!!!!! The last Buick in 2011 was closer to 10% and it was below invoice. So 18 is crazy....

At any rate, it took 3 1/2 weeks for GM to accept our order--I hear this all has to do with dealer allocation. Dealer has to have one, to get GM to accept the order. Some said go to large volume dealers, not small. Ours is tiny.

After that, 8 days later, dealer emailed me vehicle has a TPW of 7/28/25 (targeted production week). You should be driving it in August (late).

From watching those shows on TV and YouTube, I would really like to get a copy of the order. I have a formal GM "quote" showing list price and the config, and I have another print out showing the features on the car. An email also came from Chevrolet.com saying....

...congratulations-your 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe order has been received for production! You're officially one step closer to seeing your version of this vehicle come to life.

Make sure you keep an eye on your email for status updates about your vehicle's journey, so you can follow along from our factory to your dealership.

This told me my name is on the order and GM knows who I am. Also, dealer's info seems to be real time, whereas web is not.

It may not be a Corvette or a Porsche 911 order, but hey, we're treating it as if it were. Could be 3 months between sitting at dealer and ordering, and delivery. Many online took longer, and oddly, some have just been told their orders will be canceled and will need to be resubmitted for 2026, even though they were placed in March. Very mysterious on how this all works at GM. Also saw remaining 2025 orders for the Corvette ZR1 have been canceled (they were accepted). The 2026 is $7,200 more. How disheartening is that news, given most of those orders were placed immediately as soon as ordering opened up?

….but all new Hyundais have either 9 or 11 miles on them when they come off the truck. (Sorry, but I don’t remember the exact miles). I have bought 2 new ones and they both had the same number of miles on them when they were delivered. I asked the salesman about that and he stated that those miles were put on the car at the test track. Every car was always driven around the track to check for rattles, performance, braking, etc.

Yes, back in the 80s and 90s when I worked for GM, getting a new car at employee discount meant easilty 18-24% off MSRP. This would have been the case whether ordered or on lot. The employee discount was the employee discount no matter what.

I will say that my most recent dealings with "cars on the lot" have been pretty easy at least with respect to getting what I wanted. Dealers will ship a car to your local dealer by swapping cars back and forth. I've even gotten a car driven to my home in PA from a dealer in Ohio. They then returned my current car by driving it back. We never had to step foot in the dealership or even off of our driveway for that matter.

In two other cases, we drove 2+ hours to a couple of dealerships because they did have the exact cars on the lot that we wanted. I got 11% off MSRP and at zero percent financing for 5 years so I thought it was well worth the drive.

Good luck to everyone looking for new cars.

at GM, for emissions, what's YF5 (California), NE1 (Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state), and FE9 (Federal). Does GM really make CA and Fed emissions vehicles, in 2025? I remember my 1998 Nissan had a CA and a Fed version. I purchased in NY State so when the hood is lifted, a meets CA emissions standards for 1998 was on the hood. GM seems overly complicated.

What truly is different between YF5 and NE1 (question asked a gazillion times online and round and round lol)

Yes I found the GM order guide, and man it's pretty amazing. And to think there is no such thing with Japanese cars. They are sold all the same, varying through packages (I always found it to be an upsell--you want the $50 abc? It comes in a $495 package, so you pay $495 to get what you wanted that is only worth $50). They can't be custom ordered nor are there variations on the road, all the same, generally speaking.

If anyone wishes to follow this, a search (in my case with duckduckgo) for yf5 or ne1 won't do. You must do a search for both.

Perhaps it is a "question asked a gazillion times" but I had no idea of what you were talking about.