Chevrolet, what is with your deposit policy?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

We put a deposit on a Tesla Y and need to wait about 8 months for it. I’ll need a new car in a couple of years and I’m looking at the Chevy EV Avalanche … errrr … Silverado. They want a $100 dollar deposit and what do you get for it? By comparison, with Tesla you get your model, trim, all options and a final price. With Chevy you get

referred to your local Chevy dealer

You cannot see the model, trim, color or any options with your deposit. You cannot even get the price except for the basic WT (work truck) model

WT estimated MSRP starts at $39,900 + DFC* with optional features and content, including up to 20,000 lbs. towing capability*. Future variations will offer a range of MSRPs, from around $50,000 to $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 and more, depending on selected battery range and available features such as Multi-Flex Midgate® with pass-through, panoramic fixed-glass roof, 4-Wheel Steer and Wide Open Watts Mode - providing a wide variety of capability and pricing.

  • Full vehicle features and colors to be announced closer to start of model year production.
  • Selections and final build to be made with dealer at time of ordering.
  • Final pricing set by dealer.

I know I want the RST model but all I know is that the RST “First Edition” is high-end luxury at $110,000. How much for a regular RST model? Who knows? What trim and colors is it available in? Who knows? Yet despite all this, Chevrolet claims 140,000 reservations. If true, that is crazy although I think many may be cancelled as pricing comes out.

Yes, your amount is refundable if you cancel your reservation prior to completing and submitting an order with your selected dealer. You may cancel your reservation by contacting your selected dealer, by calling 1-833-EVCHEVY (1-833-382-4389), or by clicking here. After your cancellation request is approved, please allow several business days for refunds to be processed.

So overall, a really screwed up process in my book.

2

Isn’t the difference here that with Tesla you’re reserving a car that’s already out (and just waiting in line) vs. with Chevy reserving a car that doesn’t exist yet? Also Tesla’s company-sold vs. Chevy’s dealer-sold model.

3

True, but my main issue is that I have no idea how much I’m committing for. That’s why I think a lot of the current reservations will be cancelled with sticker shock. “$80,000 for this truck?! No thank you.”

4

The difference is that you’re comparing it to a Model Y instead of a Cybertruck. Tesla has over 1.2 million Cybertruck reservations at $100 a pop for a vehicle that’s nearly vaporware. Chevy is just trying to keep up.

5

The deposit is likely just buying you a place in line to complete an order when they are ready to take them, I would guess. I did the same thing with the F150 Lightning over a year ago. Put my $100 down, without knowing what I wanted or how much it would be. They are now accepting orders, but I haven’t placed it yet.

6

My original deposit on my Tesla 3 was $2000 or something, and the same situation as you, no final pricing, other than “starting at around $35,000”, no idea about options, colors, or anything else. Technically my deposit was in (by a few minutes) before we even knew what the 3 looked like.

In the event I didn’t like the options or final price, the deposit was completely refundable (unless Tesla went bankrupt, which was a real possibility).

In the end, it probably only made my order date a week or two earlier, and my delivery date two months earlier than if I’d skipped the deposit completely, and just ordered at general availability.

7

I’ve decided I’ll still make the deposit and put myself in the queue, but I’m going to do it at the dealer so I can talk to someone rather than online. The wild card is that there is also the GMC Sierra EV of which all we know about is what the front end looks like.

8

It’s fully refundable, so you’re not really committing to anything. Obviously a $100 deposit is not particularly material when it comes to a vehicle that costs 40-80 times as much. I think the right way to think about this is that when demand is high, they want to qualify their leads, and a modest reservation fee is pretty good at weeding out people who are in effect never actually going to buy anything. The fact that many of those people will not end up buying anything isn’t a big problem; that’s how sales goes. But if they didn’t charge anything they might get 10x as many people in line, and effectively zero of those additional people will buy anything.