New for me - was not allowed to buy a new Corvette from US dealership .... .???????

[Copenhagen GT]

Hi all

As some of you know, I am in the market for a Corvette, and currently as I am on vacation here in the US, I visited Kerbecks Chevrolet just outside Atlantic City.

They have an impressive number of new Corvettes, I counted at least 75 in and just outside the showroom, so naturally I considered if this was the time to make a deal. They have a 11.300 of MSRP right now, so a Grand Sport coupe with manual transmission can be had for less then 50 K so not bad at all.

But before I could even make up my mind, the nice sales man told me that he would/could not sell a new car to me, as they were not allowed to export vehicles. Only option would be to sell the car to a person in the US - they required it to be tagged and titled right away in that persons name in whatever state they lived in - and then I could then buy from the US based person.

Is that really the norm? I have bought a number of new cars directly from the US before, Mustangs and Shelbys, without ever gearing about this problem. Is it only Chevrolet, or is it Kerbeck that follow rules very strictly?
All these cars have been sold to me in Denmark directly, and therefore without any local sales tax ... Which of course would be my goal with a Vette too.

Anyone living in a low tax state that could register a brand new car for me?

Thanks
Anders

 

[Kayvan]

I will pm you a dealer (specializes in Corvettes;one of top 3 on Corvette Forum); they will give you a great price....

 

[Gierkink]

I believe this is pretty common, especially when the U.S. dollar is weak. I purchased a Mercedes-Benz about ten years ago and had to sign a form saying I wouldn't export it out of the U.S. for the first six months. A low dollar makes U.S. purchases of vehicles very cheap for foreigners. Auto manufacturers want to protect their higher margin sales in places like the Middle East so they try and stop grey market exports from the U.S. I believe they do this by focusing on stopping dealer sales to foreigners via rules in their dealer franchise agreements.

Chip will know more about this so perhaps he add something.

 

[Colton74]

When looking into a vehicle in the US, a Ford dealer in Seattle indicated the same thing. He did mention to me however that they would be able to sell a "demo" vehicle to me. In other words come by the dealership drive the car around and they could mark it as used?? Didnt end up buying it so cant say for sure if it would have worked that easy; however this is what I was told.

There is usually a pretty significant savings for Canadians to go to the US as well, anything over $2000 we now check US pricing before purchasing up here. Bad for Canadian business I guess but....

 

[PILOTJPW1]

Yes that is the norm. Our sales/franchise agreements forbid sales to out of country individual's and corporations. There are military exemptions. Of course there are all kinds of dealer's out there, but it has gotten enforced much tighter in times of weak inventories. And don't expect any warranty either if you do export.

We had a company in Saudi trying to buy 50 F450-550 from us and could not get it cleared.

 

[shelbyelite]

That is normal. All new GM dealers have an agreement with GM that they will not export their new inventory

 

[Copenhagen GT]

Thanks guys for your answers. In Denmark where hardly any new US cars are sold and only a very limited numbers of dealers, maybe one or two dealing with Corvettes and certainly none being able to doing any service or repairwork that I would trust, I will persue finding a dealer in the US that will help me directly.

It was mentioned by the Kerbeck salesman that a used car with more than 5000 miles could be sold with no problem, but as it seems that almost new cars are being advertised at the same proces as the new discounted showroom cars, The new ones look like the best deal.

 

[GTdrummer]

I have bought Vettes from Dave at Kerbecks . He is a straight shooter. Good luck.

 

[shelbyelite]

Mileage doesn't matter. If it's used, it's used. 5000 miles, or 50 miles. If it's a titled car, it is used and can be exported

 

[Copenhagen GT]

Shelby

Any truth to the story avout making it a "demo car" by putting x amount of miles on it before sale?

Thanks
Anders

 

[red gt 1442]

Mileage doesn't matter. If it's used, it's used. 5000 miles, or 50 miles. If it's a titled car, it is used and can be exported

+1

How about finding one titled with very little miles? Like almost new? Shelby, you can find that car for him I'm sure....if it's that new, price should not matter if it is close to list, or better...would it?

 

[BlackICE]

I would think that Shelby could buy a new one and then it would be "used" and available for resale.

 

[RALPHIE]

I would think that Shelby could buy a new one and then it would be "used" and available for resale.

Only problem I see is the state sales tax issue. Find someone in Oregon where there is no sales tax.

 

[ChipBeck]

Shelby

Any truth to the story avout making it a "demo car" by putting x amount of miles on it before sale?

Thanks
Anders

Anders,

Putting miles on it will not make it OK to export. The car must be titled in the U.S. before it is exported. I know many people have successfully bought new cars on MSO and shipped them out of the country but they did it banking on not getting caught. I tried several times to get permission to ship new cars still on their MSOs out of the country and was denied every time. A dealer can have his Sales & Service Agreement (Franchise) cancelled for violating this.

Chip

 

[mplv]

get a montana LLC, then buy it from your LLC. grand total additional expense $1500?

google montana LLC or find the people advertising on dupont registry and make sure this is feasable.

 

[Copenhagen GT]

Thank you all for the info here and through PM. I will wait till we get a little closer to the Rally dates before buying, except if the perfect candidate comes up sooner.

I now understand there are rules regulating the export of new vehicles - they were just all new to me as I have bought brand new cars for export before without ever hearing about it then.

Walking in on the showroom of Kerbecks for me was comparable to when my 8 year old son is let loose in a large toy store ...... Total loss of selfcontrol

Will most likely end up buying a slightly used car to avoid the hassles, and now probably back to the 2006-2009 Z06 idea unless the prices of used Grand Sport coupes will adjust to match the current pricing of new ones selling for 11-12K under MSRP or an insanely great offer on a red, Blue or yellow ZR1 pops up .....

:cheers
Anders

 

[shelbyelite]

I got a really nice Cyber Grey ZR1.......

 

[Copenhagen GT]

I got a really nice Cyber Grey ZR1.......

Yes, very nice car, but I want a bright red Corvette (will consider bright yellow or light Blue metallic). I you find a good candidate maybe you can bring it to the Rally before we ship it to Denmark?

:cheers
Anders

 

[Copenhagen GT]

Bought a very nice Z06 today so now I just need to figure out how to get insurance for the 7 days in Salt Lake City ...... hopefully this will work out better than in 2008 when I tried to get insurance on the FGT.

The Z06 is a 10K mile car, full aftermarket exhaust, Yellow with chromes and full option ....

Anyone with a real close connection to a insurance agent?

:cheers
Anders

 

[BelgianGT]

Congrats with the Z06. It's really a very nice car and very good value for money. I was so impressed with it's fuel economy at normal speeds. As they are so cheap I was considering again one with a good supercharger on it for some fun days but went for a Mustang instead