A 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 would set you back at least $75,000 MSRP were you to head over to your nearest dealership. One Los Angeles dealership, however, is charging a steeper price of admission for the honor of destroying everyone at Willow Springs and Irwindale.
Jalopnik subsidiary Car Buying says Felix Chevrolet has a black-on-black 2014 model for the reasonable price of $106,165, a markup of just over $30,000. Though someone in Beverly Hills — or Justin Bieber — may be more than willing to pay that particular toll, the blog found a dealership 40 minutes away in Santa Ana charging $76,645 for a black-on-black Z/28 on its floor. Since Disneyland is nearby, the lucky owner can used the $30,000 they would have spent in L.A. to buy quite a few passes and souvenirs.
Other dealerships whose prices are in the five-figures include Good Chevrolet near Seattle ($86,150); Schumacher Chevrolet near New York ($74,995); and — with the lowest price of all dealerships in the United States — Lorenzo Bomnin Chevrolet in Miami ($66,999).
Price gouging on a potentially rare and hot model is unusual?
GM having a potentially rare and hot model IS unusual.
Is the author the same as our previous Cameron M?
Yes. I legally changed my last name a couple of weeks ago, but changed it here this week. :)
Congrats then…
I heard Jack is legally changing his name to Carlos Danger. ;)
Actually, Carlos D had to change his name to “Jack Baruth” because someone put a bounty on his head.
But shhhh!
Can we leave all things Anthony Wiener out of this? I have a weak stomach.
“Actually, Carlos D had to change his name to “Jack Baruth” because someone put a bounty on his head.”
Jack Baruth, the quicker picker upper !.
Congrats.
BTW, your link didn’t work.
I assume you got married?
Nope. Family has French bloodlines from the 1500s.
You realize this fact now requires you in both law and dignity to purchase a Mercury-badged Panther?
“Nope. Family has French bloodlines from the 1500s.”
(GASP!) Priory of Sion?!?! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priory_of_Sion
Hmm. They all work on my end, and I’m on my phone st the moment.
NVMD – it may have been our crappy connection at work today. It’s working fine now.
“(GASP!) Priory of Sion?!?! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priory_of_Sion” – Huguenot, actually. In fact, if France were still offering passports to those with said bloodline, I’d have dual citizenship; the right of return ended in October 1945.
“You realize this fact now requires you in both law and dignity to purchase a Mercury-badged Panther?” – My grandparents-in-law own one of those. It’s not bad, but it’s not for me.
” My grandparents-in-law own one of those. It’s not bad, but it’s not for me.”
How about an Eagle Medallion wagon ?.
If they all haven’t been crushed and/or rusted! :P
Back when the Pontiac G8 GXP was being sold, the local Pontiac retailing geniuses had a few of them on the lot, each one tarted up with $750 Nitrogen-filled tires and a $10,000 “premium vehicle” fee. And all of them sat, and sat, and sat…
If a dealer gets a slight whiff of even the possibility of more money to be made, they’re going to jump. The FRS/BRZ had dealer add ons when first released, as did the 1M Coupe, GT-R, Z06, and in the name of all things holy, the PT Cruiser.
This whole Z28/ZL1 thing has me confused as I think Chev. got it backwards. I believe it would be more logical to install the blown 6.2 in the Z28 and then place the 7.0 in the ZL1 and make that the rarer (and historically consistent) model.
Anyway, it’s a hard sell charging $76K for 505 H.P. (much less $106K) when Dodge is offering the 707 H.P. Hellcat Challenger for $60K.
“Anyway, it’s a hard sell charging $76K for 505 H.P. (much less $106K) when Dodge is offering the 707 H.P. Hellcat Challenger for $60K.”
Not all buyers use horsepower as the holy grail for performance car purchases. I don’t have any figures to back this up, just my experiences and those of family and friends, but I’d say to most, horsepower is only a part of the equation.
Comparing a track rat to a 1/4 mile bruiser is folly. They’re built to do different things and do them well. Pick your poison.
“Not all buyers use horsepower as the holy grail for performance car purchases.”
I think if that were the case then buyers would stick to the Camaro SS or the Challenger R/T. My thought is that, at this uber level anyway, buyers are playing for king of the hill as measured by horsepower.
It’s not much different that it was in 1969. Road course guys could buy the 302 C.I. Z28, which is what it was intended for, while the straight-liners went for the 350 C.I. or 396 C.I. powered SS because straight line and road course prowess are two different things. But as it turned out most Z28’s ended up on the street competing with the SS guys.
I have a hard time imagining too many 2015 Z28 buyers are looking for real road course antics. They can go the COPO route if that’s their ultimate goal.
“I think if that were the case then buyers would stick to the Camaro SS or the Challenger R/T.”
Yes, and most do. In fact the V-6 might very well be the best seller. I do not believe at this level, or any other, that horsepower is a cure all. To some buyers, yes, they want the most powerful car, everything else be damned. Other buyers, not so much.
Don’t take my word for it. Look at the market. Often, for whatever reason, the most powerful car in a segment, is not the sales leader.
I have no idea how many Z-28s will see a road course or how many Hellcats will see a drag strip. That wasn’t the point I was making. These two cars are built for different missions. Choosing one over the other, solely on the basis of horsepower wouldn’t be prudent.
The COPO Camaro isn’t a road course car. It lives its life a quarter mile at a time and unlike the Z-28, it’s not street legal.
Hubcap is correct, also blown engines aren’t particularly well suited for road courses at least in production form as they get heat soaked quickly and the computer will pull timing and add fuel in an effort to keep things from melting into globs of aluminum and steel.
There is also the added weight in all the wrong places as the supercharger and manifold weigh perhaps 60-70 pounds on top of the engine and you have the heat exchanger and the charge air cooler along with the fluid pump adding weight at the top of the engine and nose of the car as well.
Despite the 80 horsepower deficit the LS7 was the better choice with the Z/28
I think GM built a better Camaro than BMW.
BMW 645Ci: “the best damn Camaro $78,295 can buy”
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/bmw-645ci-convertible-short-take-road-test
The 6-Series hardtop (regular, NOT GranCoupeWank) is very sexyful.
I’d rather have a Mustang. It’s got more style, more class, more history.
Not surprised at all, in my AO a 2013/14 GT500 pulls a 20k premium over the MSRP and one dealer is charging 65k for a car with 6k on the clock.
Florida seems to be the spot for getting a good deal on a pony car as they always seem to be priced lower and have some good cash rebates going. I’ve never traveled out of state to buy a car but with the savings in price and rebates over what is available here it would be worth the effort.
I sell in south central PA, and we get fair competition with MD and VA leads. Often folks feel these states give them far better deals, and we lose some deals to their “amazing prices”.
What I never read in “how to buy a car” blogs is that different states have very different legal requirements for ads. VA and MD (and many other states, not sure about FL) don’t require listing destination charges for a huge one. Also, some dealers simply add rebates together that are unlikely or impossible to work (Military + Rodeo clown rebates). Another variable that is seen between states is dealership fees. Here in PA avg fee for docs are $130. In other states they are $800-$1000, and likely more. A marketed price is only as good as the final amount financed.
Document fees, as in your office workers will go on food stamps unless your dealership collects those?
A ‘doc’ fee is legal for the dealer to ask for it, and just as legal for the buyer to tell the dealership to remove it from the sales agreement. If you sign a sales agreement knowing that it clearly includes an itemized documentation fee, you need to pay it. But, there is no municipal or state statute that requires the dealer to charge one. It is 100 percent profit for the dealer. And, having settled on the cars price, and seeing after the fact that the dealer has added a documentation fee above and beyond the bottom line of the agreed price, you as a buyer are within your rights to TELL NOT ASK the salesman, closer, or ‘business manager’ to remove the documentation fee as a condition of signing the sales agreement and concluding the sale. I recommend that prospective buyers log onto their states Consumer Affairs webpage to check on whether they have had complaints from resident about the ‘documentation fee’. I assure you that it will be one of the first alerts they’ll find on their states C.A. webpage. With all of the talk from dealers about trying to make purchasing a new or used car simple and enjoyable, the ‘doc’ fee is the most dishonest and shady practice now being perpetrated on unsuspecting buyers. Franz, shame on your dealer for placing you in the middle of this.
And these are the retailers that we’ve decided, by force of law, need to be protected from competition.
I always find it funny how the loudest proponents of totally unregulated free-market capitalism are typically the ones protected from it.
They’re usually proponents of it for their competitors and suppliers only.
And these are the retailers that THEY’ve decided, by force of law, need to be protected from competition.
No “we” please. I didn’t raise my hand.
Hard to work up any outrage here. The suckers who must have it first have to pay top price. Back in ’70 Datsun/Nissan did this with the 1st 240Z and Mazda in ’78 with the 1st RX-7.
At the risk of sounding like David E. Davis, Jr., Caveat Emptor and all that crap.
Agreed….dealers capitalizing on new model hype? Shocking…
Just wait and see what Dodge dealers will be charging when the Hellcats arrive…
Bomberpete,
Correct about the first couple of years of 240Z’s, and to a lessor extent Porsche 914’s and Opel GT’s around the same time, but not all dealers.
It was true of almost all dealers in Los Angeles when I went to college there. But drive 500 miles east to Phoenix, and you could buy one for MSRP. Same for Boston. Usually, a 240Z got automatically equipped with AC and cheap alloy wheels, and the base $3596 Datsun now went for $5000 in L.A.
Manufacturers didn’t like it for customer goodwill reasons, but they generally left dealers alone to gouge buyers.
This even took place when the 2002 MINI came on the market. I remember reading an account by a buyer living in Chicago who, unable to find a Chicagoland dealer who would sell him a car at MSRP, ordered one from a San Francisco dealer at MSRP, flew out there when it came in, and drove it back home.
And at the end of the day, the thing still wears a mullet.
A fool and his money are soon parted. A rich fool just happens to have more of it and is referred as stimulating the economy.
So these cost as much as Corvettes? Or has a Corvette got more expensive than I thought.