KEITH CORNETT
Another milestone for the 2020 Corvette Stingray has just been reached! Starting last night, the first shipments of customer-ordered mid-engine C8 Corvettes have left the Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky and are headed to dealers.
So now that the transporters are on the move, what happens next? Here’s a breakdown of what the C8 Corvettes will go through before customers take delivery.
The new Corvettes will be delivered to Chevrolet dealers by Jack Cooper automotive transports and each transporter holds 10 new C8 Corvettes. Dealers on the West Coast also receive their new Corvettes via automotive transports, however, the cars are first shipped to the West Coast by rail so there’s a slightly longer wait time for you Left Coasters to receive your new Corvettes.
As the transports head out to the various dealerships, the dealer’s inventory manager receives an email with a list of the inbound Corvettes that includes the VINs and order numbers on the shipping bill. The manager will notify the dealership’s service department and the individual salespeople about the incoming shipment so they can schedule the deliveries.
Generally speaking, dealerships take delivery of the new Corvettes Monday-Friday during business hours with some dealers also accepting Saturday deliveries. The transport drivers aren’t allowed to do “night drops” with the Corvettes, and so when delivered to the dealerships, dealership personnel will remove the white transport covers and give the car a visual inspection before officially taking receipt of the car and moving it to PDI.
Once the dealers have the new Corvettes, that’s when the “Pre-Delivery Inspections” or PDI process begins. For C8 Corvette owners, this generally means that Corvette-certified service technicians will again review the car utilizing a multi-point checklist to make sure all is good, check and top off any fluids, and see if any service bulletins or updates are required. They will also have a list of any LPO options that need to be installed. The LPO options are sent to dealers part’s department in advance of the car’s delivery to the dealership as we documented in this recent post. Once the PDI department has completed its review and installed any options, the PDI process is officially done and the new Corvette is ready for customer delivery.
Thanks to our friends at the MidEngineCorvetteForum.com for getting the actual PDI Checklist for 2020 Corvettes:
By this point in the process, the sales rep should have been in touch with the customer and has scheduled a date/time for customer delivery. We have also heard that Chevrolet plans a customer-contact campaign to follow up with Corvette buyers both before and after the delivery process.
These are exciting times for sure! With an estimated 1,800 Corvettes already produced, the process for getting these cars to the dealerships will take time, so patience is not only a virtue but a requirement as all these moving processes have to come together before the customer finally takes delivery of their new 2020 Corvettes.