So you want to buy a Caprice?

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elc32955
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So you want to buy a Caprice?

Post by elc32955 »

Just a thirty-second primer on purchasing your very own Caprice PPV. Dealers across the US have 2011, 2012, and 2013 Caprice PPV cars in stock and they would like nothing more then to see you driving off their lot in one. There's one problem, however. General Motors, for reasons known only to GM Fleet has enacted a prohibition for sale of a "new" Caprice sedan to a member of the public. Sales are authorized to fleet accounts only, and only to Law Enforcement customers.

So, what this means to you and me, the average american car buyer of sufficient means is that we are out cold. The car you can't have for any price. Unobtainium. HOWEVER, there is a teeny tiny little catch.... The sales prohibition does not apply to a USED automobile, but only a NEW one. This means if the car is titled, it's fair game.

Now the poor dealer that floorplaned these cars in view of making fleet sales is at a severe disadvantage here. They're stuck with financed stock on the dealership lot that has a very narrow sales clientele. Since it's 2013, if these dealers are sitting on 2011 stock they've been making interest payments on the loans that purchased the cars for quite a while now and they'd like them gone as bad as you want to be in the driver's seat of one. So, in order to sell off older stock, many dealers have resorted to titling the vehicles and selling them as used, GM certified. With 20 miles or less on the odometers.

How do you find cars. Shop the Internet. Check with your state fleet dealerships, there's usually larger dealers in each state that have separate fleet departments. Talk to your hometown dealers and ask them if they sell fleet or who the large fleet dealership is. A lot of dealerships are listing their inventory, believe it or not, on Auto Trader. The computer program in use at the dealership automatically lists every single car apaprently, I was told this by a large dealer in Atlanta when I checked on a Auto Trader listing mid-2012.

If you want a quick, simple way to scan Auto Trader, follow this link. This is one I set up to search for 2011 & up Caprices in one click.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale ... istanceASC

What kind of price do you pay. This is the $64,000 question everyone wants the magical answer to. And, the situation here with the Caprice is rather unique. There is basically no other car that GM does sales on in this manner. The Caprice was never designed for RETAIL sales, so the old "MSRP" value that appears on every window sticker is basically bogus. Fiction.

My approach is to first research the fleet sales prices for the comparable year/make/option Caprice in your state. Each state has some sort of contract or contracts fleet vehicles are purchased through. In my state, Florida Sheriff's Association has a group purchase contract for fleet buys. Find out the pricing for your area and approach your dealer with this figure in mind. Start below or at that number, and when you offer the price make sure to step aside QUICKLY as the salesperson will promptly cough a lung out at you in sheer laughter. Remind them that this car is not specified for retail sale and your offer is fair based on the price GM bid the contract at. Yes it's a used car (technically according to the title paperwork), but that doesn't mean you have to pay the full pie-in-the-sky dealer list for it. GM expected a certain amount of profit when the contract was bid and awarded. For instance my car had a sticker price of $32K and change. The FSA base bid for the same car was in the $24K range (granted, before options & shipping). I ended up paying $26,005 for my car out the door, not the $30K original asking price. To get you started, this is the link to the 2011-2012 FSA contract for Caprice sales. It's a 8MB file, just under 1900 pages. Be warned.

https://www.flsheriffs.org/uploads/11-1 ... vised).pdf

So, for what it's worth, just my opinion on answering the question everyone has... "HOW DO YOU GET ONE OF THOSE CARS??!!".

Anyone have some good dealership purchase stories?

Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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The Tech
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Re: So you want to buy a Caprice?

Post by The Tech »

Several of us have purchased 2011 Caprices from Jim Ellis Chevrolet in Atlanta GA. I found mine there by doing just what you have suggested and doing a search on Autotrader. I called the dealer, made an appointment to test drive the car as I live in North Carolina. It is a four hour drive to get to Atlanta. They had the car ready for me when I arrived and after a three mile test drive - which put the car at 41 miles - I bought my Alto Gray 2011 Caprice PPV 9C3. It was a week later when my wife was able to go with me to pick up the car but she enjoyed driving it back to NC. There was no negotiating of the price, the Internet price was fair and they stuck with that so I was able to purchase the car for $26,000. The window sticker was still in the car and the Total Vehicle Price on the sticker was $31,410.00 so I felt the $26K price was fair.
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leadfart
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Re: So you want to buy a Caprice?

Post by leadfart »

I bought mine from a dealer in Illinois. It had 2400 miles on it, but looked as if it had never seen rain. It was not titled, all I got when I bought it was an MSO. It was easy to title in Texas.
Bob Dannelley
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elc32955
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Re: So you want to buy a Caprice?

Post by elc32955 »

The dealer that I purchased mine from right outside of Atlanta was in a quandry about selling the car. They did some fleet sales and this was their only Caprice on the lot, they had been putting police chiefs and such out in it for testing, but they had also been advertising it for sale at a $30K price in their print ads and on AutoTrader. I actually found the car in a AutoTrader listing when I was staying in a hotel in South Carolina, returning from a small trip. Arrived at the dealership, I test drove the car with a salesman, and then we went into the nice little glass office with the friendly "sales manager". We dickered back and forth for probably close to an hour, sometimes a little heated (I had to use the old line "Are you a car dealership or a car museum?" since they really did NOT want to budge off $27K).

I almost walked twice - told them I had another appointment with Woody Burke Chevrolet off I-75 on the way back to Florida (which I did - to go see a 9C1!). But, I knew this car in the 9C3 configuration was worth more then a standard 9C1 by far and I hung in there. Finally we were agreed on a purchase price without blood being let. I put a deposit down, drove back to Florida, and then a few days later did a fly-n-drive from Orlando to Hartsfield. I was picked up at the airport by the salesman. Nice ride back, got almost 500 miles on one tank of gas, but I specifically set the cruise at 70 running the car for fuel economy. I picked up the physlcal title at the dealership with the car (had a Georgia drive-out tag to get back home with) and hand-carried it and the other paperwork to my tag agency. No problems there at all, 10 minutes of work and I was out the door.
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
Pursuit
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Re: So you want to buy a Caprice?

Post by Pursuit »

I started my search on Auto Trader also. I travel all over the country so my search was fairly wide. I started by emailing 6 or 8 dealerships that had low mileage 9C3's. After receiving emails back from all of the dealerships I had contacted, I drove to Coughlins Chevy on the east side of Columbus, OH. They wouldn't even let me see one, because I wasn't "law enforcement". Wasted trip. Bud's Chevy in Marysville, OH had 4 or 5 available. All with a few thousand miles. Test drove one and started to negotiate on price. A couple of interesting things that were interesting about the car. Red Holden background and Griffin popped up on screen. Back up camera screen with the colored reference lines popped up when shifting into reverse. The tires were also a Y speed rating and had 50 PSI in them. Turned out this was a demonstrator for GM. After not budging much on asking price, I continued my search. Reliable in Springfield, MO had a Phantom Black 9C3 with 41 miles that was just posted on Auto Trader. Their asking price was already below what Bud's Chevy and I had settled on. Emailed them with my request to purchase. At first, no was the answer but I pointed out that the car had been sitting since May of 2011 and it was the end of September 20012. A week later, and between October 2nd and the 8th the car all of a sudden had 1,400 miles and was available for sale. They had sold to the local sheriff, bought it back and sold it to me. I flew back to Omaha, NE rented a car on Friday night, drove to Springfield, MO then drove the car home Saturday afternoon. The car currently has 3,100 miles on it.

Good Luck!

Maurice
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Tom Slick
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Re: So you want to buy a Caprice?

Post by Tom Slick »

I found mine by searching the internet for new Caprice PPV's. I found 6 or so, and contacted the dealers to see when or if they could sell them to the public yet, asking how long the cars had been at their delaerships. Allen Samuels in Houston had 3 2011's, but wouldn't budge (This was in early January 2013!). Another dealer in Wichita, Kansas had a 2011, and said he would find out from the regional fleet rep, but never got back to me. In Byron, Georgia at Jeff Smith Chevrolet, they had a 2012 on their lot that had been there almost a year. The sales woman that I talked to was very nice, and told me that it might become available in late January of sometime in Febuary. She and I kept in touch with emails and occasional phone calls maybe once a week. Early Tuesday morning, Febuary 19, 2013, She called me to tell me that the car had just been released for sale to the public, and that they were planning on running it in the coming weekend ad, but wanted to see if I was still interested. Of course, I told her yes, and asked what I needed to do to hold the car until the end of the week. She called me back with deposit details, and I put down the deposit on it right then! I left from work around 7pm CST that Thursday night, and drove from Mansfield, TX to Byron, GA, arriving at the dealership around 10:30am CST (11:30am EST). Took less than 2 hours to get my 2009 GMC traded in for what I wanted for it, and taking care of all the paperwork on my Caprice!

Driving back, I stopped in Alabama for the night, and finished the drive that Saturday. Saw 3 Caprice patrol cars on duty during the drive back...

Was definitely worth the drive!

Later,
Tom Slick

P.S. - On the way there, the MDS on my GMC Sierra started giving me problems... Talk about timing! But that's another story!
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Dennis
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Re: So you want to buy a Caprice?

Post by Dennis »

I won my car on an ebay auction, from Baker Chevrolet, in Red Springs, NC. The winning bid didn't meet the reserve, but the dealer contacted me directly and we worked things out. Because the car only had 1200 miles on it, I really wasn't worried about condition, etc. The sale was probably the easiest one ever. I sent payment electronically. My wife and I made a trip out of it, flying to NC to pick up the car, spent, litterally, fifteen minutes at the dealership signing paperwork, then heading to FLA to catch the Datona 500. After the race, drove it back home to CT. Made the car purchase really memorable and something I'd do over again (especially with this dealer), in a heartbeat!

Dennis
Dennis

2011 Caprice PPV
2008 Mustang GT (wife's daily driver)
2007 C/V P-71
2006 F-350
1999 H-D FXWDG
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