There’s an entire entertainment industry dedicated to car overhaulers who buy rough classic cars for peanuts, put some elbow grease and polish into them, and sell them for big bucks — but that’s not going to fly with General Motors if you try to do it with some of the company’s hottest new vehicles.
According to a letter to dealers in the U.S. unearthed by Corvette Blogger, and warranty information on GM’s U.S. website, GM North America president Steve Carlisle has laid down the law on dealerships and on individuals who intend to buy coveted items like the Corvette Z06, Cadillac Escalade V, or even the GMC Hummer EV for the purpose of turning around and flogging it for profit.
You might think General Motors – or any automaker, for that matter – wouldn’t really care what happens to its offerings once they’ve rolled off the assembly line, but that’s not how it works. Resellers disrupt the market and the automakers don’t like that. It looks bad when legitimate customers can’t get the vehicles they want because someone else has snapped them all up for the sole purpose of making a buck, especially if they’re overseas buyers who drive them right onto the carrier for shipment.
In any case, if the vehicles have any warranty or recall issues, they might not get fixed properly, and a Z06 that’s only running on ZO-six-cylinders doesn’t look good to others who are considering buying one from a legitimate outlet.
General Motors has already offered US$5,000 in points on My Chevy Rewards, a credit-card loyalty program where points can be used to offset the cost of service visits, parts, OnStar subscriptions, or even new vehicles, once a buyer has kept a new Z06 for a year.
The 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup Photo by GMC
But that obviously wasn’t enough, and Carlisle gets tough in this latest letter. If someone buys and flips one of those limited-production Corvettes, Escalades, or Hummers within the first twelve months, he or she won’t be able to order a new vehicle in future.
And beyond that, the vehicle’s warranty won’t follow it — in effect, it can’t be transferred, and so the new owner will have a very expensive car that will be lacking the balance of its warranties on bumper-to-bumper, powertrain, sheet metal, tires, and any accessories added to it. Any recalls will still apply – they’re a federal requirement – but repairs on anything else will be out-of-pocket for that new owner.
Keyword: GM imposes strict measures on those flipping Z06, Hummer EVs for profit