Car assembly question

[69Z28]

I've had some questions banging around for a while. How was it desided how a car was to be built if it wasn't special ordered for a customer? Not all the Camaros built were customer ordered correct? Did the dealers order them the way they wanted or did Chevrolet have some kind of system?

Thanks

[william]

All GM cars were built to a dealer order. The order could be for a specific customer, for dealer stock, or fleet for a leasing company.

For '69 the Camaro order form had a 6-character alpha-numeric code in the upper RH corner. For example in Jerry's 69 book one of the paperwork examples shows 'NDB065' on the shipper copy/window sticker. That was the form code. When Central Office confirmed production of the order to the dealer an order number was generated. In this example 117392, also stamped on the cars' body tag for tracking purposes at Fisher as there was no VIN assigned at that point. This number has no bearing on when a car was scheduled for production.

I believe only Chrysler built cars on spec in those days, hoping someone would take them. Lee Iacocca got rid of the "sales bank" there around 1980.

[69Z28]

So all dealers, other than customer order cars, ordered every car they wanted, with what options they wanted. I always thought that the Camaros (and of course other makes) where built however GM wanted to build them. So what would be the difference if GM did it instead of the dealer, like Chrysler? Was the way Chrysler did it that bad?
It sounds like it wasn't a good thing for the manufactures to build there own cars that they themselves designed.

[william]

The single largest reason for building cars to a specific dealer order is invoicing a dealer the instant the car is built. A close second is not having to store them until sold. The sales bank was an enormous drain of cash for Chrysler. They still owned the cars and had to pay for storage until sold. At one point in the '80s they had 100,000 unsold cars sitting around; around a half-billion 1980 dollars.

[JohnZ]

So all dealers, other than customer order cars, ordered every car they wanted, with what options they wanted. I always thought that the Camaros (and of course other makes) where built however GM wanted to build them. So what would be the difference if GM did it instead of the dealer, like Chrysler? Was the way Chrysler did it that bad?
It sounds like it wasn't a good thing for the manufactures to build there own cars that they themselves designed.

Nobody knew better than the dealer what kind of car would sell fastest and move off his lot fastest, reducing his wholesale inventory financing costs. The kind of car that was popular in local markets varied widely from one community or state to the next, and each dealer ordered units for stock based on what he knew he could sell. Over 90% of cars sold came out of dealer inventory, with less than 10% actually ordered to a specific customer's needs who would wait for it to be built and delivered. Not many rural dealers in farm communities would order a Z/28 or loaded SS unless they had a customer order and a deposit on it.

[69Z28]

I was always curious about that. Thanks for the insight.

[KurtS]

Pontiac did have a sales bank system (in addition to dealer orders). Some cars sat in zone lots for months before being sold, sometimes at discounts.

[69Z28]

Cars are built on what the demand is is from what I noticed then. The 69 Camaro was one wanted car if 203,000 or so were ordered and of course that was an extented year for them but still. Anybody make anymore cars than that in 69?

[JohnZ]

Cars are built on what the demand is is from what I noticed then. The 69 Camaro was one wanted car if 203,000 or so were ordered and of course that was an extented year for them but still. Anybody make anymore cars than that in 69?

Well over a million full-size Chevrolets (Impala/Caprice) were sold in 1969.

[KurtS]

Times have changed. A big seller is 150,000 / year.  I think the top 10 selling vehicles in the US are at that level or above. Meaning everything else is below that level!