[Chevy Bolt News]

Straight from the horse’s mouth; Rick Alpern, the general manager of Keyes Chevrolet in Van Nuys, California, said that his dealership will be getting an allotment of Bolt EVs from the first wave.

Alpern posted this on the GM-Volt forum and stated that the “initial allocation is 78; I have 35 deposits so that leaves 43 open slots.” This claim was confirmed by HybridCars when they gave him a call last Friday. In the phone interview, he confirmed the allotment via the Van Nuys dealer’s computer terminal.

He was also told by his GM rep that only Oregon and California will be getting vehicles from the first wave and he’s hoping to receive the shipment by the end of the year. Do note that his dealership is getting a large amount because it is among the top five in California. Bolt EV allocations are based on the dealership’s sales volume patterns so those of you near a smaller California dealership may have to wait until next year to drive away with one.

Currently, potential buyers can’t add specific trims and options to their Bolts yet so Alpern is only taking place holding pre-orders. Customers are also leaving him with a wish list of what they’d want in a Bolt and he’ll do his best to fulfill their wishes.

If any forum members are close to Keyes Chevrolet and wish to put in a pre-order, you’d better do it soon because only 43 out of 78 vehicles are left.

 

[Bazinga]

We saw the California allocation coming before they officially announced it, but I didn't think Oregon was going to get some from the first batch too. I don't recall reading much about their green car culture.

 

[Sean Rarey]

Oregon & Washington had our "Pacific Coast Green Highways" complete years ago... Cali is still working on thiers. Pruty green up here..... ;-)

 

[HotPotato]

Deposit placed

Yep, I put my deposit down at Keyes. Works like this: they have an allocation of 78 and they have already ordered them. (Luckily Keyes ordered 100% of them with the DC fast charge option, which really ought to be a standard feature.) The truck should start delivering these Bolts between January and March. Suppose you are 50th on the list. When car 50 rolls off the truck, they call you and you go down ASAP and either buy it, decide to pass on it and order one custom instead (and presumably wait another 3 months), or get a refund. I suppose the benefit of being later on the list is that if an earlier person passed on "their" car then you might have more than one to choose from. I really wish they had put out the word and let their customers spec the cars to begin with tho. (I want orange outside, light gray leather inside, and Bose...what are the chances car 50 comes that way?)

 

[Bazinga]

So you don't have a choice in what kind of paint and trims you get aside from DC fast charge? that kind of stinks, but with how popular the Bolt may become they probably wanted to get their hands on as many as possible and custom ordering one for each buyer may take too long.

 

[eops]

Yep, I put my deposit down at Keyes. Works like this: they have an allocation of 78 and they have already ordered them. (Luckily Keyes ordered 100% of them with the DC fast charge option, which really ought to be a standard feature.) The truck should start delivering these Bolts between January and March. Suppose you are 50th on the list. When car 50 rolls off the truck, they call you and you go down ASAP and either buy it, decide to pass on it and order one custom instead (and presumably wait another 3 months), or get a refund. I suppose the benefit of being later on the list is that if an earlier person passed on "their" car then you might have more than one to choose from. I really wish they had put out the word and let their customers spec the cars to begin with tho. (I want orange outside, light gray leather inside, and Bose...what are the chances car 50 comes that way?)

Chevy is smart, they're playing that game of making us pay for something they know we will buy on impulse. It will take the competition not charging for certain things for Chevy to do the same. Easy to get someone to pay for this stuff when they're signing off on a $30k purchase.

 

[Bazinga]

Jokes on them, I can wait more than a year to get everything I want in a car! But they are capitalizing on the limited amount of incentives that are being handed out.