I am not sure how this all works, but from my understanding Dealerships technically Purchase the cars from GM, they use credit & banks in most cases to purchase the cars then sell them later. It is kind of like when you go to the store, Best buy purchases the stereo, and then sells it to you for a markup. Dealers do not get their inventory for free... JOhn

Yea I think you got it right John. If I look at my invoice for my car it says it costs 14 grand, yet when you look at the window sticker its over 16. My guess is the dealer bought the car for 14 something then sold it for 16 something thus making a profit. Its really how everyone makes money. This is off point but that really makes you wonder how the hell WalMart makes money........

I understand the dealer doesnt get a title from GM. They get a bill of sale or certificate of origin or something. The states issues titles. Or am I wrong??

Ya the dealer gets the Certificate of Origin, also known as a CO from the manufacturer. When someone buys a car, the dealer sends the CO to the state so the state can issue a title to the customer.

I happen to know the local Manager of the Local Wal-Mart, it is quite interesting how things work. In a nutshell, the profit they get from individual items is minuscule, where they excel is selling in volume. When was the last time you went into a Wal-Mart and actually purchased ONLY what you went there to originally purchase.

Each manager is in charge of stocking their shelves with the necessary items that they will sell in the market they are in. So in my little climate of MI, they stock winter jackets in the Fall, and t-shirts in the spring. In the end the manager determines what is the best things to sell in his/her area. They try and get 5% increase in sales each year. It would ultimately depend on other factors like competition, and economy, but that is basically how they make money.

Car sales are similar, as dealerships are going to stock their lots with cars that will hopefully sell, and allow people to special order cars that they do not have on the lot. The difference is, most people go into a dealership to look or to buy just one car, and often dealerships sell just one car. Very rarely do they actually sell two cars at one time to an individual.

John

You'd be surprised

I probably would be

I am honetsly curious, out of 1000 new car buyers, how many purchase two cars at the exact same time?

John

I work at a medium-to-large dealership, it happens about 2-3 times a year for us.

Depends on how you want to break it down. If you include commercial fleet sales, that would really change the #s. Quit a few times I've sold both the husband and wife a new vehicle, even though they only intended to buy 1 car when coming in to the dealer. But the biggest 2nd sell is usually a family member purchases a car soon after (week or 2, month later). Repeat and referral business is a large part of my income.

I would call that rare...

John

still off topic but I just recently heard about a grandmother that bought 4 new vettes 4 her 4 grandkids that were turing 16

Now that's what I would say is rare

In retail like that, corporate sells the inventory to the stores for their cut right off the top to cover their operating expenses at their level. Advertisement and stuff is billed to the stores PNL, each store pays a different amount depending on their market. The stores operate on their own PNL and their net margin is very fractional, just enough to keep them afloat.

I also believe that GM sells cars to dealerships and the dealerships work the same way I thought? I don't think cars are given on a promise of a sale then paid after the vehicle is sold and everyone get their cut then...

Here are 2 pics I took of the Formula several years ago at the Nats, I tried to get the 02 in the background but did not work.
Any news on were the car went?

Now for years and years I have always thought YOUR yellow TA 1LE was the best!

Thanks for sharing!!!!

Thanks for the compliment Alex.

Hey Leo, how many miles on your car now?

I think the auction is next week... anyone know?

John

April 9th to 11th

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/appli...=11&pop=0&it=1

check it out if you wish, this firebird went for 35,000!! maybe our third gens WILL be valueable in another 15-20 years. who knows.

thought maybe somebody would enjoy this, if anybody has more pics of this car or a vid from the auction please show!

Here are two threads on the car already. I assume this will get merged!

Guy on the board named Bruce purchased the car. This first thread should give you a pretty good history of the car. It's very well known.


http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/hi...2-formula.html



http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/hi...408-bruce.html

It sold for $38,500, Nice price.

Bruce Got the car, I thought I saw it at $35,000. of course by the time you add Entry Fee, Taxes, BJ Commission, I think you are probably correct.

Congratulations to Bruce Hawkins.... I gave him a call after I noticed he won it on the DVR but he did not answer.

John

Sweet! Congrats Bruce!!!!

Alex

dang i went to the auction today but missed the formula!

$38,500 is with all the fee's..

some one please up load that to Youtube ..

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOMEONE DO THAT!

Just watched Bruce on the DVR.....My. Kool and Kollected.....too funny!

Good job Bruce. Can't wait to see it at the T/A Nats!

Greg can you pls somehow get that on youtube? I am watching the highlights right now but we're already on lot 60.

I thought the rumor was that he was not going to go to the Nats?

Sorry but I don't have a good way to get it onto youtube.

When I spoke to Bruce on Wed afternoon he said he could probably bring #1 to the Nats if he ended up with it.

Funny how the guys on Speed can't believe that a 92 Firebird could be going for this much money.....said it was "over market." No mention of the 1LE option. They also state it had 1,500 miles.

Thats good that it went into good hands. Hopefully we'll get to see some pictures soon enough.

Looks like Bruce might not have got the car if it didn't have a clear title.

Jim just emailed this to me...the reason why the NHTSA was yankin' cars yesterday!


_____________________________________________________________

Breaking News: Government Halts Barrett-Jackson Sale of GM Cars


West Palm Beach, Florida: Midway through Friday's collector car sale, representatives of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) forced Barrett-Jackson to stop the sale of certain cars from the GM Heritage Fleet. Our sources tell us that this order from NHTSA was completely unexpected; Barrett-Jackson and GM have been extremely careful to note, in written material posted on the cars, which GM cars are sold on "salvage titles" or similar, and cannot be registered. Apparently, despite this, NHTSA is concerned that someone "might try" to register the cars for the street.

GM and Barrett-Jackson are attempting to resolve this so that the cars, which have been heavily publicized and have drawn bidders from across the nation, can be sold. Unfortunately, discussions are hampered by the fact that the relevant NHTSA offices are closed for the day, and reportedly will be closed tomorrow as well.

I spoke to Bruce last night, apparently the car ended up with a "Manufacturers Title" so he should be able to register it... This information is NEW so it will be interesting to see what happens from here...

I actually have the Auction on DVD, I have about 6 min, of it with the Speed intro, the fly-by shot of the Formula in the beginning of the show and the entire Auction from the end of the White G-body all the way through the JY "Formula" I had to laugh, they called it a "Formula 1"

UNFORTUNATELY I have no audio on my computer. It worked fine in my home DVD player, and it worked fine in my DVD-R recorder, but for some unknown reason I have to read lips on my computer... What is more interesting is I have two DVD players on my Computer, one is a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive the other is a DVD-RW drive, it will not work on the DVD-RW drive at all... What kills me is the DVD-R that I used was a Sony, the drive that does not work at all is also a Sony.

John

I think one thing that may surprise MANY people is the Formula actually brought as much money as a 1969 Z11 Camaro Convertible Later in the day. I think the Z11 got up to $37,500 or $38,500...

John

No suprise to us "in the know"

Here is the page you linked:

Keep in mind that this is no normal Formula, it is a 1LE, it only has 1500 miles, It is Car #1, Body #1 from 1992..

That just goes to show how biased the typical collector car people are towards the horrendously overpriced and overrated older stuff. Most people have no clue about third generation f-bodies, let alone the 1LE equipment on these cars. Those guys on Speed make me want to turn the sound off on the TV sometimes.

I'm afraid for now that our cars are still "niche" cars.

Congrats Bruce!!!

Damn i missed it.

Anyone have the video? I've been checking to see if there gonna replay it but no luck.

I will second that request. I've been searching the web for it no luck finding it yet.

What killed me was they were saying things about the Formula and there was quite the following for this car, but it was overshadowed by the Trans Am... No mention of a GTA, oh well. They made a comparison that the Formula was to the Trans Am like the Mustang LX is to the GT. On the one hand I agree with them but I do not think they understand that the LX and GT had slight changes to the drivetrain, the Formula had the exact same Drivetrain options as the GTA or Trans Am... And they were all over the fact it had "WS6" like it was an option on the Formula...

All I have to say is when more people learn of the Formula, the GTA etc the more desirable they will become...

1LE is basically a brake package.
The only 1LE specific parts on a 92 are:

1. Rear control arms are stamped "1LE" but only the bushings are different from WS6. (and 1LE shocks and struts were special in 88/89 only).
2. Circulating fuel pickup. 1LE tank was phased into production earlier.
3. Big front brakes


There are other parts that came with 1LE such as N64 and JG1, but they came on other Firebirds as well, including most GTAs in '92. One note, The 5th gear ratio might be shorter on 1LE.