Destination Charge vs Museum Pickup?
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If you do NCM Museum Delivery, you pay both because of a Federal law, passed in the late 1970's, enacted at the lobbying of car dealers association. Reason they pushed for it, is that they did not want other dealers, located closer to car manufacturing plants, to have a competitive advantage due to lesser delivery charges by some dealers being closer to the plant. It is now the same transporter or rail car delivery fee nationwide. So, since the cars go on transporters 1/3 of a mile to the National Corvette Museum, you pay as much as dealers located in the state of Washington for the transporter delivery fee. The NCM Museum Delivery fee is for a special experience. Please see these four threads as to why many, including me, will happily pay extra for the NCM delivery experience.
http://www.stingrayforums.com/forum/stingray-owners-logbook/1273-redhot-mine.html
http://www.stingrayforums.com/forum/stingray-corvette-discussions/1487-nat-l-corvette-museum.html
Webcam Corvette Blvd
National Corvette Museum - Museum Delivery
http://www.stingrayforums.com/forum/stingray-owners-logbook/1273-redhot-mine.html
http://www.stingrayforums.com/forum/stingray-corvette-discussions/1487-nat-l-corvette-museum.html
Webcam Corvette Blvd
National Corvette Museum - Museum Delivery
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Thanks from me too. That is a great explanation. Although I think charging BOTH isn't the fairest way to go, I can at least see the reason behind the law.
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What you have to understand is that the Destination Charge and Museum Delivery are two different functions. A destination charge is to get the vehicle from the manufacturer to the delivery point (normally your dealer, regardless of where they are located in the US). The museum delivery is an option (R8C) that you can choose if you want the experience of taking delivery at the National Corvette Museum. There are a number of unique items that you get with museum delivery that you do not get with a normal delivery to your museum. One, you get people to do the PDI on your car that all they do is PDIs on Corvettes. You may not think this is a big deal, but I do. If you meet these people you will see that they have a passion for the Corvette that is not seen by most dealer mechanics. Two, you get a VIP tour of the plant for up to 4 people. This tour is not time limited like a group tour. You have your own personal tour guide that will spend as much time with you as you desire. That person is also the person that will be delivering your car to you. They will also spend as much time as you need at the museum getting familiar with the car. This is your day and they try to make it special for you even though there are up to 7 other people taking delivery on the same day. The technician that was assigned to me had nothing to do with the other 7 deliveries. I never felt like I was one of 8, I did feel like it was my day. Plus, there is a personal tour of the museum itself. You also receive a special museum plaque for the dash and a wall plaque for your home. Everyone that I have met that has taken delivery at the museum has been pleased with the experience. I would highly recommend it.
It is also important to know that the museum is not owned or operated by GM. The people that organize and handle the delivery are employees of the museum and not employees of GM. By taking delivery at the museum does not negate the cost of having the car delivered across the street. What you have to remember, there is a destination cost and, if you so choose, a special museum delivery cost. If for some reason you choose to not do one of these, then it will be the museum delivery because the destination to the delivery point is not negotiable.
I hope this helps!
It is also important to know that the museum is not owned or operated by GM. The people that organize and handle the delivery are employees of the museum and not employees of GM. By taking delivery at the museum does not negate the cost of having the car delivered across the street. What you have to remember, there is a destination cost and, if you so choose, a special museum delivery cost. If for some reason you choose to not do one of these, then it will be the museum delivery because the destination to the delivery point is not negotiable.
I hope this helps!
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The part which I find ludicrous is the destination charge is not a function of the delivery distance. Since I will not be doing a museum delivery (not because of cost, but rather because of time and distance) this translates to me saying that I personally should have to pay one of the highest destination charges in the country to get it transported to San Francisco. So be it: I choose to live here on the Pacific coast, so I should have to pay the price of being so far from Bowling Green. Also, I believe the other people who do choose to do a museum delivery should have a relatively inexpensive destination charge, because the museum is so close to the factory. Otherwise, those other people are essentially subsidizing my delivery for me to the west coast. Why should they pay for me? Ah yes, because the wealthy lobbyists and their elected politicians have decreed it to be so to "level the playing field". I believe quite strongly in a free market, so that really rubs me the wrong way.
I have no opinion on the museum delivery fee.
I have no opinion on the museum delivery fee.
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I think you misunderstand. My complaint isn't with GM; it is with the politicians in Washington and the one-size-fits-all destination charge. Following your suggestion, my recourse would be to not purchase any automobile. Unfortunately, that isn't extremely practical.
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Is this the first new car you have ever purchased? This policy / regulation has been in place for decades.........
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No, but until I read this thread, it had never truly sunk in that the destination charge was the same for the whole country, and what that implies in practice (the bulb never went on for me until considering the extreme example of the super short delivery to the museum).
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I figured you had and my response was somewhat "tongue in cheek". Personally, I believe they should do away with it and bundle it into the MSRP but since many states don't tax this portion of the purchase it would probably cause more harm than good. I'm sure there are other tax and accounting reasons on the manufacturer's side that make it beneficial to break this out as a separate line item.
OTOH, if I were able to accept delivery at the Museum then hand the car back to them for delivery to my local dealer I suppose I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the charge. I would almost be willing to pay for the Museum PDI instead of the delivery prep guy at the local dealership touching the car.
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I wonder how the destination charge is set. Is it that they compute the cost (plus profit) to the most remote part of the country and then force everyone to pay that (in essence, forcing consumers in most of the country to line the pockets of the delivery companies and pay more than they truly should have to pay for the service they are receiving), or do they compute an average delivery cost (plus profit) and force everyone to pay that (in essence, forcing consumers in the broad manufacturing swath from the Great Lakes states through the Midwest and down into the Deep South to subsidize the destination charges for people in California and Boston, for example)? Either way (fleecing on one hand, or on the other socialism at work similar to how it would be in a communist country) I would assume many people in the breadbasket of this country would not be too pleased if one were to have lengthy conversations with them on this subject, including the reason, and how, it was first initiated.
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If I lived within a day's drive of the museum, I would do it. I am sure the museum delivery is worth every penny of the cost!
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I do (sort of) and I will.
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So does the $995 show up separate from the MSRP such that I might not have to pay tax on that $1000? I live in CO. 7.4% sales tax plus an additional "fee" spread over the first 4 years of another 5.7% and .45% for a few more years. I call this the CO hard workers tax. So about 15% on MSRP.
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Museum Delivery, option R8C, costs $990, and like all other options, shows up on the window sticker.
Delivery Freight Charge/Transportation Charge/Shipping Fee (whatever you wish to call it), is a $995 cost, also shows up on the window sticker, but sorry, have no idea what Colorado law says in regards to whether the latter fee is taxed or not.
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If you resent the idea of a uniform delivery charge to anywhere in the 48 states, you probably also resent first class postage charges, which are the same regardless of distance. These days, about the only things I mail are payments to local trades people who provide me services, and are too small to have a provision for online payments. It costs me the same to mail a check under 10 miles as someone else spends to mail an envelope to Hawaii.
That's just the way it is.
That's just the way it is.
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