Gupton Motors up to 8% below invoice

[Hasted]

Got some good news today. Time to plan my trip down for this or next weekend.

Ordered 7-16
Manual Mojave with quite a few extras.

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[Kevin2323]

Got some good news today. Time to plan my trip down for this or next weekend.

Ordered 7-16
Manual Mojave with quite a few extras.

congrats!

 

[Kevin2323]

um......... i just contacted jeep chat and mine is delivered too?

 

[dbmcubs21]

um......... i just contacted jeep chat and mine is delivered too?

What was last update you had from dealer/jeep chat before this? Did you know it was shipping or were you still thinking you were built and awaiting shipment?

 

[Synctheship]

Got confirmation earlier today that my truck is still scheduled for delivery by 9/28.

Ordered my JTRD on 7/20, it was built on 8/27 with a ship date of 8/30 supposedly(which has been pushed back a month now...).

Hoping it actually manages to be delivered by 9/28, jeep is really fucking me with these shipping delays.

 

[sunrise089]

Update: Shipping ETA is now 9/22-10/4 (another delay)

Been in shipping stage for 1 month and 3rd delay/ETA.

I don’t understand how a 6 hour drive from plant to dealer is this badly delayed, they keep mentioning drivers in shortage but I’m not buying the story.

Bro I get the frustration, but you're being a little unreasonable here. There's no conspiracy, your Jeep is one of many and they're backlogged. Look at pics of the Toledo complex, there are THOUSANDS of Jeeps parked all around so it's always a big queue to get through.

Just spoke to Renee on the phone and she said it’s driver related.

I offered to pay for private shipper but no dice.

These are sold trucks that they are on the hook for, I was surprised they wouldn’t let me hire a private third party.

I’m trying to be reasonable which I think I am but it just doesn’t make sense to be this continuously delayed and why they would continue taking orders if they have no drivers.

Amazon won't let you pick up a $20 widget at their warehouse, Jeep is much less set up to let you pick up a $50k truck at their factory. I wish there was a Corvette-style factory pickup option, but there isn't any so there's just no mechanism in place for your private driver to pick the truck up. Jeep is too big and too clunky to deal with "hey I'm Dwayne, I'm here to get VolatileA's Jeep" while they're trying to build and ship hundreds of trucks per day.

They don't have "no drivers" they have a shortage and hence they're backlogged. Expecting them to not accept sold orders seems a little extreme given they made no delivery date promise at order time, right?

 

[VolatileA]

Bro I get the frustration, but you're being a little unreasonable here. There's no conspiracy, your Jeep is one of many and they're backlogged. Look at pics of the Toledo complex, there are THOUSANDS of Jeeps parked all around so it's always a big queue to get through.



Amazon won't let you pick up a $20 widget at their warehouse, Jeep is much less set up to let you pick up a $50k truck at their factory. I wish there was a Corvette-style factory pickup option, but there isn't any so there's just no mechanism in place for your private driver to pick the truck up. Jeep is too big and too clunky to deal with "hey I'm Dwayne, I'm here to get VolatileA's Jeep" while they're trying to build and ship hundreds of trucks per day.

They don't have "no drivers" they have a shortage and hence they're backlogged. Expecting them to not accept sold orders seems a little extreme given they made no delivery date promise at order time, right?

I don't think there is a conspiracy, I'm simply making observations, I mentioned in another thread I saw a loaded Rubicon get delivered in 4 weeks from order to sitting on the lot this week. That is extreme and never seen that before, simply observations but valid to the situation.

It would be awesome if we had factory pickup options here in the states, that is something that EU car manufsctures do very well with their European delivery programs and it's actually cheaper to do it that way below sticker as an incentive because they know it creates brand loyalty based on the experience.

If the problem is driver shortage, I figured it could at least be an option to work with them and pay for private transport if there was a possibility for it, to be clear, I'm not expecting there to be, but I suggested it as a possible option.

Not trying to be unreasonable, there are observations being made and a lot of it doesn't make any rational sense so I think it's ok to question the process.

I'm not a logistics expert or a car manufacture employee so I really have no idea the process but it seems odd and this kind of process wouldn't fly in almost any other business and you'd have upset customers.

I mentioned here (https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...-nothing-but-heaches.49137/page-2#post-795524) that the delays have costed me money trying to work around my clients aside from my own trading schedule only to be continuously delayed, so yes I'm frustrated and makes the deal we all sought out here less valuable and starts to cancel itself out but now I'm invested.

I was told by Gupton it was shipped on August 24th, so you can paint me as a "pissy" customer but I think some of my frustration is warranted.

Am I wrong to think too literal in the sense that if I tell you something is shipped it should be in route, not sitting on a yard?

Again, if I'm being unreasonable than y'all have more patience than me but given all the above, to now being told Oct 4th is the new ETA after I was told it was shipped 1 month ago...

 

[sunrise089]

Again, if I'm being unreasonable than y'all have more patience than me but given all the above, to now being told Oct 4th is the new ETA after I was told it was shipped 1 month ago...

Both our posts are long so I won't re-quote everything to make reading easier.

I think your post above raises a lot of complex points and so my response is complex too. In general I agree there is a lot with respect to vehicle ordering that doesn't really work like you'd 'expect' it to from experiences in other fields. But I try to be somewhat charitable about the funky parts of the process because 1) I view it as purely enhancing of the vehicle buying experience, in that everyone still has the option to buy off their local lot if they'd like to avoid any ordering-related hassle; and 2) because it's almost by definition a niche option, I tolerate a larger burden in terms of knowledge or flexibility demanded from consumers than I would most off the shelf products.

Re: best-case delivery timing, I think I've seen two weeks but yeah that's an outlier result as you say. What data has tended to show at least in 2021 is that Gladiator production is clustered, certainly with respect to colors and trims, but also probably with respect to powertrain components and even particular option packages. Given that, for me personally at least it's hard to be too ticked off over production timing given Jeep probably has some rational system behind how they sequence the batches and I don't think it can really be said the system, ex-ante, screws over any particular customer unfairly.

I'm with you on factory delivery. I think only the Corvette offers that out of the big-3 US automakers, but I agree it would be nice to have.

Re: private transport, we'll have to agree to disagree here. Of course if you were, for instance, neighbors with the CEO I'm sure it could be arranged - there's nothing really structurally preventing it (though maybe it violates some teamster union contract or something). But realistically given the scope and scale of the company and the size of the factory complex, I'd have assigned like a 1% chance of your offer being accepted - places like that just generally aren't set up to be that 'nimble' - the cost of disrupting their operations is way too high relative to the benefits they'd see. Heck, I tried to buy a battery tender from a small factory in my town that probably had a few dozen employees, and even they told me they only sold direct via Amazon while I was physically standing inside their office.

Re: these practices versus other industries, I touched on that above, but I view this as only a semi-consumer offering, and so something where there's a bit more flexibility required from both sides than a straightforward consumer order. I do think these sort of delays aren't super isolated in 2021 though - for instance most consumer silicon products have faced rolling delays this year. One other small point in Jeep's favor is that they've not really raised prices to the degree a lot of other firms have recently (the same can't be said for many of their dealers unfortunately) and so it's not too surprising we're seeing shortages (one can separately ask whether they potentially should raise prices and hence eliminate the shortages , but they seem to have opted for a longer-term strategy which benefits those of us who do eventually wind up with Gladiators at or below MSRP).

Re: delays costing you monetarily, I certainly sympathize, I don't want to come off in any way dickish here; being out money sucks. My only response would be that I think the deal as it was presented at the time the order was placed seems like it is still being adhered to on Jeep's side, so I don't personally assign a ton of blame there.

The final point is where I equivocate the most. They said it shipped a month ago. I agree if say Amazon said my package shipped a month ago and it wasn't here I'd be pissed. I think at a minimum there's an easy opportunity for them to say something like "your Jeep shipped on ___ date, but it could still be as much as 4-6 weeks before it arrives because the specific manner in which we distribute vehicles compounded with delays due to COVID-19 part and labor shortages." Now that said, having been around this forum for a bit, do I think they were trying to lie or trick you by saying it shipped in August? I don't - I think from their perspective it did ship, in that it was released by the factory into the giant queue for entry into their at times labyrinthine shipping system (involving yards at the factory plus other intermediate yards en-route, plus various trains and trucks, and distance thresholds for both of those with their own various exceptions, etc.). Now is it reasonable to expect you to know all that and hence that "shipped" doesn't mean what it means in other contexts? I don't know. Maybe...? But also it would impose very little costs on them to just provide the additional context and detail re: timing I suggest up-paragraph. I agree the changing ETA sounds very frustrating, but I also believe each estimate they gave you represented the most accurate number they had at the time - the order is already sold so there's really no reason for them to BS you or string you along. I certainly agree it would be better if the ETA didn't slip, but some of that is outside of their direct control and I'd still rather have an ETA than be told "we'll notify you when it arrives" like you get with some products.

Anyways, I appreciate your thoughtful reply, and I hope this response better explains my own perspective. My money at least is where my mouth is here, since I have my own factory order a few stages behind yours in the process.

 

[Kevin2323]

What was last update you had from dealer/jeep chat before this? Did you know it was shipping or were you still thinking you were built and awaiting shipment?

built /awaiting shipment. not scheduled yet.

it's at the dealer. I'm hyped!

 

[869 KPH]

@sunrise089 and @VolatileA, I think the reasonable thing to expect, if anything, is a reduction in the destination fee. The problem is I don't know if Jeep takes that hit or your dealer. I am a patient person and am ready to wait, already been waiting forever - just don't build up expectations and then not deliver on them.

 

[Minty JL]

Well gents, lets find the golden lining in the situation............ Jeep isn't having the chip shortage issue that GM is having. You could have ordered one and be told mid stroke.....ah we have no chips, now you have to wait longer.

I understand the annoyance of the situation, but first world problems. If we're looking at, ordering or buying 50-65k vehicles, a lot in life is going good for us. This is coming from someone that did 20 years active in the Army........so maybe I'm just used to the hurry up and wait mentality.

 

[badger719]

For anyone who has picked up at Gupton, how bad are the crowds on Friday and Saturday?

Debating whether I should take a day off work on Monday and be there then to minimize time spent at the dealership (I have a 10 hour drive back home to Wisconsin). I plan on doing all the finance stuff beforehand as well.

 

[Sublime]

For anyone who has picked up at Gupton, how bad are the crowds on Friday and Saturday?

Debating whether I should take a day off work on Monday and be there then to minimize time spent at the dealership (I have a 10 hour drive back home to Wisconsin). I plan on doing all the finance stuff beforehand as well.

Might be best to ask Gupton. I would think this helps them as well if you're flexible.

 

[Challenger85]

For anyone who has picked up at Gupton, how bad are the crowds on Friday and Saturday?

Debating whether I should take a day off work on Monday and be there then to minimize time spent at the dealership (I have a 10 hour drive back home to Wisconsin). I plan on doing all the finance stuff beforehand as well.

I’m going Monday the 4th.

 

[Challenger85]

Bro I get the frustration, but you're being a little unreasonable here. There's no conspiracy, your Jeep is one of many and they're backlogged. Look at pics of the Toledo complex, there are THOUSANDS of Jeeps parked all around so it's always a big queue to get through.

I’m not saying you’re wrong but @VolatileA has a legitimate gripe. We both ordered from the exact same dealer. His vehicle was built a week after mine was ordered…mine is on the dealer lot as of this weekend and his is in limbo. I’d be pissed too. I waited 3-4 days from built to delivered, he’s been waiting 3-4 weeks for the same thing. It’s illogical how his is still sitting and mine is delivered.

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