First ERay Deposits: A One-Year Retrospective

When I'd initially contemplated waiting outside overnight to place a deposit on an ERay, there was a lot to think about. The cold weather was a concern, of course, but one of the things I really wanted to avoid was having my clothes get wet AND being out in the cold at the same time. That's a recipe for disaster. There was one person who set up a tent, and you can see that getting wet was a valid concern. It was spitting rain on and off when I got there, but a couple of hours later at 4:10 AM, when the fifth person signed in, it had gotten colder, and it was snowing.

Once I'd decided that I was actually going to do this, the question of course became, "What time do I go?" There was no way to gauge when anybody else was going to show up, and there were even guys on Corvette forums posting about their bogus plans to show up early and camp out, so there was a lot of misdirection going on because none of those people did what they said they were going to do. The goal, of course, was to get there before most people without having to wait a lot longer than necessary in bad weather and possibly suffer as a result. The tent belonged to the first guy who got there around 1:00 PM the day before, so he had arrived a little over 13 hours before me, and the second guy on the list got there 5 hours after him.

I'd been watching the weather forecast during the leadup to this event, and I'd decided to go to bed early and try to get some sleep before I went over to the dealership. As it turned out, I really couldn't sleep much because there was just too much on my mind, so I'd tossed and turned in bed for a few hours and then decided to get up around midnight. I will say, once again, that I feel very blessed to be able to easily drive over to MacMulkin instead of having to fly, but I would have gotten on an airplane, if necessary, and was even willing to endure the bitterly cold temperatures that were forecast for their original deposit day (MacMulkin management took pity on us and changed the date because they were probably also worried about people freezing to death in their parking lot). I had a propane space heater all set to go, but I didn't need to use it.

Some of you may recognize this guy. I knew his name from the Internet, but I had no idea what he looked like, so when he introduced himself, I was surprised. I felt like I was in the presence of Corvette royalty in a way!

There was a very brief time in the morning when the sun came out, things warmed up just a bit, and I was actually able to remove some of my outer clothes, but that was very short-lived. Soon, the clouds covered the sun again, and the wind picked up, so those clothes were put back on. As we waited for the opportunity to put in our ERay deposits at 7:00 PM, more people continued to trickle in throughout the day and basically, we just relaxed and got to know each other a bit. Obviously, since we were all there for a Corvette, we had at least one thing in common.

After all of the anticipation that had built up during the previous two weeks, and increasingly throughout that day, they didn't take our deposits that night! I was told to bring my check and paperwork back first thing in the morning, and they said we'd be able to actually put down our deposits on a 2024 ERay then. For yet another night, I wasn't able to sleep very well at all because I was just too excited, but I had taken the opportunity to shave my normally beardless face for the first time in weeks so that I looked more like myself. The last two weeks of planning were over, and most of what I had to do to get a low number on the ERay deposit list had already been accomplished. Now it was time to "put a bow on it."

I got up early the next morning because I wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen, and I wanted to get over to MacMulkin Chevrolet earlier than required. They had refreshments laid out for everyone, and there were quite a few people there already. I hung out and chatted with a few people that I'd waited with outside the previous night/day/night. This is one of my new friends being interviewed by a local TV reporter.

Incidentally, I talked with that same reporter later, off-camera (after turning down an interview when I first got there) and learned that she'd previously worked in the Texas news market, and she was aware of the serial killer who'd recently died in a Texas prison... the same monster who'd brutally murdered one of my best childhood friends. My friend and I had a great conversation right after we graduated high school, and that's the last time I was able to talk with her. By the time I came home from the Marine Corps, her life was over, but I didn't find out what happened until over 20 years later (by accidentally seeing it on a TV news show).

Her name was Mindy, and thinking about what her life could have been like — while I was also learning about the new mid-engine Corvettes — inspired me to take a chance (with what was and still is a lot of money to me) and buy a C8, so I named my first Corvette after her. I don't normally name my cars, but it was a way to help keep Mindy's memory alive when I talked about my Corvette with people from school who had also known her.

It was a very famous criminal case, and the newswoman had reported on it in Texas. She knew about my friend, too, because Mindy was one of the most reported-on victims (of over 90) killed by this rapist. He hated that label, even though it was accurate. He much preferred to be known as a killer, but I guess this rapist's extreme deviance made my friend famous too, although not in the way she would have liked. I refuse to use the rapist's name, but with the details I've given, you can easily find lots of information, if interested. The TV news reporter and I had something in common to talk about that day, but she knew almost nothing about Corvettes, so I did my best to educate her a bit. (It's what I do.)

When I was choosing a color for my Stingray in 2021, I remembered all the cars I'd owned before because I thought I wanted something different. It wasn't all that many cars compared to some people — having previously owned black, gray, green, red, and white — but I'd never owned a blue car before, and I wanted a flashy color, so that's how I ended up with my Rapid Blue C8.

One color I thought looked very striking was Accelerate Yellow, but I just didn't see myself in a yellow car. Actually, the color had a negative connotation for me that came from my childhood — from watching old Westerns. If someone was called "yella" or possibly "yeller" in those movies, that meant the same as "coward," and I definitely didn't want to be that because I'd been bullied when I was a very young kid, and I knew what it felt like to be teased and pushed around. After living through those horrible experiences, I made sure I did at least some of the right things to grow up big and strong, and I got lots of training to help make sure I could handle myself well. That was the best way — possibly the only way — for me to be confident that I'd be brave when called for, and not "yella" when the chips were down.

As you can probably tell, the concept of cowardice ran deep with me. One time, my father bought my brothers and me bicycles. I was the oldest, so I got a 10-speed. The middle brother got a 5-speed, and my youngest brother got a 3-speed. It was a very nice thing for dad to do, as we lived out in the country quite far away from the center of town, and riding a bike was our only way to easily get up to the lake to see our friends, attend swimming lessons, and generally just be a kid, but imagine my horror when he presented them to us, and I saw they were all bright yellow! (I never told my father or my brothers my feelings about the color.) I rode my bike a lot, even though it was yellow... didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to go anywhere, but I remember being embarrassed by it at times. I bought my first car (a Camaro), right as I was turning 16 y.o., and I don't think I ever rode my bicycle again.

Last year, I gave all this some thought and decided the color thing was a stupid bias that I should eliminate from my life — as it was serving no positive, useful purpose — and I actually got to the point where I was seriously considering spending a lot of money to get an Accelerate Yellow ERay. I'd decided I wanted a bright color, and after all, a lightning bolt is electricity and is also yellow, so my brain formed a connection there that I thought made sense because of the electrically driven front wheels. Also, as a Marine veteran, I thought about using the official Marine Corps colors — scarlet and gold — to create a theme for my new Corvette, and yellow was as close to gold as I could get.

Please note: Some of you may think my thought processes were strange or ridiculous. I've written about it in such detail not only to amuse you at my own expense, but to point out that very often, humans make emotional decisions and then look for ways to justify them, and usually we don't even realize we're doing it. That can lead us down the wrong path (or may be a good thing, at times), but we all have the tendency to do it because it's part of the human condition.

Like my Rapid Blue Stingray, an ERay in Accelerate Yellow would definitely make it easier to find my car in a parking lot, and the color stands out on the road, which I reasoned could help prevent collisions caused by other drivers who weren't really paying attention to anything other than their phones. "Beautiful," I thought. I had my color choice made. It would be something like this:

But then something happened that caused me to change my mind, and I had to search for my ERay color all over again. Someone sent me a photo of an Accelerate Yellow C8 Corvette, and it had pigeons walking all over it! After doing some research, I learned that's not uncommon. In fact, yellow also seems to attract bugs much more than most other car colors. People have reported going to car shows with their yellow Corvettes and finding that their cars were almost immediately covered in insects, but while walking around, they saw no bugs on any of the other cars. If the idea of pigeon claws scratching my paint and them pooping on my new Corvette wasn't enough, the thought of having to deal with all sorts of unwanted insects inside my convertible when I put down the top (which is often) was more than enough to change my mind and caused me to seek out another color for my ERay.

Adrian (great guy who did my Stingray delivery) helped us out by processing our paperwork, taking our checks, and giving us our deposit receipts. Also, the previous evening, we were all given a T-shirt like this one, and I wear it often. I'm happy to advertise for them because they've always been great to deal with.

With subsequent deposits coming in by mail, etc., MacMulkin's ERay list has grown to about 700 people, and they are the largest Corvette dealership in the world (in sales volume), by far. Of course, there are also ERay lists at most of the other Chevrolet dealerships around the country where Corvettes account for a substantial percentage of their business — at least, at the dealerships where they care about being honest and transparent with their customers.

All in all, it was totally worth the effort to get in line at the dealership early, and in my case, wait for 17 hours outside in the cold. I even made some new friends! MacMulkin Chevrolet has so far received 13 ERay allocations. Those were granted in September (7) and October (6), but there have been exactly ZERO allocations for ERay Corvettes to any dealership nationwide in the November, December, and January allocation cycles. That means if you were not in the top 13 that day a year ago, your ERay order has been delayed at least three months more so far. (Really, top 15 would have been good enough because a couple of people dropped off the list.)

That's a pretty big setback if your goal is to get one of the very first ERay Corvettes, and that's been my goal all along. I know it's not everyone's, though, and I'm happy to take the risk on this first model-year car. I hope people recognize that I'm just trying to lay out the facts and that it shouldn't be interpreted as bragging because that's not my intention at all. I also hope everyone who wants an ERay can get one close to when they want it... and yes, that includes me! Someone could, theoretically, receive an ERay allocation next month and have their car built before someone from the September 2023 group, but it's probably unlikely, and I like my chances better in the September group.

The sooner I get my ERay, the sooner I can get started reviewing everything about it for all of you and making videos. I do not see the point of doing a voice-over on top of stock GM ERay footage and calling that an ERay video. I want to show you guys my actual experience, driving my very own ERay!

In the meantime, I hope you continue to follow the progress of my order at the assembly plant, posts #5 and #6 on the ERay Deposit Series page, and I'll add another special post when I take delivery of my new all-wheel drive Corvette. Posts #1 and #2 have different photos and details than what's contained in this article. Post #3 exposes the disheartening problems some selfish people caused in line after I left. Post #4 is about deposits that were mailed in, and that was a whole other can of worms because of the really bad winter weather. All six of those posts can be found here: ERay Deposit Series