I pulled into MacMulkin Chevrolet's side parking lot in Nashua, New Hampshire a little after 2:00am. I could see a couple of cars with lights on and knew I wasn't the first person there, so I quickly parked, grabbed my folding chair and bag of warm clothes, and jumped out of my SUV. I considered climbing over the walkway railing but decided I didn't need to attempt that with everything I was carrying, and after finding the end of the stairs, I made my way up the sidewalk on the east side of the building. I was in a hurry because this was the line to wait for MacMulkin's official ERay deposit day!
They had sent a map to people on their ERay Contact List to make sure we knew where to park and form the line.
Thankfully, MacMulkin management had changed the procedure from the original plan because the night we would have been out there was supposed to be below zero. The new "night before deposit day" wasn't quite that cold, but I was still prepared with lots of warm clothes and a propane space heater, just in case.
Somebody had pitched a tent on the narrow sidewalk by the side door of the dealership, so I stopped there and put down my gear. Two guys got out of their cars that were parked with engines running to greet me. "You here for an ERay?," one asked. When I answered in the affirmative, he explained to me that they had a list, and he motioned to a piece of paper stuck to the window with McDonald's stickers.
The email from MacMulkin a few days before had said "You must be physically in line to save your spot. No type of space savers will be accepted." The list on the door, which was started by one of the guys ahead of me, was so we could leave the line to go to the bathroom without losing our spot. That made sense to me, and he wrote my name on the list.
I was the third person there!
At first, I was planning to bring my brother with me so that one of us could always keep my place in line, but ultimately I decided it was more important to have backup closer to home in case he needed to get into my house to retrieve and bring me any documents I may need. In MacMulkin's emails, they said I must have "all required documentation" with me, but I didn't know what that was!
When I put a deposit down for my 2021 C8 Stingray about 2 years prior, they just made copies of my driver's license. Will this be the same procedure? Do I need to bring a copy of something else
with me? I didn't know, but I also didn't want to wait at home for their final instructions because I wanted to get an early spot in line, and if I waited, I feared that lots of people would be there before me. Getting up in the middle of the night and going early turned out to be a good choice. I was too excited to sleep anyway!
Apparently, there had been issues — possibly even some violence — when people were waiting in line to place Z06 Corvette deposits at a dealership in NJ, and our unofficial list that I helped maintain for the next 17 hours was an attempt to keep anything like that from happening with us.
Other people started to slowly trickle in early that morning. Thirty-three minutes after I was added to the list, a guy who had been there earlier but left to buy a chair came back. He wasn't able to buy a chair at that time of night, but I lent him one of mine for the day when he asked if he could buy it from me. By 4:10am, it had started to snow again, and a gentleman pulled up in
an Accelerate Yellow C8. He was #5 on the list.
At 8:00am, there were ten people waiting, and the names were moved to a larger sheet of paper, which was added to throughout the day as more people showed up for their turn to place an ERay deposit. Ultimately, 97 people made it onto the unofficial list we kept outside, and a total of
about 120 checked in that night at the manager's desk to secure their number in line. Once it got light outside and warmed up a bit, most of the day was pretty relaxing.
News crews came in throughout the day to report on what the fuss was all about and to interview Corvette enthusiasts, but the line was still relatively short at that point because most of the ERay depositors didn't show up until after about 4:00pm.
MacMulkin Chevrolet did a great job organizing this event, and in the end there was even a red carpet, but ultimately it was still up to the people in line to keep things orderly and organized. Those of us who got there early and were in the front of the line all knew where we stood, but later in the day and that evening, as the line grew longer and people wondered about socializing, it was harder for people further back to know who was who and to keep their place in line.
Just before 7:00pm, when they were about to let us inside to have our paperwork verified by a manager, people had gotten out of line and surrounded the door. Also, there were people inside the building already. It felt to me like the numbered list we had created throughout the day was dangerously close to being worthless. There was a sense of chaos in the air, and if we were going to maintain our place in line, something needed to be done. Thankfully, I was able to appeal to a MacMulkin employee to help with the people who'd already gone inside, and after making an announcement to the "mob" crowding the entrance, I got things under a little more control... at least temporarily.
As of this writing, MacMulkin has an ERay deposit list of about 700 people. They are the largest-volume Corvette dealer in the world. Why do so many people buy their Corvettes from MacMulkin? The fact that they sell for MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) is one big reason. It's guaranteed. You know that's the way they do business, and you don't have to worry about it.
NOTE: Since the C8 Corvette was introduced, many dealers have charged tens of thousands of dollars ADM (Additional Dealer Markup), so buying one at MSRP is about the best you can do. Unfortunately, sometimes people have waited on lists at some other dealerships for months or years thinking they were buying at MSRP, and they were only hit with the ADM at the very end of the purchase process. That's just deceitful, dishonest, and scummy!
But it's more than just price. MacMulkin's communication is outstanding, and that's something I really appreciate. After putting a deposit down on a Corvette, you wait for an "allocation" from the factory, and when you get that it basically means it's your turn, and the good people at the Bowling Green Assembly Plant in Kentucky are ready to build your Corvette. As far as I know, MacMulkin is the only Corvette dealership that provides online tracking, so during the time you're waiting, you can watch the progress of your order. It's transparent and very helpful to be able to plan for when your car will get built so you can take delivery and start enjoying it!
There will be four more installments of the ERay Deposit Series here as soon as I can get them posted. Next up are "Red Carpet Day" (which was a big event) and "You Stole Those!" (about some disturbing things I learned later that happened outside after I was already gone).
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