Great to see page 1 of that bulletin with a Tempest (GTO) subtitled section. Just like page 2 has the Fbird subtitle section. Thanks for posting that up Cammer.
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Originally Posted by brians
Maybe that was an internal price change for Pontiac, but why is the earliest known notice to the dealers dated 5/7/68. If there was an earlier notice, why issue it again? Again, what if you ordered your car 5/6/68. What were you charged? Don’t think the dealer would eat the price difference. A $100 was a deceit chuck in 1968.
Brian
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It (pre-faced order) probably would have to go through Zone before the dealer could actually concrete a price for a customer during the first part of the Ram1/Ram2 transition period. At least if a smart well oiled sales manager was in place. I bet it did cause a few heated sales meetings at some dealers if they didn't pay close attention to those bulletins. $100 car money then, would be over $1000 car money now.
"If" I'm thinking right, the Zone office used a checks and balances type proceedure of their own (in tune with the actual plants and head office) before approving/submitting orders to a plant. They were to have contacted the dealer if a conflict in availability, option combinations, or pricing arose. If the mail took an extra day or two, a Ram1 priced order could have been sent back/declined.
But an overzealous salesman/mgr could easily put a foot in their own azz if they went too far on a sales contract in this time frame like you're saying. During normal business hours, probably just a phone call to Zone would have told them what price and what engine. If the dealer was in tune with all the bulletins.
Too bad we don't have a specific bulletin for Ram1 like the one for Ram2 that says no orders accepted by this Zone office after such-and-such date. Either the April 29 or the May 7 is going to be the most comprable document for Ram1.
Who wants to be the official dart thrower ? Not me.
I'm just going to be satisfied when actual BUILD DATE by cowl tag, production change gets narrowed down by documented examples.
P.S. Not exactly same situation but - the original owner of my 73 SD TA, put up $500 deposit on a 73 SD GTO order. Order was later returned by Zone. Dealer offered: #1 Refund - #2 put the $500 towards a non-SD GTO order - #3 SD TA or SD Formula order. He almost walked with his money, but settled on ordering a SD TA.
If they had sent/built him a non SD GTO - the dealer would have owned that Car. Pontiac family, his Dad had ordered a 63 SD Cat new.
Just using that to show how a dealer could get in a bind making their own judgement call on a paying customers behalf.