I just got off the phone with the sales manager at my local dealer and he told me that if I ordered a Z06 now that I wouldn't get the car for at least 5 years. Does this sound accurate?
Short answer: maybe.
Long answer so you can better understand where your dealer may be coming from:
I was at the annual Corvette convention (aka: the "Bash") at the end of April in Bowling Green, Kentucky so about a month ago. The word from Josh Holden, who some consider to be #2 engineer in the C8 program behind Tadge Juechter, and other GM C8 people at the Bash (such as Harlan Charles from marketing) is that the 2023 Z06 will be available "sometime in the summer of 2022". That's thought to be when retail production will begin, with the first Z06's off the assembly line and slated for delivery not too long after that. They also told us pricing would be released before anyone put an order in. So with summer officially ending September 22/22...if the car is started on the assembly line (say) in mid-September at the latest, I'd hope orders for the Z06 would be possible by mid-July at the latest. Hopefully sooner than that, of course. This you'll appreciate is speculation and we'll all know in the upcoming next few months. We do know that Bowling Green just started making 2023 Stingrays on May 16/22 and GM has decided to produce those first, before making any 2023 Z06's. Watch for the Z06 price release, since this should be a clue we're moving closer to when orders can be placed and the car produced.
So if we start seeing the cars delivered to US customers by early October this year, at the latest, it usually takes longer to see any in Canada. Then we have the issue of the number of C8 allocations a Canadian dealer gets. Larger dealerships get more. I have no idea who your dealer in Ottawa is and more importantly what it gets for allocations. It's expected that of the total C8 Stingray allocations a dealer usually gets, for the 2023's about 25% to 33% of those allocations will be earmarked for the C8 Z06. So for example, if a dealer received 40 allocations of C8 Stingrays for the 2021 and 2022 model years...it might expect around 40 again for the 2023's. Then of those 40, perhaps 10 to 13 of them will be Z06's...leaving the remaining 30 to 27 as Stingrays. If your dealer gets less than 40, it'll get less Z06's. Those percentages are speculation but widely believed, at this point.
So as to your dealer comment that you'll not see a Z06 for 5 years from his dealership:
-we need to know when Canadian orders can be placed and when Canadian dealers will start seeing delivery of the Z06
-then it depends on how many Z06 allocations your particular dealer will likely get
-then it depends on where you are on your dealer's Z06 list
-then it depends on whether your dealer honours that list...by (a) not taking any of its allocations for itself, and (b) moving you up on the list, if someone drops out ahead of you (ie. the dealership doesn't take the allocation for itself under those circumstances) and (c) the dealer doesn't earmark any Z06 allocations for friends or family or "really good customers".
So there are many factors at play. I'm #5 on a Z06 list with a dealer who gets around 40 C8 allocations/year. So I expect to be driving a Z06 by the end of this year (earliest) or Spring 2023 (latest) which may be wrong but I hope I'm right. I doubt I'll be waiting 5 years.
The best advice I can give you, as always for any version of the C8, is to
get on multiple lists to increase your chances of seeing one sooner. If you remain on one list only with a dealer that gets very few Z06 allocations, yes you can expect to wait many years. But call around and ask different dealers about their C8 Stingray allocations for 2021 and 2022 and where you'd be on their Z06 list. Your effort to get on a list(s) with a dealership(s) who has a better chance of providing you with a Z06 sooner, will pay off down the road. Pick a dealer who is transparent and provides that info and has a good reputation in the Corvette community, such as the 2 Ontario dealers who are sponsors on these Forums. That way you know you're being treated right and you'll be able to track your progress on a Z06 list. Hope this helps you out. Good luck!
PS: keep in mind that the C8 E-Ray will be released at some point, followed by the ZR1 then the Zora. Those new versions may further "dilute" the number of Z06's a dealer gets, just like the Z06 production/allocations will reduce the number of Stingrays a dealer will get. So it's best not to "sit on your hands" and wait for more years to go by and more C8 versions to be released, before getting on a Z06 list(s). Even if you're further down on a Z06 list, get on a list(s) now... OR if the E-Ray interests you, get on not only a Z06 list(s) but also an E-Ray list if your dealer has created that list. I'm now on 2 lists for the Z06 and one list for the E-Ray. Once I get a Z06 allocation, I'll drop off the list with my second dealer...which will happen many times elsewhere so you'll see a fair bit of movement on lists for that reason or many other reasons, which suggests you should not be overly discouraged when you're far down on a list.
