Too many times we hear about when bad things happening at a dealership, so it’s great to also share a “good news” story of a dealer going above and beyond to make a special Christmas delivery for a young man suffering with brain cancer.
22 year old Dalton had been training for a career in aviation and was working towards his commercial pilot certifications, when one day he failed to show up for the flight, and he was found unresponsive and suffering from a brain hemorrhage. He was taken to the hospital and rushed into surgery to stop the bleeding, and that’s when the tumor in his head was discovered.
Dalton’s flying days were over, and he was scheduled for surgery and chemo when his step-dad David began calling Chevrolet dealers looking for a Z06 allocation for Dalton. That quest eventually let him to Gary Nelson at Hendrick Chevrolet Birmingham.
After explaining the situation's urgency in trying to locate a Z06 for Dalton, Gary said he could totally relate to the situation. Not only was Gary a former AH1 Cobra combat pilot and a retired Boeing 747 pilot, but he had also experienced the loss of his granddaughter who passed away a few years previously from brain cancer. Gary told David he had two Z06 allocations coming up and one of those would go to Dalton.
Dalton spec’d out his dream Z06 build and then underwent brain surgery. The car was configured as a Z06 Coupe 3LZ in Competition Yellow with Z07, visible carbon fiber wheels, carbon fiber roof, level 2 carbon fiber interior, and several other options that brought the MSRP to almost $184,000.
Of course, the worry about this order was whether or not the constraints would allow it to be built. Gary got the news that it was clear and the order was submitted with the car being completed on December 10th.
While it was great news to have the car completed, the problem now was that the plant was scheduled to close on Friday, December 13th for the three week holiday break. Unless Gary could get that car out of Bowling Green in the next couple of days, it would be stuck there until January. Here is Gary telling us how he did it:
“So when we first talked, he stated he would really like to receive the car before the end of the year. I told him with the way things were going I thought we would see it before Christmas. The car was produced on December the 10th but the plant was closing at the end of the shift on Friday, December the 13th! Normally, when a car is produced, it immediately moves to status 4150-invoiced. However, the next day Dalton’s Z06 was still at 3800-produced. I knew if I didn’t get it out of the plant by Friday that we would not see it until after the first of the year. The dispatcher at Jack Cooper Transport and I have become friends over the years, so I called him and told him my urgency in getting this car. He looked up the VIN and told me that it has not been released to them and he can’t do anything until it does. He did tell me if I can get it released, he would make sure I got the car before Christmas. I made a couple more calls to contacts at the plant and informed them of my situation to see if they could help. Later that day the car moved to 4150, I called Jack Cooper, he looked it up and said it has been released and he would get it on a load coming my way. This was on Thursday December the 12th. I received the car the next Tuesday 12/17, but we had a lot to do to the car other than the regular PDI! He had ordered an exhaust system delivered to me we had to install plus several other items. So I set a date for Monday, December the 23rd for delivery.”
With the delivery date of the Corvette Z06 now sorted out, Gary approached his general Manager Nicole Moley and the Hendrick Chevrolet staff who made the delivery a “red carpet” event for Dalton.
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