The Registrar at Sloan -Longway Museum wrote me that my Vin # was invoiced twice and one of the codes was for GM Internal Exchange . May have been for Executive use". There is a charactor that always touts his car as. " Brass Hat " but Ive never seen any documentation or proof . I wonder if he got a similar Sloan report ? And what is the difference in this and. " zone office "? Regards, DL
DL, I have seen quite a few cars with multiple invoicing. Almost all that I have seen were instances where the cars were dropped off at a holding area, or a large dealership in the area, and then were driven/shipped to the smaller dealership that actually ordered them. In the Phila area, south of the city, we have a huge holding area where the trains deliver the cars. This drop-off area could very likely be considered the "Zone Office" for the Philadelphia zone, which I believe is Zone 03. Later they get loaded onto trucks and delivered to the dealerships. All the vehicles here would be double invoiced. Your "GM Internal Exchange" could fall into the above scenario. It would allow shipping to know the route needed to deliver the car, as well as making sure the dealership that ordered the car paid for it and not the drop off area. This type of thing is very common in the larger metro areas, and is basically due to logistics. Duane
Back in the day, all Zone Office field personnel that were 6th level and above were provided a company car every 3,000 miles (as well as all Home Office personnel 7th level and above). Most guys got rotated out of a car about once a month. After the car had the minimum mileage, the Zone Car Distributor would sell the car at a discount to a local dealer. These cars were called Brass Hats. This is what created the double invoice. Another way for a double invoice to appear is if a car was repurchased by the Zone and resold to another dealer. Not too common, but mainly happened when a dealer goes out of business, or if a dealer was shipped something he never ordered. Cars held in marshaling yards (like the Philly example) were not re-invoiced, they simply were awaiting road transport after they came off the rail cars. Additionally, cars are paid for by the dealers flooring line the moment the factory transmits a VIN to their financial institution the car is paid for before it actually rolls off the line.
There you go. It's great when people that worked for the car companies back in the day post info on the boards. This is what it's all about. Duane
Great info. Did you work for Buick and do you have any knowledge of the 1971 or 1972 GS Stage 1 convertibles that we refer to as Zone Office Cars? http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...tage-1-convertible-quot-Zone-Office-Cars-quot http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...y-25!&highlight=1972+stage+1+zone+office+cars
Jim, Thanks for your reply! that seems to coincide with what Heather at Sloan was telling me. :TU: Regards, DL
Sorry guys, but I didnt work for Buick. I applied to Oldsmobile and had I not been successful, I would not have gone to work for any other Division. I know that sounds strange today, but back before GM destroyed itself with endless reorganizations in the early 1990s, the car divisions were autonomous and each of the divisions had completely different cultures and operating philosophies. Our biggest competitor was Buick Alfred Sloan designed it that way. Back in the seventies and eighties we hated to sit in the same meeting room with personnel from sister divisions, especially Buick. Zone field personnel were a very close-knit family and there was no interaction either on or off the job with outsiders. It would take a book, or maybe more than one to explain how the inner workings of the domestic car industry operated, but sufficed to say that the car industry is the most complex business organism on the planet. What most people know, or think they know has been carefully crafted by divisional sales, marketing, and advertising efforts, and is usually based on half-truths at best and pure fantasy at worst. They are masters of crafting stories and legends that the car consuming public love. The thing most people dont understand is that the auto manufacturers have only one customer their dealers. Cars, especially limited production models were never designed with the consumer in mind. Their sole purpose was to create a special opportunity to stuff more product onto dealer lots that were already overflowing. Special editions were never even discussed when vehicles were in short supply. Back then there was no such thing as flexible manufacturing cars came off the line at a certain rate and it was each Zone Offices job to get them placed whatever it took. Whatever it took meant there was no such thing as telling your boss you couldnt cover your car allocation this week, or it would be your last week. The biggest sin was when cars are stacked up in marshaling yards that are unassigned. I cant speak to the 71-72 converts, but based on all the special allocations Ive been involved with over the years, here are some things that are most likely true. When something new hits the field, home office distribution sends one to each Zone to get the dealers excited and generate orders. They are always equipped the same loaded. They are normally in the color that will be the feature color on the brochures and advertising efforts (what the factory thinks is the best combo), and because home office personnel want to place 25 identical units in the system rather than sit there for three hours fooling with who knows how many combinations. Remember, computer systems were very limited back then and ordering was done on a punch-card machine (not fun). The other way 25 to 100 identical vehicles come about is for a special event. Usually a golf tournament, major car show, or any other event that you can find to stuff another 100 units into dealer inventory when its over. The difference in these cars is that they all invoiced to the Zone where the event occurred. We also created special editions for dealer marketing group advertising these were invoiced directly to the dealers and usually involved 2500 cars spread over 200-300 dealers in a specific Zone. The majority of work on those cars was the design of the logos (all cars were always equipped the same) and coming up with a name that wasnt abused to death like California Special, or PGA Limited Edition. There were thousands of GM brass hats, or as they are known in the home offices, program cars generated each and every month. Remember, depending on the size of the car division, each would have between 15 and 45 Zone offices, reporting to between 4 and 8 or ten regional offices. Almost all the field staff with the exception of clerical support were assigned company cars add that to the 20 or so cars every division kept at every major airport, and the massive number of cars on loan to rental car executives, actors appearing as spokespersons, and other support activities and you will see that a double invoiced car usually means nothing. A former brass hat is not worth a premium, so dont get sucked in by the nonsense. The real crux of the car business is numbers. The product is just how you get there. How the actual product goes from inception to execution is a very long road indeed and the subject of a very, very long story, but once it arrives on the divisions doorstep sales and marketing have to sometimes be very inventive in making them disappear. If you have any interest in how car companies operate today, the best source of information is http://www.autoextremist.com/ - the site is usually updated every Tuesday or Wednesday, and its fairly accurate.
Thank You for taking the time to educate us. We always hear the stories of "mystique" about promo cars, etc. and they get better with age. Nice to hear the facts of what goes on behind the curtain.
Same protocol still exists today with former GM exec cars accruing mileage and then factory employees buying them at discounted rates depending on mileage of the vehicle as they pull it out of executive duty. Cool read.
On my 70 Stage1 Conv the ordering dealer, and the delivery dealer are different. I had been told that this was usually due to it being a "brass hat" car. Who knows what the reality is.
The reality is that the car was most likely a 'Dealer Trade' - Brass hats have a home or zone office code as the ordering dealer. Even if it was repurchased from a dealer by the zone, a new invoice would have shown the zone as the ordering dealer and the original ordering dealer info would have been dropped. What can get confusing is that zone offices don't receive cars, they are sent to a 'ship to' dealer where they are prepped and picked-up as needed adding a little more confusion to the mix. :laugh:
Should have a ship-to dealer that handled the delivery to one of the daily rental companies, or to a corporate fleet/leasing company like PH&H. All vehicle sales, including employees and fleet accounts are always delivered by a dealer - the factory's ONLY customer is a franchised dealer.
