The turbocharged LTZ went back on constraint at the end of November and even now is on partial constraint, which is why Brian and possibly Picante were bouncing back and forth with status changes. I've seen it happen many times on other Chevy cars, usually due to supplier issues. These ones are for engineering validation issues, which puzzles me this late in the production cycle.
It seems unusual that a dealer would cancel an order when there are so many cycles left for the order to go through, unless they had used their allocations for turbo LTZ's.
Allocation: at the start of a model year each dealer is told how many of each vehicle line they can expect (say 50 turbo LTZ Sonics) and each month how many of that number and each week a specific number. But for retail customer orders they can use an allocation ahead but trade off is one less of another.
If this sounds complicated, the process is even more complicated. It is the result of state laws and federal court decisions enforcing those laws.
Someday the process may improve. There is more transparency due to the internet, so I believe it possible. The court decisions are referenced resulted from trickery playing the system for the advantage of few at the expense of the many, including allegations of bribery and retaliation.
The result is a system intended to insure fairness but very difficult to understand. But it is what we got, and so it is what we work with.
I would apologize for the rant, but I feel the industry deserves it and retail customers have a right to know that there are issues beyond design and manufacturing that impact their choices.
Laborsmith
