Chapman Buying/Delivery Experience - Live Thread

[JBTRXNJ]

I really liked the thread on Koons, and figured I’d offer up my experience with Chapman in a similar fashion.

Background: Initially ordered at a dealer in Jersey for MSRP in April of 2022, before I knew better (thanks to this forum). I canceled that order and submitted an order through Chapman at 3% below invoice (not price protected) my Chapman order was submitted in the first week of May after the late April price increase.

At the time of ordering, the deal represented $9,000 below the MSRP of my April order, and $11,000 below the MSRP of my Chapman order.

Build finally began in late September, and was completed in the first week of October, right after the late September price increase. (This was the first price increase since my order went in, so kinda hurt, as I nearly made it without an increase. With that said, my final price was only impacted by about $1500. Total savings of MSRP at the time of order was $9,500 and about $10,750 off of sticker. (Note pricing changes are not consistent for invoice and MSRP, although both were impacted)

There’s a lot there but just wanted to give folks a flavor for how it all played out. With that said, the folks that are just rolling off the line since the latest increase will have experienced a greater deterioration in their savings.

For me, the $1500 deterioration is well worth it due to the proximity of Chapman, (40 miles west of me in PA). I don’t have to pay for flights, shipping, a 1000 mile drive home, hotel stays, etc.

In the end, my truck will cost about the same if I had gone with granger, or I would have saved $700 if I had gone to Koons. Dan Cummins is the same situation as Granger and Mark Dodge wasn’t offering the $11k price protect deal at that time, but if they had, it would have actually cost me more based on the drive home and relative inconvenient travel to that part of Louisiana, despite the deeper discount.

 

[JBTRXNJ]

Delivery experience: My TRX finally landed at Chapman late afternoon on Wednesday. Up to this point, I had been communicating with the factory order team.

I should point out, for any new folks, that most of these dealerships doing high volume factory ordering, prefer to communicate via email. So if you prefer to speak live, it can at times be frustrating. That said, Chapman responded to 99% of my emails within an hour or two max. They were happy to give me updates whenever I asked, and always included a screen shot from their system.

As soon as my sticker was available, I was able to arrange for my power steps, which were priced a tad high at $2,400 installed, but as a dealer installed accessory, it’s added to my sticker, and fully covered under warranty, so it comes down to peace of mind at that point. I should point out that the pricing is consistent with Koons, as well as some of my local dealers.

As soon as my TRX arrived, I was transitioned to John Brown, my salesman, and the delivery team. John was my salesman when we took delivery on my wife’s JL back in August, and has been equally pleasant to work with as he was over the summer.

I was hoping to take delivery Saturday, but unfortunately, Chapman had “run out” of temporary tags on Thursday as I was trying to finalize my financing. Because today is Veterans Day, government offices were closed, and they will be getting tags in on Monday. This is a minor annoyance to me, but not something I’m losing sleep over.

My plan is to place a good sized down payment and finance the rest through Affinity Federal Credit Union. When asked by Mr Brown about how I would be financing the transaction, his reaction to my using AFCU, was that it was likely the best course. He explained that lease options were terrible, and I shouldn’t consider them at all, that an 84 month Finance would likely have a lower payment than even a low mileage lease, (Without running the numbers). He also was honest in saying that he probably couldn’t touch the AFCU rate. His statement to me was don’t run an additional credit check unless something fell through with AFCU.

I have to say, these conversations about financing, give me hope for humanity.

Honest and straightforward. They are living up to the deal that was struck. I didn’t sign a contract or leave a deposit. Just an honest dealership, that lived up to their agreement (yes it was in writing, but again not a formal contract) No hard sell on financing, no back door fees.

As it turns out, because of the holiday, AFCU was closed today, and I wouldn’t have had my check in hand for delivery tomorrow anyway. So that lessens the annoyance of the dealership not being prepared for a delivery on Saturday.

Steps are being installed tomorrow/Saturday, and will be on and ready for delivery when I take it early next week.

(More to come when I finalize in a few days)

 

[rugbym8t]

This is great! I started the Koons thread, so I am glad others are doing it for other dealers. Will help those in the future.

Sounds like Chapman is pretty stand up!

One question, I thought all orders were price protected? Is that not the case? When I placed my order with Koons, I signed a sheet stating my price and then as the price increases happened my price stayed the same. The MSRP on my truck continued to rise while I waited but my price stayed the same. When I ordered my MSRP was 96,480 and it increased to 99,340 by delivery (now $102,690), but my purchase price stayed 86,480.

 

[Corso923]

This is great! I started the Koons thread, so I am glad others are doing it for other dealers. Will help those in the future.

Sounds like Chapman is pretty stand up!

One question, I thought all orders were price protected? Is that not the case? When I placed my order with Koons, I signed a sheet stating my price and then as the price increases happened my price stayed the same. The MSRP on my truck continued to rise while I waited but my price stayed the same. When I ordered my MSRP was 96,480 and it increased to 99,340 by delivery (now $102,690), but my purchase price stayed 86,480.

No, it’s a dealership decision to price protect or not. Chapman was price protecting at one point and made several changes since then. A lot of the other forum dealers do price protect, but like the OP said there are other factors to determine if it’s worth while for you financially like location and cost to accept your truck by either shipping or pickup and what your time is worth.

 

[Corso923]

Congrats on almost getting to the finish line @JBTRXNJ

 

[JBTRXNJ]

No, it’s a dealership decision to price protect or not. Chapman was price protecting at one point and made several changes since then. A lot of the other forum dealers do price protect, but like the OP said there are other factors to determine if it’s worth while for you financially like location and cost to accept your truck by either shipping or pickup and what your time is worth.

Yep… TBH was a bit of a gamble, which is why I tried to spell out the financial reality of it here.

The “acquisition cost” is something you need to factor in to the equation, as well as value of your time.

 

[JBTRXNJ]

Trade Experience: This piece is more of a cautionary tale than anything else, as it has little impact on my actual deal.

I am trading my wife’s 2019 Mazda CX-9. KBB trade value is $25,500. Residual from the lease it was coming off of was $22,500 Chapman offered $22,000, and my initial reaction was to be annoyed. Mr Brown explained that the CARFAX history showed an accident and that he had to discount his offer based on this.

The vehicle has never been in an accident! Long story short, Brown agreed to bring his offer up to ensure no negative equity on the trade. I called many of the online outfits and got similar quotes.

Which leads me to the CARFAX side of this story. How did this happen? I contacted my insurance company, my daughter had been involved in a minor fender bender around the time stated in the vehicle history report, I wondered if somehow they reported it on the wrong VIN… but that couldn’t have been the case, as the dates were all wrong.

CARFAX has no posted phone number, and despite some digging I was not able to speak to a live person there. I filled out their online dispute form and am left to wait for them to respond. This is akin to filing a dispute with Equifax or Experian…

I don’t expect that this will be resolved prior to my delivery, if at all, however I will update on how this works out.

Something everyone may want to be aware of as a possibility that you could face.

 

[Joey D]

congrats. Similar experience with Chapman. No complaints on my end with truck. We will see how koons goes with wifes 392 wrangler if it ever gets out of final inspect (been there since sept 29)

 

[Chirp08]

I should be heading there this week for mine if all goes to plan, good to hear about the experience and the trade. If they can hit within that close to the KBB value of my Cummins (which I bought from them) I'll be ecstatic.

 

[JBTRXNJ]

Quick Update: As mentioned before, no financing shenanigans from Chapman. I’m financing through Affinity Federal Credit Union.

Reasonable Down Payment, $80k financed, 84 Months, 5.77%, $500 gap coverage, and $2500 8 year 120k mile warranty that matches the terms of MaxCare.

All paperwork signed electronically, and I will pick up the check on my way to the dealership.

I’m not usually an extended warranty guy, but at half the price of the factory extended warranty… I’m in.

Added the truck to my insurance today as well (Plymouth Rock)… Premium increase of $100 per year by adding the TRX and removing the 2019 Mazda CX-9.

Got a note from CarFax… they “are looking into my dispute” whatever that means. So the only sour note on this experience so far is the mysterious collision that never happened back in 2020.

 

[ChemLab]

What did they end up giving you for the Mazda? Close to KBB?

 

[JBTRXNJ]

They would have given me KBB but because there was an accident on the carfax… (that never happened) they came under KBB. They agreed that if I could get CarFax to remove it before I take delivery, they will give me the KBB price.

(I’m not holding out hope)

 

[ChemLab]

Got it. Thanks and I hope you get full value!

 

[Joey D]

Quick Update: As mentioned before, no financing shenanigans from Chapman. I’m financing through Affinity Federal Credit Union.

Reasonable Down Payment, $80k financed, 84 Months, 5.77%, $500 gap coverage, and $2500 8 year 120k mile warranty that matches the terms of MaxCare.

All paperwork signed electronically, and I will pick up the check on my way to the dealership.

I’m not usually an extended warranty guy, but at half the price of the factory extended warranty… I’m in.

Added the truck to my insurance today as well (Plymouth Rock)… Premium increase of $100 per year by adding the TRX and removing the 2019 Mazda CX-9.

Got a note from CarFax… they “are looking into my dispute” whatever that means. So the only sour note on this experience so far is the mysterious collision that never happened back in 2020.

Which afcu you gona be at? Msg me

 

[JBTRXNJ]

Delivery Day: Woke up and kicked the day off by running to the bank to grab a cashiers check for my down payment, and then spent the day powering through zoom meetings before I could head out to Chapman.

Grabbed two of my four sons (the two that were as excited as I was) and hit the road….

Planned my trip to stop at the credit union to grab the loan check. This literally took 2 minutes, just long enough for them to check my ID and send me on my way.

Arrived at the dealership, as the truck drove up… I have to be honest, it took everything in me to play it cool… but I was like a little kid inside.

John Brown checked the odometer and took the plates off my trade, and turned me over to my delivery agent Chris. Chris might have been as excited about me getting this truck as I was. He went over it with me, I did a careful inspection, but have to say it was pristine. The only thing I could find was a minor scuff mark on the floor mat that must have been left by the service tech that drove it over.

My older son sat depressed knowing that he won’t be getting behind the wheel of it any time soon. My younger son was enthralled by the power steps… and opened and closed the door what must have been a dozen times

I had a minor wait, 30 minutes while three people were in front of me for the finance office. Filled that time by enrolling in the App, triple checking that I didn’t leave anything in my trade, and watching my 7 year old pretend to drive a Hellcat RedEye.

Once it was my turn, I was in and out signing paperwork in less than ten minutes. Everything was as agreed, they offered me protection plans, I let him go through his pitch, and politely declined. No pressure. Finished signing, and saddled Up. In and out in under an hour.

The guys from Chapman were amazing, again (second vehicle I’ve taken delivery from them this year).

 

[Phillytrx]

In your ram app there’s a coupon section for mopar accessories that would’ve saved you $400 on your power steps.
Oh and congrats on finally getting your truck. Agree Chapman is an great dealership.

 

[JBTRXNJ]

In your ram app there’s a coupon section for mopar accessories that would’ve saved you $400 on your power steps.
Oh and congrats on finally getting your truck. Agree Chapman is a great dealership.

I used the coupon… forgot to mention that.

 

[313TRX]

Pick up day at Chapman auto on June 1st. There was 25 TRXs there and I was the 4th or 5th that day that got delivered. Congrats on the new truck.