ratman6161

No, I don't "lug around 200 lbs of stuff everyday". But once every year or two my wife and I do take a week to two week road trip in the Corvette. Spring, summer, and fall, we often take shorter weekend road trips. In all of these cases we take luggage for two people. If luggage for two people didn't fit we would be driving:

1. The 2011 Subaru Imprezza wagon or
2. the 2013 Nissan Frontier Pickup truck (which I need to support my power sports addiction so this is the vehical of choice in snowmobile season).

If I had to take either of those on a summer trip, I probably wouldn't go as driving the Corvette is at least half he purpose of the trip.

patentcad

Mid-engine configuration makes it easier to build a balanced race/sportscar and a more AERO sports car, something the C7 lacks. But how much that matters to the typical Corvette customer is another question. Not for nothing, but if I can buy a car that is in the top 50 in terms of performance of all the car models in the world, including all the Ferraris, Lambos, etc. - that's good enough for me.

I think a front engine rear drive - or better AWD - car @ a base price of say $60K, and then a higher zoot mid-engined car to replace the Z06 - and in racing the C7R - say with a base price of $80K-$90K - is a good route for GM to go. I really do think all the variants should be AWD.

Maxie2U

$59,999.00 not only is that unrealistic, it's absurd.

patentcad

That's 10% above today's base price, how is that unrealistic? If I were GM that's what I'd be shooting for. Unless they want to sell 20K Corvettes annually, because 30-40K is just too many, that's possible. All that excess revenue has to drive the accountants crazy.

patentcad

Also consider a $5k bump in the base price is pretty much in keeping with how much GM increased it from the 2013 to 2014 model year. And that the average MSRP of Corvettes sold has to be $8K or more above the base, say currently $63k-$64K or more (my car stickered @ nearly $71K), add $5K to that and you're pushing a very healthy volume of very pricey (near $70K MSRP) and very profitable vehicles for GM. What makes that unrealistic? Because I think they should add AWD? They'll figure it out, they are smart and innovative engineers and marketers. They have a lot of headroom in this car's pricing, they can make a car like I described and keep it within reach. Hell, they've been doing that with Corvettes for 65 years now. I'm sure that even with the higher cost of R&D spread over fewer units and all the pricey tech/materials/parts in a Corvette, GM is making WAY more profit per unit on each C7 vs. each Malibu or Cruz.

b4i4getit

Corvette is a very high profit car. If you knew exactly how much profit your dealer made on your Z06 you would negotiate a lot better.

patentcad

High profit for GM, if you read my post I thought that was pretty clear. I never addressed profitability @ the retail level, that's a completely different story. Dealers only make healthy profits on pricey cars when they're newer and hotter than C7s are at the moment. I have zero illusions about car business profitability, I worked in the industry for nearly 10 years.

Dealer margins on individual models aside, GM is making money hand over fist @ the moment. Look at their stock. Cars like higher margin (than say a $23K Malibu) SUVs, trucks and Corvettes help : ).