DaveFerrari458

Love to see what Tadge's response would be!

What are your thoughts of thousands of Corvette's (including Z06's) sitting on lots across the country? I went to a rather smaller dealership and they had about 15 Stingrays and 6 Z06's in stock. That's nothing......I see East Coast dealers with over 50 Corvette's in stock. Do you think any other Manufacturer would allow their dealer network to hoard their HALO car like this? Just like to see where GM's philosophy is on this? I personally don't think it's good for any Halo Brand (car or any other item) such as the Corvette.

Thanks in advance!

RC000E

Actually an interesting question. I think though Corvette is a HALO for GM, it really doesn't function as a HALO entirely. This thing is a money maker for GM. I'd vote for this though...it'd give Tadge and company a nice break from coolant temps and magazine articles...lol.

DaveFerrari458

I'd vote for that too! Just want to see if they considered putting a tighter leash on dealer orders?

LT1 Z51

GM sells more Corvettes (or has the last 2 years) than they have CTSs or ATSs. Right now it's a volume car. And GM isn't in the business of exclusivity for exclusivity sake. This is why Cadillac and Corvette struggle to find acceptance as luxury goods by certain types on the coasts.

JDMUSCLE

Agreed... Enough with the cooling questions. Give the man a break. I'd like this sneered as well.

Telepierre

Throughout the years I have watched Tadge state few times in different occasions that Corvette is no longer a "Halo Car...it is a money making car"...

m3incorp

I'm pretty sure that GM is in it to make money. Eventually everyone of those cars on the lots will be sold. If it was indeed kept to a small number then there would "never" be any discounts....and let's face it, there are many, many people that will not buy a car that isn't discounted and this would lead to GM actually making less money. I don't think GM refers to the Corvettes as their halo car.

DaveFerrari458

Believe me the Corvette is not only GM's Halo car but America's Halo car as well! When I talk to many that own other high-line brands the only GM car (or American car) they might give props to and actually wouldn't say they'd wouldn't be caught dead is the Corvette! Unfortunately some say this about the Corvette as well for other reasons! Anyways, I for one have zero interest in anything else GM offers with the slight (I mean very slight) exception to the Escallade and maybe the new CTS-V.

The Corvette would sell plenty of units whether there are large discounts or not. They might sell a few hundred/thousand less if they weren't discounted so much, but they might gain some more customers on the other side who perception of availability becomes less. I mean the car goes from selling at sticker-over sticker in many regions of the country to deep discounts and thousands available almost overnight. This can't be too good for the brand.

There are arguments to both sides I'm sure but Like to hear what Tadge's (and GM marketing) thinking is on this. Are they aware of how dealers hoard the car? Do they have the philosophy of building one less than demand or keep their current five more for every demand? Or Somewhere in between? How would Range Rover's philosophy work if they adopted it?

Marketing that leads to higher brand perception is priceless. I wonder how GM looks at this in regards to their Halo car?

m3incorp

Now you just have to convince GM leadership . If I was Tadge, I know what I would say to this question. I have a feeling you wouldn't like what it would be . Sounds like you want the car to cost more, so you can feel you're driving something exclusive. I could be wrong in my interpretation of what you wrote above.

DaveFerrari458

The point is that any high-end brand that goes from the hottest thing in its industry to getting over-stocked and selling at deep discounted levels in such a short time means there is something wrong with inventory control. That product can be perceived or categorized as distressed. It may be okay for this to happen to a Camry but not sure if it's good for a Halo car such as the Corvette.

Just thought to hear what GM and Tadge feel about this. He will probably give a PC correct answer that will appease everyone or he might come out and say they are aware of excess production and looking into Dealers that over-stock the car or he might say we will feed the dealers as many cars as they want without worrying about the consequences?? Either way, would love to hear his take!

Telepierre

HALO non HALO can easily become a semantic game and there is an angle to everything. I simply paraphrased what the Corvette Chief engineer said about it: NON HALO.
It could be both a statement of goal and in corvette's case actual realization.

There was a day in the long past where GM reigned so supreme it could fork out cars left and right and call 'selected losers" HALO cars. Obviously this is no longer the case.

For further exploration on the subject see Viper (RIP 2017).

GM/Chevrolet understands cycles and economic waves and they are going to stuff as much product in that window as they can and in this context IMHO there is no such thing as overproduction.

Cheers.

DaveFerrari458

I'm not sure how this section works.....guess we're not going to get Tadge's take on this?

rrm

I guess I don't know what "halo" means....what is the definition of a car company's halo car?
Is the 911tt Porsche's halo or the entire 911 line?
Is the s600 M.B. Halo?
Is the CTS-V cadi's halo? and so on...is the definition a car that represents the company's best achievement in quality and design?
I'm really not sure.
However I do know there is a finite market for a 100k 2-seat sports car. I don't know what the average zo6 sells for but I would bet it is around the 95k level and when you add ttl you're well over 100k. In my opinion selling 500 a month of these cars leaves little room for their competitors to grab the market. If Porsche were to drop the price of their absurdly priced 911tt to the price of the zo6 what would happen to their market share?rrm