Why so few 1997's?
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Late start in production - not a full year. Many delays were due to QA problems with 3rd party vendors. Get a copy of "All Corvettes Are Red" for a good read on the development of the C5.
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I believe it was because of a shortened production year for the '97s.
Burning Brakes
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If I remember correctly, they didn't start selling them until almost half of 1997 was gone. I saw a dealer asking $10,000 over MSRP for one sitting in the showroom. I think they were able to get that for them for awhile.
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Let's see,
1) shortened production run
2) ALL NEW car.
Think 9800 was pretty good. Maybe that few is a good thing. I've had a few Vettes and the one thing you REALLY don't want is the 1st year or 2 of a new model run. The mid-model run is the best generally, most of the bugs have been fixed and a few upgrades have come down the pike.
1) shortened production run
2) ALL NEW car.
Think 9800 was pretty good. Maybe that few is a good thing. I've had a few Vettes and the one thing you REALLY don't want is the 1st year or 2 of a new model run. The mid-model run is the best generally, most of the bugs have been fixed and a few upgrades have come down the pike.
Safety Car
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According to the Corvette Black Book, there were 9,752 C5's produced in '97. I have #502
Don't know why I keep hearing "shortened production year". They started producing them in Dec. '96 (or sooner). I have the window sticker/built sheet for my car so I know mine was made in Dec. '96 and delivered to a dealership in Florida in January '97.
I'm guessing they had production/quality problems along the way.
Let's wait and see what Evil-Twin has to say.
Note: You can pick up a used copy of All Corvettes Are Red right now on Amazon.com for under $5.
Don't know why I keep hearing "shortened production year". They started producing them in Dec. '96 (or sooner). I have the window sticker/built sheet for my car so I know mine was made in Dec. '96 and delivered to a dealership in Florida in January '97.
I'm guessing they had production/quality problems along the way.
Let's wait and see what Evil-Twin has to say.
Note: You can pick up a used copy of All Corvettes Are Red right now on Amazon.com for under $5.
Last edited by WetteVette; Jan 28, 2008 at 05:49 PM.
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For a full 97 model year, cars would have been produced from July '96, to June '97. In July '97, they'd be rollling out the '98s.
Since they didn't start producing until December '96, the model year was effectively shortened by 5 months.
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Black book says 9,752 base corvette sport coupe. They also did not make any convertibles in "'97. In '98 production was back up to 31,084 with over 19K coupes and almost 12K verts.
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From: Manhattan, KS Missing SoCal since 2005
Don't know why I keep hearing "shortened production year". They started producing them in Dec. '96 (or sooner). I have the window sticker/built sheet for my car so I know mine was made in Dec. '96 and delivered to a dealership in Florida in January '97.
Note: You can pick up a used copy of All Corvettes Are Red right now on Amazon.com for under $5.
Note: You can pick up a used copy of All Corvettes Are Red right now on Amazon.com for under $5.
As I recall (from the book), in addition to problems with third-party suppliers prior to production-start, there were also problems found afterwards, which caused a number of cars to be held at BG until corrected replacement partss could be obtained. There was a quote in ACAR from one of the GM execs to the effect that "You can ship a car late, and they'll forgive you; you can ship them a bad car, and they'll never forget."
Melting Slicks
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Let's see,
1) shortened production run
2) ALL NEW car.
Think 9800 was pretty good. Maybe that few is a good thing. I've had a few Vettes and the one thing you REALLY don't want is the 1st year or 2 of a new model run. The mid-model run is the best generally, most of the bugs have been fixed and a few upgrades have come down the pike.
1) shortened production run
2) ALL NEW car.
Think 9800 was pretty good. Maybe that few is a good thing. I've had a few Vettes and the one thing you REALLY don't want is the 1st year or 2 of a new model run. The mid-model run is the best generally, most of the bugs have been fixed and a few upgrades have come down the pike.
