Corvette selling with a Ford nameplate
04-08-2005, 08:16 AM
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Corvette selling with a Ford nameplate
I know it sounds wierd.......but I kind of liked what I saw!!!!
It looks like it could work really well and is what many of the posts on this forum sound like they would like in the States. I saw an ad in the paper today that a Jaguar dealer is now carrying the Corvette here in Mannheim Germany. Couldn't resist checkingit out as it is only 5 miles or so from where I live and would like close service instead of driving 60 miles to Frankfurt.
The show room was extremely nice and nothing like most Ford or GM lines do in the States. But then I looked at what all was being sold there. The 2 C6s and 1 C5 Corvettes they had on the floor were in pretty good company. The other lines carried on the show room floor were Jaguar, Maserati, Aston Marton, Land Rover, Cadilac, and Hummer. I may have forgot a few though.
though there were language barriers at first....the people seemed eager to help me. They were quite up front obout their lack of ability to service the car yet though. They just got the Corvette and GM names added to what they can sell. They haven't been sent the parts or manuels service equipment yet.....but said in about 2 months or so they would have folks properly trained and parts ordering capability.
Funny thing is that with these nameplates sitting next to each other, the car that was being driven by one of their employees parked out front was a VR C6 coupe. (they had modded a way better licence plate braket out of one of their "dealership advertising" plate holders than GM had come up with US or European, but looked permanently affixed, which doesn't matter here cause it is required everywhere)
Though these guys weren't fully operational yet and just opened their doors to GM, it looked like a much nicer and classier way of selling Vettes than your average Cobalt......errrrrr Chevrolet dealer back home in the US. Wish GM in the States would take notice of how in Europe Corvette is it's own name plate and is usually marketed as a Cadilac/Corvette experience storefront.
It is nice to see some of the expansion around the world that GM has spread for Corvette lovers. I am still surprised at how many Vettes in Europe there are. Always love to see them.
It looks like it could work really well and is what many of the posts on this forum sound like they would like in the States. I saw an ad in the paper today that a Jaguar dealer is now carrying the Corvette here in Mannheim Germany. Couldn't resist checkingit out as it is only 5 miles or so from where I live and would like close service instead of driving 60 miles to Frankfurt.
The show room was extremely nice and nothing like most Ford or GM lines do in the States. But then I looked at what all was being sold there. The 2 C6s and 1 C5 Corvettes they had on the floor were in pretty good company. The other lines carried on the show room floor were Jaguar, Maserati, Aston Marton, Land Rover, Cadilac, and Hummer. I may have forgot a few though.
though there were language barriers at first....the people seemed eager to help me. They were quite up front obout their lack of ability to service the car yet though. They just got the Corvette and GM names added to what they can sell. They haven't been sent the parts or manuels service equipment yet.....but said in about 2 months or so they would have folks properly trained and parts ordering capability.
Funny thing is that with these nameplates sitting next to each other, the car that was being driven by one of their employees parked out front was a VR C6 coupe. (they had modded a way better licence plate braket out of one of their "dealership advertising" plate holders than GM had come up with US or European, but looked permanently affixed, which doesn't matter here cause it is required everywhere)
Though these guys weren't fully operational yet and just opened their doors to GM, it looked like a much nicer and classier way of selling Vettes than your average Cobalt......errrrrr Chevrolet dealer back home in the US. Wish GM in the States would take notice of how in Europe Corvette is it's own name plate and is usually marketed as a Cadilac/Corvette experience storefront.
It is nice to see some of the expansion around the world that GM has spread for Corvette lovers. I am still surprised at how many Vettes in Europe there are. Always love to see them.
04-08-2005, 08:34 AM
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I think it would be nice to just see sports car dealerships..If that is what the buyer wants then we as customers should be able to look, drive and compare them all at one time...that would make things go so much better I think.
04-08-2005, 08:44 AM
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Well the other dealership right by this one is a Porsche dealer. I posted before that I went in there just to see the new 911 and walked around trying to figure out which one was which and no one even approached me and even ignored me when I was waiting to see if some one at one of the desks would help.
These guys at the new Corvette dealership aren't up and running fully yet......but were ready to talk and wanted to do what they could for information.
These guys at the new Corvette dealership aren't up and running fully yet......but were ready to talk and wanted to do what they could for information.
04-08-2005, 09:13 AM
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The black 6 speed coupe with a nav system was about 68,500 Euro (give or take a few Euro). I believe the packagewas basically the Z51. with Nav. At todays $ to Euro conversion rate.......that's $87,828.22. Now don't ya feel good about the price you paid for yours........that's more than I spent for every option-XM on an F55 convertible with power top. BTW, I believe Germany is one of the cheapest places to buy the C6 overseas. Besides your local military car sales dealer, 
Last edited by RAP; 04-08-2005 at 09:15 AM.
04-08-2005, 09:38 AM
#6
Race Director
Originally Posted by RAP
The black 6 speed coupe with a nav system was about 68,500 Euro (give or take a few Euro). I believe the packagewas basically the Z51. with Nav. At todays $ to Euro conversion rate.......that's $87,828.22. Now don't ya feel good about the price you paid for yours........that's more than I spent for every option-XM on an F55 convertible with power top. BTW, I believe Germany is one of the cheapest places to buy the C6 overseas. Besides your local military car sales dealer,
Well, I guess that's still a lot cheaper than the Porches and probably even the Jags.
Are they selling many? Have you seen any on the Autobahn?
Bob
04-08-2005, 09:44 AM
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Besides at dealer ships and the one at with plates on at the dealer, only 2. the dealer one may have been the one I saw in town 2 weeks ago, and an orange one that another American shipped over here. I still haven't seen a convertible in person so, I may at least be the first in town with one of those.
Black and silver were the 2 on the show room floors at 2 different dealers......seems like the favorite colors for Germans on most types of cars.
Black and silver were the 2 on the show room floors at 2 different dealers......seems like the favorite colors for Germans on most types of cars.
04-08-2005, 10:16 AM
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Would a picture of the dealership be "legal" with the Forum laws? Moderators know? andI would have to ask the dealership about posting their plate mount as the one that I saw was on a privately owned vehicle.
basicaly they bent the thin plate bracket (and plate) along the lines of the car. that way you don't have the huge chunk of black plastic showing from the side. plus the Euro plates are wider than US, but to theplus side.....they are also shorter and don't hang down in the "mouth" of the car very far.
It looked like the best front mount idea I have seen, even though it was put put on slightly crooked and had dealership ad on it. Fix the last 2 and it's not "too bad". Still would rather not have it at all.
Any Moderator want to help me with an answer if I can ask the dealership about pictures and post? It's up to them. I want to stay in good standing here. But not really sure if there are any dealerships on the forum that deal with overseas customers.
basicaly they bent the thin plate bracket (and plate) along the lines of the car. that way you don't have the huge chunk of black plastic showing from the side. plus the Euro plates are wider than US, but to theplus side.....they are also shorter and don't hang down in the "mouth" of the car very far.
It looked like the best front mount idea I have seen, even though it was put put on slightly crooked and had dealership ad on it. Fix the last 2 and it's not "too bad". Still would rather not have it at all.
Any Moderator want to help me with an answer if I can ask the dealership about pictures and post? It's up to them. I want to stay in good standing here. But not really sure if there are any dealerships on the forum that deal with overseas customers.
04-08-2005, 10:24 AM
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St. Jude '03-'04-'05-'06
Originally Posted by RAP
..........but said in about 2 months or so they would have folks properly trained.....
04-08-2005, 10:28 AM
#11
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Originally Posted by RAP
Would a picture of the dealership be "legal" with the Forum laws? Moderators know? andI would have to ask the dealership about posting their plate mount as the one that I saw was on a privately owned vehicle.
basicaly they bent the thin plate bracket (and plate) along the lines of the car. that way you don't have the huge chunk of black plastic showing from the side. plus the Euro plates are wider than US, but to theplus side.....they are also shorter and don't hang down in the "mouth" of the car very far.
It looked like the best front mount idea I have seen, even though it was put put on slightly crooked and had dealership ad on it. Fix the last 2 and it's not "too bad". Still would rather not have it at all.
Any Moderator want to help me with an answer if I can ask the dealership about pictures and post? It's up to them. I want to stay in good standing here. But not really sure if there are any dealerships on the forum that deal with overseas customers.
basicaly they bent the thin plate bracket (and plate) along the lines of the car. that way you don't have the huge chunk of black plastic showing from the side. plus the Euro plates are wider than US, but to theplus side.....they are also shorter and don't hang down in the "mouth" of the car very far.
It looked like the best front mount idea I have seen, even though it was put put on slightly crooked and had dealership ad on it. Fix the last 2 and it's not "too bad". Still would rather not have it at all.
Any Moderator want to help me with an answer if I can ask the dealership about pictures and post? It's up to them. I want to stay in good standing here. But not really sure if there are any dealerships on the forum that deal with overseas customers.
You can post a picture of the plate, and use some photoshop program to "blur" the numbers if you like... (but license plates are very public information...)