Jim_Lammers

All paid placement by Audi, just like Transformers is all Camaros and Corvettes and is paid placement by GM.

BSSN

Why not? What do you mean by that?

Jet Streaming

Frankly I'm not to concerned about the exterior styling Corvette is usually always appealing. Its the interior that concerns me, hopefully GM will stop putting CRAP materials on the inside and give Corvette a seriously nice interior. Thats all I care about thats the one BIG flaw with the last 2 generations C5/6

jb_va2001

Wider market appeal can mean targeting Audi, Jaguar, BMW, Porsche or Ferrari buyers.

Presumably the age comment refers to younger buyers with money, not just cannibalizing Camaro sales.

DannyBoyC6

IMO, it's all about the image problem that GM is trying to address with the C7. That's why the tons of people in their 30's and 40's who can afford a $45k car aren't buying a Corvette.

KevinK

Yep. Because when they see a vette, they don't say, "Hey, a corvette", they say, "Oh, a Chevrolet".

In that regard, I really do think GM is on the road to recovery, it's just gonna take a generation or two to fix. I was raised on the idea that Toyotas were the longest lasting cars on the road, if a tad expensive. First car I remember was an old, brown/tan toyota corolla, and that car ran FOREVER. At that time, my dad had an early 80s ford truck, nice looking...but it died. He ended up buying a little Nissan Hard Body truck, and it's still running, with over 240,000 miles on it.


I believe that these days, one manufacturers cars are just as good as another, as they are all made more or less by the same kinda people, in the same kinda conditions, for around the same kinda money. What matters is how you treat it. But it took a long time for me sort of realize this, and you know what? My daily driver is still a honda civic.

The big three in this country have a LOT to answer for as a result of the garbage they tried to push on us in the 80s and 90s. And it's going to take at least 2 decades to undo that damage to their reputation.

Which means, for the time being, the corvette goes on being "just a chevy".

Racer X

I grew up with Honda, Toyota, and all other japaneses being cheap junk (maybe a the 240z being an exception), The only good European cars were Rolls, Bentley, Jaguar(when they ran) and Porsche. MB made a few good cars and stinky diesels.

It is funny how the timing of our formative car years affect our perspectives.

Everybody made junk from about 75-84.

My view of BMW and MB now is that are over-priced and over-rated and for the pretentious. Volvo and MB are still viewed by me as the top of the saftey heap.

We all have to remember to the buyer, perception is reality. I don't think I will ever buy a BMW, or MB.

dboz

If perception is reality, here is the young guys perception from what I pick up when I am around the younger crowd.

1) GM quality sucks, especially with an interior like the Corvettes.
2) They can buy a turbo car, make it as fast as any Corvette for half the money. Many have AWD for the dig and can be driven year around without horrible insurance rates. Many laugh at RWD. They grew up on FWD and AWD rules.
3) They think Corvettes are for rich obnoxious gray hair old guys who putt around in them doing 55 MPH due to mid life or end of life crisis, never using 1/10th the cars potential.
4) They laugh at the price, and laugh even more at the depreciation.
5) 4 doors are more practical when you only have funds for one car and need to haul friends and crap. Rich guy toy, not a daily driver.
6) They think Corvettes are bad *** visually, but hate the manufacturer and perceive the brand as total trash. Keep in mind they hang with the COBALT SS as their nemesis. Fast but really cheap.
7) for 60-90k, they are buying the Nissan GT-R.

Just saying, this is the stuff I get. I am early 40's with a muscle car and a 72 Corvette. I have been hanging with the 20 something crowd since I bought an EVO X as my daily driver. I have really learned a lot.

They need a more budget friendly Corvette in the high 30, low 40 range to get any youth to the brand. $50k for a base is laughable to them.

JBACE

I like my Vette, but I love my BMW M3!

Racer X

Two things:

A M3 is not a sports car. It is a high performance sports coupe.

It is not cheaper. A M3 starts at $59k and goes up ~77k in a manual version well optioned. A Grand Sport Corvette (not a base model) starts at 56k and goes to 70k well optioned before a factory discount.

I won't comment on better as it is subjective to the owner and their personal vehicle selection criteria.

Guibo

In addition to some of the good contributions listed earlier, it has to do a lot with design, materials and image. The interior design of the Corvette looks dated, lacks the cutting edge look of some other cars. The center stack, control ***** and overall materials look fit for a $15-20k family car, not an advanced $50-100k road rocket. The seats have poor bolstering and appear to be built for wider torsos. On top of that, they are noted for flimsy support. This is good for middle-aged American males who want a soft, comfortable ride, but not great for the younger generation brought up on Gran Turismo, rally racing, touge, etc.
The Corvette gets great fuel economy on the highway, but as demographics shift away from rural areas to more urban ones, its deficit of 3 mpg in the city is going to matter more to an increasingly environmentally-conscious crowd, rather than some 0-60 or outright performance advantage they will rarely ever use on public roads. BMW has added a turbocharged 4-cylinder to its Z4 lineup that will be getting ~21/34 city/hwy.

I agree part of it is marketing. The "still building rockets" ZR1 commercial is great...if you're old enough to have witnessed the space race. A very nostalgic piece that will find limited appeal to today's younger generation.
I'm not sure some of the current Camaro marketing is great either. In the latest one, you see a senior citizen coming to pick up a middle-aged man's mother for a date, the idea being that when they get into the Camaro, they transcend time and become their younger selves. A younger person watching that might think the Camaro is pitched at very old people trying to relive past glories.

As for Iron Man, there were plenty of other cars. He had a Saleen S7 and a Cobra in the garage in the first movie. He's chauffered around in a Rolls Phantom. The SHIELD agents use Acuras. In the Avengers, he will be driving an Acura.

CannedBullets

They had the Stingray Corvette concept as an autobot in Transformers 3. Does that count? Yeah Chevrolet should market the Corvette towards young people that way young people will dream of owning one.

jb_va2001

New generations build new stereotypes. Cadillac faced a worse problem than Corvette; expensive, quality poor, average buyer age was "nearly dead," and (key point) young people didn't dream of owning one anymore. A car for blue-haired old ladies, I'd have never bought a Cadillac, didn't even look at them. I was floored when I overheard one of my teens comment on how awesome a Cadillac looked, and it was his favorite new car. (CTS-V, not the STS or DTS.) To him it was not crazy millionaire expensive like a Bentley, out of reach now but achievable in his life. Cadillac nailed it, great new car and new generation dreaming of owning it one day.

BobRBob

The sports car/sports coupe distinction is academic when the cars are in direct competition. If my short list includes Corvette and M3, then GM and BMW are competing for my business. If I buy an M3, then GM lost a Corvette sale. Problem for GM is that the Corvette often isn't even on the short list.

The M3 is a killer.

dboz

I agree, my 5 year old loves the CTS-V Cadillac commercials and now looks for the Caddies at car shows. LOL He wants me to get one.

dboz

Most would prefer a rear seat. Corvettes and kids don't mix.

DannyBoyC6

The CTS-V commercials are extremely effective at changing the image of Caddy. I've had a few people who are heavily biased toward Euro-cars talk about how cool that car is.

KevinK

Yeah, but he never drove the S7, the Cobra, or his hotrod. What did you see? You saw the Audi R8 tearing around some roads at the very beginning of the movie, and then more tire pealing fun from it at various points throughout the movie. The SHIELD agents drove Audis, I couldn't tell if they were RS6s, or S8s...they weren't in the scene for very long. Anyway, though, the point is, yes, sure, GM paid some coin to have their cars be the stars in the Transformer series, and I think that's a good start...BUT, the problem is, those cars are fantasy. They are cars that turn into robots. In Ironman, he's driving the same R8 anyone can go and buy, and driving it hard.

What GM needs to do is pick and choose what movies they are going to pay a wad of cash on to get good product placement. If they want to sell their cars as excitement, then they need to go with movies that feature that, but also they need to concentrate on keeping it real, relatively speaking. In other words, instead of the main character driving around in a concept corvette that doubles as a space alien, advanced robot, have him drive around in a REAL corvette, not a robot, but HIS car, and have it be the same darn corvette anyone can go out and buy. I saw the first transformers movie, and all I saw were a couple of cars doing physically impossible stunts, but made plausible by the idea that they were not real cars. What movies like Ironman, Ronin, or even the Italian Job do, is keep it grounded in a somewhat real world driving sequence. THOSE are the movies I would pay big bucks for to have my cars featured. And if you can get a shot at having a vette spank a Supra in a fast and furious flick, then all the better.

tolnep

keep the weight low, add two turbos (that allow a modder to replace them with bigger turbos), add good road feel, and the ability to run off e85 (race gas like octane rating) and the younger folks who pine for the gtr, or buy stis and evos will buy corvettes especially if you can keep the price of a base vette under 50k.

C3DeedlyDee

I just drove an auto CTS-V coupe and manual Camaro SS convertible at a GM test-drive event on campus. Both were damned good cars to drive. The manual on the Camaro was surprisingly good in my opinion.

Only downside is both cars felt massive on the road, which is no surprise, really, because they are massive. Hence, why I prefer my Z3M Coupe and hopefully a '79 Corvette in the near future

I wonder how the C7 will compare to the C6 dimensions-wise.