BluegrassMotorsport

Absolutely not.

KevinK

He's talking about heritage, though, which implies history, which cadillac doesn't have. All those images are very RECENT history. You can't build a culture in just a couple years.


I have faith, though. Give caddy time. And keep GM out of it, as much as possible, lol.

niteriderc5

Cadillac raced in LeMans waaaay back...nothing close Corvette's racing history.

Telepierre

Porsche was born as a sole standing car manufacturer from inception. Corvette was not and therefore, althought the Corvette brand is growing in stature, I can't foresee a future were Chevrolet/GM let's them go or otherwise were the Corvette name/factory alone would survive.

Skullbussa

When I went to go buy a '10 Grand Sport I was entirely put-off by the Chevrolet dealer, a dealer that sells more Corvettes than anyone in the midwest.

When I'm about to drop $65,000 on a car I expect service loaners, I expect professional and courteous service managers, and I expect competent mechanics.

While I passed on the GS, I did end up buying a used '08 Z06. In the two short days that I owned the vehicle, it was made very clear to me that I was not going to get ANY of those above things from a Chevrolet dealership.

What do the Corvette and the Cruze have in common? What do the owners of those two vehicles have in common? Absolutely nothing. The filthy salesfloor and service lobby of the dealership were the icing on the cake for me....after 2 years of being absolutely pampered at the BMW dealership, I refused to deal with that. I felt like I was taking a huge step backwards. A misdiagnose of the skip-shift as well as a refusal to repair carpet that had shrunk around the middle tunnel of the car lead me to return the car and get 100% of my money back. Their loss.

I love Corvettes and I won't let a bad dealership ruin them for me forever, but I totally understand why people suggest Corvette split off to its own brand or, even better, just make it a GM car that can be bought/serviced at ANY GM dealership with all the perks that that particular service department can offer.

I'm sure the Nissan GT-R guys are experiencing the same thing at the Nissan dealerships.

BobRBob

Interesting point. I went to the local Nissan dealer here to see a GT-R and they had a 2009 just in off lease and a brand new one. I was surprised actually that they had any but they did and the sales guy was very good and quite knowledgeable. Both cars were back in the shop area, not on the showroom floor, and he took me back there to look at them. A mechanic came over and started talking about it as well. They were both very enthusiastic about the vehicle and gave me brochures and web sites to check out. Told me I could come back and test drive the used one when they were finished prepping it. They don't allow test drives on the new ones. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised at the level of service and attention. Quite different from what you described at the Chevy dealer.

jackhall99

Your profile doesn't tell us where your from, but every dealer I have been to in the Chicago area in past years (Chevy, and other makes, both foreign and domestic) have been clean. None of them, absolutely none of them, had filthy sales floors and service lobbies. I'm sure GM would like to know what dealer that was. Care to name them?

ohmy

YES!The Corvette should be it's own brand. It should be sold by Cadillac or certain Chevrolet dealerships with qualified service departments that know how to fix/maintain the car properly... there should never again be a story of "dealer broke my rocker panels" or "my engine is hydrolocked bc the dealer goofed up an oil change"

Skullbussa

Superior Chevrolet in Merriam Kansas.

When I say that the waiting lobby for the service department was worse than what you would get at a Jiffy Lube, I'm not jokin'! Someone had left their Taco Bell trash sitting on one of the empty chairs there and I watched half a dozen employees walk by and none of them picked it up to throw it away. And the service was atrocious, I had to explain the 1-4 shift to one of the mechanics about 3 times: it's like he's never heard of that feature before.

They were charging me $80 an hour for labor which was the same exact rate BMW was charging me. Except BMW would offer me coffee, donuts, a loaner car (usually a brand new 3 series), and would have intelligent mechanics who would go into a lot of detail explaining to me what went wrong with my car and how they fixed it. And that's for a run-of-the-mill $42,000 coupe, not a $65,000 sports car.

BobRBob

Yes, BMW service is top drawer. They are a hard act to follow but it sounds like Superior Chevrolet isn't even trying.

KevinK

I get top flight service at my honda dealership, too. On the rare occasions I bring my car in, I get offered either coffee and doughnuts, or pizza and coke, while I wait, depending on the time of day. Everyone is very polite, and the mechanics explain in FULL detail what they are going to do before doing it. I bought the car from this same dealership, and again, the service levels were great. The salesmen were not pushy, as I am an easy sale. I go into a dealership knowing exactly what I want, and I only go into a dealership when I am ready to leave with what I want. No need for hard sale tactics with me, and I get none. I am allowed to look at some of the other cars in relative peace, and even more shocking is the level with which the sales staff knows and understand the products they are selling. Generally, being who I am, no one knows more about what I want than me. The sales staff at Curtis Ryan Honda gave me a run for my money when I bought my civic, a few years back.

All of those things go a long way for me, when it comes time for me to buy a new car, or to have an existing one serviced, though usually I service my cars myself. I have never actually been in a Chevy dealership, so can't speak about them, but I COULD suggest that maintaining order on things like this should be a number one priority for the brand. I understand that dealerships are sole owned businesses in their own right, but anytime you have someone representing you, or your brand, you have a certain level of influence and outright control over how such representation is presented. And rightly so.

BobRBob

I own a Subaru and owned a Camry in the past. Both Subaru and Toyota dealers are very professional in their service and sales as well. Not to the same degree as BMW which has a coffee bistro, TV, WIFI and the like, but still pretty good. This is what GM is up against. That said, I have had no recent contact with a GM dealership so I really have no opinion on their sales and service. As an aside, the local Subaru, BMW and GM dealerships (among others) are all owned by the same company so I would expect comparable standards at the same price points, at least around here.

rexracerx9

Not in a Corvette anymore but am excited about the C7. I have owned a lot of different brands. Many times it is the owner of the dealership that makes the difference. A watchful eye from the manufacturer will make more of a difference with a poorly run dealership.

The C6 Corvette is truly a great car. I expect the C7 to be even better. Too bad one dealer ruined your Corvette experience. I agree some Chevy dealers lack refinement, knowledge and customer service. Not all Chevy dealers are like you described. Usually the dealers will have a Corvette specialist if they do any Corvette volume at all. The dirty sales floor is a sign of poor management.

Like I said, the Corvette is really a great car. You have to spend a lot more to get equal performance and better refinement. I assume you still have interest since you are still on the forum? Try another dealer and ask for the owner. I bought a new '07 and '08 from EVS in WI. Erik is the owner and I would recommend them to anyone. I drove from Chicago to WI to buy both cars from them.

Generally BMW service is great. It even carries over to the MINI brand. I think BMW dealers rely heavily on perfect customer service survey scores for incentives. Their customer business model is right on. Chevy and other brands can learn from them.

Good luck!

Garrett W

Tenacfan

Back before the "crash", GM had a plan to make the Vette like the caddy...a GM product. They also planned to cancel the Chevy trk and only have the GMC line. Of course the last couple of years have killed that.

I also agree with others, the customer service I get when I take in the wife's Audi or my BMW is so far ahead of what I get when I take the Vette in. Yes GM could do much better in marketing the Vette.

Of course that's just my opinion, and I could be wrong!

BluegrassMotorsport

I don't know about all European countries. But I know that, in England, Corvette are sold at the Cadillac dealerships. I don't think that it is a bad idea, so long as they keep it a Chevrolet. There are plenty of Cadillac-GMC dealerships out there that I am sure would love to sell Corvettes without all of the other Chevrolets.

CH 3 NO 2

Jordan Brand anyone?

BuckyThreadkiller

This is why Corvettes cost 20K less than the Porsches they outrun. The glass and brushed steel waiting room and designer coffee experience can be had for the additional cash at the P-car dealership. But don't expect it just because you paid $65K for your Chevy - the farmer across the waiting room paid about that for his dual cab 3500 Silverado dually and he's not complaining about having to sit on a naugahyde chair.

I Bin Therbefor

Briggs Cunningham in 1950, raced two Cadillacs at LeMans. One was a stock bodied coup and the other a streamliner dubbed the Le Monstre. Ed Cole, then president of Cadillac suggested the idea and provided Briggs with two Series 61 Coupe de Villes with three speed manual trans. The Le Monstre body was designed by an aero guy from Grumman Aircraft. The car could hit 130 on the straights but was heavier than the stock bodied coup so turned in lower lap times. Cole designed a five carb intake which was permitted. The stock bodied coup finished 10th while the Le Monstre finished 11th after spending considerable time in the sand. Cunninghan by Dean Batchelor has a terrific photo of the two cars at LeMans.

Do a Google search in images on "cunningham le monstre" for some interesting images.

BSSN

The only thing I like is the LS7. The rest of it screams of a well-funded redneck project.