Maxie2U

Chevy Corvette sales Decrease 20 uercent to 1,005 unitsiIn January 2018. Could be with model year 2019 due out soon people decide to wait?

Despite the drop the Corvette accounted for 63 percent of the performance car segment’s sales volume.

Read more here; http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/02/...-january-2018/

JoesC5

While sales dropped 20% compared to January 2017, sales dropped 56% from the previous month (December 2017).

That would include left over 2017 and 2018 models.

Landru

It's Winter, half the country north of Mason-Dixon is under some degree of snow cover. Watch sales trend line steadily go up as March 1st passes, going higher in April/May maybe June.

Now's really not the time for seeing meaningful trends in Corvette sales.
Corvette sales #s are predictable during Winter ranging from lousy to nonexistent, in some places.

Dealers/private sellers will both be looking to catch/meet the Spring wave of demand. Let's talk sales #s in April.

direct007

Lot of differences compared to previous years.

1. Dealer inventory was lower than usual due to factory being closed.
2. Many people waiting for cars to be produced with body panels from new paint shop to avoid the issues from previous years.
3. We are approaching the end of the generation cycle which will most likely result in slower sales for 2018 while people wait to see what the C8 details are.
4. GM sales incentives were not as strong as previous months since inventory was diminished.

Snowwolfe

It’s a comparison between this Jan and last Jan. Very meaningful since the same months are being compared. Don’t lose sight of that.

Billy346

This is the best time to buy one! My dad picked up a new '17 Stingray this weekend from one of the internet dealers for well below their advertised discounted price.

JoesC5

Boy, are you misinformed. January is a floater month. Always has been.

In 2018, January fell between December and February, but last year it fell between June and August.

That explains why sales are so bad this January(2018). Next year January will fall between March and May, so sales should be good for January(2019).

Foosh

True, in a normal year, January to January would be a meaningful year-over-year monthly comparison. But, Jan 2018 was a very different month as others have pointed out with unique circumstances, such as: 1) diminished stock after a very long plant closure for retooling and refurbishment; 2) very deep discounts in Nov & Dec and ending 12/31 to move the remaining cars, which was very successful; 3) a bizarre MY change to 2019 starting in January causing many to wait; and 4) customers waiting for a car painted in the much ballyhooed new paint plant.

I ordered one of those cars on Nov 12, and it won't be delivered until this week (Feb).

Snowwolfe

So, we can’t compare Jan to Jan? This is another example of fuzzy math. If GM offered a 5k owner loyalty in Jan 18 and sales were up should we discount it as well?

Foosh

Normally you can when all year-over-year monthly variables are held roughly constant, which they traditionally are. You still can if you wish to draw erroneous conclusions about the significance of the numbers. Name another Corvette production cycle when the MY changeover began in January shortly after the plant had been shut down for 4 months.

About 9K 2018 C7s were produced in total compared to all other MYs where 35-40K were produced. Roughly half were built and painted in the old plant, and the other half were built and painted in the new plant starting in mid-November after the 4-month shutdown.

If there had been a 5K loyalty discount, quite likely January to January numbers would have looked more normal, except there wasn't much stock for sale. New plant '18s were only beginning to show up in Jan.

It would be like comparing vacation bookings in a Caribbean resort during a Cat 5 hurricane month vs. the previous year when the weather in the same month was perfect.

JoesC5

Of course we can. We are talking retail sales not Bowling Green production. Loads of left over 2017's and new 2018 cars sitting on dealer's lots last month. That's why they are discounted so much. The dealers want to get them off their lot. If there had been a shortage of cars to sell, then GM and the dealers wouldn't be giving them away.

Foosh

That's just not true, Joe. Looking at Criswell alone, which normally has 200+ cars on the lot, and they are down to 49 now as we speak. The situation is similar at Kerbeck and MacMulkin.

In stock is a function of both production and sales. Production has been cut in half since the plant re-opened, logically being ramped up slowly with a totally new production process, and the stock was heavily depleted by Nov and Dec deep discounts on all cars after 4 months of zero production.

Yes, there are still some deep discounts available (based upon financing with GMF, or "flex cash," formerly "red tag," used by dealers on a few stagnant cars), but not much to choose from, and only on cars which haven't moved in a long time. The 18's on lots are old plant cars built early last summer before the long shut-down. I'm told the majority of the new plant cars coming in now are sold orders.

Duffman1

Not fuzzy math. There are various factors which impact monthly sales.
As mentioned in previous posts the Bowling Green plant was shut down for four months during the second half of 2017. The drop in sales comparison from Jan 2017 vs Jan 2018 was approximately 260 Corvettes. A little more than one months production.

GM also committed after Q2 to reduce total inventory by 2017 year end, which had exceeded 100 day supply. January 1 2018 GM light vehicle inventory supply was down 40% to 63 days.

For Corvette the focus was eliminating 2017 inventory in Q4. November 2017 Corvette sales were up 620 Corvettes vs November 2016 mainly due to heavy incentives.

k24556

I bought a 2017 WGG Z51 with 2LT, PDR, and mag ride in early December. I shopped all the big forum vendors and got pretty much the same answer. What is left in dealer inventory is mostly plain-jane 1LT's. It was tough to find just what I wanted. The BFV's all offered to order a '19, but the discount/incentives weren't quite as good, as noted by previous posters.

Today's market correction will also have a small impact on late winter/early spring sales. I sold off some of my IRA when the market was high (wow first time to hit near the peak !!!!!) to pay cash for the car. Hopefully, this correction will cause big daddy GM to hit the incentive button again.

I like buying from the BFV's no BS and what you see is what you get. All the ones I didn't buy from sent a nice followup email, "thanks for considering us, think about us next time"

JerriVette

The entire segment of relatively expensive two seat sports cars has dropped 21.3 percent...

Porsche did ok though with the 911 boxster and cayman...


http://press.porsche.com/news/release.php?id=1061


The rest of the market was weak.

Snowwolfe

IMO this will be a dismal year for C7 sales unless GM seriously ups the discounts or makes an announcement at the bash of some significant changes, such as another 35-50 hp.

MSG C5

So, based on this not being a traditional year in terms of production, when would be a good time to order a 2019? My target Z06 build will probably require an order as I have not been able to find an exact build example on dealer lots.

MacMulkin

We've received approximately 30 brand new 2018s in the last week and a half - all stock units.

Maxie2U

Uh? Could not follow a thing you said maybe because it made zero sense.

Foosh

So, how many of those 30 newly-arrived ones are listed in your 16-20% off sales? I've been following your ads for a long time now, and I just looked at the VINs of your sale cars linked in your ad above. Virtually all of your listed "special offer" 18's appear to be built prior to the plant shutdown last summer, so they've been there for awhile.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, and they are great deals. But, that was one of the points that I and others were making above.

I did see a couple of VINs for "new" 18's on your site at 12% off. In order to get exactly the car I wanted, I special-ordered one of the "new plant" 18's and received about that same discount from another forum dealer. You did beat my special order discount on a by about 1% on your new 18 in-stock units.