I just read an article from ABC news detailing the top 10 cars stuck on dealer lots. The C7 made the list (ugh!) with 267 days sales of cars stuck on lots.

This has to affect purchase prices (we are seeing better deals) but on the flip side should really hurt anyone trying to sell their C7. I realize Winter is not the peak season for Corvette sales, but I was really disappointed to see these numbers.

 

Of course they're slowing down, just like every other generation of Corvette, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

For comparison here are the sales numbers for the first 3 years of the C7:

2016: 29,995
2015: 33,329
2014: 34,839

Here are the sales numbers for the first five years of the C6:

2005: 32,489
2006: 36,518
2007: 33,685
2008: 26,971
2009: 13,934

Anyone thinking the sales numbers for the C7 will stay relatively the same is delusional.

 

True for a lot of the country, but we haven't slowed down selling C7's, in fact we're selling more year over year!

 

But a potential buyer would be delighted, right? It's natural, I know that how you feel depends on whether you are a buyer or a seller. So who's side should we be on? If you are buying, new or used, all this is good news. Sorry you are disappointed, but

 

It's just the nature of the beast.

 

Maybe there are going to be some new incentives for March!

 

My local dealer is still sitting on a couple 2016's

 

Sales "always" slow down before a new model run. However, if you check it out I've read that 2016 Corvette sales were over 40,000. Yep, forty thousand. Now with the Grand Sport and perhaps a ZR1 in the 2017 year??? Well, I for one never believe ABC or any of the the alphabet soup of news medias. They're not interested in good news for sure.

 

You read wrong. See my post above with actual sales numbers from GM.

 

Incorrect!!!!! GM built over 40,000 2016's but only sold 29,995 in 2016.

That's why there is a glut of them(I read 14,100 unsold new Corvettes on the dealer's lots.)

There is a good chance that that number could approach 19,000 by the time they shut down production of the 2017's.

 

Wouldn't that 40K produced number in 2016 be for global numbers? Not just US. The sales numbers posted in thread are only for US and Autotrader shows 1300 new 2016 Vettes for sale in the entire US. That's not that many considering how many Chevy dealers that are.

The 267 days number, I believe, is also misleading. If they are basing that number on January sales it's somewhat misleading as January is the slowest month. They will probably sell twice that number in June.

That said, sales should be slowing. It is still an expensive, impractical, sports car approaching its 5th model run for this generation.

 

Of the 40,689 2016's built between July 2015 and June 2016, 37,282 were for the US with the remaining 3407 for Canada, Japan, Mexico, Mid-East and Europe.

The 29,995 were the sales between Jan 1, 2016 through Dec 31, 2016, for the US. I don't know the sales numbers outside of the US but if 100% of them were actually sold, then the total sales would be 33,402. That leaves around 7,2285 2016's unsold.

of course, it stands to reason that they are not selling all the 2017's built since July, 2016, as the monthly sales numbers are less than the monthly production numbers. Those would be added to the unsold 2016's.

If you want to know how many were sold in the US during the same timeframe that the 40,689 were built, than that would be 29,690.

 

Joe, with all due respect, I think there's a part of this picture not included in your argument. Some 2016s were sold in 2015. So by the end of 2016, there wasn't a surplus of 7,225. Still, there are a lot of unsold 2016s out there considering its February and the new 2017s are piling up as well. Just wanted to add that one comment.

 

Calculation is based on model year to date average sales per day so the impact of January's slow sales is diluted in the calculation. 267 days of inventory is a huge number and can only be dealt with by cutting production and/or much larger incentives.

 

I only read what was produced but down here in SW Florida they're selling them pretty fast. I know some folks like bad news but is it "bad news" if you can save a ton of money on a new Vette??? Methinks not!

 

I don't disagree that it is a big number. Some of the excess is clearly them wanting to have several months of inventory before the plant shutdown and the 18's coming out. But they have more than enough for sure to last.

 

In our local paper yesterday, the Chevy dealer was advertising $15,000 off of window sticker for a new Z06