JerryU

Capacity: There is a limited market demand of 2 seat sports cars in general. The great C8 and its variants is an exception. BG is working 3 shifts when they can get enough parts. BG has a fixed capacity but now limited by parts suppliers. Parts supply is a factor limiting availability of even high demand trucks etc.

Pricing: I bought an early C7 soon after the reveal at the Detroit Auto Show in January 2019. When I picked mine up in September 2020 the sales manager was upset they could not get a car for their showroom as GM was ONLY filling end customer sold cars. That only lasted a few months. BG was able to build all that were being ordered by dealers.

There was much lower inflation during the C7 build time than currently. The price for an early base 2014 C7 was $51,000. The base A8 2019 C7 was $58,995 (a 16% increase from 2014.) Demand was under ability for BG to supply most of the C7 sales years. Cars were discounted by dealers soon after 1st available.

C7 Demand:
2014 = 34,839
2015 = 33,329
2016 = 29,995
2017 = 25,079
2018 = 18,789
2019 = 9,731

Can discount the last year as anticipation of the ME C8 BUT the decline to 25,000 in 2017 reflects real demand.

Bottom Line: Considering the pandemic is still creating vendor supply issues and inflation creating big cost increases GM is doing about all they can to meet demand.

SIDEBAR
Inflation: Heck for my part time internet business our "all US sourced raw materials" have increased >50%. When fabricating purchasing folks call to order more of our patented product, only available directly from us, never get a question about our increased prices. They want to know about availability!
Corvette Demand: Recall Tadge saying when the C7 was announced he "hoped sales would increase" from the C6 levels or THERE WOULD BE NO MORE CORVETTE!
2013 C6 = 17,291
2012 C6 = 15,059
2011 C6 = 13,164
2010 C6 = 12,624
2009 C6 = 13,934
2008 C6 = 26,971

Shinobi'sZ

Not sure I agree with your economics, appreciate you putting up the numbers and perspective though. More than likely the supply was higher leading up to 2016 because the demand was higher, but demand dwindled during 2016 due to the known problems some were experiencing with the C7Z prior to 2017. The problems that led to the class action lawsuit. I believe GM tried to get ahead of it by incorporating changes to the 2017 C7Z to back up the "most track capable corvette" claim that was made during the unveiling of the C7Z. By time 2018 came around demand was soured because of a lack of consumer confidence in the product. Even though the additional cooler for the manual transmission cars, revised blower deck lid offered in the 2017 model year, then changes to the MRC program by Jim Mero, followed up by actual track times at the "ring" greatly improved the C7Z06. Then in 2019 the consumer demand was less due to the new model year C8 for 2020. Pretty traditional curve from 2019 to 2020 between model/generation platform change.

I had two Torch Red C5s, loved the color. After owning a white C8, and still owning a WGG C7Z, I am leaning towards my ERay being Red, Orange, Blue, and perhaps taking a closer look at the Cactus color. I'm concerned the Cactus color will lose it's appeal after a while, kind of like Bronze.

Red and White never grow old. I see the post above that says, "all Corvettes are Red and that anything else is a mistake" and that is kind of funny given that the first Corvette was white, and yes I have seen the book "All Corvettes are Red".

JerryU

^^^
My 1st Vette was a 1988 and 2nd a '93 both Red! Daughters were out of college, so Vettes were my DD. Bought a Yellow C6.

I recall that Tadge's statement clearly about his hope the C7 sales were higher OR THERE WOULD BE NO MORE CORVETTE!
2013 C6 = 17,291
2012 C6 = 15,059
2011 C6 = 13,164
2010 C6 = 12,624
2009 C6 = 13,934
2008 C6 = 26,971

Hard to make a positive bottom line using half the plant capacity!
Doubt the high-performance variants were the main reason for the volume reduction. My C6 Z51 was fine. The base and Z51 were the majority sellers.