lostsoul

Agreed. At least Ford put forth "effort" in doing midlife refresh. Changing oil type is not going to keep them. It will be hard though to choose between 70K c8 and 40K 2018-19.

If its 80=90 then the average age of vett owners will shoot up to younger then dirt.

grcor

Are you forgetting the Porsche Cayman and Boxster?

skank

Delorenzo's history of Automotive forecasting is riddled with unproven and wrong statements. He's also a legend in his own mind. They are going to add the mid engined car as the model Zora which was trademark a few years ago. They would be committing automotive suicide if they were to get rid of the 4 models of front engined Vette's. Doubling the size of the Bowling Green Plant to slightly over one million square feet of surface area was not built to shut down their 65 year old iconic front engined car line of four models. We will have five models moving forward. Take that to the bank !! I've got it at 130k-150k starting base price by whats on the list of projected components that we have gleaned from Zerv's thread. See this thread.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-corvette.html

Mcrider

The rumor mill is on fire about the C8 and Chevrolet is in a precarious position all around. My local dealer wanted to sell me a 2017 2LT C7 for $15k off MSRP and discounted 2018'a are on his lot. I wasn't interested in the C7's, but did ask him about the C8's and he said he expected to see them in the 2019 model year.

That being the case, why would I want to pull the trigger on a 2019 C7 until I had the opportunity to see and drive a C8? Especially if only $10k seperates them? This scenario could be a nightmare for 2019 sales on C7's. The C8 has the potential to revolutionize the American performance car market and Chevy marketing guru's have to me excited and terrified at the same time.

The logistics are numerous. Running two different models on the assembly line, knowing one has almost expired, creates a major issue with employees. Is this where Cadillac enters the picture with their ME? This would allow for two lines of employees, on corvette, one caddy, and everybody employed. You know the union is not only watching, but heavily involved in whats going on.

Going to be damned interesting to watch play out.

JustinStrife

http://carsalesbase.com/european-car...orsche-Cayman/

3-4 thousand cayman sold each year, with 2-3 thousand boxers sold each year in the U.S. A total of 5-7 thousand a year.

Corvette sells 25-35k a year.

The Market isnt there for what you want, replacing the FE Corvette.

NY09C6

I understand your point and am not saying you are wrong. But the cayman/ boxster is a female car and the market for females interested in sports cars is rather small.

JustinStrife

I'm not the one that specifically brought them up NY. You should bring your comment up with the person I was replying to, not me.

There is ZERO proof, that the market would sustain an ME only Corvette for anywhere near the current number of FE Corvettes that have been sold consistently in the U.S. over the last... 40+ years.

f-16pilotTX

elegant

We have seen several, highly-connected, 30+ year-experienced media, and most are consistently reporting within $10K of the entry Stingray.

True there are others who are saying higher, but nice that those media who have “long term creeds” are mostly in the Stingray plus up to $10K as the entry price for the ME.

Chrjones2

As someone who has a 19 z06 on order, it certainly makes me pause and wonder if i should go through with the deal or wait until January.

Suns_PSD

Cars depreciate but a manual trans, high hp, rear wheel drive, front engine Corvette is always going to have a buyer. They are incredible values.

My fast as Hell, damn good looking, low mileage C6 is only worth about what a new 140hp BRZ costs. Younger and less affluent people will be buying C7s for $30-50K for another 15 years. Great cars!

grcor

The link you included is for European sales for the Cayman.

Cayman US 2-3 thousand + Europe 3-4 thousand = 5-7 thousand
Boxster US 2-3 thousand + Europe 4-5 thousand = 6-8 thousand

Corvette sales in Europe is 500 to 800.

So the Porsche Boxster/Cayman sales are about a little less than half (11-15 thousand) of the Corvette's. Add in the sales for ME exotics and you get pretty close to Corvette sales.

One other fact you for forgetting. The original C7 design was ME along with a Cadillac ME and bankruptcy killed both of them. There were NO plans to continue production of a C6 FE if the C7 ME made it to production. Now we are going to get Corvette C8 ME and a Cadillac ME and that is what the extra room at Bowling Green is for.

elegant

Good points grcor. One other use of the soon-abandoned 250,000 square feet of the “old” paint shop, will be for the expansion of the Powertrain Build Center — though we yet do not know how much the PBC expansion will take up of that amount. If only a small amount, that would leave room for second/separate assembly line. If the PBC expansion is a large amount, that could well preclude a second line.

I for one, and we all know this is contentious difference among many of us , still feel that the FE and the ME will be assembled, back-to-back, on the same (and only) assembly line.

Contrary to some conjecture, GM will not be telling us such things at the BASH nor anytime soon, for the official GM posture remains that not only that they will not tell us anything about the ME, but they do not even acknowledge it is ever coming, e.g., the famous “we do not discuss potential future product” answer.

LIStingray

DiLorenzo's quote was $69k, which would be a little less than $10k more than a Z51 1LT. That would put a typical 2LT Coupe at $75k - about $20k more than the currently sell for with the 12-15% discounts, and I wouldn't expect any discount in year 1 and maybe year 2.

dcbingaman

A FE C8 is actually a C7.5 OR a C9. The C8 is a mid-engine sports coupe.

If there is a C7.5 / C9, then I think will continue with a convertible option. Convertible mid-engine cars look like be-headed turtles...not worth the time, but a hardtop FE coupe would be a big improvement over the C7 rag-top.

I am GUESSING, but Chevy may be working the same strategy as Ferrari has with the 488 GTB mid-engine sports car, and the Portofino front engine convertible hardtop Grand Tourer, but at a lower price point. Same engine, but two different chassis's.

A convertible hardtop C9 would be an awesome addition to the line and would be the ultimate GT. The ME will be an terrific sports car / track toy.

dcbingaman

Elegant - do you know if GM will have the Performance Build Center open for tours during the April 2018 BASH ?

elegant

No, neither the PBC nor the Plant will be open at all during the BASH. In fact, the Plant is only open this month and next for those who have purchased the $5,000 “build your own Z06/ZR1 motor,” and the only way that happens is that there is a separate, closed-off entrance through the Admin building.

The PBC itself is further separated from the Plant now in that all its windows are opaquely covered off on the Plant side of the window — so not peeking from inside the PBC no matter what attempts are made to see the “secret stuff” now going on within the Plant.

JoesC5

That same space that was occupied by the old spray booth and ovens could also be utilized for a new mid engine frame assembly/welding area.

You don't have to run a FE and a ME corvette down the same "assembly' line. Run the FE on the existing line in the old building and run the ME on a new line in the new building.

That's why they doubled the floor space. Two separate assembly lines and two separate frame assembly/welding area.

sunsalem

You have a good point.
There is no indication at all what GM intends to do with the FE while it produces the ME.
GM isn't giving anything away (unfortunately).

Thumbs up to that idea.
I had an XLR and the virtues of a folding hardtop shouldn't be underestimated...it's perfect in climates that have rain.

VETTE-NV

The only thing I miss about my Mercedes SL was the folding hardtop. It was very well engineered and the car really did feel like a true hardtop coupe. Too bad it was such a POS.....I'd still have it if it weren't.