Jeff V.

I'll admit, this is a big of a reach. But it's a slow news day.

http://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/...silverado.html

The press release mentions the new Silverado 2500HD and 3500HD will be launched in 2019 as 2020 models. Actual production is scheduled to start in Q3 2019.

How does this relate to the C8/ME? The ME was recently spotted testing in Colorado alongside a couple of huge, heavily camouflaged trucks. If the car and the truck are at similar places in their testing and validation schedule, it's likely the car will also be a 2019 launch for model year 2020.

Like I said, it may be a bit of a stretch. But all we've really got at this point is crumbs.

DickieDoo

interesting point, as long as they are currently in the same place in their development cycles, you may be on to something. Shared engine perhaps? that has always been the secret to making the corvette so affordable, it's a truck motor !

JerriVette

Hope your right...

As reasonable as any other conjecture.

elegant

Thanks Jeff V. This timetable fit with more than a few past posts/media articles, e.g., first customer deliveries summer of 2019. [Let us not that summer extends through the third week of September.]

And BTW, the first C7 was customer delivered on September 20, 2013 (consistent with GM’s started plan, announced at the 1.13.13 to delivery them).

Though of course, GM has not even officially announced we will ever see a ME Corvette, let alone its customer delivery schedule.

Batman 357

Maybe the Bash at the Corvette Museum.

Quinten33

elegant

Sorry but that will not be happening. If someone at the BASH asks a question of Tadge, Harlan, Kirk or all other GM employees present, and even mentions the ME, the next generation Corvette, next year’s Corvette, or remotely similar, the answer will be identical, “we do not comment on potential future product.”

Walter Raulerson

Do Chevrolet trucks have CORVETTE engines or do CORVETTES have Chevrolet truck engines?

yellowmnm

Right GM has been totally normal. Right now in the beginning of April 2018 and on the dealer's lots are full of 17s 18s and 19s Corvettes. Also, the ME is been driving around for almost a year? I say maybe late 2018 you never know?

elegant

The number of 2017’s on lots is greatly diminishing. I just talked to a local dealer this afternoon who sells an average of 10/year and while he had four 2017’s in November, as of last month, he had just sold his last one. Another very major forum dealer has cut his large inventory of 2017’s by 2/3’s over roughly the same time period.

Of course, GM kicking in a fair amount of 2017 incentive cash has played a major role. Both of their number of 2018’s has also gone down during this time period — again due to GM’s cash assistance.

Of course, all the above does not mean that GM doesn’t still have a very large of unsold C7’s, but if someone can come up with the number of “days in inventory” right now, we would be noting a large reduction from the 270 average days in inventory that GM had last August.

Still an issue, but just saying it is a much lesser one than it used to be. How comfortable is GM with kicking in a lot of cash to do this? I sure as hell do not know. And maybe, if those who believe that the C7’s run is totally over when production ends around next March, with GM afterwards only producing ME’s, and with no Corvettes of any kind being made from roughly April 1st through middle of next summer (or later), maybe GM is just fine with having a large number of unsold 2018’s and 2019’s sitting on dealers’ lots for quite a while next year.

Too many variables for us to figure out at this time, especially since we do not definitively know GM’s post 2019 Corvette production plans, e.g., FE and ME’s, or, just ME’s only.

CitationZ06@yahoo

KnightDriveTV

Exactly...which is what makes the bashes lame. Dave Hill used to talk about future products in a vague way, enough to make you feel like you were actually getting something. You don't have to give away the secrets, but you can talk generally about some things.

I asked a question one year about the future of Corvette and what direction Tadge would like the car to go (drivetrain choices, existence of a manual gearbox, core construction, etc), given the choice, taking into consideration regulatory measures and the current market of sports cars. This was an opinion based question, just because I was curious where his mindset was. He ducked that question in the same way, which was lame.

elegant

Guess Tadge et al choose to keep their jobs instead of making us happy before reveals.

KnightDriveTV

Cmon now...that's a bit extreme. There are ways to answer questions, without answering questions vs just putting the palm in your cores face.

elegant

Not extreme, for what is the running count of GM direct employees and GM supplier employees fired since just the beginning of this year. Like all employers GM sets the rules.

If employees are told not to even acknowledge that there is a mid engine Corvette at any time in the future, and someone were to ask Tadge a hypothetical question, “who do you think the theoretical advantages of a mid-engine could be,” and he answered that, we all know the conseaquences.

First, the media would conveniently leave out the words “hypothetical and theoretical” and instead report, “Corvette Chief Engineer said that a mid-engine is better at getting initial traction out of a corner.”

Second, the next media person would subsequently report a few hours later, “Tadge said the upcoming mid-engine will have better off the line traction that the current C7’s.”

And then what about the 20,000 unsold C7’s that GM already has/will produce between now and the reveal?

I do not blame a single GM employee for saying nothing.

Our impatience is solely our problem. GM is teasing us masterfully starting with the November McDonalds cars — and sending them there during a crowded lunch time? I know of one forum dealer who already has over 100 future customers on his mid-engine, time-and-dated-stamped priority list. And if one-third drop off, he will have twice that many to replace them after the reveal.

Bill Dearborn

Many moons ago new car releases occurred in October. That is when they used to let all of the new models sit under covers in the show rooms until the sell date. Dealers would have big parties the day the covers were taken off.

Bill

sunsalem

I expect we will get a lot of info at the EOY.

elegant

That was the pattern with the C7 reveal, with 4 teaser videos spaced out, e.g., starting in mid-October and going into December, and then a fuzzy, “whole car” on a track picture in mid-December.

Sometime in December, we saw the start of the countdown clock until the reveal moments.

elegant

More, NAIAS ME Reveal supporting information! After all, Detroit is not only GM’s home territory, but is not press coverage the critical component of the ME’s reveal.

Read more: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/04/...#ixzz5CZdVNPJP