When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Some of the oversupply, specifically 90 days worth, was planned — for that was the length of the Plant gut and rebuild, but if you add to that the 60 day dealer inventory which is the industry and Corvette’s supply goal, that still only adds to 150 days, e.g., still an extra 120 oversupply beyond that.
My guess is that there is still a 100 to 120 day oversupply of C7’s in spite of all the flex cash millions in incentives GM already spend to reduce it.
Does anyone please know the current days supply of unsold C7’s?
I would have bought one of them if not for the tailights
If this was an evolutionary step with the corvette I wouldn't care.
But I kind of agree with OP. With it being such a drastic shift, and if it really does ditch the manual, it would be nice to have more than a few months heads up. If they would just announce that the C7 will continue, as we expect it to, I wouldn't care.
My personal concern is that the C8 drops the manual and I'll want to get one of the last C7s and I need to plan that out. More than a few months heads up would be nice. If 2019 is the last year of the C7 that is going to be a pain in the butt for me to decided what my next car will be.
It's safe to say that the C8 will not be available with a manual in its first year of production. However, enthusiast demand may force GM to offer it down the road. I can't imagine C7 production ending next September, but it should be over by September 2020. If they do produce the C7 and C8 at the same time, which may not even occur, the C8 may be available with a manual by the time C7 production ends. You'll have at least 6 months to decide, as the C8 will debut no later than the third week of January and the last 2019 orders should be in by mid June of the same year.
Correction on the last 2019 orders’ date. They will most likely end order submittal around the beginning of January (2019) — for right now the 2019’s, as per an internal December 12, 2017 GM memo I have seen, shows the end of the 2019 production estimated as March, 2019. [The word “estimated” was used in that GM Dec 12th memo.]
However, not to worry C7 lovers (those wanting a C7 lifeline if they do not want a ME), as all signs are showing that the C7 will be a full year 2020 model — and most probably also produced for the 2021 model year.
Some of the oversupply, specifically 90 days worth, was planned — for that was the length of the Plant gut and rebuild, but if you add to that the 60 day dealer inventory which is the industry and Corvette’s supply goal, that still only adds to 150 days, e.g., still an extra 120 oversupply beyond that.
My guess is that there is still a 100 to 120 day oversupply of C7’s in spite of all the flex cash millions in incentives GM already spend to reduce it.
Does anyone please know the current days supply of unsold C7’s?
From the outside, I feel as if GM should have intentionally let inventory levels drop and demand and pricing remains stable.
However, the big picture is more complicated. They have dealers that need inventory, sales people that need inventory, assembly line workers that need income, parts that need to get sold for the next 2 decades, even pickup truck/ SUV sales might be closely linked to Corvette inventory as it brings in extra floor traffic.
I read once that the profit on a vehicle in parts and service business over it's lifetime can be 3x that of the initial car sale alone. From that perspective, volume is king.
The bigger picture clearly makes it in GM's best interest, even if they '*****' up the market.
When you look at what prices on new Corvette inventory does (starts with mark ups, goes to MSRP, then ends up well discounted) and what the used prices do (remains stubbornly high), the best economic decision for a consumer is to buy a brand new one from one of the big Vette groups about the 3rd or 4th model year. That is if you can bare to wait.
From the outside, I feel as if GM should have intentionally let inventory levels drop and demand and pricing remains stable.
However, the big picture is more complicated. They have dealers that need inventory, sales people that need inventory, assembly line workers that need income, parts that need to get sold for the next 2 decades, even pickup truck/ SUV sales might be closely linked to Corvette inventory as it brings in extra floor traffic.
I read once that the profit on a vehicle in parts and service business over it's lifetime can be 3x that of the initial car sale alone. From that perspective, volume is king.
The bigger picture clearly makes it in GM's best interest, even if they '*****' up the market.
When you look at what prices on new Corvette inventory does (starts with mark ups, goes to MSRP, then ends up well discounted) and what the used prices do (remains stubbornly high), the best economic decision for a consumer is to buy a brand new one from one of the big Vette groups about the 3rd or 4th model year. That is if you can bare to wait.
I doubt it. Go to a Chevrolet dealer in Farmland, USA and look at their inventory.
A few years ago, a bunch of us were driving to Ft Worth for the Corvette Classic at the Texas Motor Speedway. We were in Oklahoma when a weld on the muffler broke and the muffler was dragging the ground, on a C5. The closest Chevrolet dealer was in a small town south of McAlester, Oklahoma
They had one new Impala on their lot. The rest were trucks. They did not sell Corvettes, but they made their living selling trucks, and the local farmers could not give a **** it they had a Corvette in stock.
I don't know of anyone that was looking for a new truck that went to a Chevrolet dealer because they had a Corvette in inventory.
I do have a friend that went to his Chevrolet dealer(a large Corvette dealer at the time) to buy a new Silverado for his farm. He traded in his C6 ZR1 on the truck(he still kept his Callaway SC606 GS convertible and his two 1967 Corvettes). He could care less if the dealer had a Corvette in inventory as he was only interested a truck at that point in time. He could care less if the dealer had two dozen Corvettes in stock, but was interested only in one of the hundred, or so, pickup trucks that the dealer had in stock. He chose that particular dealer, as he knew he would get a decent trade-in on his C6 ZR1 as the dealer was also interested in used Corvettes for it's used car lot.
^^^ I get what you're saying, but I do think having Corvettes on the lot does bring in foot traffic in a lot of non-specialized areas. Yes, Oklahoma and other farming centric areas are going to be all trucks and no one is going to care. But, if you take a typical city market - Phoenix, San Diego, etc - I can see it working.
Last edited by Steve Garrett; 05-21-2018 at 09:07 PM.
I get what you're saying, but I do think having Corvettes on the lot does bring in foot traffic in a lot of non-specialized areas. Yes, Oklahoma and other farming centric areas are going to be all trucks and no one is going to care. But, if you take a typical city market - Phoenix, San Diego, etc - I can see it working.
When I went into a Chevrolet dealer to look at their Corvettes in stock, that's all I was interested in. Never drove home in a new Chevrolet truck. Looked at new Cadillacs at my local Cadillac dealer, who also sells GMC trucks. Never drove home in a new GMC truck.
Looked at a new Viper at my local Dodge dealer and I never drove home in a new Dodge ram truck.
Looked at a new Ford GT(back in 2006) at my local Ford dealer, and I never drove home in a new Ford truck.
And I'm pretty certain that if I went into a Ford dealer, a GMC dealer, a Dodge dealer, or a Chevrolet dealer with the intention of buying a new truck(in any small town or any large city), I wouldn't be looking at a new sports car(other than killing time looking it over while they got the paperwork done on my new truck) nor would I be selecting which dealer I was going to buy a new truck from, based on whether they had a sports car on their showroom floor, or not.
I think you place way to much emphasis on the "halo" effect of sports cars.
Some people just don't drive trucks I guess, but lots of people do out of necessity. And in that case, there is something to be said for having a relationship with your dealer.
Heck, the guy mentioned above that his buddy chose a dealer for his new truck that specialized in Vettes cause he knew the trade number would be right. Maybe that guy was going to buy GM anyways but stuff like that does get other GM products sold ultimately. If they guy didn't have a Vette to trade, he might have been at the Ram dealership instead.
I'll admit that I like having a GM garage currently and when my wife's Jeep Grand Cherokee Eco-D is worn out, I plan to put her in an Escalade or something family related. IME, GM just makes a higher quality product and IME there is less of the 'scam' occurring compared to my other vehicle purchases.
My feelings are if the M/E car is going to be a higher priced additional model to the current front engine models they are really harming current C7 sales by not revealing where and how this car fits into the corvette family or even the Cadillac family for that matter. IMO its causing such a stir that potential 2019 buyers will wait until January or later to make a C7 purchase decision. It makes no sense at all to me not to reveal the plans for this car so buyers can make a decision on ordering a 2019 C7 or waiting. IMO this is the worst marketing decision a car company could make, but we are talking GM here.
Imagine how 911R owners felt when they paid out the a-hole for, what was believed and rumored to be, the last manual gearbox 911....only to have the following GT3RS get that same gearbox...lol.
I believe they want to cause a mad rush of anxiety for the "last front engine Corvette" and the "first C8 mid engine" that changes everything...only to find nothing will change. C8 will have the front engine, all the disappointed buyers will come on back for the new one, etc.
In theory though, it's sure leading to a bunch of drama, that's for sure. I can't buy a C7 or a C8 or anything else at this point because I'm a f*ckin loser, so...doesn't bother me, but I like talkin about it.
However, not to worry C7 lovers (those wanting a C7 lifeline if they do not want a ME), as all signs are showing that the C7 will be a full year 2020 model — and most probably also produced for the 2021 model year.
Has GM ever produced 2 different Corvette gens for such a long period of time?
Originally Posted by c6corvette
I think that the Mid Engine will be a new "halo" car for GM/Chevy and not a C8 corvette.
Originally Posted by K.I.T.T.
C8 will have the front engine, all the disappointed buyers will come on back for the new one, etc.
Sorry, I can't remember who it was but there has been a post (thread?) on this forum from a guy in the trade who went to a Dealers Only show awhile back and was shown a teaser of something that was introduced as the C8...and it WASN'T an FE.
Sorry, I can't remember who it was but there has been a post (thread?) on this forum from a guy in the trade who went to a Dealers Only show awhile back and was shown a teaser of something that was introduced as the C8...and it WASN'T an FE.
And?
There will be a mid engine...obviously. There will also be a front engine with it. Simple.
Of course, it's all on the same core architecture. The "C8" is an evolution of the C7 frame architecture (just like C6 was an evolution of C5's core architecture)...this is why the original prototype with the Holden Ute body had an obvious C7 front engine mid section, roof, windshield, etc.
Mary Barra made all this very clear in an SAE talk, about GM moving to a three part CAD configuration, dividing all their development into three pieces...essentially in front of the firewall is one, the passenger cell another, and the behind the passenger cell a third. Engineering/CAD is shared, allowing the C7 core to be used and then the stir friction welded cast members and attached front and rear structures to change.
The C8 mid engine, will still have the core architecture of the C7 front engine, within it. The C8 just releases with it's top model first, then the next gen front engine releases after. This allows development of the C9 architecture to begin with the mid-engine.
It's like when the ideology changed from C4 to C5. They then began to design C5 as a vert, versus as a coupe which then needed reinforcement when you took the roof off. They realized, you have to start with what places the most demand on the chassis then work backwards.
The C7 was, without a doubt, developed with the ME car in mind and as the first implementation as to how GM would build cars moving forward.
This is why Bowling Green was expanded the way it was. The core frame architecture begins on the line, but then goes in different directions based upon the configuration that will get built. You save a ton of development cash though, on everything from dash mounting, interior wiring, *****, switches, etc. This is how the ME C8 will meet it's cost targets...because it's diluted with the front engine car.
Last edited by KnightDriveTV; 05-22-2018 at 10:24 AM.
These are images I used years back explaining this in 2016.
The C5/6 architecture used hydroformed rails from front to rear, in entirety. The frame was one entire cohesive unit...as indicated in the pink.
The C7 released and it was much more complex, with proprietary developed methods to attach large cast members to the extrusions...essentially isolating the "cockpit" similar to how a monocoque is built. This allows...options front and rear...how you build a front engine and a mid engine yet keep the floor pan, dash mountings, door hinges, and save a bunch of development dollars. I've seen the architecture in other brands even.
K.I.T.T., a very helpful explanation and diagram, but not personally remain unonvinced of part of your excellent presentation, specially not yet agreeing that you are correct in your “Y” assembly line configuration, that all start down the single bottom leg, and then vehicles branch into two lines, one for the FE’s and one for the ME’s. That would defeat a lot of the cost savings, for that means two teams of installers on each leg of the “Y” once they separated from the initial common “starting leg.” Looking at this another in a zero’d in detail, that since the body panels are now installed last, your thesis is that BA would have one set of body panel installers for the FE’s front fenders, one additional set of body panel installers for the ME’s front fenders — resulting in two sets of installers at double labor costs, for everything assembly line function once the single initial line has split.
Not what I have heard, i.e., no second line has yet been built within the plant —nor is one planned, but as always, I am open to learning more.
Well, you may be splitting hairs a bit on the actual assembly line configuration. The grander point is, Bowling Green will exercise itself initially, by building the Mid engine car beside the front engine one, in unison. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that GM won't continue to do that, for the foreseeable future. You have 65+ years of GT platform customers...you don't wipe the board clean and start over when you're selling 35k cars a year, you figure out how to make that number 55k and share the parts better.
Correction on the last 2019 orders’ date. They will most likely end order submittal around the beginning of January (2019) — for right now the 2019’s, as per an internal December 12, 2017 GM memo I have seen, shows the end of the 2019 production estimated as March, 2019. [The word “estimated” was used in that GM Dec 12th memo.]
However, not to worry C7 lovers (those wanting a C7 lifeline if they do not want a ME), as all signs are showing that the C7 will be a full year 2020 model — and most probably also produced for the 2021 model year.
Well that's for sure, they just introduced the ZR1
05-20-2018, 08:04 PM
