JerryU

Hmm, I can see it now, fast forward to mid 2020!

There will be some that won't give up! Quoting, "The FE C8 is coming, GM is just waiting until the last "old C7" is sold from Dealer Stock!

Yep with that marketing logic, GM is hoping you guys get a job with Ford!

Foosh

That's right, when you've been a senior exec responsible for a $2B annual operating budget at a Fortune 100 company, you understand the how's and why's of corporate decision-making. I'm currently responsible for independent oversight of an organization w/ an $18B annual operating budget. That includes how business cases are built and approved or not, and whether decisions made are well-supported or not.

However, as I've also noted, I've seen some pretty stupid decisions made over the years, and GM is known for some. Stupid in this case would be simultaneous FE and ME, 2-seater offerings, and pricing yourself out of your traditional market segment because you designed something too expensive to build.

GM isn't going to become Porsche or Ferrari overnight with one new product. It takes baby steps on a long road to building a more prestigious reputation.

My arguments here have always been based upon the assumption that GM will make a good business decision in this case, but it's certainly possible, although not likely, that they will make a bone-headed one here.

Telepierre

The idea of an FE & ME offering is not new and manufacturing wise I find it hard to believe that at least three companies with 200K units a year, 8K a year and 6K unita a year can do it but GM/Chevrolet with 2M a year can't..?.

So I suppose the no sayers are basing their rationalizations on a purported insufficient business case. Yet, we have not seen the math PLUS who is to say they will do it for strategic competitive positioning (at least at the beginning) rather than margins?

Just a thought.

Cheers

PCMIII

The idea that Corvette is going to abandon a profitable market segment that it has dominated for decades -- FE sports car under $75k -- is absurd. What would be the point of doing that?
Obviously Toyota and BMW both think this market segment is a good one or they would not be building the Supra and Z4 to compete in it. I think Toyota and BMW know a lot more than the ME fanatics here who claim the FE is finished as soon as the ME hits the market. The ME Corvette is totally unproven and untested. Nobody would bet the Corvette brand on an unknown.

jefnvk

Reread the arguments, and remind me again which company is selling the same MODEL in both a ME and FE? There is exactly no one saying a company can't make both, and Chevy will be doing exactly that in a year or two. I have yet to be given a single example of one from any manufacturer which offered two different engine placements in the same model line in the same model year.

PCMIII

So are you saying that Corvette buyers are too stupid to be able to differentiate between a ME and a FE? Making the FE and ME in the same model line would be too confusing?

JerryU

This is my perspective, recently validated with a comment from Andy Pilgrim.

Yep it’s a risk, of ~25,000 cars a year. Put that in perspective, GM sold 585,000 Silverado’s last year. To get a more efficient truck they are putting in a 2.7 Liter, turbocharged, double overhead cam, 4 valve per cylinder engine in it for 2019. It produces 310 hp, which may be what many buyers care about- they are not all gearheads. If they tow, they will probably get the new 3 Liter L6 diesel.

Yep that is a risk with probably there biggest bottom line profit maker.

Now we’d both feel bad if the Corvette went away but in the total picture, with Marry Barra closing a number of plants, eliminating the Impala because they are not selling enough, laying off folks (very expensive in terms of monitory cost and employee moral and satisfaction etc.,) 20,000 to 25,000 Corvettes going away would not end the company.

Keeping large cid pushrod engines instead of moving all engineering technology to EVs and other more efficient system - just might!

PCMIII

Impala bit the dust because it was no longer V8 powered. The big Chevy sedan took off in 1955 and it grew into the 60s with powerful V8s that made the cars legendary. When Impala went V6 only, it was finished. Nobody cared about it anymore.

Mary Barra is not going to kill Corvette. She is going to make it profitable and competitive. Hopefully, she will follow Porsche and Lambo by building an awesome SUV Corvette which is now totally lacking in the GM line up. Jeep has the Trackhawk so why not use GM's strongest brand to match it?

JerryU

^^^

You're probably right had they only provided a 427 cid option like they did in the 1960's the Impala would still be alive!

Yep folks would proably go to Walmart to buy a Rolex, just need to spend money advertising. All you need to do to match the Porsche reputation, High Quality Dealer Network etc just advertise in Road & Track, Car & Driver, Automobile, Street Rodder, Super Chevy etc mags (I get all those.)

Now the Lambo image will be harder. That will take big TV money, maybe the Super Bowl where less than 1/2% of viewers might even consider a Vette are watching.

Heck I stuffed and Olds engine in my '41 Coupe in 1960 and have a 502 in my street rod- but have moved on!

But who knows, we're all guessing!

PCMIII

Well the Jeep Trackhawk is $100K and FCA has no problem selling them. Corvette is a stronger brand than Jeep. Think outside the box.

vndkshn

Impala/etc died when they went front wheel drive AND nothing bigger than a V6 (and a weak one at that). I cringe every time I hear one of the big 3 bring back a name from the past, the cars have always sucked.

Impala/Malibu/Grand Prix... about the only decent one was the GTO and it still had a poor chassis for the time. Dodge with the Challenger (now a four door!), Charger, and Dart. Ford when they tried to bring back the Thunderbird. They talked about bring back the Falcon, but it was the car that became the Focus. The list goes on and on.

JerryU

Have to admit, when daughter asked me to look for a Jeep for granddaughter who is a sophomore in College, thought great she must want a Rag Top CJ5 like I had in the mid ‘70s when we lived in NE OH, where they still live.

Heck no, she wanted a 4 door hard roof with all the extras! They can cost more than a Vette! Yep with her mom and dad working and being the last to leave the nest, she’ll probably get it, despite my saying crazy!

We were walking in a mall parking lot and she saw a Range Rover and thought that would be nice! That is in your $100,000 range!

Yep, I’m out of date! After all it’s only money. But not mine!

jefnvk

No, I'm saying it makes zero sense, from a cost sharing, marketability, business, or consumers standpoint. The only world it makes any sense is in the world of traditionalist fanatics that can't deal with change.

If they truly are making both, which I doubt, I'd bet my life on the ME being far more costly and not called the Corvette.

The closest analog I can even come up with was when Ford called the Freestyle the Taurus X, at least that was the same platform as the Taurus and only lasted all of a year before the name was canned.

Tom73

Now this is just in my world, but I do not see Chevy producing an ME and an FE Corvette. But if they want an FE and ME then I see, again in my world, the ME being the Corvette. A totally new FE, as they would not want any comparison to the C7, would be smaller and lighter, maybe V6 powered, maybe TT. It would slot in somewhere between the old Pontiac Solstice and the C7. There will be an ME Corvette and the FE Corvette goes the way of the Dodo Bird.

PCMIII

If there is only a ME Corvette, there won't be any Corvette. Many Corvette buyers will abandon the brand and sales will tank. With BGA severely underutilized it will change over to other products like trucks, or be sold off.

jefnvk

Well, guess it is the end of the road for Corvette then

C7pimp

If the daily usability, reliability, looks (subjective) and performance are comparable (or improved), I can't find a rational reason why you would even assume this.

The ONLY main difference that we will likely see is the luggage capacity decrease. I'll tell you that as a consumer looking to buy a 2-door, 2-seat sports car for the go-fast goodies and awesome looks, I couldn't give two $#!+$ about less luggage capacity.

I certainly recognize there is a considerable percentage of the $55K-$75K buyers of the C7 to whom this is of importance. Nobody can argue against that. As an outsider "average consumer" who recognizes this as obvious, GM will either be STUPID and completely ignore this in which case they will see a drop in sales numbers from these buyers. On the other hand, I am confident they fully recognize this and have accommodated to the best of their ability to please these customers, which they certainly should have.

Other than that, if simply being mid-engine turns people off because it's forward thinking out of performance necessity and don't like it simply because it lacks a long hood and a short rear end, they can take hike and IDGAF.

Red67John

Man, after all of your posts, why do you keep thinking that Corvette is a brand and that GM will build multiple models of it? The Corvette is one model of the Chevrolet brand of the General Motors Corporation. There are different iterations of the Corvette model, Base Stingray, GS, Z06, ZR1, and even special editions of those iterations. The most telling edition is the recently released Final Edition of the GS and Z06 for the European market. As in the “final” FE C7.

It’s extremely unlikely that Chevrolet will design and build more than one Corvette model, and certainly not an SUV. Chevrolet has a number of those already and GM has as many or more SUVs than cars.

GM appears to be ensuring the future of the Corvette by developing the next generation to compete even more of competatively with those more expensive Euro cars, offering even more bang for the buck than ever before, and probably even planning new drivetrains that will most likely include a future electric version.

And no, the C7 and C8 frames cannot possibly be as similar as you believe. Everything from the engine location and mounting locations of an all new suspension, to the bumper mounting points, almost certainly has to be totally new and different as the C8 itself. It’s a completely new generation of the Corvette..

The C8 ME is the new generation of the Corvette, and the Corvette will survive for many more years. C7 FE production will be over when the ME goes into production, because the C7 FE will be just as much the past as are the C1 through C6 generations are today.

Sorry, but that’s just the way the evolution of the automobile works. Even Henry Ford had to begrudgingly accept the future of the automobile and it worked out pretty well for his little company.

PCMIII

So how do you like that rear spoiler we have seen? Pretty sexy, huh?

Shifting an auto trans is your idea of a sports car?

From what we have seen so far, the ME has been severely beaten with an ugly stick.

How about $85K to start for a base model? Does that get your motor running?

And don't forget GM has such a great reputation for building all new cars from the ground up. Do you enjoy spending lots of time at your friendly Chevy dealer's service department?

Making the ME the only Corvette is a huge gamble because, apart from a few track rats, there is no demand for the ME which is exactly why Corvette has never built one all these years.

PCMIII

Let me tell you about evolution of Corvette. There are many C2 Corvettes that are worth more than a ZR1. Any C2 in good shape is worth a base C7 today. C1 Corvettes are worth big money too.

What is a Corvette ME worth? Nobody knows because nobody has ever bought one and that is the problem. There is no clear market for the ME Corvette and the whole Corvette brand is based on FE.

Buyers are begging for ZR1s and Corvette can't build them fast enough. The ME will be less desirable for sure.