mid engine corvette qtr panels leaked photo

I think you guys are both right: the Corvette is a PR stunt on a General Motors scale. It is a giant company. Everything they do is huge. I love their cars and really love the Corvette.

 

First. Everyone is well aware of certain legendary CEO's (like Roger Smith...) that tried to kill the Corvette. Second. According to Tadge Juechter, there was ZERO fight coming out of bankruptcy with the "Car czar" about Corvette. Again, according to Tadge, in the FIRST meeting, one of the first questions was "What's happening with the new Corvette"?
Third: The mid-engine car is NOT ready to show. If you think it's a good idea to show a prototype car 18 months BEFORE it can go on sale (when you JUST showed the ZR1 2 months earlier and have PLENTY of C7's to sell RIGHT NOW), then YOU are the one that is completely naïve about how the car business works. Will Ferrari show the 488 replacement 18 months before the sale date? Not hardly.
And finally. Corvette is NOT a "pet project". It is a viable, money making brand within GM.

 

I agree they didn't drop the Corvette because of the negative effect it would have on the brand, but if it didn't generate serious money, it would have most definitely been gone. It makes Chevy money - period, end of sentence. Auto sales are such a low margin game, anything more than standard is a gift, and one that can contribute over 50 years is a keeper. It's more than justified the investment.

They didn't show it at Detroit because they showed the Silverado, another high margin vehicle that sells more than 10x the volume of the Corvette. Silverado is FAR more important to GM / Chevy than the Corvette.

 

The reason for the Vette no-show at Detroit is very simple. Chevrolet introduced the vehicle that pays the bills at GM, the Silverado. The ME Vette would have sucked all the oxygen out of the room and taken the focus off the Trucks. They also wanted to avoid the dreaded NSX/Camaro effect where the vehicle is shown so long before it's available for sale that everyone's bored by the time it comes out.
They're planning a very special reveal, so we'll all just have to wait.

 

Spot on, and agreed - Silverado pays the bills, and there's no way Chevy wants to draw attention away from that reveal.

 

on track with a captive audience >


2018 LE MANS RACE WEEKEND
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WHEN:
June 16, 2018 @ 7:00 am – June 17, 2018 @ 10:30 am
WHERE:
National Corvette Museum
350 Corvette Dr
Bowling Green, KY 42101
USA
2018 NCM LE MANS RACE WEEKEND!
JUNE 16-17, 2018

Attention GT and Prototype Race Fans of ALL Marques!!

On June 16 – 17, 2018 the world’s greatest car manufacturers will battle at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Through special arrangement with the ACO, three locations outside of France will be given commercial free, direct feed of the race… Berlin, Tokyo and Bowling Green, Kentucky at the National Corvette Museum.

We are planning to show the race on our 28-foot giant screen in the Chevrolet Theater, with live timing and scoring, refreshments during the entire 24 hours, private Skypes from the Corvette Racing team and door prizes. We think this will be the next best thing to being there yourself!

SPACE WILL BE VERY LIMITED –
Advance registration closes at 5:00pm on June 1, 2018 or until sold out
No registrations or refunds are available after that date.
Registration for this event is $150 per person and will include:

• 24 hour opening of the NCM’s Theater for viewing purposes
• Access to view the race in the NCM Conference Center
• Early opening of NCM on Saturday, June 16th
• Continental breakfast Saturday / Full breakfast Sunday
• Lunch provided on Saturday June 16th
• Pasta dinner Saturday evening
• Midnight Ice Cream bar
• Cash bar will be open Saturday from 5:15pm – 7:00pm
• Snacks & refreshments provided all 24 hours
• Drawings for Memorabilia (Must be registered participant & present to win)

Security will cover the front grass circle entrance door (parking lot A entrance) from 5:00pm – 8:00am so you are free to come and go at your leisure. RV parking is allowed in the truck parking lot for this event only. Bring in your sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, etc. for an all night stay in the NCM. All activities are open to Event Registrants ONLY.

 

Hmmm

 

I completely agree. Chevy will use the ME for maximum PR effect when the timing is best. That wasn't Detroit.

I don't blame them. I would do the same. A new Corvette gets a lot of press and that helps the Chevy brand, even if you are only going to buy a $100 a month lease Cruise

In the grand scheme of things, the Corvette makes GM very little money in sales. But as an item to their line and Chevy brand, it's huge. That's why it's still around.

 

I know you have stated the Corvette makes GM very little money in sales, but I don't think that's accurate. Sure, as a percentage of its overall revenue, Corvette sales aren't a big number, but in terms of profitability, it is meaningful. Mark Reuss (President of GM North America) was quoted as saying "The Corvette makes as much money as any of the top-profit models in our company, that is why we do it."

I don't know average selling price, but if you move 40,000 units per year @ $50,000 per, that's $2B - that's not bad at all (still something like 1.1% of the total GM revenue, but more than I would have thought). Then you have to factor in other parts of the business such as licensing - according to some reports, the Corvette accounts for 25% (yes, TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT) of ALL GM related licensing. GM generates nearly $1B in licensing revenue from the Corvette alone. So now the total contribution is around $3B for a single, low production platform.

So it's not just from a brand perspective - the platform DOES generate meaningful revenue. Even more important, it's highly profitable, so the effect on the bottom line is positive.

 

Meh.... 12,ooo cars next year is peanuts to GM.

PEANUTS

 

12,000 for the Corvette is peanuts too. They better do 30,000+

 

You think GM is going to make just 12,000 mid-engine Corvettes in the first model year? I'll take that bet right now.

 

More like 3500 at $150k a pop.

 

Every time Chevy goes above $100k in the Vette the numbers drop to about 2000 or less.

 

Which is why the C8 / ME will be less than $100K

 

Ah.... no

 

You'll see!

 

How do you know the car is going to be $150K? Tadge is on record saying he can make a mid-engine car for $5K more than a C7 Stingray. The mid-engine car appears to be THE Corvette after the C7 ends in 2021. There is no way GM sank $800MILLION+ into Bowling Green Assembly to make LESS cars. Will there be a $150K mid-engine Corvette eventually (ZR1/Z06)? Sure there will. Are all mid-engine Corvettes going to be $150K. NO WAY.

 

LOL! So you think they can make a more expensive car (mid engine cars are much more expensive and complicated to make which is why they are so rare) and invent millions and millions of $$$$ and they are going to sell it for the the same price as the C7?

I cannot believe the GM bean counters approved that when they could sell the C7 for the next 4 years easily with updates.

 

Alfa Romeo 4C
Porsche Cayman
Porsche Boxster
There's THREE mid-engine cars that sit squarely in the Corvette price point, and one (the 4C) is CARBON FIBER. Tell me what is SO much more complicated and expensive about a mid-engine platform....

 

The Alfa is a money loser PR stunt. I'm happy to own one but Alfa loses money on each one.

Porsche is a unique case. They have great world wide sales. Corvettes don't.

 

Well, sales are sales, right?
I couldn't find final 2017 calendar numbers so here's 2016, WORLD WIDE Numbers:
Porsche Cayman/Boxster: 24,882
Porsche 911: 32,409
Corvette: 41,445

Porsche wins the overall number 57,291 to 41,445. Now, as has been pointed out ad nauseum, the mid-engine car is Chevrolet's attempt to make some real hay in Europe (in 2016, they sold 962 C7's in Europe with NO right hand drive available).

Now, if you compare U.S. sales of Corvette verses ALL the Porsche sports cars, it's not a contest, Corvette wins easily.

Think what you like. Reality is the mid-engine Corvette will be the biggest sports car introduction in DECADES. And it will fly off the shelves.

 

The most Chevy has made in one year is 31,000 vettes. If they sold more than that in one year its because they had left over inventory from the year before.

Chevy will make only 12,000 Vettes this year, including the special editions.

 

But they can't - they know that in every generation of Corvette (and literally product in the world), the sales decline at some point. The C7 is at the maturity phase of its lifecycle, which is when you extend (and they have). It's at this point sales start to go down - what do they do by 2021? It's clear they aren't testing / developing a FE replacement at this moment (that could change), and from what I hear, they aren't.

With the things we DO know, I'm 95% confident the ME / C8 is a $65-70k car all day long.

 

What if there were 2 versions of the upcoming Corvette?
Two different price points.......