I agree that the C8's mid-engine's looks aren't as sharp as the previous front-engined C7, but more than that is probably responsible for the new one not selling as well. One problem (and I have to confess my own GM dealership is also doing it), is simply marking up the C8's too much over list....I've seen them marked up as high as 50% on the second-sticker.

 

Who says the new one is not selling well? Dealers are getting huge markups. Its selling great.

 

Figures through the end of the year are not available yet, but Corvette sales were down markedly last year in earlier quarters. GM does not report monthly sales, but quarterly. The pandemic, of course, played a part. So is production...the factory simply isn't producing that many of them. And the dealers can get markups because of that limited production.

This, from Google.....

 

Not only that, but the factory is still not accepting any orders for dealer stock. Every single unit built is a customer-sold order. That was the case for all of MY2020 production, and it looks like will be the case at least into early MY2022 production. An order placed today will not be delivered for 8-10 months, possibly longer depending on the specific allocation and waitlist at your particular dealer. The backlog is THAT long. Some large dealers already have 1,000+ reservations for the Z06, which hasn't even been announced yet.

Any units for sale on a dealer lot are customer-ordered cars where the sale fell through. There can be many reasons for this: financing fell through, customer got a car sooner on a different order from a different dealer, decided to buy something else due to the long wait, dealer tried to jerk the customer around at delivery, etc. Yes, many of these have large markups. And many are actually selling for large markups.

None of this indicates a model that is "not selling well". Quite the opposite, in fact.

The factory was fully closed from March 20th through May 26th. It should therefore surprise no one that Q2 sales volume was down. There were literally zero cars produced for 9 out of the quarter's 13 weeks, and more than two of the 6 months in the first half. So this is cherry-picking of data at its finest.

They ramped back up to full production rather quickly, which was 170 cars per day, and is now 180 cars per day. Even with a two month closure and other significant slowdowns, 21,627 Corvettes were sold in 2020, vs. 17,988 in 2019.

 

The main problem, though, is not necessarily lack of demand, but low limits on production. That's one reason why you can have low numbers and mark-ups and long waiting-periods for orders at the same time. The plant was also shut down temporarily for a while in October.

 

Where are they? I never see them on the road where I used to see a lot of new Corvettes on the road for the new Gen. Since it was released I have only seen 2 mid engine Corvettes on the road and I would think they would be everywhere considering it is now mid engine and getting good reviews, nice interior, priced like no other mid engine V8 sportscar. As far as production limited, when plants are running, they can churn out hundreds to thousands in a pretty short amount of time, other GM plants are open along with other makers, I don't think it is just the Corvette plant especially considering Kentucky was not hit that bad with the virus.

I went to the Corvette museum in the fall mainly to see the Ed "Big Daddy" Roth collection/display, saw where customers can pick them up at the museum and they had a few inside for people to do that.

 

See above post from geko.

 

I've seen a surprisingly large number of the out and about. Would be such a fun car to own.

 

You are correct on most counts. For whatever reasons, I haven't seen many on the roads, either.

 

Ha, I've seen a lot of Memes like this since the GM Announcement. It is true, while GM is wanting to go Electric, FCA - Dodge just came out with a Durango HellCat and a 6.4L V8 in a Wrangler. Rumors are there could be a 6.4L V8 Scat Pack engine in a Pacifica, that would be Awesome.
.
450HP V8 Wrangler

 

To close out the “C8 isn’t selling well” discussion and move back on topic, Q4 sales numbers are out, and the count is 8,992, vs. 3,491 in Q4 2019. Also notable that this represents more sales than all other cars in the premium sports car class, combined. That class includes:

Porsche 911
Porsche 718 (Boxter and Cayman)
AMG GT
Audi R8
BMW i8
Acura NSX

It also significantly outsold all versions of the much-cheaper Camaro by almost 1,500 units.

Now, back to GM’s crappy (IMO) new logo....

 

Buyers are still having problems getting them, particularly in certain colors.

https://carbuzz.com/news/chevrolet-i...e-buyers-again

When I first saw it (early in the thread), I was disappointed in the new logo too. But, considering that, with a couple of very few exceptions, GM is now light-years away from the GM that I grew up with and came to know (GTO, Chevelle SS, Grand Prix, big luxury cars from Pontiac/Buick/Olds/Cadillac, etc.....), they might as well go ahead and change the logo itself....why try and hang onto it? In fact, some of the other trademark GM logos on the vehicles, like the "Mark of Excellence", and "Body by Fisher" disappeared decades ago.





I have come to the conclusion that too many members of my generation are trying to hold onto the 1960s (as far as vehicles go, I myself did for too long)....and, like it or not, for many reasons, the world of vehicles and driving has simply changed. It's one reason (among several) why I've finally given up trying to drive 1960s-style vehicles and am downsizing into something more practical for today. Same with badges......sooner or later, change was going to happen.

 

Very well said Marshall.

 

Thanks.

One of my former supervisors was like that....not willing to come into the present. He used to attend all of the local classic-GM shows (I went to some of them myself), and he would keep buying old GM products from the 60s into the 1980s. I can't remember all of the ones he had, but he did have an Olds Toronado Trofeo from the 80s, a Chevy Monte Carlo SS from sometime in the late 70s when it was first downsized, and, when he retired, one of this his dream cars.....a restored '68 Pontiac GTO convertible. If I remember right, I think he was once considering a Pontiac Fiero, but I convinced him that they were simply too poorly-built (see my Fiero write-up)....an interesting design, but one of the worst pieces of quality-control (along with the X-Body cars) that GM ever did.

 

This actually came today....the ad on the first page over.