After roughly four months on the market, General Motors has extended allocation of the 2014 Corvette C7 Stingray to all 3,000 Chevrolet dealerships in the United States.
Allocation of the new Corvette was limited to just 900 dealers when the car first went on sale in September, with eligibility being determined by a dealer’s past Corvette sales results. To be eligible for allocation, dealers must have sold at least 4 Corvettes in 2012.
“They are (now) all eligible and it is up to them to decide if they want to participate,” Chevrolet spokesperson Monte Doran told Edmunds.
Given that initial demand for the 2014 Corvette was high and supply was limited during the car’s launch, GM opted to allocate the first several thousand C7s produced to dealers that could sell them quickly. Through the end of November, approximately 7,000 examples of the C7 have been sold.
Now that all U.S. Chevrolet dealers have allocation from GM, those that want to sell the C7 need to meet certain criteria. That criteria consists of sending at least one employee to a one-and-a-half day training session at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada. The program costs $2,000 per employee, not including travel expenses.
“As a dealer, you have to agree to specific criteria that includes sales and service training requirements,” Doran said, adding that even though all dealers will now be eligible to order and sell the C7, some operate in areas where there is little demand for such vehicles.
“It really depends on where the dealer is,” he said. “Some dealers are in markets where there is not a huge demand for a two-seat, rear-wheel-drive, high performance car. Some dealers bring in the new Corvette just to get people to stop by, and even if they don’t purchase it, they could be convinced to get another car.”
Comments
Interesting how corvette is distributed to dealers. Almost like it’s a “brand within the brand”.
In the exact same way the Spark EV is distributed to dealers. It’s a “brand within the brand”.
No one to lie to but yourself.
Looks like Bowling Green built more C7’s than expected. . . .
It’s more likely that initial demand has been satisfied while standards for assembly quality have caught up to production efficiencies. So now, it’s more appropriate to let any dealer (that is certified and wants to order them) have it.
Except the spark has a big ugly bow tie and is hideously ugly.
I find the Spark to be quite attractive, as do many others.
That statement rings especially true when comparing it to its competitors. Those are truly ugly.
Wrong! The Spark EV is 100% electric, and since no other GM vehicle is, the Spark EV is it’s own brand within a brand. Everything else GM makes has an ICE, the Volt and ELR included.
Brand within a brand! BRAND WITHIN A BRAND!
See how incomplete your reasoning is when you see it from the outside?
To my eye, the Spark is one ugly car. A good looking small car is the Opel Adam.
Perhaps they ticked off enough dealers and alienated sufficient potential customers that it finally sunk into their thick skulls that their “allocation” policy was idiocy. Could it also be that having a new, lady, boss in the offing shook some people awake?
Does the C-7 have chevrolet badging on it anywhere besides the hidden bow tie in the corvette flags emblem?
With the stingray model branding, I think we could see an additional model like a sedan (similar to the panorama from Porsche).
Here’s a 2012 article from auto news about previous talk of creating a separate brand and franchise for Chevrolet. I think in many markets, especially globally, corvette would pair better with cadillac. It is also would make more sense than producing a cadillac version again.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20120224/BLOG06/120229931/1261#axzz2oI1U1Uof
The big problem for you is that the Chevrolet badge in the C7 emblem ISN’T HIDDEN. Anyone can see it.
Unless you have very poor eyesight, you’re acting like the C7 has the Chevy bowtie concealed benighted the body panels and under sheet metal and stamped like a chassis VIN in some obscure part of the car.
Hell, you can even visit http://www.corvette.com . You’ll notice the URL doesn’t have the word ‘Chev’, ‘Chevy’, or ‘Chevrolet’ in it. But when you click the link, you’ll see nothing but bowties, and a re-directed URL to Chevrolet’s US page.
Read it and weep dan.
The only problem with the Corvette to attain the volume that GM/Chevrolet wants is the pricing. Don’t forget the original idea was to make a sports car that was slightly out of the average person’s reach, but with a little sacrifice the car could be attained. Despite what the magazines and other opinion makers write, the disposable income used to buy a Vette for most has not really increased in the US since 02/03., when they were selling 35,000 units per month. Corvette pricing should start at about $45,000, Z06 about $50-55,000, and the ZR1 about $70-75, 000. That is the reality of today.
There’s been some talk that GM did looked hard at making the C-7 mid or rear engine. It was determined this was too expensive.
With the success of the C-7, would an additional Corvette super car model make sense? With the high price of exotic sports cars currently in the market there would be room for a super-premium Corvette model in the $200,000 to $300,000 price point and under cut this market segment. With Corvette having the economies of scale already at the Bowling Green plant, this super car could be very disruptive in the segment and potentially highly profitable. With the price difference significant enough, I doubt it would cannibalize C-7 sales. More likely, it would enhance the Corvette brand.
If GM were to offer a super-premium Corvette model, the current dealership/distribution would need to be upgraded and perhaps shift/add some Corvette dealerships to Cadillac.
Only thing to weep about would be if they stuck a big ugly bow tie on the C-7. The bow tie in the flag logo is not visible except from a few feet away. I don’t believe the c-7 even says Chevrolet on it anywhere. The c-7 is a world class car… Very out of place with every car in the chevy showroom except the camaro in my local dumpy chevy dealership.
Why are you putting a hyphen between C and 7?
It’s actually a very small chevy bow tie, not a hyphen.
“No one to lie to but yourself.”
@Z064ever. They never sold 35000 units per month.
To me… the Corvette represents, one of the best of American ideals . Although panned, and sniffed at, by elitist Europeans… the Corvette quality build, with quality parts, and unique styling… sells at a price that is reachable by the majority of American citizens, as well as those countries which have low tariffs.
Corvette represents the American ideal, that every man is a king, and every women is a queen… Not just egalitarian in words, but egalitarian in deed.
Sorry, I meant to write annual sales. Am I bad.
Appreciate the updated news. Good for US guys. I’v had an order in at my chevy dealer (one of the largest dealers in Toronto) for over 2 months and still no acknowledgement from GM. Can u provide any info how we Canadians can get a C7?