To this day, besides the fact it prints money, Porsche purists despise the fact the Porsche Cayenne is a thing. Not only that but then Porsche went ahead and built the Macan, too. Despite enthusiasts’ moaning, there is no denying the success Porsche has found by making luxury and performance SUVs.
So, shouldn’t Corvette do the same? The Detroit News spoke with analysts and former General Motors executives to get an idea surrounding the potential success a Corvette SUV could hold. Most agreed it would be a smash hit.
The report calls its creation the XC7, ‘X’ for crossover and ‘C7’ for the current generation of Corvette and imagines the both the 6.2-liter LT1 V8 and 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 V8 engine finding homes in the performance SUV. Tom Wallace, the retired GM engineer who ran Chevrolet’s Corvette program from 2006-08, said a Corvette SUV must carry the car’s performance torch in every way.
“Front engine, rear drive, with AWD option. Lots of aluminum in the structure,” said Wallace. “Aluminum is mandatory to support the theme that Corvette embraces to be the lightest vehicle in its class. The two V8s from the Corvette stable are also a must.”
Bob Lutz, GM’s former car czar, agreed with Wallace.
“Like the Cayenne, the appeal of the ’Vette SUV would be RWD proportions. It should, in fact, have a silhouette not too different from a Cayenne.”
There are a couple of various problems. The biggest issue is a suitable platform. “To be successful, this vehicle would require an all-new RWD/AWD architecture, which currently does not exist,” said Lutz. “That’s high investment for relatively low volume.” A Corvette SUV would almost certainly eat into Cadillac crossover sales as well, even though Corvette is a unique brand all its own.
“Corvette is a powerful brand that should be developed. Go upmarket with a mid-engine sedan using big Cadillac CT6 architecture, and maybe eventually something like Cayenne. They would split it off from Chevrolet — nobody makes that connection anyway,” Lutz added.
Could you imagine a Corvette SUV one day? Or is it even worse than Porsche creating the Cayenne? Talk to us below if you feel so compelled.
Comments
Cadillac DPi-V.R looks exactly like the Porsche 919 2014-16. Look at them without their paint. Now they want a Corvette SUV to “have the same proportions as the Cayenne”.
Ever read all those diatribes from GM execs about how China is wrong to copy their stuff?
“Most agreed it would be a smash hit.”
Well, they’re wrong.
Sadly, it would sell and especially in China. With Opel gone GM will waste money on crazy stuff.
I’ve always felt that Corvette should be a stand alone brand. The success of C7 bulsters this thinking. A strong Corvette might compensate for a Cadillac doomed to never be popular in the US.
I’ve been saying it for a while now, Corvette can easily split off and be its own brand. As Lutz said, few people associate Corvette with Chevrolet. Camaro is the performance machine they associate with Chevrolet. Corvette could easily become a small off-shoot to take on Porsche and Maserati. Corvette can be the performance focused brand, while Cadillac is the luxury oriented brand that is more focused on Mercedes and Audi. Audi and Porsche show that this type of relationship can exist and be profitable.
The Corvette lineup could be:
Stingray – front engine, RWD, entry level sports car
Zora – mid engine, AWD, flagship
Mid Size SUV – take on Cayenne
Sedan – take on Panamera
Corvette sedan…
Yeah no.
That would fill a nice market gap if GM had an entire performance lineup under the Corvette brand.
But here’s a hypothetical question. Would the the Camaro be in or out? I’d vote in…
I’d leave Camaro under Chevrolet. Let that become their halo performance car.
Is this April fools?
I agree with this.. and I’m a Corvette enthusiasts since I was 4 years old.. and a Corvette owner who has had a C3, C4, C5, C6, and now C7. Considering what Porsche has done it would only help the case for the regular Vettes down the line. And let’s face it.. the Camaro does a damn great job as being a halo performance vehicle and all the performance to match. The Corvette really should be its own brand.. sold outta Cadillac dealerships for a bunch of reasons.. one being the service. I reeeeeeeeally hate the idea sometimes of my Z51 going in for service and its sitting in a service bay with a Spark or old Aveo. No offense to the Spark.. but I spent $70K. I’m sure the Z06, and soon ZR1 owners feel the same. Anyway.. use OMEGA or Alpha. They are car based but RWD and certainly capable of being taller.
Omega and Alpha are the definitely the way to go. Car reviewers absolutely love the new ZL1 because of Alpha. They can’t believe how well the platform handles the 650hp. Among many, it is their top pick for the Alpha family. Imagine a crossover based on it with that big V8. We haven’t seen it yet, but I’m very interested in how Omega handles a V8. It could be good for a bigger crossover, or even a fastback Corvette sedan (Escala…).
Your point on distribution and service is also a great point. Corvette buyers are a whole different class of buyer from Sparks and Cruzes. Cadillac dealerships would be a great outlet for the Corvette brand, similar to Audi and Porsche.
I would buy that and since all the development work is done, give it a manual. It would be the only one out there and a clear sign that it’s a serious performance machine.
The high-performance SUV space is one that Cadillac crossovers need to be in, not Corvette.
Sadly, Cadillac has chosen the easy way in making nose heavy-heavy front-drive-based crossovers that compete with Lexus instead of BMW or Mercedes. Stupid strategic planning on the part of GM and Cadillac.
The growth for traditional sports car is crowded and limited. The Porsche model if done right is a money machine. 2/3 of Porsches sold are SUV’s and the brand represents 35% of the profits of the VW empire. They are swimming in money.
Car and Driver has Cadillac’s Escalade being able to accelerate to sixty in 5.8 seconds, this is a near 6,000-lb vehicle accelerating to 60mph in under 6 seconds when powered by the LT1 6.2L V8; one can only imagine that the LT4 650 hp supercharged 6.2L V8 should be capable of shaving at least 1-1.5 seconds meaning zero to sixty in 4.3-4.8 seconds.
How does it do on the road course? Porsche SUVs can actually go around corners.
Even a school bus can be made fast in a straight line.
About the same as a Benz GL or a Range Rover HSE.. and actually not to far off from a Cayenne Turbo S that has a purpose built sport suspension and more power. Sorry Bud.. but the days of GM building anything that doesn’t handle are gone. I can attest that in my ’15 Yukon I constantly find times that I’m hitting the road in it as if I’m in my 14 Z51 or 16 CTS-V. Quite frankly it handles better than my FWD 14 Impala.. Point of putting those up is to show exactly what I’m comparing it to. The Escalade.. given a purpose built Sport suspension beyond the already stellar MRC accompanied one.. would give the smaller Cayenne a run for the money. Give it a matching HP engine and it would put the Porsche on a truck IMO..
Check out MT tests just to get an idea of what I speak.
I always thought that the Camero should bring back the Pontiac nameplate, especially with all he new and future versions of it.
“I always thought that the Camero should bring back the Pontiac nameplate, especially with all he new and future versions of it.”
Ok here the deal on this issue
#1 Porsche is a brand Corvette is a model. You do not see a 911 SUV do you?
To make the Corvette into more than just a 2 seat sports car would damage the equity of the name and dilute the true meaning of the name.
#2 The Porsche is a VW SUV. It really is just a modified model of the VW model and that is all. They are selling image based on a name much like GMC sells the Denali name.
#3 The Corvette has been and will always at least in N America a Chevy. Chevy will not let go of the brand and most Corvette owners are Chevy fans and owners also. They are ok buying their Tahoe from the same dealer they bought their Vette from.
Cadillac is a luxury car brand that when the time is right they need a sports car more like the BMW convertibles. Something more GT like with a trunk for taking up the PCH on the weekend to Carmel.
If you want to take advantage of the Corvette name and branding this is how you do it to make money and how you do it as not to trash the Corvette name and image of being a 2 seat sports car.
The way you go about this is take say a Tahoe or such and give it to the Corvette engineers to tune. They can lower it and install a Corvette engine. Larger wheels and tires with a suspension and brakes that would turn and stop it.
Then you put in under the heading Chevy Tahoe by Corvette engineering.
You upscale the lighting and interior and sell them for $100K.
It would be cheap to build make outrageous profits and if things sour in this segment it could go away or if things got better you could expand it.
This way you leverage the Corvette name with a world class model and make a ton of money on it. Lets face it you really can’t do a SS model easily but this would be easy to pull off.
The Corvette guys in the past have even done a Caprice Wagon. They tuned one up with TPI and Corvette wheels and some added suspension bits to haul their test equipment. The car could not keep up so they tuned it so it could. It even said Corvette on the tailgate.
The trouble here is you have over 50 years of equity of Corvette name and heritage on a 2 seat car. To do anything different could piss it all away. Don’t think it could happen just look at the rise and fall of Cadillac.
Bob Lutz well bless his heart. I like Bob but he does make a mistake from time to time. His sports cars are all dead now. Also remember he is the one that took Hummer and made it a brand when it should have been a GMC model. So much easier to manage.
As for Cadillac they need to focus on what they are a luxury brand and today that is a limited selection of cars and a good set of SUV and CUV models that will earn back their reputation. Cadillac needs to focus on their name to mean as much as Denali does over at GMC to get people to pay more for it willingly.
Remember you take the name and f it up you don’t get a second chance for another 10 years of rebuilding an image.
Be-careful what you wish for.
That’s a nice sacred cow you have there. It’d be a shame if somebody slaughtered it.
Just the realities of marketing.
Sure you could make more money by whoring out the name.
But here is the reality. Olds best selling car in the 80’s was the RWD Cutlass. So what did they do they named several models Cutlass with FWD.
It did nothing to enhance the RWD model and did more damage to the name. In the end they moved the RWD to fwd too and it was never the model it was.
The long and short was we had nearly 40 years of name equity lost to products that were not what the name represented.
You may note Porsche is not making a 911 SUV. There is a difference of using a brand name vs a mfg name.
It takes years and investment to get where we are and only one mistake to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
The risk here could be avoided by just using the By Corvette Engineering.
You can keep the chicken or eat the chicken. One keeps producing the other you had better enjoy the meal as you get one shot.
Let me ask this if you put the Corvette name on a Malibu does it make it a Corvette?
You’re confusing realities with perspectives again.
At this point, Chevrolet is holding Corvette back. The Camaro is shouldering into Corvette territory, and the program is being forced upmarket. The dealership experience, save for a few, is unbecoming of a vehicle that can compete with Porsche products on a performance level.
The mid-engine program will both alienate and attract different buyers. The latter of which could still turn to Porsche products and others like them because of the complete experience of purchasing and owning one. It’s time.
Agreeably, something like a Corvette SUV would need some slow immersion and some warming up to for the die-hard buyers. But you know what? That would be exactly what happened with the Porsche Cayenne. Lots of kicking, and screaming, and rationalizing, and whining from people who cringed at the thought of a Porsche SUV – so the argument of a “brand vs product” is rather moot in this case. Not to mention how removed Corvette is attempting to be from Chevrolet (“Corvette by Chevrolet” is a phrase you should recall).
It’s because of the sales and profits from the Porsche Cayenne, and Macan and Panamera that vehicles like the 918 can be developed. Keeping the Corvette as a two-seat model and mandating it to be sold in a Chevy dealership is nothing short of forced limitation not bound by much reason other than “that’s the way it’s always been.”
I think not. Here’s a better idea: build a mid-size SUV about the size of the old Trailblazer-RWD of course, 4WD and AWD optional. Then do an SS version with about 450 hp. Do an upscale version for GMC and a top of the line for Cadillac. Not sure about Buick……..
These would be usable SUVs that I think would sell great.
The coming mid size RWD based SUV is going to target the Bronco more than anything.
Look for a ZR2 version of it when it arrives.
The head of the RWD midsize truck program was asked about it and she would only say that would be very interesting. Note she did not say no. Now when asked about GMC getting a ZR2 version she said flat no.
GM also will not make a 14 MPG SUV in the mid size range again. This is why the ZR2 has the stock engine and is made more for rock crawling than anything else.
An SS would be a great idea but that time has passes with the coming regulations. Even if Trump relaxes them the car companies are not going to back track. They are just now trying to reach where they need to be now.
Note my new truck while not a SS is not bad with the new 3.6 and 8 speed. I so far have had no issues getting up to speed. Car and Driver said it will do 14’s in the quarter. I am also getting 20 MPG in mixed driving in a 4500 pound crew.
I could see them jumping to the 330 HP engine in the Colorado or future SUV.
I agree a Denali GMC version and a Cadillac version would be expected. The Cadillac do to lower volume could take the TT V6 easily.
Are you implying that Chevy is going to offer a RWD midsize SUV for the US market?
its on the way.. between the new Equinox and the Traverse.. built on Colorado/Canyon frame.. from what I hear
I hate to say it, but you might want to check your sources on that one. There were spy photos of an upcoming Chevrolet midsize crossover. But it’s no truck-based SUV.
I halfway expect GM to make a Corvette/alt name concept SUV that’s cooler than people imagined, then park it in the garage next to the Elmiraj and the Avista, never to be seen again.
GM has been on a role of showing off amazing cars that they’ll never build lately.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. A Corvette SUV? Porsche did it so that makes it OK? That is a false comparison. It’s not the same as Porsche adding an SUV.
Without going into a dissertation I’ll just say that a Corvette SUV is as dumb as New Coke. Young folks don’t even know what I just said but you older readers know.