We knew the 40-day UAW General Motors strike would push the production start of the Corvette C8 into 2020, but now the automaker has some official information on the matter.
GM confirmed to multiple publications today that the Corvette C8 won’t begin to roll off the production line at Bowling Green Assembly until February of 2020. Before the strike, production of the new mid-engine sports car was supposed to commence in December, with early orders set to be fulfilled before the end of the year.
Amid the UAW strike, we reported that buyers who were originally set to receive their cars in December wouldn’t receive them until mid-to-late January, with production beginning in early January. Now, with production not beginning until February, those buyers will have to wait even longer to receive their vehicles. It’s unclear when first customer Corvette C8 deliveries will now begin.
Workers at Bowling Green Assembly returned to work late last month, but GM is still fulfilling orders for the Corvette C7, so work on the Corvette C8 is still a long way off. Bowling Green Assembly communications manager Rachel Bagshaw previously told local Bowling Green ABC affiliate WBKO the plant would undergo “some launch-related downtime,” between the weeks of November 18th through December 6th to retool for the arrival of the Corvette C8.
The exact reason for the further production delay isn’t known, though Autoblog says Bowling Green employees need time to learn new production processes before customer cars can be built. We imagine January will be spent learning and perfecting said production processes before cars start to roll off the line in February. As we mentioned above, GM plans to re-tool Bowling Green throughout the last two weeks of November and first week of December.
We’ll continue to bring you updates on the situation at Bowling Green as more information comes to light.
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Source: Autoblog
Comments
That includes the convertible also ?
Hope everyone is having a great day ???
god dammit……
@Zach
???
Why so many down votes? lol Aren’t we all upset it got pushed back? Or is it just me and 4 others?
Just a fact here on this site. Some love the easy way out and hit the “thumbs down” button.
Cowards, who can not present an intelligent response.
I’ve learned to ignore the little P’s. It’s not worth trying to turn a head full of rocks into a rational, intelligent human capable of representing their opinion. Children!
Thumbs up from me.
That really ticks me off. I put a deposit on a 2020 C8 in October, 2017 – assuming it would begin production in August, 2019 AT THE LATEST. Now my Week 5 vehicle will be built in early March and I’ll pick it up in Bowling Green later in the month. As a result, in August my $87,000 investment will be a model year old and I’ll see the value drop by $4-7,000 overnight.
Why don’t the introduce it as a 2021 so that early buyers could drive a CURRENT YEAR MODEL for 18 months, INSTEAD OF SIX?
So I guess the question is ,when will the 2021 Corvette hit showrooms?
No one likes waiting, but it will be worth it!
Healthy sign in bonus and benefits granted to GM workers, they best step up their work at building all GM vehicles. Lets keep working on bringing all GM products back to USA !
I talked to a GM person that said the factory is retooling now and he thinks production may start in December.