If The Chevrolet Corvette Is SO Good, WHY Does GM Have To Discount It THIS Much To Sell?

The market is telling GM where the Corvette needs to be priced.

@MD As well as the car (650hp notwithstanding) is just not special enough and not separated by enough styling wise from the standard car to warrant that price level. The McLaren 570S and the 720S have vastly different power levels and are completely different cars that appeal to different buyers. Corvette may need to do the same.

The modern day conundrum Chevy is facing. Trying to sell a expensive sports car in a dealership and under a brand that is primarily considered down market. The Corvette has a image problem, largely the result of previous generations of poor Corvettes, and more importantly, today, crappy Chevy dealers that do not and probably can not provide the level of sales & service professionalism that a Porsche, Mercedes, etc. dealer can provide. Similar problems plague the Nissan GT-R. Selling a $100K car along with a $20K car under the same brand and dealership just doesn't work in today's market. Furthermore, Sports cars are alot more of a niche product today than in years past.

For the Corvette to sell above $50k says a lot about it. People know that the Corvette is different from every other Chevy in the lineup. The Corvette brand definitely doesn't have an image or marketing problem. Maybe potential buyers have the (self)-image problem instead - needing to have a special dealer store/outlet, special Corvette sales/service staff, separate experience etc. needing to be coddled & pampered. OK, if you plan to spend near or over $100k on any 1 vehicle, well maybe getting a special experience would be nice.

But isn't GM offering their "employee discount" to all customers on everything for the month?

Chevy has stumbled marketing the Corvette. The 2018 model year essentially was cut out after only 3 months of sales by Chevy announcing that the 2019 Corvette would be available in Jan 2018. The big discounts shown in the article are for the 2017 left overs.

Could potential Z06 buyers be waiting to spend on the ZR-1 instead? Waiting even longer for the C8/Zora mid-engine creation?

As we know - most of these expensive cars depreciate quickly - and since these discounts are on essentially 1 year old models - you have to factor in that first. Since they can lose half their value in three years - this would seen to be in line to begin with.

The history of most sports cars and the Vette in particular is that they sell like hell for the first three years after introduction and then level or fall off until a refresh or new model is introduced. The market for sports cars gets lots of press but in reality is not that large...there is a limited number of new model buyers. And buyers of new ones typically want the newest fastest model. In addition the used car market is flooded with late model, greatly depreciated stock which suppresses prices of new ones on dealer showrooms. Check out TrueCar values on any sports car to see actual discounts being offered...its an eye opener for sure.

First sentence nailed it.

Restyle (in a major way) the Vette every 3 years and you'd have something.

TVR was great at that. The Chimaera became the Tamora became the T350 became the Sagaris. Most of the change was new plastic on the "same" chassis.

Then there are the crazies who buy a Tamora and graft on Sagaris plastic...to create a Sagamora...perfect for summer.

Moronic and biased article!! I know someone who got almost $40K off of a 911 Turbo! Why aren't you shi**ing on the Porsche then????

I don't own a Corvette but have tremendous respect for them and think they are very sexy! The market is not saying anything about the car!! The problem is with GM and their chronic mistreating of their Halo car and over-producing them!

If GM only produced the same amount of cars as Porsche does with the 911 in the USA then the Corvette would still be going for MSRP or above in some states like CA even after five years into the current production cycle! And FYI, the Corvette outsells every other sports car and is vastly under priced given its performance and looks.

Clearly not one of the best sports cars. The sports car market is saturated with better styling, more innovative, better quality, performance, value, etc.