Finish the following sentence: “The only General Motors product to consistently meet or beat the imported competition over the past twenty years has been the ______.”
No, not the Malibu Eco! The Corvette!
I was part of the team at Road&Track that chose the Corvette as the Performance Car Of The Year. Believe me, the C7 is a world-class product. And it’s selling like one. How could GM possibly screw this situation up?
The answer’s simple: they can raise the price. Our sister blog, AutoGuide, reports that the base price of the Corvette is set to increase from $51,995 to $53,995, a report that we were able to confirm on the Chevrolet website. That’s just a four percent bump, not the end of the world. But there’s worse news ahead: the must-have Z51 package is being bumped from $2,800 to an even four grand, so the base Z51 is now $57,995. That’s dangerously close to the $64,725 cost of a new Porsche Cayman S. It’s also far closer than a Cayman S would be to a Corvette Z51 on any racetrack longer than my driveway.
The fact of the matter is that nothing performs like the C7 for the price. However, the bump speaks volumes about how GM views its customers in general and its Corvette customers in particular. Many of them are long-time loyalists who have been waiting patiently for supply to match demand. Soaking them for an extra four grand? That’s not exactly like a rock.
$75K for the Electric Cimmaron doesn’t soak them?
GM will chase profit where it can, right or wrong.
I saw Electric Cimarron at Stubb’s a few years ago, pretty good if you like jangly Texican rockabilly..
Well, it’s what the market will bear. If people say F-U to the bump, then it’s just 2 more grand to put on the hood.
There are two ways of making supply match demands. GM chose the easier path. Film at 11.
GM’s not in the business of making it’s fans happy. It’s in the business of making money. They have what is by all accounts an excellent product, so I don’t see anything wrong with charging what they can for it.
In any case, if GM doesn’t bump up the price, the dealers will collect those dollars instead.
Really, it should be the dealers that are raising hell and asking GM to throw them a bone. The consumers weren’t going to get those for sticker anyway. This money is just getting shifted from dealers to corporate.
Agree with sirwired. They made a good product so if it catches on they should reap the reward. Lord knows there are plenty of times they whiff and end up discounting heavily.
Plus, it sends the right economic signal to the company which is beneficial to the rest of us. The signal is: Build in value instead of taking out content and you might be rewarded.
We’re talking about Chevy soaking its customers…compared to PORSCHE?
Heh right, when Chevy starts selling leather covered everything at an a la carte price and a fancy “Chronometer” to sit on top of your dash, then we’ll talk about gouging.
The FE4 magnetic shocks for only $2k on top is a real bargain in this sort of car. Shame they stick you with the good for track but blah for everything else $4k Z51 to get it.
I was gonna spend the yearly salary of the average American family on a weekend car, but then they raised the price by $4000! Totally out of my price range now…
Haha, + 1. This was exactly what when through my head looking at the numbers. These aren’t sold as a primary means of transportation. I imagine most of the buyers are either those who can just outright afford them or people who scrimped and saved because they wanted a sports car. In either of these cases, if can afford $52K you can afford $54.
Not post of the day – post of the week.
Awesome
Many of them are long-time loyalists who have been waiting patiently for supply to match demand.
Loyalist used to getting a big discount obviously. They misread this one, so they will either have to pay up or continue to loyally wait.
Business acts like business, not charity. Film at 11.
There’s business, and then there is ticket scalping, monopoly/cartel and mafia protection money type businesses. What is a Corvette? A MASS PRODUCED car! At one time, only hand built cars cost $50K- which makes sense. But a car cranked out by robots costing more than a lovingly hand restored classic vehicle? Come on, now! All this reminds me of when the 240Z first came out, only back then, it was the dealers gouging customers, with “undercoat” and rubber floor mats and special protective paint wax!
Yeah, but the ‘Vette gets the “TruCoat” ……
Whatever, it doesn’t even target the same demographic anymore. So many auto journalist ragging on the cars interior, so accordingly GM gives it a better interior. Well what does that mean?
They should have left it as a sports car rather than a supercar. It was an awesome sports car, but the brand cache will never let it be a supercar. The everyday guy is getting further out of reach, while the auto-journalists are buying Porsche’s.
If they want a supercar, then build one, but don’t leave the brand empty of a sportscar. Cheapen that SOB up as far as what’s tangible goes.
Let me make a point..
I just looked up the base price of a 2000 corvette which came out to be $33,867
Putting that into an inflation calculator at the Bureau of Labor stats website, it says the buying power of $33,867 in 2000 is equal to $46,004.84 today.
$53,995-46,004 = $7,991
Is $8,000 really so small as to being nontrivial in the purchase of a new car for the average consumer? And if so why make such a big hype about reaching 30mpg Highway? Is it because the power doesn’t match the asking price?
Corvettes are not bought by “average consumers”. This price increase verges on rounding error. I would rather see GM increase the price by $10-15K and make the car better than a Porsche in EVERY way, not just “bang for the buck”.
> I would rather see GM increase the price by $10-15K and make the car better than a Porsche in EVERY way
You can’t buy the “prestige” of “german engineering” for that kind of money.
agenthex said:
>You can’t buy the “prestige” of “german engineering” for that kind of money.
The Corvette’s Chief Engineer is a fellow named Tadge Juechter.
Our Germans are better than their Germans.
What good is an aspirational car that can no longer be purchased by the people aspiring to own it?
This is like the clowns who want to see a Mustang or Camaro transformed into a GT-R destroying car to satisfy their bench racing egos.
It reminds me of the 90’s when the best ever Supra, RX-7 and 300Z arrived then promptly disappeared despite being the pinnacle of their platforms partly due to the real fans of the car no longer being able to afford them.
^ this.
Yes, the big 3 pony cars, but mostly the camaro, have reached epic levels of WTF when it comes to pricing, does anyone remember when a z28 was actually affordable by the common man?
I may be wildly misinformed, but my understanding of the salary structure of car magazines suggests that not a lot of their writers are buying Porsches – well, not new, at least.
> I may be wildly misinformed, but my understanding of the salary structure of car magazines suggests that not a lot of their writers are buying Porsches
There are generally two types of auto writers, those who have money from elsewhere and those who don’t.
Ehh, it was an extremely poor attempt at a joke.
Meh. I’m not getting my shorts in a knot. The best ‘vette has always been one that is 10 years old and being sold by the widow of the original owner.
The mother kept it in the garage while for all those years while the son went off to Vietnam and never came back. Then one day the add: 1968 chevy, $500, hasn’t been driven for 10 years…
That actually happened to my brother. Only substitute this: 1971 Dodge Charger, $1500, hasn’t been driven for five years…
I always have tried to find the elusive angry spouse, who found out her husband spent the weekend with his secretary and she’s selling it for $50. The cousin of my friend’s wife who works with a guy who said this really happened.
That 5-6 year old vette will still be a steal.
“The only General Motors product to consistently meet or beat the imported competition over the past twenty years has been the ______.”
I was going to say Silverado.
I was going to say Tahoe
I had H1.
Jack, your taking this the wrong way. This will probably help corvette lovers, not hurt them. The price increase should lower demand and reduce the wait time. Im pretty sure the 6 month wait is probably a big turn off and causing people to go look at porches anyway. Dont take it personally, its not GM trying to screw over its customer.
No, this does not help those who wanted a car. I am (was) in the market for this car but the idea of giving a $cumbag dealer $5K ADM made me wait. Now I got screwed. The dealer will still scratch for at least $1K ADM and I will have to pay GM more as well. In essence I will spend equal money (or a bit MORE) for the privilege of waiting and still being denied a test drive. To add insult to injury, GM is having trouble delivering the Z51 package so those cars are very scarce at the moment. So the dirtbags at the stealership are putting an even greater markup on Z51 cars, though it has made non Z51 cars a bit easier to get some money off. I’m so pissed off that maybe I should sit in the Cayman that my German car loving buddy says I should buy. GM is screwing me. They just want some of that markup that the dealers are taking.
How are they “screwing you” by selling their product at the highest price the market will bear?
Because people have a right to a Corvette at a low price. It’s a basic need.
paying more plus having to wait as well equal screwed
It’s not like you HAVE to have this particular car to go on living, or keep your job, or something like that. If that were the case, then yes, you would be getting screwed. But in the end, this car is a want-to-have, not a need-to-have. If you don’t like the price, then pass on it and save your money for another day. But I don’t think you’re being victimized here.
Im posting this again because the original post was from my phone and its still waiting for moderation after 20 minutes(maybe also because i used a kinda but not really bad word)…….Anyway
I paid 31,000$ in 95 for a brand new Buick Riviera. I paid the “stealership” more than msrp(29,000$) because demand was high at the time and I just had to have one. This happens all the damned time! It happened to the PT Cruiser, it happened to the Mustang and its happening to the corvette. Supply and demand dude, don’t be mad because there’s no Corvettes to spare. I’ve been where you’ve been, its your fault you have to have one just like it was my fault in 95. Also, I’m on my phone, not a keyboard.
If my post ever goes through then you’ll know what I mean when I say ive been where you’ve been. But until my post finishes moderation you’ll just have to believe me. Also, why are my two posts still awaiting moderation? Is it because i used the word p!ssy? ! = I by the way.
Buy a C2.
I think you guys are just shopping in the wrong area. They are selling the new 2014 Corvette at MSRP around here:
http://www.stingraychevrolet.com/2014StingrayCorvetteinTampaArea
I have even seen a few dealers on Auto Trader advertising them at a slight discount, but I cannot verify if they are actually available for that price.
As for raising the price, almost every year new cars go up a little in price. Sure this is a bigger jump but it also is a more expensive car to start with. Chevy is having trouble moving the C6 leftovers that are sitting on dealer lots, and they have waiting lists for custom ordered C7. So why would they not bump the price of the new car? And why would you get “so pissed off” at greedy dealers? Is this the first time you have shopped for a new car?? They will do anything to make a buck, always have and always will and Chevy has zero control over it by law. Its a brand new car its the same car no matter where you buy it, not like you have to see it in person first. If you want to be smart and pay MSRP then find a dealer somewhere who is willing to deal with you and order one up.
I can remember in 2000-2001 when the local Honda dealers were adding $15k (yes, for real, $15k not $1500) to the MSRP of the S2000. Yet in West Virginia where my wife lived before we got married they had a full selection of them available at $500 over invoice which IIRC was about a grand under MSRP. Those idiots in Florida were lining up to pay Boxster money for the S2000, when all they had to do was call up the dealer in WV, pick the color and pay $179 for a flight to pick it up, and as a bonus, have an amazing drive home through the Appalachian mountains. What a nice way to spend a weekend.
How does this not occur to people?! My wife looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her to drive me from west Fort Worth to north Dallas to buy a car last year. As though a 45 minute drive ISN’T WORTH the 3 grand I’ll save?
Even my friends are like “blegh inconvenient…”
So thank you for a dose of sanity.
Who cares? The most popular new Corvettes are the tarted automatic up models anyways, I doubt the typical buyer cars about a couple grand more on the base price. It won’t change the lease deals much either. And when they are 3-4 yrs old they will still be worth about $30k for those of us who really want one.
More importantly, where did you find that picture of the Vette from Corvette Summer?? That looks like a recent pic. Did someone actually save that car? Or recreate one?
Despite all the praise the car has received from journalists and car guys, the typical cars you see on dealer lots or that people have purchased are indeed tarted up automatics.
I haven’t yet seen a used car for sale in the enthusiast spec of MT/Z51/Magnetic Dampers/Sport Exhaust/Competition Seats, irrespecctive of the 3 trim levels.
I actually have seen one like that in the wild, pretty much exactly the one I would purchase if I got one. A white convertible with the red interior, MT, Z51 and the sport seats. Couldn’t tell if it had the exhaust or mag shocks but it was definitely enthusiast spec’d.
Come on, the real one is right hand drive. Clone. And the side pipes came straight out.
Good eye on the steering wheel, I read this on my phone so I didn’t notice it… Had to zoom it in!
Not sure what you mean on the side pipes, but I’m sure your right… I think you are a bigger fan of the movie than I am lol.
Who would want to clone that car???
I mean straight out the cylinder head and coming out mid fender. I watched the movie recently and it still holds up. Better than 99% of the movies out now.
Yea I googled the pics last night, saw what you meant. I do like the movie, even with the cheesy custom cars. I would rather see them remake that movie than create a movie based on a video game like Need For Speed. :)
So it doesn’t have anything close to competition at its price point, but GM isn’t supposed to make a profit as a publicly traded company.
Got it. The General can’t get a break on TTAC.
Any chance that a story will be run on how the government sent a 107 question deposition to General Motors over the ignition switch issue – to silence those in the B&B screaming where is the government investigation? Bias! Bias! Bias! GM always gets a break!
Ya…thought so…the price of the Corvette is going up, GM is in the business to make money. Sales volume as it is is out stripping demand. Economics 101 – supply and demand – tight supply, strong demand, price goes up.
Next question please…
+1
Speak the truth dude.
100% agree with you.
You would be piping a different tune if you were buying the car instead of sitting behind a keyboard with nothing at stake. I’m looking at throwing away $5K of hard earned money and getting nothing for it.
Sorry to hear you want to pay less than market price and can’t do it.
You aren’t entitled to buy anything at the price of your choosing. A free market means you and the other guy have to agree. And, until demand for C7s cools, the other guy has more leverage than you, because if you don’t buy at market price, someone else will.
You don’t seem to get it. He is an actual buyer. When you play these games you p*ss off actual buyers and risk losing them. So when times get lean and sales wane and you need guys like this to come in the showrooms and buy your Corvette that has been sitting there for 4 months and he won’t do it. Similarly, he might own a Tahoe, Escalade or top spec GM pickup truck and decide he was slighted by GM that he will switch to Ford now and maybe he will buy his daughter a new Ford Fusion for college also, heck maybe he will try something foreign this time, that new Porsche or Jaguar look nice, maybe he’ll give it a chance.
I paid 31,000$ in 95 for a brand new Buick Riviera. I paid the “stealership” more than msrp(29,000$) because demand was high at the time and I just had to have one. This happens all the damned time! It happened to the PT Cruiser, it happened to the Mustang and its happening to the corvette. Supply and demand dude, don’t be pissy because there’s no Corvettes to spare. I’ve been where you’ve been, its your fault you have to have one just like it was my fault in 95. Also, I’m on my phone, not a keyboard.
You’re getting a C7 and paying a penalty for being tardy to the party.
You can always wait a year or two until early adopter mania is over, and then actually start dealing on one.
One could argue that buying a first year GM ‘anything’ is throwing away your money, and anything after that is only a matter of degrees.
Seriously, wait (at least) for the ’15 model. GM has never been able to avoid major first-year problems with the ‘Vette.
Supply and demand- except on Wall Street, where the government will bail you out! And you walk away with billions, and never do jail time. Newsflash: there is no supply and demand free market, cos the 1% have insider info and control the market!
Cayman S is a nice car, but I wonder how many cross shop the two. I’d not, even though I like both.
They’ll still sell as many as they can make for the time being, but it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Instead of a price hike they should have adopted Porche’s money making strategy: “You don’t want badging on your new Corvette sir? That will be extra $500.”
Having spent a few minutes tonight playing with the Cayman configurator on Porsches website, I was surprised to find that is one of the few options that they DON’T charge for. It’s FREE for them to not put the badges on! But it is $1100 to have the interior air vents painted body color… I LOVE the Yachting Blue interior option. Would look good with no-extra-cost white paint.
Actually, I was surprised to find that in the lightly equipped spec I would buy, a base Cayman was only ~$58K. $10K more than an M235i. And they don’t charge extra for European Delivery anymore. No discount for it either, of course. Basically the base car plus heated seats and steering wheel, auto-dimming and folding mirrors and a few other goodies. I actually LOVE that you can order all that silly stuff individually, even if it costs more. Makes it more individual.
I STILL find it weird that the convertible (Boxster) is cheaper than the coupe (Cayman). Has to be about the only car in the world where that is true.
I hear ya, my last comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek with the emblems.
After my buddy got his 911 4S last year, I hit the configurator and hard, to see how close white collar middle class could come to affording one his favorite cars and like you say the option list is pretty funny. But I do love that for your hard earned money you can buy exactly what you want with Porsche. Next to the new 911 4S, Corvette is not that great looking, but bang for the buck (now that the interior is where it needs to be) is very hard to pass up.
Cayman S is better looking and has more cache for similar money.
Similar money? Try finding one for less than $70,000 on a dealer lot.
Why would you buy one off the lot? Do you have to have it TODAY? Porsche will gladly build you one exactly the way you want it.
CACHET! Don’t go for the $10 word if you’re unable to do so correctly.
(Sorry OP, you’re hardly unique among the B&B in making mistake… even on this thread… but it’s been popping up a lot lately. End of rant.)
Cache/cachet is one of my pet peeves, too.
The misuse of “it’s” is even more rampant. At this rate, we may need to pass some apostrophe control laws.
I just realized I accidentally left out a word in my comment – glass houses and all – but at least I used the contraction properly. “It’s” versus “its” annoys me, too.
I think GM builds in their rebates into their MSRP. Raise the price and add a rebate to make it look like a good deal.
There are incentives and cash on the hood on a C7 Corvette?
WHERE? Dude, show me the money – one in my driveway this weekend.
(funny how another B&B member said there was $10K on the hood for NEW Verano turbos and asked over and over again where as I would have bought it sight unseen from anywhere in the country – and the silence was deafening – no new – not a dealer demo – not a last year leftover – a new one)
There are no C7 incentives – there is cash on the hood on leftover C6 models – but it isn’t a whole lot in the big picture.
“$10K on the hood for NEW Verano turbos”
Norm would have cornered the market if this were true.
No, there are not incentives on the C7, but how many GM models sell at MSRP?
@bullseye, (highdesertcat can confirm this) in the great American Southwest, the answer is: Corvette, Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Sierra, and Yukon (XL).
I am glad GM is selling them for list, and maybe they have gotten away from the sales. I guess I just wait for the sale.
Do not forget to factor in the cost of the tacky McMansion this overpriced midlife crisis will be enclosed.
How else are they supposed to offer a huge discount on it?
GM runs the Furniture Store Pricing playbook.
many dealers are still currently getting thouands over sticker for the car and GM knows it. They are simply adjusting the price to the market. We have gotten 3K to 5K over sticker for the few we have had to sell. I was actually quite surprised at how low the pricing was at launch.
GM just being GM and they will end up right back where they were not that long ago. Once the interest in this car dies off and it will shortly, they will be putting the usual $10K plus discounts to move them off the lots. The XTSs and ATSs are already there and I see a whole hell of a lot more XTSs than I see ATSs, and the CTS will be there soon also. The Escalade will probably do well for a couple of years and then their sales will crater also.
Seeing as in real life you can’t go around gunning it and doing 0-60 races all the time, the power and speed of these cars is really irrelevant. I would rather have a Jaguar F-Type or Cayman/Boxster for the same money.
I was in Daytona Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami Beach and Naples for 2 weeks last month and I saw maybe 2 new Corvettes and about 500 911s, hell I saw at least 80 Bentley Continentals and dozens of Rolls Royces. You would think for a car that is supposedly selling so well you would see them everywhere.
None of this is anything other than drivel, especially the part about Daytona Beach. The “C7” Corvette has been on sale since late last year. That’s not a whole lot of time. At all. The Continental (if it’s the Volkswagen-era one) has been on the market for ten years. I don’t know if people keep them that long, but they certainly could have in this scenario. And the 911 is a half-century old. You don’t say which eras the ones you saw belong to, but I’m going to guess that all 500 of them weren’t the new “991” generation, which is also a recent introduction and which would have been a better comparison to the C7 based on the length of time it’s been on the market.
I live in the Midwest, in a GM town, I don’t see the C7, but I will give that a pass because it is winter. I have a home in Texas in the Dallas area and I go there almost every other month and I don’t see them. Chicago, don’t see them, I go through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and North Dallas regularly and don’t see C7s. I just drove from Texas, through Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi to Florida where I stayed where I said I did in Florida for 2 weeks and then back and saw 2 C7s total. And to answer your question the Porsches I mentioned were all new and the Continentals quite new. I also saw at least eight Ferrari 458s and 3 McLaren 12Cs. I was in NYC, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the fall also and did not see any C7s on my trip then either. I do however see a ton of new Vipers in Oklahoma and Texas. When I am in Texas I go to the mall in Plano at least a couple times a week, never seen a C7 there yet, not at Galleria either. I drove down to Austin and back a couple of months ago, guess what, no C7s there either.
I love how I have been all around and made the trips but someone sitting in their underwear at the computer who has gone nowhere has the nerve to call my information drivel. All the cars I mentioned are six figure cars, even used. How come the bargain super car the C7 is not all over the place, especially in retiree heaven South Florida during winter? I was in condos and hotels on the beach the entire time, on the strips where traffic would be the busiest, I should have seen dozens. Hell I was at the mall right across the street from Daytona Speedway and saw no C7s. Visited my aunt in Boca Raton a couple of times, went to the mall out there, Shake Shack and the beach, no C7s. Went to my buddy’s house in Palm Beach, went all the way down Ocean way past Boynton Beach, no C7s. And don’t bother to say it is because of low availability because there is no shortage of new Range Rovers and new S Classes, especially in Naples and those are sold out too all over. Seen at least 40 Tesla Model Ss also, maybe more.
Feel free to put on some pants, get in your car or on a plane and prove me wrong.
I have to agree with Venom, I don’t see very many here in the Tampa area and I see a LOT of other hot cars from other high end brands. I see a lot of Ferrari and Lambo especially, Bentley, of course Porsche, tons of GT 500, lots o C6 Corvettes but only a handful of C7 Vettes. They don’t seem to be out in the wild too often still.
So what are we trying to say with these comments? That GM is lying about the sales figures? That they’re actually pushing these C7s into the ocean?
I don’t see Vipers in Oklahoma, and I live here.
Corvette, 911 and Cayman are all lifestyle cars. While they may get cross shopped, it’s hard to believe the buyer of a Vette would also be the buyer of a Cayman.
I get that they compete on paper, but come on. Of the handful of Vette owners I know, not one expressed any interest in a Porker. Vice versa holds as well.
All this adjustment tells me is that GM initially priced the Corvette too low. Why price a product so low that it’s not reasonably available to ANY walk-up customer?
Better to have something to sell at a higher price than nothing to sell at a lower one; Uber calls this “surge pricing” and uses it to ensure that cars are always available, even if the price is greater than you’d like.
Selling a product at an artificially low price (creating artificially high demand) is not something business aspires to in a free-market economy.
I’m a GM fan, and that *is* pretty screwed-up. It’s punishing the people who weren’t able to get on the waiting lists beforehand…and *believe me*, the waiting lists are quite long…
The market will sort it out. If the price increase pushes to many people away, then incentives will sort out the problem. Right now GM can do something like this because demand is so high. Chrysler did the same thing with the PT Cruiser, Toyota did the same thing with the Prius and Ford did the same thing with the Mustang. Not GMs fault for playing smart/by the book.
With the top Camaros and Silverados exceeding the price of the base Corvette, it had to be raised. It’s a halo car and it’s about respect… Then rebate the hell out of it!
$185 – Wheel Center Caps with Colored Porsche Crest
$1,190 – Painted HVAC Vents
$500 to $5800 for seat upgrades
$340 – Color-Keyed Seatbelts
$335 – Color Keyed….key
$670 – SIRIUS satellite radio receiver
N/C for 4 basic colors. Any one of the other 11? $710 to $2,580
Yeah. Corvette buyers get taken right to the cleaners in comparison…
Here some “good” news for you:
Price in Europe from 69,990 EURO…
And in Norway 70k Euros will just about get you a nice 2006 C6…A 2014 will be double that… (and please let someone from Denmark chime in with the real horror stories)
A little context: Corvette price increases in the middle of the model year have been common for years.