High demand to limit C7 Corvette supplies initially

[Tran]

Automotive News
October 4, 2013 - 2:31 pm ET

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- The 2014 Corvette will be in short supply, with few unsold units on dealer lots until spring at the earliest.

General Motors officials said production of the two-seat sports car will be capped at about 160 units per day on one shift. Despite high demand for the redesigned sports car, GM will not add a second shift, officials said during a plant tour here this week.

"We've seen this again and again. You bring out a new Corvette and the demand is sky-high at the beginning, and then it tapers off," said Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter. "It's not worth making that investment [of a second shift], even though for awhile we make a lot more money getting those cars out there."

GM produced 14,960 Corvettes in 2012 in the car's lone plant. If GM sticks to its current production plan for the redesigned 2014 model, output will nearly double to about 30,000 units for a full year.

GM officials declined to say how many Corvette orders it has, but several enthusiast sites say GM has banked enough orders from dealers to keep the plant cranking out cars at 160 per day for at least the next six months.

In addition to the one shift, two other factors could limit shipments to U.S. dealers. First, GM plans to offer the redesigned Corvette in nearly all 140 countries that sell Chevrolets. A greater number of exports will reduce the number of cars available in the United States.

Second, the plant is ramping up the convertible model, which will add complexity to the manufacturing process, at least initially, which could slow production.

GM spent $131 million to retool the Corvette plant to assemble the 2014 model, which uses a new frame, body and suspension.

Via: http://www.autonews.com/article/2013...vette-supplies

[Stingray]

And to add... the production constraints contribute to the limited output and delays due to the vendors & suppliers not able to meet higher demands on some key options (i.e. carbon fiber roof, select Z51 components, etc.) especailly the Z51 package which is a very good deal for what it adds performance-wise, as a $2800 option. We'll persevere!

[laborsmith]

I am not surprised given what we have seen so far. Dealer stock orders selling at MSRP and disappearing from the dealer showrrms almost as quickly as the retail sold pre-orders.

And we should not forget that another thousand dealers will be added to the first 900 dealers as authorized to sell Corvettes. I expect most if not all will be entering customer retail sold orders as soon as they have allocation.

I call this a successful launch!

Laborsmith

[zimm888]

I just want them to accept my damn order! It's been like 6 weeks!

[laborsmith]

Originally Posted by zimm888

I just want them to accept my damn order! It's been like 6 weeks!

If it has been six weeks, is there a chance your dealer either has no allocation or not enough to get to you.

I can not over emphasize that allocation is the name of the game. There are not quite 3100 Chevrolet dealerships and at the end of the model year about one thousand will get less than one allocation.

Less than one! You do the math.

Laborsmith

[zimm888]

If he lied about allocation how do I ask him politely. I received a preliminary order number and worksheets.

He claims they had 2 allocations, and the first is alrdy produced and is in transit. Do allocations have dates on them?

Also, I'm in Canada.

[Stingray]

Originally Posted by zimm888

If he lied about allocation how do I ask him politely. I received a preliminary order number and worksheets.

He claims they had 2 allocations, and the first is alrdy produced and is in transit. Do allocations have dates on them?

Also, I'm in Canada.

Simply request to cancel & get your deposit refund.... take your business elsewhere. There are still some dealerships (2 I know of here in S. FL) that have weekly open allocations, which by the way must get entered into the Order Workbench by Tuesdays deadline as long as they have an allocation, so that at least you will have an order detail number. This gets you started and you will progress towards production, again as long as that dealership has an allocation assigned to you to be processed (note- not a waiting list for an allocation). Good luck.

[zimm888]

How is an allocation proved though?

They must all be saying they do have to gain business. As for the Florida dealership, I need a Canadian dealership.

[laborsmith]

How is an allocation proved? Until accepted by Chevy, I do not know.

I have never seen that there is a way to date an allocation.

Canada may make a difference in this but I doubt it.

If you do not trust your dealer than maybe you should look around but since you have this far I suggest continuing your order as the allocation will come up. I explained once how to ballpark a date estimiate, it is complicated, but it is buried somewhere on this forum. In essence if a dealer ordered a unit in May of the previous model year the allocation based on that order is expected in May of this model year BUT due to demand this time frame is markedly compressed, probably by six months minimum.

Laborsmith

[terryg75]

If you've had a car ordered for this long and it's still not made it past the 'preliminary' status (1100) then your dealer does not have enough allocations for it to be pulled or your order is full of constraint items. The competition seats have not been available at all up until now and just a couple of weeks ago the Z51 pkg went on a 4 month national constraint. Non Z51 cars can be built and done in 4-5 weeks now and those are what we're trying to lean folks to that want to order now. And the carbon fiber roof orders will also take a while it looks like--not enough to go around.

[occar]

Originally Posted by laborsmith

How is an allocation proved? Until accepted by Chevy, I do not know.

For what it is worth, I have a print showing the initial statuses of my order. It went from 1100 to 2000 within 5 minutes on a weekend. I don't know if this is normal, but if it is, it is pretty easy for a dealer to show you upon order.

[laborsmith]

Orders can get picked and move from 2000 to 2500 to 3000 in just a few days. The timing you desribe indicates the order was entered on a Tuesday against a current allocation thus got to 2000 in a matter of minutes instead of a matter of a few days.

The Canadian ordering system is enough different from the US that I admit I do not understand just how it works. But in the end, it is a matter of trust. I think he understands that if he could order through a USA based ealer he might get his order built quicker, but as he stated he has to go through a Canadian dealer.

Laborsmith

[zimm888]

Thanks for the advice guys, appreciate it. Even if I switched now, the earliest I could probably get it is 8 weeks if they started today is that correct? I might as well wait til spring than... damn Canadian winters! Was just hoping to catch most of fall before the snow in jan-feb begins. Switching dealers I would do on principle, but like I mentioned what prevents another cdn dealer of saying he has allocation when he doesn't. I have no idea how to make him prove it.

Thanks again, you guys are great.
zimm888

[rp0029]

Originally Posted by Stingray

Simply request to cancel & get your deposit refund.... take your business elsewhere. There are still some dealerships (2 I know of here in S. FL) that have weekly open allocations, which by the way must get entered into the Order Workbench by Tuesdays deadline as long as they have an allocation, so that at least you will have an order detail number. This gets you started and you will progress towards production, again as long as that dealership has an allocation assigned to you to be processed (note- not a waiting list for an allocation). Good luck.

Is Lorenzo Bomnin one of those twoS.Fl. dealerships?