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Good News, Bad News , and Controversial News

2K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  AGVI 
#1 ·
Controversial News first: Having read most or all of the books about Corvette History and that of its head Engineers since 1953 - and prior about Harley Earl - I know that we have come VERY, VERY close to losing the Corvette production vehicle on multiple occasions. Beancounters would have killed it at least twice and a President also came close to mandating its demise (Obama in 2009). As a retired Financial guy myself, I also know that the lives of ALL sports cars hang by an economic thread. FAR, FAR more have died than are available today. Oddly, today's recession seems to be an exception that makes the rule, because NORMALLY, Corvette sales dwindle during an economic downturn, and BOY have my stocks turned down the last 18 months or so. I digress. It has long been my personal opinion the Porsche model plan is, mostly, a well-thought-out product mix and it guarantees the continuation of their make. Corvette offers only a single Chassis with multiple performance variances and minor cosmetic changes is like putting all of one's eggs into a single basket - a nice, world-class basket, but ONE basket nonetheless. So GM has decided to try out some parts of the Porsche marketing plan. There WILL be a Corvette Sedan and a Corvette SUV. Many of you just tossed your hands up, shook your head, and maybe stopped reading. Perhaps you consider this borderline sacrilegious But I see it as 1) Corvette is paying back GM for NOT canceling the model in the past, but rather GM repeatedly reinvested in Corvette and repeated;y got a reasonable return along with world acclaim. 2) Corvette additional models help guarantee the continuation of the Corvette Sports Car.


The Good News is that the all-electric Corvette that IS coming next year is NOT going to be based on the C8, nor even a Corvette sports car. That all-electric Corvette will be a 4 door sedan. For those of you not familiar with the Porsche Taycan, it is a Panamera-designed all-electric 4-door sedan. So, whether you like it or not, Corvette will take on Porsche head to head in another segment. As sure as you are reading this, EVERY significant car rag on Earth will be publishing comparo articles that include 4-door all-electric sedans that, at the least INCLUDE, the Porsche Sedan and the Corvette Sedan. I predict that at the very LEAST, the Corvette sedan will win because it is a better value. Sometime the following year, the same car magazines will be running an article comparing the all-electric Porsche SUV versus the all-electric Corvette SUV.

The BAD news: GM has repeatedly committed to Electric Vehicles by 2035. THAT will have to include Corvette UNLESS Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, et all thumb their corporate noses to this trend, at least partially. IF they all continue to offer at least one ICE in their lineup, it might force GM to make an exception. ONLY time will tell.

One of the sources:
 
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#4 ·
Obama didn't focus on the Corvette, the focus was the entire auto industry. The stipulations were that the industry needed to restructure if they wanted more bail out money, see history link. GM already had the Corvette on the chopping block in 2008, see road and track link. The Treasury Dept task force had indivauls interested in the C7 and found it was profitable and a keeper.

President Obama announces auto industry shakeup

How GM’s Bankruptcy Saved the Corvette

From the Road and Track article By Chris Perkins Jul 5, 2018
"Participating in a conference call one day with the "task force" put together by the U.S. Treasury Department to consolidate GM manufacturing operations, Juechter was planning to advocate passionately for Corvette and its small, special plant: "We went around the room introducing ourselves, and when I introduced myself as Corvette chief engineer, one consultant said, 'What can you tell me about C7'—the same question we were getting from our customers. I thought, 'Wow, this guy knows the lingo and wants to know about C7. He may get it.' They got into our books and saw that Corvette made money, so getting going on a new one was on the to-do list coming out of bankruptcy. It was spared as an extremely valuable brand that is known globally, and the Bowling Green assembly plant was also spared."
 
#6 ·
Let us be VERY clear here. "...this guy..." was a US Treasury Department consultant, not Obama nor any member of his administration. That said, ALL of us here are VERY lucky that someone IN Obama's Treasury DID reach out to this particular person (sadly nameless) who obviously was not a layman regarding Corvette. There had already been leaks from Obama's admin that ecological concerns would be a major consideration in the determination of what would survive at GM.

Yes, this was the THIRD time, of which we are aware, that Corvette was almost canceled. Zora saved it in the mid-50s, Hill saved it with volunteers working off-the-record non-paid OT and weekends and subterfuge projects before going to Reuss with much of the C5 already worked out. Read "All Corvettes are Red." It is an excellent book that will very likely remain unique in providing information about the development of a Corvette generation.
 
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