c7 corvete

[1998silverbird]

Re: c7 corvete

Most brand cues are very subtle. "Most" people wouldn't be able to identify even the brand of many "all-new" cars without any badging. The C6 had the same complaints that it looked like a Ferrari from the front. I'd be willing to bet that if it weren't for the quad round tail lights on the C6, most people wouldn't have been able to identify it as a Vette if it were debadged and their first time seeing it. To me, that second picture screams Vette, and the third picture can easily pass as an update to the C6s rear end.

The Vette needed an update, and while I still retain the C5 as my favorite Vette to date, any less of a change for the C7 would have been inadequate imo.

I agree and disagree with what you are saying. The C5 sold more then 30,000 cars every year till its end in 2004. The C6 started out strong its 1st 3 yrs but from 09 with 20,000 sold to 10-11-12 with less then 20,000 sold something happened. Why did people get sick of the C6 design but not the C5? Why did GM feel the C5 needed to be updated if it was selling very well each year?

The C6 got rid of the pop up lights and that buzz lasted a couple years on it before sales started to decline. The C7 got rid of the Circle style lights and I wonder if the same will happen to this car?

You could always tell it was a vette from the back on the C6. Thats the way my 6yr old daughter can tell if the car is a Corvette. She can pick them out anywere. With the new Vette she called it a Camaro ( because she knows what the Camaro Rear looks like as well).

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: c7 corvete

I agree and disagree with what you are saying. The C5 sold more then 30,000 cars every year till its end in 2004. The C6 started out strong its 1st 3 yrs but from 09 with 20,000 sold to 10-11-12 with less then 20,000 sold something happened. Why did people get sick of the C6 design but not the C5? Why did GM feel the C5 needed to be updated if it was selling very well each year?

The C6 got rid of the pop up lights and that buzz lasted a couple years on it before sales started to decline. The C7 got rid of the Circle style lights and I wonder if the same will happen to this car?

You could always tell it was a vette from the back on the C6. Thats the way my 6yr old daughter can tell if the car is a Corvette. She can pick them out anywere. With the new Vette she called it a Camaro ( because she knows what the Camaro Rear looks like as well).

I still maintain that most of the sales figures were economy driven. 97-04 is a decently typical generational span for cars of that era, and the economy was booming toward the end of the C5's life. I believe that that boom, where more people were coming in to the money (or credit, as it were) to afford a new Corvette helped counteract any declining sales the Vette may have otherwise seen. The C6 came with performance gains in every area making it more competitive with other sports cars of the era, and updating it for the new decade, because as beautiful and perhaps timeless as the C5 is, it's an unmistakably 90s design.

The C6 saw the opposite economic effect toward the end of its generational span, as well as a greater presence of foreign competition, and its perhaps-less-timeless design may have contributed to the declining sales as well. Still, the C7 came on schedule for a new generation, and has designs seeking to keep up with the more exotic competition it's aiming for. I don't think anyone is arguing that the styling is "less american" because that's obvious. And it may have kept less of the last few generation's Corvette styling cues, but as I said before, there are still some definite cues that say, "Corvette," and just as the pop-up headlights weren't always a Corvette feature, neither were the quad-circle tail lights. It seems reasonable to me to for them to give it a bigger rear-end makeover than it has seen in the last 20 years, and the styling seems right in line with the changing styles of the 2010's.

[1998silverbird]

Re: c7 corvete

Last 20 yrs rear end style? The 4 Circle, Oval style tail lights were introduced in the early 60's. The recession hit hard in what 07-09 right? The Sales for the C6 were still pretty good them years. 10-13 is when they took the biggest hit and those years the economy started to get better.

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: c7 corvete

I realize the quad circle tails were around for longer than the C4 and C5; what I was saying was the C4-C5 generation change saw very little difference in the rear end, whereas the C3-C4, while still retaining the 4-circular tails, saw a much bigger rear-end restyle. Hence, the C7 was due for a bigger rear-end makeover than it has seen in the last 20 years. In this case, that meant ditching the round tail lights, but retaining the quad orientation. After all, I recall reading about the new Camaro's "Corvette inspired" quad tail lights.

What we're arguing over here is design. We both agree the C5 is a better looking car, and I'll give it to you that some of the decline in sales on the C6 may have been due to the less-timeless design of it. All I'm saying is that there is more to it that just design. It's natural for a car's sales to decline toward the end of a generation, especially when there is strong competition from a greater presence of foreign companies in America. The C4 saw the very beginning of the growing competition, the C5 saw it even more so, but I believe the booming economy helped counteract the apparent effect in shear numbers. The C6 saw the automotive economy today, where, for the first time in American history, the last 5 or so years have shown the big three fall below 50% of total automotive market share.

[1998silverbird]

Re: c7 corvete

I agree with what your saying. Makes sense.

On a side note there is lots of talk on the Vette Forums that the Base Corvette price tag is 59,000. I believe that a Base C6 car is in the upper 40's in price. That means a Z51 equiped car ( Grand Sport in C6) will be around 70,000 starting! The Base car does not include all the nice 2 tone interior, or Ride control, or Bose stereo ( which in my 98 is a great system still), and a ton of other crap that was showed at the autoshow. The cars that have been shown are Z51 cars.

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: c7 corvete

It sounds like they're trying to pay for those interior improvements they're talking about. The base C6 basically starts at 50k, and a small price increase for a new generation is to be expected, but another ~10 grand seems like a pretty large jump. Hopefully the production car will be impressive enough in quality and performance to justify that increase. It looks like they're starting to lose that price advantage they have over a lot of the competition.

[KJZ28]

Re: c7 corvete

Real quick tidbit on the tail lights. Internally the GM employees referred to the old Vette taillights as trailer or RV lights. They had no detail and would not display the extensive possibilities that LEDs allow for design.

[FIREBIRDV6RAGE]

Re: c7 corvete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKrQrAn_hNA

heres a link to a viideo of jay leno actually over viewing most of the car including the intirior