[1]With more than 3,000 dealerships spread out across the country, Chevrolet is one of the best-represented brands in America. Yet with so many Chevy dealers that also means competition, not just for customers, but for highly sought-after products as well. And right now the hot commodity among Chevy dealers is the 2014 Corvette Stingray [2].
Out of the more than 3,000 dealers, only around 900 will be granted access to the new Corvette.
According to Automotive News [3], the competition is going to get even stiffer, as GM plans to limit the number of dealers with access to the new Corvette. Out of the more than 3,000 dealers, only around 900 will be granted access to the new Corvette. Sounds cruel, but the reasoning makes sense.
GM can only make so many Corvettes so fast, and according to the suits in charge, the chosen 900 dealerships represent about 80% of total recent Corvette sales. The rest of the 2,100 or so dealerships split the last 20% of sales, as they are either in low-income or rural areas where there are few potential buyers for the new ‘Vette.
So in order to ensure that the dealers that sell the most Corvettes have no shortage of vehicles available, GM will only sell the ‘Vette through these chosen dealers, at least at first. As the initial rush to buy the C7 slows, and production ramps up, other dealerships will get access to the Corvette… eventually.
Chrysler has done a similar thing with the SRT Viper [4], limiting what dealers will sell the vehicles [5], though their standards are much more stringent and revolve around becoming a specialized SRT dealer. With so many sales concentrated in so few dealerships, could it be to GM’s benefit to limit the dealers allowed to sell the Corvette as well?