Chart Of The Day: Like Horsepower, Corvette Interest Grows Over Time

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

After averaging fewer than 1,200 monthly spring sales in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, the launch of the C7 presented Chevrolet with more than 3,000 sales in March and in April and in May 2014.

Surely that’s all because of pent-up demand, right? After the C6 battled quite respectably through a recession, the craziness of the C7 was bound to generate a great deal of initial demand.

And yet one year later, long since its launch, the Corvette is selling just as well. Better, in fact.

March sales rose 9% to 3,785 units, the second-highest monthly U.S. sales total since the C7 arrived in the latter portion of 2013. April volume was down 1%, a scant 45 units, but remained well above 3,000 units. May sales jumped 6%, significantly faster than the rate of growth in the industry as a whole. Year-to-date, Corvette volume is up 3% to 15,500 sales through five months.

That’s more than 5,000 units better than any individual Cadillac passenger car.

Credit goes to the fact there are more versions of the Corvette now available, including a Z06 Convertible and Z06s with automatic transmissions.

It’s also an all-American sports car in America – combined sales of the Porsche Boxster, Cayman, and 911 aren’t half as strong.

But these factors don’t alter the fact that, for a premium-priced two-seater, the Corvette is ridiculously successful. At the current pace, 2015 is set to be the best year since 2006’s 36,518-unit total. GM has already sold more Corvettes in America in 2015 than in all of 2009, 2010, 2011, or 2012.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.

Timothy Cain
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  • Blackcloud_9 Blackcloud_9 on Jun 29, 2015

    Fascinating, I remember walking by a couple 2015 Z06s at the dealership as I was arranging the $150/month lease on my Spark EV. These were sitting in the showroom and I realize that these examples were the very top-end of the model/option spectrum but the sticker price for one of them was $94,000. Ah... to have such disposable income.

  • MeJ MeJ on Jun 29, 2015

    It's surprising considering the overheating problems/blown engines that continually crop up. Check the forums.

  • CJinSD CJinSD on Jun 29, 2015

    I think this being the best year since 2006 tells you all you need to know. The C7 is on track to not be as successful as the C6 was.

  • VenomV12 VenomV12 on Jun 30, 2015

    I am seeing more and more of them on the road now. The Z06s are selling very well too, see them all over. Guy down the road has a Viper, Ford GT and just got a new Z06 the other day and proceeds to blast all over the place with it. Some of the guys I have seen buying them are guys that definitely would not have purchased a Corvette in the past. The Jaguar F-type on the other hand, I've been end to end of this country and I can probably count all the F-Types I have seen in the last year on one hand.

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