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As of now, GM has not informed its dealerships how they will allocate 2015 Z06 sales.
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First, how many 2015 Z06's will GM produce? Per Harlan Charles, Corvette Product and Marketing Manager, GM is planning on making the same number of 2015 Z06's as they made during the "hay day" initial years of C6 Z06 sales, e.g. an average of 615 Z06's per month. Since the 2015 Z06 production year is going to be approximately six months long (Jan.- Aug., 2015), GM is therefore hoping to produce approximately 3,690, 2015 Z06's. However, just as with the slow initial rollout of the StingRay, it is probable that the Z06's initial-slower rollout would reduce this estimate slightly, say to approximately 3,500, 2015 Z06's.
More than a few folks have speculated that GM will use the last year of its high performance models as the sole basis for awarding 2015 Z06 allocations, specifically counting 2013, "427 convertible," Z06 and ZR1 sales. In that year, GM sold 3,505 of its high performance models, e.g, 2,552, "427 convertibles", 482 ZR1's and 471 Z06's (source: CorvetteBlogger). However, that data is backward looking, and will not reward those dealerships which had increasing 2014 StingRay sales compared to previous years. Secondly, the 2013 total of 13,466 Corvettes sales, was an anemic amount compared to the estimated 32,500+ StingRay sales this current year, thus conflicting with the usually-used business practice of choosing the most recent data/sales, as opposed to "old data," when making business decisions.
Nevertheless, if GM chooses to award Z06 allocations based the combined number of sales of model year 2013, 427 convertibles, Z06's and ZR1's, there is coincidentally just about that same amount of projected 2015 Z06's to be produced, i.e., GM's high-performance Corvette sales in 2013 (3,505 units) were almost identical to its projected 3,500, 2015 Z06's to be built. If this allocation model were used, it would be very simple for dealers to know their 2015 Z06 allocations by simply adding up their total number of 2013 high performance Corvettes sold.
There are another 2015 Z06 allocation model that could be used. That model is to only use 2014 Corvettes sales as the basis for 2015 Z06 allocations, and make that allocation be, similarly, strictly mathematically based. If GM were to allocate '15 Z06 allocations based purely on 2014 StingRay sales, this would mean that for every 10 StingRays a dealer sold, that dealer would receive one (1) 2015 Z06 allocation -- with 250 allocations "left over" to additionally reward award to top 2104 StingRay sales dealerships.
There is a another sub-variation to all of these models, one based on initial StingRay allocations going to just the top 900 Corvette dealerships. If this concept were again used, given the relative rarity of 2015 Z06's, perhaps GM's might only initially award allocations to just the top 300 (?) dealerships?
Certainly, there are other allocation models, including using a combined-hybrid of all above models.
Another question: When will GM tell its Corvette dealers their Z06 actual allocation? Again, "not known at this time." Most believing it will not be before this July, many predicting not until August, a few saying not until September.
What do you think will be the method GM uses to determine 2015 Z06 allocations? When do you think GM's will so inform its dealers?
First, how many 2015 Z06's will GM produce? Per Harlan Charles, Corvette Product and Marketing Manager, GM is planning on making the same number of 2015 Z06's as they made during the "hay day" initial years of C6 Z06 sales, e.g. an average of 615 Z06's per month. Since the 2015 Z06 production year is going to be approximately six months long (Jan.- Aug., 2015), GM is therefore hoping to produce approximately 3,690, 2015 Z06's. However, just as with the slow initial rollout of the StingRay, it is probable that the Z06's initial-slower rollout would reduce this estimate slightly, say to approximately 3,500, 2015 Z06's.
More than a few folks have speculated that GM will use the last year of its high performance models as the sole basis for awarding 2015 Z06 allocations, specifically counting 2013, "427 convertible," Z06 and ZR1 sales. In that year, GM sold 3,505 of its high performance models, e.g, 2,552, "427 convertibles", 482 ZR1's and 471 Z06's (source: CorvetteBlogger). However, that data is backward looking, and will not reward those dealerships which had increasing 2014 StingRay sales compared to previous years. Secondly, the 2013 total of 13,466 Corvettes sales, was an anemic amount compared to the estimated 32,500+ StingRay sales this current year, thus conflicting with the usually-used business practice of choosing the most recent data/sales, as opposed to "old data," when making business decisions.
Nevertheless, if GM chooses to award Z06 allocations based the combined number of sales of model year 2013, 427 convertibles, Z06's and ZR1's, there is coincidentally just about that same amount of projected 2015 Z06's to be produced, i.e., GM's high-performance Corvette sales in 2013 (3,505 units) were almost identical to its projected 3,500, 2015 Z06's to be built. If this allocation model were used, it would be very simple for dealers to know their 2015 Z06 allocations by simply adding up their total number of 2013 high performance Corvettes sold.
There are another 2015 Z06 allocation model that could be used. That model is to only use 2014 Corvettes sales as the basis for 2015 Z06 allocations, and make that allocation be, similarly, strictly mathematically based. If GM were to allocate '15 Z06 allocations based purely on 2014 StingRay sales, this would mean that for every 10 StingRays a dealer sold, that dealer would receive one (1) 2015 Z06 allocation -- with 250 allocations "left over" to additionally reward award to top 2104 StingRay sales dealerships.
There is a another sub-variation to all of these models, one based on initial StingRay allocations going to just the top 900 Corvette dealerships. If this concept were again used, given the relative rarity of 2015 Z06's, perhaps GM's might only initially award allocations to just the top 300 (?) dealerships?
Certainly, there are other allocation models, including using a combined-hybrid of all above models.
Another question: When will GM tell its Corvette dealers their Z06 actual allocation? Again, "not known at this time." Most believing it will not be before this July, many predicting not until August, a few saying not until September.
What do you think will be the method GM uses to determine 2015 Z06 allocations? When do you think GM's will so inform its dealers?
