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Sometimes polls on StingRay Forums and other C7 forums are amazingly accurate! Sometimes they are amazingly inaccurate in predicting national Corvette purchasing decisions.
Why are, sometimes, collective forum polls/post sometimes wildly incorrect? The primary answer is that less then half of all new Corvette buyers even know there are Corvette forums, and of those who know about their existence, way more than half chose not to participate in them. Putting these two factors together, forum membership is about 10% of new Corvette buyers, and even then, most forum members join a forum, learn what it is they specifically want, and then become inactive members. Conversely forms are an excellent source of learning from the collective expertise of other forum members in most areas. However in the area of predicting future actual Corvette purchase option decisions, forums are, on average collectively, "not very good" in predicting future buying decisions.
Let us take two specific choice areas and see whether collective C7 forum members did a good job or not.
1) Z06 Transmission Choice:
If one looks at the several "transmission purchase polls" on StingRay Forums and others, one would conclude that about half of 2015 Z06 purchasers want to purchase the Z06's 8-speed automatic transmission. Overall those polls were correct, that a majority do want the eight speed automatic transmission, even though those purchasers learned a few weeks ago, that that decision would delay their Z06 at least one month, possibly two.
However in talking to two top five allocation dealers recently, after those dealers contacted their individual Z06 customers on their priority lists, they were both surprised that they had to go "far deeper" down their Z06 customer priority lists in order to get enough manual transmission orders to fill this first cycle Z06 ordering process. More than a few Z06 customers who were not in the top part of those dealers "Z06 order priority list," got a pleasant surprise in the last week when they got an email or a phone call saying, "I can place your manual transmission order in this first consensus."
At these two top dealers, automatic transmission orders exceeded 75% of their Z06 orders! What, more than 3/4's of Z06 customers nationwide want an automatic transmission for their Z06??? YES! Will not be more specific with what I learned, as both dealerships were not comfortable with my sharing more detailed, specific customer preferences/actual numbers for their dealerships.
2) Z06 Wheel Choice:
Here the collective results of several forums polls/posts are even more inaccurate in predicting customer purchase decisions.
StringRay Forum (SRF) members, by our posts, said that beautiful Pearl Nickel wheels would be their first choice, with 34% so stating. This was very surprising, as the closest Z-51 StingRay visual equivalent, silver, was chosen by just 16% of 2014 Z-51 buyers (GM statistic, through April 3rd).
Also considering 2014 history, as black wheels were chosen by 48% of Z-51 buyers, one would believe that black wheels would again be the predominate 2015 Z06 wheel choice. Well, not exactly, for even in our SRF "Z06 Specs" post, black wheels came in only second, with just 31% of SRF members saying they would purchase the black wheel option. However, collectively, on all C7 forums, the greatest numbers of posts were, "I am going to buy black wheels."
Last place: SRF members are part of the national trend and "going to the dark side," (abandoning the previous 60 year Corvette history of having chromes be the most selected wheel choice), as only 6% of our members said their Z06 would have chrome wheels.
Spectra Gray wheels were chosen by less than 30% of SRF members and based on looking at a wider array of C7 forums, again roughly 1/3 of posts indicated that buyers would purchase the Spectra Gray wheels.
However, in talking with a top five allocation dealer, surprise, as he said, "MOST of my orders I am submitting in the first cycle will be for Spectra Gray wheels." And another top dealer indicated he was "surprised at how so, so many of my customers are ordering the Spectra Gray wheels." GM appears to have a huge hit with Spectra Grays!!!
Cannot wait until we learn, perhaps six months from now, all the different "take rates" on every Z06 option -- including exterior and interior colors. More surprises probably lie ahead. For example, despite GM being besieged since the StingRay came out, with requests for an orange color option for 2015 Corvettes, might Daytona Sunrise Orange Metallic (DSOM II) become like Lime Rock Green when lots expressed initial interest in it, but few purchased that color, and thus might DSOM II become another "one hit wonder?" Or might there be a ground swell of purchasing decisions for this beautiful color?
Lastly, one related spec, thanks to "LT4 Awesome," who was told this by his dealer, 93 Z07's will be accepted for the September 18th consensus... So far, have not been able to corroborate this number, but find it interesting, for GM's has not told us its predicted Z07 take rate, nor how many Z07 orders they would allow for this first DOSP.
Why are, sometimes, collective forum polls/post sometimes wildly incorrect? The primary answer is that less then half of all new Corvette buyers even know there are Corvette forums, and of those who know about their existence, way more than half chose not to participate in them. Putting these two factors together, forum membership is about 10% of new Corvette buyers, and even then, most forum members join a forum, learn what it is they specifically want, and then become inactive members. Conversely forms are an excellent source of learning from the collective expertise of other forum members in most areas. However in the area of predicting future actual Corvette purchase option decisions, forums are, on average collectively, "not very good" in predicting future buying decisions.
Let us take two specific choice areas and see whether collective C7 forum members did a good job or not.
1) Z06 Transmission Choice:
If one looks at the several "transmission purchase polls" on StingRay Forums and others, one would conclude that about half of 2015 Z06 purchasers want to purchase the Z06's 8-speed automatic transmission. Overall those polls were correct, that a majority do want the eight speed automatic transmission, even though those purchasers learned a few weeks ago, that that decision would delay their Z06 at least one month, possibly two.
However in talking to two top five allocation dealers recently, after those dealers contacted their individual Z06 customers on their priority lists, they were both surprised that they had to go "far deeper" down their Z06 customer priority lists in order to get enough manual transmission orders to fill this first cycle Z06 ordering process. More than a few Z06 customers who were not in the top part of those dealers "Z06 order priority list," got a pleasant surprise in the last week when they got an email or a phone call saying, "I can place your manual transmission order in this first consensus."
At these two top dealers, automatic transmission orders exceeded 75% of their Z06 orders! What, more than 3/4's of Z06 customers nationwide want an automatic transmission for their Z06??? YES! Will not be more specific with what I learned, as both dealerships were not comfortable with my sharing more detailed, specific customer preferences/actual numbers for their dealerships.
2) Z06 Wheel Choice:
Here the collective results of several forums polls/posts are even more inaccurate in predicting customer purchase decisions.
StringRay Forum (SRF) members, by our posts, said that beautiful Pearl Nickel wheels would be their first choice, with 34% so stating. This was very surprising, as the closest Z-51 StingRay visual equivalent, silver, was chosen by just 16% of 2014 Z-51 buyers (GM statistic, through April 3rd).
Also considering 2014 history, as black wheels were chosen by 48% of Z-51 buyers, one would believe that black wheels would again be the predominate 2015 Z06 wheel choice. Well, not exactly, for even in our SRF "Z06 Specs" post, black wheels came in only second, with just 31% of SRF members saying they would purchase the black wheel option. However, collectively, on all C7 forums, the greatest numbers of posts were, "I am going to buy black wheels."
Last place: SRF members are part of the national trend and "going to the dark side," (abandoning the previous 60 year Corvette history of having chromes be the most selected wheel choice), as only 6% of our members said their Z06 would have chrome wheels.
Spectra Gray wheels were chosen by less than 30% of SRF members and based on looking at a wider array of C7 forums, again roughly 1/3 of posts indicated that buyers would purchase the Spectra Gray wheels.
However, in talking with a top five allocation dealer, surprise, as he said, "MOST of my orders I am submitting in the first cycle will be for Spectra Gray wheels." And another top dealer indicated he was "surprised at how so, so many of my customers are ordering the Spectra Gray wheels." GM appears to have a huge hit with Spectra Grays!!!
Cannot wait until we learn, perhaps six months from now, all the different "take rates" on every Z06 option -- including exterior and interior colors. More surprises probably lie ahead. For example, despite GM being besieged since the StingRay came out, with requests for an orange color option for 2015 Corvettes, might Daytona Sunrise Orange Metallic (DSOM II) become like Lime Rock Green when lots expressed initial interest in it, but few purchased that color, and thus might DSOM II become another "one hit wonder?" Or might there be a ground swell of purchasing decisions for this beautiful color?
Lastly, one related spec, thanks to "LT4 Awesome," who was told this by his dealer, 93 Z07's will be accepted for the September 18th consensus... So far, have not been able to corroborate this number, but find it interesting, for GM's has not told us its predicted Z07 take rate, nor how many Z07 orders they would allow for this first DOSP.
