Did GM President Mark Reuss Confirm the Corvette Will Always Be a Chevy?
As long as there has been a Corvette, Chevrolet has tinkered with its very Corvette-ness. Recall the gorgeous 1953 Nomad wagon and fastback ’54 Corvette Corvair, the various CERV and Mako Shark concepts of the early ’60s, and the many mid-engine (and rotary!) ideas that were part of the Corvette story throughout C2, C3, and C4 development. The C8, obviously, and to a greater extent the C8 E-Ray, is the biggest variation on the Corvette theme in the car’s long history, and while rumors of an SUV have circulated over the last several years, they have remained, thankfully, rumors.
The one thing that has always bound these disparate Corvette ideas, however, has been their maker. From the very start, the Corvette has been recognizable by its own badge, the crossed flags, with the faintest hint of bow tie adorning one of them. The car doesn’t need a Silverado-sized badge, because everyone knows what it is, and everyone knows that Chevy builds it.
Despite long-running speculation, on this site and elsewhere, that Chevy might cleave Corvette into its own brand, GM president Mark Reuss recently appeared to dispel that speculation. During his recent visit to Jay Leno’s Garage, where Reuss unveiled the next Corvette ZR1 and the pair discussed the legacy of America’s sports car, Leno says the Corvette “really has become its own separate brand now.”
“It really is,” Reuss agrees but then adds this important caveat: “We’d never, I don’t think, you know, take it out of Chevrolet, because the core of Chevrolet is offering people more than they thought for the money and doing it with fantastic design and performance, and that’s what Corvette is.” He’s not wrong, of course.
“I like that you don’t change the name,” Leno replies.
“We don’t need to go out and do other things,” says Reuss, appearing to put the matter to bed.
Now, does that mean we won’t someday see a Corvette SUV, or another front-engined Corvette, or a fission-powered Corvette? Nope. Because Chevy keeps on tinkering with the thing—as we should all hope and expect it to. But for now, at least, the Corvette is a Chevrolet, and it’s keeping its bow tie.
Look the Corvette is a model not a brand. It has 70 years of equity blessed on Chevy. But it is what Chevy is that lets the Corvette live.
Yes Porsche does the sedan and the suv because the brand needs more volume than the 911. Same at Lambo.
But Chevy already has high volume SUV models and trucks that more than help fill that needed volume. There is no need for a Corvette SUV.
Now what I would consider is take a Tahoe give it to the Corvette team. Dump a Z06 engine in it. Keep the Tahoe name but call it Tahoe Z06 tuned by Team Corvette.
Lower it and make it handle and stop better. Use the Corvette parts bin. This way you get more equity with no damage to the Corvette name.
Most sports cars last a few years. Only the Miata and 911 have had any lasting in the market. The Vette is now an icon but it still can be damaged if miss managed.
GM was given a hard lesson on what the Corvette value was in 1993 when Jim Perkins worked to save the car after GM killed it. The Book All Corvettes are Red documents this well.
The Corvette has an advantage that most other cars never get. It is an effective money making halo car. It is on nearly every street corner and everyone knows what it is. Men Women and Children wave at you drive by. Even Mustang owners wish Ford had something like the GT in that price range.
The long and short of it is don’t f$#k with the formula.
Agreed. So many manufacturers seem to take history and legacy for granted. When you say Corvette you know what it is and what it isn’t.
GM should make Corvete a stand alone brand. It should have been at its inception. The small block Chevy engine should have been a corporate engine. It would be easier to skip a few years between production re tooling etc. Keeping it ALL NEW. The Corvette brand is diluted today. It is most popular with retirees cashing out their 401K. It is no longer an affordable sports car.
There are too many to be limited in fact GM will build as many as they can sell. Their family of chassis designations have droned on and on. Just look at how long the god awful C2 production ran. 1968 1982. No way should GM have tarnished the legacy making the same looking low power car over and over. In doing so Do you think the brass would sell you a cheaper faster alternative? Absolutely not. That would hurt the flagship.
Ford chose to make a limited production GT40 supercar while not skimping on the performance Mustang. Honda has the limited supercar as well called the NSX and still made the ITR and Type R.
Chrysler really had the best supercar. The Viper. Considering it was its own, they didn’t take an off the shelf motor and shove it in. They knew when to stop making it.
Everyone is entitled to their view and expressing it is your right. However, I want to offer that your statement that the C2 ran from 1968 to 1982 is not correct. That would be the C3. The C2 was 1963 to 1967. Oh, I like AMC also. Have a nice day.
This article should’ve been penned by Jack Baruth. He reported about the Corvette SUV on this very site a few years ago. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the article. Did Hagerty purge all of his writing?
This article should’ve been penned by Jack Baruth. He reported about the Corvette SUV on this very site a few years ago. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the article. Did Hagerty purge all of his writing?
I have a 1976 Dodge Dart slant six ,auto it died and now will not crank. Full battery charge . Not getting any battery voltage to column key starter switch on steering column.???
???
Remember that Mary Barra has pledged that GM will be all electric in the near future. She didn’t exclude Corvette so we have that to look forward to. Let’s hope it’s another step up the power and performance ladder.
I suspect they’ll have to step back from that like Ford has. Or they’ll be selling a lot of cars to a small market.
Good point as the EV scene has become volatile due ever changing battery design making investment in battery factories risky. The sudden acceptance of Hybrid plug-in vehicles by the public has put a dent in EV demand. China has pulled ahead in EV vehicle design and the rest of the automotive manufacturing world is in panic. The U.S.A has put up huge tariffs, and Europe is planning the same. Now China companies are building EV plants in Mexico. Bottom line is EV’s will continue to sell, but it won’t be the sudden takeover of the market that was anticipated. BTW the new E-Ray is a stunning hybrid vehicle from the point of performance and “live with it” factor.
Panic? Really?
They might be behind, but lets not get carried away. I don’t think anyone is panicking.
Is she still the CEO of GM? Is she a car person?
Some models have cachet that should never be messed with. The Mustang is a prime example. It has such a following that even in the pre-Internet era, enough fans got together with landlines and snail mail and convinced Mustang to ditch the front wheel drive Fox successor.
Of course they aren’t listening now and badged a SUV as a Mustang (when they could’ve called it the Galax-E). And it’s diluting 60 years of goodwill.
Reuss needs some new advisors. When the mid engine car came out they blew it. Corvette needed to become its own brand then. Its when they had the chance and it was all laid out in front of them. Keep the front engine car and that is the Corvette Stingray. The new car is the Corvette 2M8 (think Fiero numeration). Then the Camaro doesn’t have to go away, a low volume division/brand could easily justify building it. Camaro by Corvette. Then yes, if they want an SUV, they have a channel to do it. Maybe the purists don’t want it, but I’m not sure they wanted a mid engine only Corvette without a front engine model choice either. Did anyone see the Hagerty article where the new Corvette is losing value faster than the one before it? Hmmm. Next step is that the Corvette is not just a Chevy brand. It gets rewarded to the GM franchise in a given market that is the best performer. Choose the parameters; sales, customer satisfaction, most proficient sales staff etc. Then it elevates the brand and the dealer who is awarded it. GM has dialed back to too few product lines, no cars except CT4 and CT5, and this is there staring them in the face saying “BRAND ME”. I’ve been in sales and marketing for 41 years and can see this from outside their industry. I work for a lot less than what I suspect they pay for the bad advise they are obviously getting and am for hire. Let’s brand this thing and move it to a “doesn’t-have-to-be a Chevy” model.
Where would you locate the “Corvette” dealers in Flyover, USA? You can take a Corvette to 6,000 Chevy dealers. It might be hard to find the Corvette dealer rural Utah or Montana if you are doing a cross-country trip.
The brand is given to the best dealership in a market. If that is Chevy in a smaller geographic market, then its Chevy. If there is only one GM dealership in a market, then it goes there. There are smaller markets where many GM brands don’t exist. In northern WI a few hours from me, if you are in Eagle River you may have to drive the 30-45 minutes to Rhinelander to get service. But keep in mind with any GM brand, you can go to any GM store for service. I have a Cadillac CT5 and the further north in WI you get, there are at times no Cadillac dealers up there. So I can roll into Buick, Chevy GMC etc and they can help me. A Corvette is a more specific skill set for service, but it can be done.
Agree
Do not need a Corvette SUV. Chevrolet is already producing SUV’s, and the Corvette. Porsche ( and others) didn’t produce anything other than sports cars, but it is a stand alone company that did not offer anything like the diversity of Chevrolet Motor Division, so for them introducing SUV’s and other type vehicles is a must if they expect to survive. Without the huge resources of Chevrolet there wouldn’t be a Corvette. Period. It is too small a product line to have exclusivity for engineers and parts interchange is a must to keep costs in check. Everybody calls the LS engines a GM engine. It is a Chevrolet engine, developed by Chevrolet engineers and is used throughout GM in its other divisions as it has since the 70’s. Please remember the Chevrolet engineers that have given us these great vehicles and stop calling everything GM. Wasn’t like that is the past, yet those guys paychecks come from Chevy. And I agree that a Z06 powered Tahoe is wayyyyyy overdue.
I don’t see the Corvette brand ever being released from the Chevrolet domain, but I definitely see the Camaro being moved over to the Corvette design and engineering people. With the Corvette brand moving up a few notches into exotic territory, the Camaro could be placed in the void Corvette left behind. Think of the Camaro as the front-engined sports car in the $40K range with a Z06 Cross planed crank, rear mounted manual transmissioned, independent-rear-suspensioned, wish-boned-suspensioned-on-four-corners, Mustang killer.
If the corvette ever goes EV it will no longer be a corvette.
I think the E-Ray is more Corvette than most of us can handle. I have no doubt an electric Corvette will be a Corvette.
1) Mark Reuss would never make a definitive statement about Chevrolet’s future product-planning/marketing plans….this is a company that won’t even tell its Dealers what incentives it’s going to run the day before they go live for fear the competition might find out…
2) I personally don’t see Chevy/GM splitting-off Corvette as its own brand. Remember, GM is driven by profit margin in everything it does. Considering the massive investment needed to launch a new brand – not to mention a new separate advertising/marketing budget, both to launch and maintain a Corvette brand – I don’t see where the incremental sales to justify the expense would come from.
To be fair, your comment has nothing to do with the topic so the “moniters” *should* delete it. Go spout your BS elsewhere.
Randy, my friend, my BS is relevant to the story that’s why I wrote it.
it’s still up.
Mary has said many things for the stockholders downplaying the poor performance as a company. She said GM will be the EV leader. All this while not actually making a proven safe reliable product.
Spent thousands to change the sign on corporate HQ to reflect the big change in direction. But now planning a move from the Ren Cen ironically to smaller quarters.
Now developers are contemplating tearing the Ren Cen down a proud symbol in Detroit.
It would be very interesting if Musk/Tesla or Toyota to take it over………since both ARE leaders in their respected segment.