There’s an old Japanese proverb that says, “The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down.” Over the years, GM has certainly been the recipient of it’s fair share of hammering, usually for it’s missteps with nary a nod if they hit one out of the park. Here at CorvetteOnline, we’re optimists and we’d like to acknowledge GM and Chevrolet for the outstanding work they’ve done in absolutely dominating the premium sports car market in the United States. Tadge Juechter and his crew have really earned their keep making Corvette the de facto sales leader in it’s segment.

GM, Ford and FCA rule the sporty car roost.

According to GoodCarBadCar, even though Corvette sales are down roughly 20% this year, it’s still handily trouncing every other competitor by a wide margin. In fact, the Corvette came in 4th place on the “Sporty Car” sales chart only trailing Mustang, Camaro and Challenger in calendar year 2015

In the example to the right, they lump pony cars and Subarus in as “sporty cars,” but if you exclude the aforementioned, the ‘Vette leaves the rest of the competition in the dust. It’s closest competitors in segment were the Lexus RC, the Porsche 911 and the Porsche Boxster/Cayman. In fact Corvette outsold Porsche’s entire lineup.

So what will the Bowtie boys do to keep the sales needle pegged?
Taking a page from the C6’s product cycle, Chevrolet is staggering new models over the C7’s model run, which believe it or not, is now in the middle of it’s product cycle.  It’s amazing to think the C7 is in it’s 4th model year and due for a replacement soon.

In the meantime, the release of the Grand Sport model will keep C7 buzz on the boil and on the front of landing pages all of the web. With it’s Z06 bodywork and a naturally aspirated mill, it’s the best of both worlds. When the GS was added to the C6 lineup back in the day, it wasted no time outselling standard issue ‘Vettes.

So if the current ‘Vette is in mid-life cycle mode, when should we see a C8? The C5 was built from 1997-2004, and the C6 was produced from 2005-2013. Based on those timelines, we should see a new ‘Vette by the end of the decade. Whether it will be mid-engined or not remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, the sales success of the C7 ‘Vette is NOT a good case for a radical re-think of the plastic fantastic. We like the proportions of a V8, RWD car, but acknowledge that given the current C7’s performance envelope, the only way to drastically improve on it, is to go mid-engined.

The best part of all this?  It’s a GREAT time to buy a new C7. The car was so friggin’ hot when it was introduced, wait times were long and folks were paying MSRP (and more.)  With ample inventories, now is better than ever to visit your local Corvette store.