Corvette Sales Slow Down for the First Month of 2016

[Rob]

This morning, General Motors released news that Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealers in the United States delivered 203,745 vehicles in January 2016, and last month was the company’s best January sales performance in eight years. GM’s retail sales increased 9 percent year over year with total sales up 0.5 percent. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Corvette brand.

Last month, 1,501 Corvettes were delivered from the Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant. That's a 39% drop in production from the 2,453 units built in December 2015 and a 29.4% drop in production from the 2,127 units built in January 2015.

Monthly Corvette Delivery Statistics
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2016	1,501	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
2015	2,127	2,605	3,785	3,469	3,514	2,807	2,794	2,725	2,572	2,526	1,952	2,453	30,876
2014	2,261	2,438	3,480	3,514	3,328	2,723	3,060	2,679	2,467	2,959	2,378	3,552	34,839
2013	908	980	1,053	974	905	853	671	655	831	3,929	2,527	3,005	17,291
2012	629	927	1,376	1,396	1,219	1,475	987	1,210	1,351	1,167	1,104	1,291	14,132
2011	721	955	1,163	1,454	1,304	1,299	1,291	936	1,147	946	910	1,038	13,164
2010	854	624	955	1,089	1,428	1,405	1,199	1,135	1,109	1,011	836	979	12,624
2009	842	1,027	1,183	1,407	1,643	1,396	966	746	1,585	1,154	952	1,033	13,934
2008	2,015	2,071	2,692	3,190	2,904	2,082	1,870	4,242	2,318	1,170	1,093	1,324	26,971
2007	2,234	2,784	3,158	3,227	3,300	2,377	2,377	2,877	2,837	2,484	2,438	2,914	33,685
2006	2,579	3,058	3,655	3,516	3,317	2,938	2,794	2,990	3,056	2,761	2,773	3,081	36,518

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Given the time of year and the strong winter weather conditions experience through much of heartland this season, it's safe to assume that this could be the reason behind these sluggish sales numbers.

Source: General Motors