The End of the 2013 Corvette – What Did They Build Most?

Article contributed by Dave Salvatore / Kerbeck Corvette

At the end of every production year, the Bowling Green Assembly Plant posts a list of “Options Penetration” showing how many of each type of Corvette, color and options were built so that new Corvette owners could try to figure out how rare their car may be.

Even though that list isn’t out yet, we do have some preliminary data that we would like to share as part of our farewell to the C6 Corvette!

This year, GM offered a record 7 different models of the Corvette; the Coupe, the Convertible, the Grand Sport Coupe, the Grand Sport Convertible, the Z06, the ZR1 and the 427 Convertible (a one year model).

The big dog as far as production for the 2013 Corvette was far and away the Grand Sport Coupe with 4,908 units built. This is a repeat performance for the GS Coupe which has been the number one in production since it’s introduction in 2010.

A distant second to the GS Coupe was the standard Coupe with 2,597 units built. Right on the heels of the Coupe was the 427 Convertible with 2,552 units built which knocked out the Grand Sport Convertible that held the 3rd place spot for the 2012 Model Year. Now, the GS Convert settles into 4th place with 1,736 units built.

The last three spots were a bit anemic with 720 Convertibles built, 482 ZR1s built and 471 Z06s built. Many people believe that the 1 year run of the 427 Convertible effected the sales of the Z06 and the ZR1 since this was the only shot to get something close to a convertible version of either of those two super cars.

The total production of 13,466 2013 Corvettes built in a 9 month build is very impressive if you compare that to all of the other post-GM bankruptcy years. It was more than the 11,647 2012 Corvette built which was also a shortened year. If you do that math, that difference in production is almost entirely made up from new 427 Convertible model.

As far as the colors that were produced for the last year of the 6th generation Corvette, the black closes out its sweep as the number one selling color for every year it was available (the 2012 model year did not offer black because of the Carbon Flash offered with the Centennial Edition which finished a very close 2nd to Torch Red). However, the Black ended this year in a statistical tie with Arctic White – both ending the year with 21% of the production.

This was the highest Arctic White has finished for this generation where it spent many years hovering at the bottom. The reason for this success, of course, was the 60th Anniversary Package especially in the 427 Convertible version. There were roughly 1,000 60th Anniversary 427 Convertibles built in 2013 which comes close to the 1,230 2012 Corvettes in all 6 body styles produced in 2012.

Third place goes to Torch Red with 14% while the new Night Race Blue came in a close 4th with 11%. Crystal Red and Cyber Gray tie for 5th place with 9%, Blade Silver’s 7% puts it in 6th and Velocity Yellow ends the year in 8th place with 4% of the sales. The last 2 places go to Supersonic Blue with 2% and Inferno Orange with 1%. It should be noted that both of those colors ended the production early but the lack of sales probably had something to do with it. Neither of those 2 colors will make a return for the new 2014 Corvette Stingray.

Once the rest of options penetration list is available we’ll post it here but in the mean time you can take time to look back at a very successful Corvette Generation and say goodbye to the C6.

This article was contributed by Dave Salvatore of Kerbeck Corvette, the world’s largest Corvette dealer since 1994. Looking for a new 2013 Corvette or want to place an order for a 2014 Corvette Stingray? Call Dave at 877-537-2325 or visit them on the web at www.Kerbeck.com.

Source:
Kerbeck Corvette’s Blog

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