Can You Name the Best-Selling Corvette Generation?

Do shorter generation lifespans make it harder for modern Corvettes to sell as well as earlier generations? Yes & No.

CorvSport.com is a terrific research source for Corvette history and specific information about trim levels, specs, and options. Case in point, they recently published an infographic (below) highlighting the Sales & Performance Milestones for Each Corvette Generation. This caught the attention of Corvette Forum member Mayor111, who shared the infographic HERE in this thread with the comment, “I always hear that the C4 was the least desirable Corvette, yet according to this, total C4 sales are greater than total C6 and total C7 sales COMBINED!!”

While it’s true that C4 Corvettes aren’t rare or particularly collectible at this time, they were the best American sports car of the 1980s. They were also reliable, as Corvette Forum member 4thC4at60 mentions:

I went back into Corvettes because of the C4. Owned four of them – trouble free – and LOTS of miles – averaged 140K miles EACH on those four. Skipped C5 – looks  – bought C6, put LOTS of miles on it, traded for a C7, LOTS of miles on it too. Traded my ’15 for a ’19 a month ago.

Total Figures vs Annual Sales Averages

However, despite the C4 being the second best-selling Corvette generation, taking into account the length of each model run paints a slightly different picture of how its sales figures compare to modern Corvettes. For example, as the best-selling Corvette generation of all time, GM sold 542,861 C3 Corvettes, moving just under 34,000 per year. (A record I assume we may only see eclipsed by the C8 if we can ever move past the production delays.)

In other words, yes the C4 sold more than the C6 and C7 combined, but when you look at the average yearly numbers, the C7 only sold about 500 fewer units per year. The C6 is actually the poorest-selling modern Corvette, at roughly 22,500 units per year, but as Corvette Forum member MSG C5 points out, this may have been due to GM’s bankruptcy and the Great Recession of 2008:

It’s a great graphic, but nothing really surprising considering the amount of cars sold/produced for each generation. The C3 had a remarkable 15 year run that produced over half a million cars. The C4 followed up with a 13-year run so two generations of Corvettes covered 28 production years. I find it interesting that the C5 outsold the C6 even though the C6 had a longer production run by one year and also included the Grand Sport and ZR1 models. Most likely due to the recession and GM bankruptcy.

Interestingly, the C5 is actually the best-selling modern Corvette, moving just over 27,000 units per year over an eight-year model run. To read a full, detailed breakdown of each Corvette generation and to see a larger version of the infographic, please head over to CorvSport.com OR join the Corvette Forum discussion HERE.

Photos: Chevrolet

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