Looking for everyone's input here as already today I read a comment that it's a business and GM is in the business to make money. Let's look at what's happened to get here. In 2020 GM produces 20368 first year C8's 1490 come to Canada for 7.3%. In 2021, 23573 were produced and we got 1887 for 7.2%. In 2022 they start building right hand drives with 23503 produced, our allocations slips to 1014 cars which is -875 cars for 3.9% production but where did the cars go? Europe got 693 of them for a selling price of approx $30,000 US more per car than those cars the previous year that sold in Canada, and Australia and New Zealand got 212 of them for approx 60K more per car than selling them in Canada. Yes I know that adds up to 905 cars more than the 875 we lost but Mexico, Japan, and the Middle East lost cars as well. In total it is estimated that GM made 33.5 million dollars more by selling our cars in Europe and down under where the freight cost was an extra $15,000 to get there. Perhaps additional profit on the shipping costs as well?
So, on Tuesday August 15th the factory that started building the 2023's on Friday May 20th, 2022 built the 40,000th Stingray. Add 70ths, Z06's at 4486 plus Z06's 70th's plus 216 Captured Test Fleet Z06's we now have 49,600 built chasing the 1979 record of 53,803 and now need to build 205 a day from now until September 11th when the final 2023's and the first 2024's are scheduled to go down the line together similar to what happened at the start of the 2023 build.
Canada has from the numbers I can gather 2730 C8's that have been sent here for a 5.5% allocation. The 2023 production has surpassed the 2021 and 2022 production combined but Canada is still down in allocation percentage compared to 2020 and 2021, but better than 2022's. Next to the US that gets 91% of the allocation, Canada gets the most year after year. Our exchange rate on the car had been 25.16814% in 2023 and Murray indicated subsidies were over and GM had pushed the rate to 35%. Others suggested policies in Ottawa to create more taxes. I have it from a credible source last week that GM zone management still feels that this is a low volume car and is a small piece of the business in the grand scheme of things to the profitability of the company. GM Corporate may look at things differently. They see that Canadian cars produce the least amount of profit compared to anywhere else that they sell the car. It actually costs less to buy the car in Canada than it does in the US using the exchange rate. Then they see Canadian cars being exported back into the USA and they think Canada doesn't need as many cars if that is happening. They know cars are being sold for a profit, and they would prefer to capitalize on more profits and discourage exporting. They know that regardless of GM Canada's lack of support for the Corvette, with the under 3000 cars a year they're sending to us they will all sell, and if they're going to continue sending Canada cars, they need to up profits by increasing the car by 12K which is 10K more than the US price increase and 15K more for the Z06 in order to justify sending cars here. They could still make 30-50k more by sending our cars again to Europe, the Middle East and Australia than selling them here and make millions more in profits. We can only speculate here, but after 70 years of buying all eight generations of Corvettes compared to 2 years in other countries with factory spec cars, I think Canada has earned some goodwill and that's why we get what we do.
If we want to keep getting 2000-3,000 cars per year, and keep our allocations in the 5-7% range, were going to have to start paying for that or our allocation will drop back down to 3.9% and they will sell our cars for higher profits elsewhere. Another point here is that this just isn't happening with Corvette. Cadillac has had similar price increases during 2023 and an Escalade V is now over $200,000 Canadian dollars. I believe Corporate is now demanding a more balanced price between the US and Canada to discourage flipping and exporting and to increase profits.
GM Canada is just complying with the head office memo in this case, as deep down it's just a "small piece" of the business compared to trucks and suv's.
From all my sources, that's the reason why the price changed Tuesday the way it did, and the world market and demand for this car finally caught up to us and Corporate has spoken.
I value all of your input and if you have heard anything about this, the discussion is open.
