Chevrolet Offers Incentives for the Corvette ZR-1

The automotive market is starting to make a recovery but, as we know, in economic terms everything is relative. In other words, the increase registered in the previous months can be seen as a pretty hefty decrease if we compare it to car sales recorded before the financial crisis started.

This means that certain automotive producers have built-up stocks for certain models, as the buyers weren’t so eager to hit dealership as in other previous years. One way of getting rid of a large inventory is to offer incentives. But this comes with a set of painful disadvantages, as they can damage the company’s image and hurt resale values for cars that have already found owners.

General Motors knows this pretty well and has managed to stay off the incentives gas pedal (this has been used but not excessively) since the company emerged from bankruptcy one year ago. However, it seems that the carmaker has to push it a little harder now.

And the targeted model is one of GM’s flagship vehicles, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1. According to the CorvetteBlogger website, as the 2011 model is preparing to be launched, GM’s inventory still includes around 500 previous model year ZR1s.The company is offering $3,000 off the car’s price or zero percent financing for the 2010 models. And the story doesn’t end here. The incentives reach $5,000 for the 2009 model. However, there are only a dozen of these in stock and they are not equipped with the 2010 model’s launch control feature.

Our Say: “America Still Builds Rockets”, but unfortunately it can’t manage to sell all of them.