Corvette is a Chevy again (in Europe) Posted 2010/06/24 @ 06:00 AM By Myles Kornblatt
It is a little-known fact outside of Europe that the few Corvettes that made the trip across the Atlantic have gone as orphans. Corvette is its own brand in Europe, but that’s about to change.
Chevrolet will soon introduce the Camaro on the European market, and that will allow the Corvette to come back in from the cold. “The fact that they are here, in Europe, being sold as Chevrolets is the clearest indication yet of the confidence that General Motors has in the Chevrolet brand, and the direction it is headed in Europe,” said Chevrolet UK Managing Director Mark Terry. His statement holds a lot of weight behind its PR-friendly appearance.
For about five years, Chevrolet has been GM Europe’s badge for budget-minded Daewoo cars. If these European Chevy dealerships were also selling Corvettes, it would have been like Mercedes dealers selling nothing but Smart cars and G-Wagons. Instead, the Corvette was broken off as its own brand and usually sold alongside Cadillacs. Now with an improved lineup that includes the Cruze (Euro versions are still Daewoo-built) and the Camaro, the Corvette won’t be quite so embarrassed to be sitting on Chevrolet dealer lots across Europe.
It is not just the standard Corvette that will be the Chevy flagship, all versions will be available (in very limited quantities) across Europe, including the ZR1. That means the European lineup will span from the 51 hp 3-cylinder Matiz to the 638 hp supercharged V8 Corvette ZR1.
