I have been doing a little thinking (difficult considering the brain
cell loss I have suffered from years of associating with LBC people) and
after considering the recent thread about Mustang sales volume compared
to that of the Corvette, the following thought occured to me.
One should not compare the two because as several people pointed out,
they are in different classes to serve different market segments.
What wasn't said (and really should) is that after Corvette's creation
of that particular market segment, Ford jumped in with its entry in the
form of the Thunderbird. There were some very nice examples during the
fifties, but somewhere along the line, Ford abandoned that segment and
made the T'bird into a sport-luxury 4-seater, leaving the 'Vette the
only entry in the 2-place US market.
But, alas! History repeats itself the other way around. After Ford
created the "econo-sport 4-place" market (Mustang), GM followed suit
with its Camaro/ Firebird entries. Each followed its own submarket
places, but are in fact still around in the original market segment.
Ford, however, has experienced some schizophrenia in where they wanted
to place the T-Bird, sometimes (as in the late 70's) making it a rather
cheap personal car. But the 'Vette still occupies its unique position
in the US market; quite successfully, I might add.
Joe Curry '63 Spit
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