LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Why would small store want a Vette?

February 18, 2013 - 12:01 am ET
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To the Editor:

Chevrolet recently decided to allocate the first production of 2014 Corvettes to only certain dealers ("New Vette on the way -- but only for top Chevy dealers," Jan. 14).

Like most small dealerships, we have for our entire existence been trained for, purchased tools for and stocked Corvettes in a market where one or two sales a year is the norm. Why, you ask? Why would we spend the money necessary to do all those things, only to sell one or two cars?

Well, first of all, because we are a Chevrolet dealership, and we have felt it is necessary to represent our product. But, maybe more important, it's for the queen's entrance at the high school's homecoming football game or so a veteran can wave from an American sports car in the parade in his honor.

It could be for an 18-year-old gearhead to drool over while his girlfriend is buying a new Sonic. Or maybe it is for a young wife, seeing that look in her husband's eye and loving him enough to pat him gently on the hand and tell him, "One day, honey, one day."

Maybe it is for the empty-nester who can finally say that that one day has come. If nothing else, it is for everyone to be able to touch and feel a dream -- the Vette.

I know what the factory folks will say: The numbers don't lie, and larger dealerships retail them at a faster rate. Probably true. But what they don't understand is that dreams are seldom color-by-number; and numbers do not buy cars. People do.

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