-
Home
- PRODUCTION DATA
-
Dashboards
-
Dealers
-
Options
-
Vehicles
- INFORMATION
-
C8Tracker on Facebook
-
FAQ
- GET STARTED
-
Register Account
-
Login
/ Frequently Asked Questions
About C8Tracker
General Questions About C8Tracker.com
General Questions About C8Tracker.com
What's the point of this? Why did you make it?
As the Z06 production started to kick off, there were a lot of people anxious to get the car and trying to figure out how many were getting built. After I discovered
a few people were manually tracking the production with window stickers, I decided it could be useful to write some code to automate that process and put the information in a central place
anyone could access.
Initially, the purpose of the site was just to track how many cars were getting built day to day. When I realized the same data could be used by people who were trying to estimate how long it may take their dealer to get an allocation for them, I decided to add the dealer data. So the point is just to provide information to help future Corvette buyers.
Initially, the purpose of the site was just to track how many cars were getting built day to day. When I realized the same data could be used by people who were trying to estimate how long it may take their dealer to get an allocation for them, I decided to add the dealer data. So the point is just to provide information to help future Corvette buyers.
Where does this data come from?
GM makes a PDF file of the window sticker available for every new car they make. This site simply downloads the window stickers for new Corvettes and stores the data from the
window sticker in a database. This is all publicly available information, the site simply provides the same information in a way that is easy for people to digest.
Is GM or any dealer involved in this website?
No. This site is a 100% private effort. There is zero involvement from GM or any of their dealers. We don't even have 'insiders' feeding us info.
About The Data
Common Questions About the Data
Common Questions About the Data
Is this data accurate?
The short answer: Yes.
More detailed answer: This data is accurate since it comes from the window stickers for each individual vehicle. These window stickers are only available for vehicles destined for the US or Canadian markets. So we have no data for vehicles that are destined for other markets. We have seen some evidence that not all the window stickers for Canadian Z06's are available, so the Canadian Z06 data is incomplete. This appears to only effect earlier VINs and not more recently produced vehicles. US and Canadian Stingray data appears to be complete and accurate, as does US Z06 data.
More detailed answer: This data is accurate since it comes from the window stickers for each individual vehicle. These window stickers are only available for vehicles destined for the US or Canadian markets. So we have no data for vehicles that are destined for other markets. We have seen some evidence that not all the window stickers for Canadian Z06's are available, so the Canadian Z06 data is incomplete. This appears to only effect earlier VINs and not more recently produced vehicles. US and Canadian Stingray data appears to be complete and accurate, as does US Z06 data.
How often is this data updated?
The data is updated every day. The updates are 100% automated, so they happen on a schedule that looks like this:
Tuesday - Saturday : Updates begin daily at about 12pm EST. These updates take about 3 hours to complete.
Sunday : Stingray data is updated starting in the morning. This takes about 4 hours.
Monday : Z06 data is updated starting in the morning. This takes about 2 hours.
Window stickers for newly built cars seem to be released the day after the cars are built. Since the factory runs Monday-Friday, the Tuesday-Saturday updates are designed to capture these new window stickers. Sometimes there can be a delay of several weeks for new window stickers to get released for a particular car, the Sunday and Monday updates are designed to track down these window stickers.
Tuesday - Saturday : Updates begin daily at about 12pm EST. These updates take about 3 hours to complete.
Sunday : Stingray data is updated starting in the morning. This takes about 4 hours.
Monday : Z06 data is updated starting in the morning. This takes about 2 hours.
Window stickers for newly built cars seem to be released the day after the cars are built. Since the factory runs Monday-Friday, the Tuesday-Saturday updates are designed to capture these new window stickers. Sometimes there can be a delay of several weeks for new window stickers to get released for a particular car, the Sunday and Monday updates are designed to track down these window stickers.
Why are some VINs skipped and missing?
While the cars go down the assembly line in sequential VIN order, the window stickers are not necessarily released in sequential order.
We don't have any way to know why this happens, but the commonly held belief that that some cars get held up in some sort of quality control check. Some people believe that ever car gets checked and the only cars that get held up had issues, while other people believe that only a percentage of cars get pulled for some sort of quality control check. It is believed that when these quality control checks (and any needed fixes) are complete, the car is then invoiced to the dealer and the window sticker is available the next day. This process can take up to several weeks, so this is why most people believe there is a delay in some window stickers getting released. It sounds plausible and we have verified it in some cases where we were in touch with the person buying that particular car, but we have no way to verify if this is the reason for every delayed window sticker.
These 'missing' VINs will be added as soon as the window stickers are available. They will be reflected in the production numbers for the day the window sticker was made available.
We don't have any way to know why this happens, but the commonly held belief that that some cars get held up in some sort of quality control check. Some people believe that ever car gets checked and the only cars that get held up had issues, while other people believe that only a percentage of cars get pulled for some sort of quality control check. It is believed that when these quality control checks (and any needed fixes) are complete, the car is then invoiced to the dealer and the window sticker is available the next day. This process can take up to several weeks, so this is why most people believe there is a delay in some window stickers getting released. It sounds plausible and we have verified it in some cases where we were in touch with the person buying that particular car, but we have no way to verify if this is the reason for every delayed window sticker.
These 'missing' VINs will be added as soon as the window stickers are available. They will be reflected in the production numbers for the day the window sticker was made available.
Why do the daily data updates take so long?
Since we pull the data from the window stickers, we have to download all of the window stickers. This is just a process. We also
try to do this in a way that is ethical and won't have any negative impacts on the website we download the window stickers from. So we throttle our
requests to that site (ie, we slow them down and space them out in effort to not be disruptive). So the updates take some time.
Why are the daily production numbers on C8Tracker different than other sources?
Our production numbers are accurate, as are some of the other sources out there. They are basically measuring production at different times.
The other sources basically show the VIN range for the cars that went down the assembly line on a given day. This is a valid way to measure production, but it can't account for cars that get held up in quality control. It's still great data to have available, so a big thank you to the people who provide it.
Since our data relies on window stickers, it won't show every car that went down the production line the day before because the window stickers for some cars could get delayed. Our numbers are better described as showing how many cars have been built and are ready to get shipped to a dealer (as the cars have cleared quality control and been invoiced to the dealer). However, the window stickers only include US and Canada bound cars, so the numbers will always be slightly less.
Which data is better? It doesn't really matter, take your pick. While the numbers vary slightly day to day, the weekly and monthly trends tell the same story.
The other sources basically show the VIN range for the cars that went down the assembly line on a given day. This is a valid way to measure production, but it can't account for cars that get held up in quality control. It's still great data to have available, so a big thank you to the people who provide it.
Since our data relies on window stickers, it won't show every car that went down the production line the day before because the window stickers for some cars could get delayed. Our numbers are better described as showing how many cars have been built and are ready to get shipped to a dealer (as the cars have cleared quality control and been invoiced to the dealer). However, the window stickers only include US and Canada bound cars, so the numbers will always be slightly less.
Which data is better? It doesn't really matter, take your pick. While the numbers vary slightly day to day, the weekly and monthly trends tell the same story.