Right now some 2027 Corvettes are sitting on dealer lots with 535 horsepower, full warranties and nothing mechanically wrong with them, and they still can’t be sold. The problem is a few characters printed on a sticker under the hood.
GM has stopped deliveries of affected 2027 Corvettes under emissions campaign N262578120. The Vehicle Emission Control Information (VECI) label, the tag every new car carries in its engine bay, lists the wrong evaporative emissions family name. The car is fine. The fix is a new sticker. Until a dealer applies one, the car can’t be delivered.
Why a typo can block a $90,000 sale
GM isn’t being fussy here. Federal regulations spell out exactly what that label has to contain. Under 40 CFR 86.1807, the label must be permanent and legible, mounted “in a readily visible position in the engine compartment,” and must list engine displacement, the test group, and the evaporative/refueling family identification. It also has to be attached so it can’t be removed without being destroyed.
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The evap family name is the ID for the hardware EPA certified to keep gasoline vapor out of the air: the charcoal canister, purge valve, tank and lines. Those systems are certified for a long service life. GM’s EPA certification document for the related Corvette ZR1X lists 150,000 miles of full useful life for evaporative/refueling emissions.
The legal pressure comes from Section 203 of the Clean Air Act, which bars a manufacturer from selling a new vehicle that isn’t covered by a valid certificate of conformity. A label that points to the wrong family breaks the paper trail between the car and its certificate. EPA penalties are assessed per vehicle. Holding the cars costs GM less than arguing that point with regulators later, though GM hasn’t said how long the hold lasts.
Label campaigns are actually routine. Nissan ran a VECI label campaign in early 2025 after vehicles were shipped with an Exemption label instead of a proper VECI label. Daimler Truck replaced incorrect emission labels on approximately 1,057 Freightliners in 2023. They’re about the dullest recalls in the industry, which is why they’re embarrassing for a halo car.
The LS6 name has a history with this. GM Service Operations bulletin DCS674, dated February 14, 2001, was a “Product Emission Campaign Emission Label Error” covering 2001 Corvettes with the 5.7L LS6. A quarter-century later the LS6 badge is back on a new 6.7-liter small-block, and so is a sticker problem.
What owners and shoppers should actually do
- Run your VIN. If you’ve already taken delivery of a 2027, check GM’s recall lookup or the MyChevrolet app. The remedy is a label swap at the dealer, and no powertrain parts are involved.
- Don’t DIY it. The regulation requires a label built to self-destruct when removed. A homemade VECI tag is the kind of thing a careful buyer spots years later.
- Close the campaign anyway. Open emissions campaigns stay with the VIN and show up in recall searches. A future buyer who sees an unresolved recall won’t care that it was only a sticker.
- Use the delay. A dealer holding cars it can’t deliver is still paying floorplan interest on them. If you’re waiting on an affected car, that cost is useful context when you negotiate.
It’s the second Corvette compliance headache this year. GM’s earlier NHTSA recall filing covered 32,988 Corvettes across the 2025 and 2026 model years, including the coupe, convertible, E-Ray and ZR1X.
Bowling Green hits pause, again
The factory is also heading for a long break. Bowling Green Assembly has told workers it will go idle for four weeks at the end of the year. That’s well beyond a normal Christmas-to-New-Year’s shutdown, and the announcement came just after the plant restarted from a three-week idle that spanned late September and October. GM hasn’t publicly announced exact dates or a reason.
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Plants idle for tooling changes or supplier trouble. Still, when the only plant that builds the Corvette keeps taking weeks off, it invites a blunter guess: expensive two-seaters sell slowly in winter, and dealers may already have plenty.
Where you can push
Nothing here says the car has a problem. It says GM is fixing a labeling error while trimming the schedule, which is a fair moment to push a dealer on a leftover 2026 or an early 2027.
If your dealer is sitting on one of these, what have they told you so far?