Parcival

Vernon

flyingbunnys

Funny, I've been to car meetups where my wife takes the corvette and I take my 85 s10 truck. My mom gave me the truck as my first car in 2004. she bought it new in 85 for $7500. It's been lowered but otherwise is mostly original. My truck seems to get every 5 year of boys at car meetups while the Vette is ignored. I've had people walk up and give me cash offers on the truck. I've never gotten that much attention in the corvette.

spinkick

because its really expensive to run two separate lines and to pay for design, updates, validation, testing, all of that. Besides, you'd have two cars competing with one another and chances are when you see the c8, you'd wonder to yourself why they are selling "the old car". It's like selling a c6 when the c7 comes out. It doesn't actually make sense.

mammoth713

The GT doors would be annoying to live with IMO

Rkreigh

The exotics build a car with less restrictions on price point. volume, and daily use. Price out the maint on those exotics and when things need to be done.

Makes a poor joe like me faint as I blow by them in an old tt z06. Now chevy will be building something that will definitely compete, and while not quite as "exotic" a poor mans exotic is exactly what I want and chevy is finally going to build it.

I hope it rivals the looks, and for gods sake keep it lighter! A solid looking vette that I can afford and enjoy is much more important to us working joes than the exotic numbers. give me that performance at 25 percent of the cost and I'll be ok with that.

JerriVette

AORoads

Since I see no answers to my question back to C5 driver, I'll post on JerriV's reliability requirement. Makes a helluva lotta sense to me! There used to be a Brit.-owned co. with a dealer very nearby the co. hq I worked for. Almost alll the senior execs had one. A very good reason why was, the dealer offered free p/u and delivery of all dead cars 1) at home, 2) at work, or 3) anywhere else in the metro area. Real-good-deal. Plus, a "reliable" loaner for as long as it took to fix it. And the frequency and length of time? Neither was a small number....

Rkreigh

I am fortunate enough to hang with the cars and coffee crowd that can afford the lambos, mclearan, jags, ferrari, ect..... when they talk about the clutch and tune up costs at really low sub 20k service intervals I often have to say "your tune up cost more than my car" The vette is an affordable exotic and what it may lack in fancy leather and ***** it makes up handily by being available to kick **** when called upon and runs right there with them.

while there are a few cars that can outrun and outgun the vette, they are typically at 2x and 3x price points to start, and it gets way worse from there as they are driven.

My vettes are typically "high mile" cars even though I bought them with low miles. The exotic guys keep the miles off of them for a reason, they are just too expensive to keep on the road. When you look at the used ones,. the "last service" is a big deal on the sale. My best vette mechanic went to work for jag. They are super hard to work on, expensive, and the mechanics are heroes when they can fix them (and have to be good).

The engineering and durability at this price should be way more solid, Audi was the first that put AC systems on the lambo that could actually cool the air and didn't just overheat the car. Lots of "unforgiveable" engineering was the norm on these exotics and when I talk to the owners I shudder at what they pay to keep them going and even more so how often they fail and are in the shop. I guess I need tow work on these not vettes!!!

The vette performance numbers measure, up, durability however is where the vette stomps most of them badly. I like looking at the cool exotics, the designs end interiors really are top notch and "show the money" in addtion to the performance. But most are too much like playing with a firecracker. Goes pop and burns you badly.

canadahockey19

Couldn't have said it better! Recently I picked up a new to me 2012 Carlisle Blue GS Convertible with only 16,000 miles on it, and multiple times now when stopped for gas or at the quickie mart I have come out to people looking at the car. Most recently a guy in a BMW 3 series left his wife/gf in the car to come over and talk. He actually thought my car was brand new! Now maybe this guy doesn't know his cars all that well, but we enjoyed talking about them for a few minutes before both getting on with our day. This is what it means to be a Corvette owner and something I will never get tired of. I may never own a Ferrari or Porsche, but since seeing my first '82 Vette as a kid, I knew one day I would have one.
Appreciate the story!

Rapid Fred

ByRiver

I get the same with my Carlisle Blue GS. And I get "exactly" the same thing when I drive my 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder. Exactly the same reaction from people who want to look at it and ask you questions about my car. People just appreciate cool cars they don't get to see too often and up close, not just Corvettes.

And the same thing with my Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle. People like cool bikes too.

tcinla

Someone mentioned that the C8 will follow the pricing formula of c2-c7, and that makes sense: Precedence. Some say it's competing with Hyper-car rivals. That doesn't make 'sense' when you consider a thought someone made the observation (which makes, again, sense ) : The Corvette is the attainable brass-ring of cars.

So, will the authority on the issue (GM) suddenly and without ANY prior hints or indication that going after Ferrari, Lamborghini, MClaren, etc is what they are going to do, switch up their decades long strategy of success? The probability is low considering ... precedence and what has been stated by GM... Unless they maintain the FE and ME lines indefinitely. they could but my suspicion is that sales would suffer in one of the 2 lines, Cannibalized by the other.

With the Mustang GT, gt350, Gt350R, Camaro 1LE's, and others nipping at the heels of the corvette, one might think that GM wants to make a move to separate the corvette from the PONY cars. If you think of the history of the Corvette, it's always been a rung higher on the american sports car ladder and had no direct competitor. Today, that's objectively not the case. So, GM (and this I strongly hope) phases out the FE and goes solely ME for the Corvette. taking it up 1 rung on that ladder from the other american offerings but retains it's attainability.

Make sense?

pietro c7

ltomn

It will be attainable for a price! And that price is a good bit more then the price of a C2-C7. i also do not believe they will phase out the front engine models. Speaking of precedence! 68 years of selling front engine sports cars. That's the attainable one but even it is all over the map in pricing. See the thread entitled, What is your threshold on cost.

tcinla

good points both.. We are all talking 'probabilities' of this or that until GM announces.

ColoradoGS

Yeah I think it comes down to one of two options, with evidence pointing to option 1 but option 2 is still a possibility until GM makes an official announcement.

Option 1. The C8 is ME and ME only. There's a modest price bump for the base model (models with things like twin turbos and hybrid front wheel drive could of course be much higher in price) which lets most of the people that either bought or considered a C7 consider a C8 ME. At least from a price perspective.

Option 2. The C8 ME base price is significantly higher than the C7 base price. And by significant I mean most people in the C7 market space are priced out of the C8 ME. Under this option, the C7 FE continues for a bit and then a refreshed FE C8 or C7.5 is released for those people that either can't afford or don't like the C8 ME.

What I don't think is likely is option 3.

Option 3. The C8 is ME only and the base price starts at 40%+ more than the C7. GM tells most of the Corvette faithful that they basically stopped making Corvettes they can buy--shut up and go buy a Camaro.

I mean it's possible of course but I can't imagine it. Trying to expand the market segment? That's good business and something GM would be happy to see happen. Totally abandoning the primary market segment and hoping to attract a completely new set of potential buyers? Very risky and as I've said before auto manufacturers are notoriously risk adverse. The Corvette business and brand is worth many billions of dollars. It's easy for an internet armchair quarter back to say "Leave that all behind! Making Corvette as awesome as can be, even if that means most Corvette fans can't ever buy one!" When you actually hold the reigns to the reputation and value of the Corvette brand you are not going to do that.

heavymetals

GM is making the Corvette a ME because the current offerings look like a CAMARO (from the rear).lol

I had a C5 Z06 for 14 years and sold it to upgrade to an NSX.

They are all "whim" cars and hot damn if you can afford your whims.

I hope GM makes a 800+ hp version even if it is a limited edition.

There are so many great cars available.

Bill Dearborn

What is the true difference between an exotic and a Corvette. Production volume. Design the Ferrari and its manufacturing line to support higher production volumes and the price comes down significantly. Spent two days this week instructing at the Ferrari Club International Convention. Saw a lot of expensive cars got to ride for 3 sessions in a very expensive 71 Daytona. A very rare car and worth a hell of a lot more money than a new Ferrari but it was still just a piece of crap 1971 car and about the same quality as a similarly well cared for 71 Corvette. The seats were terrible with little side support with the back reclined too far (just like C3 Corvette seats). The car didn't have power steering and the owner got pooped out after 25 minutes of muscling it around the track. However, it is worth about 35 times what the typical similarly cared for 71 Corvette is worth. His 360 Spyder was nicer (and had a manual shifter) but broke down after the first day for some reason or other. What I saw were sexy looking cars that looked great but were temperamental on track and some what of a maintenance nightmare. Very unlike the Corvette, Camaro, Mustang, BMW and Porsche worlds where you drive the cars hard over and over without major issues and in most cases not even minor issues.

Bill

NineVettes

I concur that your Option 3 is totally out of the picture - it would be a GM self-imposed dagger to the heart of their Corvette brand. But I do see a different pricing strategy form the current one - a true two tiered strategy. I would expect an ME Base to start at around $65k, a 1 or 2 LT model. The Base Z51 car with a few options, at around $75k. This is assuming it will come with an "LT2" small block making about 490 or so h/p (similar to the delta between the LS3 and LT1). This makes the base ME "attainable." The GS version MAY move a bit upscale by replacing the LT2 with an N/A DOHC. The GS intro will come after the Z06 version (as is custom), and will be priced between the two as is customary. With the Z06 version, you are now jumping up to "Tier 2 pricing." Unlike now, where a loaded 3LT GS MSRP = a 1 LZ Z06 at around $80k, the ME Z06 will start considerably higher for the 1 LZ version - I am guessing $90k plus, instead of $80k. One of the reasons for that is that the ME Z06 will have a twin turbo DOHC, and those puppies will be pretty damn expensive - factoring in a lot of pretty new R&D. Ford prices their Shelby GT350 DOHC FPC at $30k - I know, I had one. Unlike supercharging a small block (which GM has done for some time) the twin turbo DOHC in a ME configuration is very new to them. Options will quickly run that car up to $120+k. And I am guessing about 725 H/P for that one. When the inevitable ZR1 appears, it will include hybridization, maybe 900 h/p and a $175k price tag.

Just my speculations, but I think the two tiered pricing will allow most Vette buyers entry into ME, but the price for super performance will be much steeper. There will be no more deals like the one I got where I paid 12% off and less than $79k for a '19 M7 2LZ Z06. Which in my mind is an incredible value for a car that already bested the Ferrari 488 GTB and 911 GT3 RS (991) on tracks here and in Europe, and Mero drove to a 7:10 at the Ring. And even though I have done more track time than 90% of Vette owners, my aging skill sets are not close to fully utilize the abilities of my '19 Z06.

Times are changing, there is no "free lunch, and all that stuff. With the ME will come (IMHO) more changes than just the change from front mid engine to rear mid engine, more than manuals to DCT only, more than from supercharging to turbos....