My point exactly! The Corvette is not an 'aspirational' vehicle like it once was. Certainly not with the majority of young people. Once they get in a position where they can afford a garage toy, they are lookin elsewhere. That's a concern that GM has been attempting to deal with for several model generations.

My wife and I have been buying / driving new Corvettes since 1968.... but we also have a couple 'exotics' in the garage too. I'm not the guy GM is going to go out of their way to win over. They are much more worried about what's going to happen when we finally get too old to get into and out of our Corvette. Who's going to take our place in the Chevy store showroom???

That's fundamentally why I think the C8 needs to border on 'American exotic' territory from a design, performance and feature perspective. It won't do that at a $60K entry price. Hence they need to keep the FE as their entry model and their ME as the high end attention getter.... I guess we'll finally see what their strategy is soon enough.

 

I get it. I agree with you. I don't care about exclusivity too much, although it is nice. For me it gets to a point where i ask how much money is too much for a car, particularly one that is frowned upon to put many miles on. I'd like to own one exotic in my life just to scratch off the bucket list, otherwise the vette fills my needs perfectly.

 

Truthfully, go and look what happens when a Ferrari or say a porsche gets higher mileage... They turn into huge money pits. Things deteriorate fast in little as 20-30K miles. Yearly costs to keep it going in pristine condition get ridiculous. I guess if you can have a disposable 200k-500k car you just dump it and buy a newer one, but in reality for me anyway.. availability and at least a good chance to locally fix my car was something I considered. I actually toyed with the idea of a 720s until a friend told me the "hidden" costs down the road.. I cannot personally justify it. I am not fully vested in design characteristics that are mandated by a mid engine design. It is just MY opinion, I am a self made kind of person, not trust fund kid or anything, I have certain criteria I guess buried in my mind.. I can't just go full "let's just buy it" I do feel for people that must have the latest and greatest every year.. I just don't have that in me, I find what I like and what suits ME and I work towards it. I respect other people's opinions and like seeing all the new stuff too.. but never at the expense of hurting or discounting what they feel or think...

 

A guy in a beautiful Porsche 911 pulled up beside me yesterday, motioned to roll down my window, and said, "beautiful car".
As he pulled away, I noticed that he had a huge ugly door-ding in the passenger side door. It's nice that we don't really need to worry about that with Corvettes. I don't worry much about where I park it, and I'd really miss that with one of the other sporty cars.

 

I think you guys are missing the point. GM wanting to attract younger buyers isn’t for 20-year olds.
People watch Top Gear, Grand Tour, supercar shootout videos, and they lust for those sexy exotic Ferrari’s and Porsche’s. GM wants that response to a Corvette so when people are first old enough to afford one, that’s what they first work towards.

That’s why GM benchmarks Porsche, and takes Ferrari design elements. Maybe the C8 is supposed to be a culmination of that. But a “demographic” starts with people’s first *desire* to have one

 

One of my close friend's is in that category.
Loaded and can afford pretty much any car he can think of and he is not considering a Corvette.

 

This is an example of something that makes sense in the O.P. GM does care about the used Corvette market. Not only for the revenue from parts not covered any longer by warranty, but for future new sales. While I don't know where to find a stat, I would bet that most Corvette enthusiasts first Corvette purchase was a used one. Being, bit by the bug, when the time came to buy a "new" sports car, Corvette was the obvious choice

On the other part, I don't think GM is so much trying to change the demographic as they are building a car that those entering that demographic will buy. There are probably many that perhaps weren't ready to buy a new C6 or C7 at the time, but will be in the market for a sports car now or the very near future. GM is progressing the Corvette to attract that market share as they reach that point in life. In other words, it's not the demographic that changes, it's the people in that demographic that changes, and the car needs to change to meet their wants and needs.

 

First of all, the statement that the C7 "failed" to bring in younger buyers is, and I'll be kind here, misleading. I did an internet search and found that the average age of a Corvette buyer in 2003 was 54. By 2013, the average age had increased to 61. Obviously the C6 failed to attract a new generation of buyers and, at best, hung on to those same buyers who were already interested in the Corvette. The latest data I could find on the C7 indicates the current average age of a new C7 buyer is 59. Those who don't understand trends will shrug their shoulders and think so what. Those who understand trends will be more impressed. The C7 stopped the aging process of new buyers and, to a small degree, reversed it. BUT and this is important, this small reversal means that younger buyers, who are not Boomer generation, are moving to buy new Corvettes. This has to happen to offset the aging group of loyal Corvette owners who traded their C6 for a C7.
As for GM's concern about the used market, it's more than many think. First, GM does make money on certified used Corvettes. Second, the resale value affects leases and that does have an impact on new Corvette sales so GM does care what happens in the used market. GM licenses their logo to many aftermarket companies that support the used Corvette market. Recently I read an article that stated GM authorized manufacture of the EBCM module for 2001 to 2004 Corvettes to keep at least that segment of the C5 market rolling along.
Keep in mind, the purchase of a used Corvette not only leads to the purchase of a new Corvette, these sales also support sales of new Camaros from those who become brand loyal.
So I don't believe for minute that GM doesn't care about the used market. They are very concerned about it, especially those aspects that lead to the purchase of a new GM car.

 

OK, but you're talking about maybe .01% of the population or less. It's round-off error. There aren't that many music/movie stars, offspring of middle eastern oil sultans, trust-fund babies, high-tech start-up billionaires, or professional athletes combined.

 

The height of my C2 coupe is only an inch taller than my C6 Z06 coupe, but it is much easier for me to get in and out of my '64, me being 76 years old.

Other than for a Corvette, I have no desire to sit foot in a Chevy showroom(or any GM showroom for that matter). Too many other makes available that are better cars, in my opinion.

I agree with your last paragraph 100%.

 

I pretty much disagree with everything you’re saying, and I don’t believe the C7 “inevitably failed”, rather that it was a resounding success. It invigorated and rejuvenated the Corvette fan base while creating attraction and buzz with new AND younger buyers. Ultimately, I think you are confusing desire with ability to afford/buy. I desired and aspired to own a Corvette LONG before I could afford one. I did not blame anyone for the price point, instead it motivated me to earn a living that I could afford one. Ultimately, I don’t think It’s GMs responsibility in the socialist sense of the word, to create an affordable Corvette, rather to create a desirable one.

 

You could have written this piece in 1967. Just substitute C3 for C8. And C2 for C3.

I bought my first Corvette new in 1976 a 77 C3. I paid cash for it. I was 25. No one 25 was buying new Corvettes. They were much older. Old C3s and C2s were bought used by young people. Same as today. I was earning the equivalent of $140,000 a year in today's dollars. It only took me a few months to save and pay cash. Not many young people can
do that. Then or now. It'll always be an older person's new purchase. Just as its always been. ..

 

Being from a hillbilly redneck part of the country when I was young, I didn't see that many Corvettes..

What I did see was a 16 year old kid get a new 1957 Corvette for his birthday from his grandmother.

What I did see was a 19 year old get a used 1958 Corvette in 1960, and then he got married and quickly had two kids so he bought a new 1963 fuelly 4 speed coupe.

What I did see was a guy in his mid 20's buy a new 1964 convertible Corvette, when I was in the Air Force, I did see one new 396 Corvette in 1965 that was owned by a man in his 40's that was a traveling salesman and the Corvette was the car he drove on his rounds(it was his only car)

But what was really hilarious, was when I got out of the Air Force in 1966 I returned to Little Rock, Arkansas and immediately saw a new pale yellow Corvette coupe covered with flower decals (like what the hippies were putting on their VW vans). The couple in the pale yellow hippy Corvette were easily in their 70's, but young at heart.

 

I suggest with 22 million millionaires in the U.S., so many younger people making money staying home working three full time jobs (yep, who knows the difference at any one of the companies?), influencers, and the increasing income and worth disparity characterizing a country that pays people to be irresponsible (smallest workforce in history), there are increasing numbers of young people who are not having families, and who break with tradition. The world has changed and the barn doors cannot be closed.

 

I'm an older millennial but what's hip with younger millennials and zoomers seems to be the C4. Hipsters flex them at their stomping grounds like the local kombucha bars. Plus The Fast Lane YouTube channel seems to be taken over by the dad's zoomer son whose coworker buddy has a C4 featured in every other episode lately. The current trend is a combination of 80s trending from pop music, synthwave electronic music, haircuts, fashion (Forever 21 catalog), a lot of which coincided with the growing popularity of Stranger Things. That woke zoomers up to Africa by Toto which caused a cover by Weezer and Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill. They've all gone viral on TikTok and Kate Bush became an overnight millionaire, back to concert tours to perform her almost 40 year old song. All that combined with the current C8 halo effect creates the perfect storm/recipe for the rise of C4's relevance which is more accessible to eager young drivers who just got their licenses.

GM isn't necessarily trying to target the younger gens just because they're young but because that's where most of the money is heading. Unlike during C5-C7, the shrinking boomer population has recently been surpassed by millennials as the largest generation. So GM is targeting the new best sustainable demographic which just happens to be younger. The Greatest Generation/WWII vets were GM's original target with the C1/C2 but boomers became their multi-decade cash cow. C4 was a radical departure/somewhat polarizing/a gamble but it got Xers hooked (including Harlan Charles who eventually became a Corvette exec).

Also the population has grown consistently since WWII. But if Corvette sales as a raw number has been relatively consistent (say every generation has averaged 30,000-40,000/year), then Corvette sales as a percentage of population/addressable market has been on a steady decline as a fraction of the steady increase in population (bigger denominator makes % sales smaller). Successfully captivating the millennials could bump sales back up to par with population growth. And the eventual full switch to EV will capture the techno-savvy which trends up as you look into younger age ranges.

 

You bring up an excellent point -- are you suggesting that more people have disposable income? (because there's multiple avenues to generate it in the interconnected world today?)
I originally thought everyone had extra disposable income from C-vid stimulus. But that has passed long ago and spent. So I'm curious if a lot more people are making extra money now to afford unnecessary things at inflated prices.

 

I thought we had more disposable income and prosperity because of our mountain of debt?

 

You know this was a 2 year old thread, right? We don't have to speculate anymore. The average age of C8 buyers is lower than previous generations, and the average income considerably higher.

 

What is your age group who is purchasing or have purchased a C8

 

I like polls they're fun and informative.