Sorry, But We’re Not Buying that ‘Surprise C8 Reveal at NAIAS’ Rumor Going Around

By
Keith Cornett
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6
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Sorry, But We're Not Buying that 'Surprise C8 Reveal at NAIAS' Rumor Going Around


On Thursday morning, Corvette Forum member “Zerv02” started a thread called “C8 will be at NAIAS 2019” and said that both the Coupe and Spider models will be part of a surprise unveiling on January 14th. When asked about his credibility being on the line, he replied: “My source never lets me down”.

So let’s unpack this rumor from Zerv02. First, we do credit him with creating the first sketch of the C8 Mid-Engine Corvette’s dash layout and many of his observations have been since been verified by others we have talked too. But he has also been adamant that the C8’s MSRP will start at $169,900 which has been countered by the likes of former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz who said recently that C8 pricing will be just a little bit more than the C7, model for model.

So I believe Zerv02 absolutely has a source. But if I recall some of his previous posts, he doesn’t work for GM, so for a non-employee to see the car first hand, it probably happened through one of the vendors.

So that’s where the rumor started and its content. A surprise reveal for the C8 does raise a lot of eyebrows, but is he right?

We know that Chevrolet has no new products scheduled for reveal at NAIAS and there is no press conference on the official schedule. After hearing this news we picked up the phone and put some feelers out and nobody is telling us that it’s true.

It also makes no sense at all to do a surprise reveal of their most significant update to the Corvette since forever. The idea is to sell cars, and if Chevrolet is going to launch a new sports car, you would think that they would follow-up on the successful launch formula of the C7 with a similar campaign featuring social media teases, preview videos, and other information dumps designed to work the enthusiast community into a frenzy. And once everyone is sufficiently primed, you drop the veil and show off the new Corvette!

Suppose they do show both models at NAIAS. Will GM have members of the Corvette team on site to answer all the questions that Corvette enthusiasts and potential buyers will have?

One of the follow-up posters on the Corvette Forum mentioned the stealth reveal of the Ford GT a few years back while another chimed in that surprise reveals only work on concepts that are not planned to sell for a while. And since we were hearing that C8 production was planned to start sometime this summer, a stealth reveal with no information or pre-selling the mid-engine concept simply won’t sell help to sell the new car when ordering opens.

There are more than a few websites talking about this rumor, but instead of offering a click-bait title and a pretty picture, we wanted our readers to know exactly where we stand on this.


Source:
Corvette Forum

Related:
Chevrolet Will Not Launch the 2020 Mid-Engine Corvette at NAIAS
No Press Conference Scheduled for Chevrolet During the 2019 Detroit Auto Show
[GALLERY] The 2019 Corvette ZR1 at the North American International Auto Show

 



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6 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you! I believe you are correct, no way GM will do a stealth reveal. My guess is the Corvette Bash in April or the National Caravan in August.

  2. With the rich history of the Corvette and the intriguing connection with Americas Astronauts……how about a reveal at NASA on the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing July 20th ?

  3. Perhaps someone could enlighten me…2 models? Both the Coupe and Spider models? Generally they bring them out in an order of some kind don’t they? First one, then an upgade, then another upgrade? They may be working on a European version with the steering on the right, could that be the spider? Only one version is around now and we’ve all seen camo pics, so I wonder, is this guy for real?

  4. That’s about when the new Mustang will be revealed I doubt that they would reveal it then.

  5. It’s actually going to be a “Surprise Surprise-Reveal”, when GM has the Cadillac Division unveil it at NAIAS 😉

    //S

  6. What if Zerv 02 is correct about the possible timing of the unavailing in mid-January, but has the venue completely wrong? What other possible venue could there possibly be that would co-inside with other 1st model launches currently, and historically? My bet it we’ll see the very 1st C8 under the hammer @ Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale on 1/19 right after the 1st Supra! I’ll bet Rick Hendrick will be right in the front row with his wallet wide open!

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