The C8 Corvette’s Introductory Price of $59,995 Will Most Likely Go Up After 2020

By
Mitch Talley
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The C8 Corvette's Introductory Price of $59,995 Will Most Likely Go Up After 2020

Photo Credits: Steve Burns


If you want to get a C8 Corvette starting under $60,000, you’d better hurry and buy a 2020 model.

Motor Trend is reporting today through a “well-placed source” that General Motors – which stunned everyone with its Aug. 15 confirmation that the new Stingray would start out at the “bargain basement” price of $59,995, including shipping – will increase the base price for the 2021 model year.

A price hike should really come as no surprise, though, since that would just be following the usual protocol for GM. You’ll remember that the 2014 Corvette arrived at a base price of just $51,995 – only $1,400 more than the C6. In the middle of the ’14 year, the price rose to $53,993, with Chevy blaming demand greater than expected, before climbing to $55,995 at the beginning of 2015.

Motor Trend says “we don’t know exactly how much the base price” will increase for the 2021 Stingray, but like us, they say they won’t be surprised to see a hike.

“Practically everyone in the industry speculated that the C8 would be significantly more expensive than the C7,” the magazine says, noting that GM completely redesigned the car “from the ground up” and invested in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of improvements at the Bowling Green plant.

The C8 Corvette's Introductory Price of $59,999 Will Most Likely Go Up After 2020


The low base price was actually a great marketing strategy to get the attention of the automotive world, the magazine says, “and managed to create more hype around a car that was already among the most hyped in history.”

That $59,995 price also was a way to appease diehard Corvette enthusiasts who were upset with the mid-engine design and the elimination of a manual transmission, the magazine reasons. After all, those people “can’t complain too much about a price difference of just $3,000 between base C8 and C7.”

With the low launching price, Motor Trend believes that Chevy will ease repeat Corvette customers into the C8’s inevitably higher price range with less risk of sticker shock.

The C8 Corvette's Introductory Price of $59,999 Will Most Likely Go Up After 2020


We’re hoping that Chevy holds the line on the price throughout the 2020 model year and doesn’t raise the price as much as it did from the 1984 to 1985 model year – from $21,800 to $24,891.

Still, playing around with the C8 configurator, we were recently able to come up with a non-Z51, 2LT 2020 coupe that’s actually $2,000 cheaper than the list price of our ’15 convertible. Not bad considering what you’re getting for the money! Unfortunately, there are no discounts on the C8s yet, the way that the price of that ’15 was shaved.


Source:
MotorTrend.com

Related:
OFFICIAL: The 2020 Corvette Will Start at $59,995 and Has a Top Speed of 194 MPH
Reserve Your New 2020 Corvette Stingray Online at Chevrolet.com
No, The C8 Mid-Engine Corvette Isn’t Going to Cost $170,000 (At least not right away)

 



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4 COMMENTS

  1. I actually once believed that there was some code of ethics in the journalistic trade?

    Such as actually verifying information before publishing it?

    Is Motor Trend having trouble drawing readers? Or does their Editor in Chief just not care?

    These were the same guys saying that they, again, “had it from an inside source”, that the C8 “was a go” for starting north of $100k. And that was less than a year ago.

    There has been WAY TOO MUCH speculative journalism surrounding the C8. I get it that this car is a massive game changer, but these completely unverified rumor-based pieces need to end.

    And it needs to end NOW if it expects to maintain some respectable level of credibility.

    End. Of. Rant.

  2. Rumor mongering perhaps, but it’s also reflective of standard GM operations. They almost always raise the prices of cars mid-year so they can claim the next year models are the “same price as last year’s!” They’ve been doing this for decades.

  3. So does that mean that the 2021 C8 will have a price that is the same as the 2020 models?

  4. Why aren’t they available to buy? It’s very difficult to get a chance to order one. I want one very badly but they aren’t available.

Comments are closed.