Will These Features Make You Consider Buying the 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertible Instead of the Coupe?

By
Keith Cornett
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7
15105

Will These Features Make You Consider Buying the 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertible Instead of the Coupe?


The Chevrolet Corvette was born as a convertible and the drop-top models were the most popular for the first 17 years of the Corvette’s formative years. It wasn’t until the third generation and specifically the 1969 model year that a Corvette Coupe would outsell the Convertible models, and they would do so until the Convertible’s demise in 1975.

The Convertible returned to the Corvette model line up in 1986 and the drop-top actually outsold the Targa-topped coupe model during the 50th Anniversary in 2003. In later generations though, the convertible has slipped in terms of sales percentages. Despite the convertible model being offered across all models from Stingray to ZR1, production of the convertibles accounted for only 16% of all Corvettes produced in 2019.

Corvette owners love that open-air driving experience, but the lack of storage space was always a consideration as buyers found the spacious cargo area in the C6 and C7 coupes much more practical as a daily driver.

Will These Features Make You Consider Buying the 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertible Instead of the Coupe?


That trend, however, may end with the 2020 Corvette Stingray.

Designers of the C8 Corvette made sure that the 2020 Corvette had plenty of storage space by offering owners the ability to place items both in the frunk (front trunk) and the rear storage area under the engine hatch. When the convertible is introduced this week, we’ll find that the storage areas for the coupe are exactly the same as the convertible model.

With a Convertible owner having the same storage space as a Coupe, that alleviates the traditional trade-off that has faced Corvette buyers since the C1 days when the Corvette offered a traditional trunk. Another feature that has potential convertible buyers excited is that the convertibles will also have a power hardtop. Not only will it be easy to drop the top at the push of a button, but the hardtop makes the car more secure when it’s parked, and the cabin should be quieter than those previously covered with the traditional canvas soft-top.

Will These Features Make You Consider Buying the 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertible Instead of the Coupe?


We are also hopeful that the nacelles (or buttresses) behind each of the headrests will incorporate a structural safety design that would protect the occupants in case of a rollover. This would allow the Convertibles the same access to tracks at the Coupes, and it removes another barrier to Convertible ownership.

With those roadblocks removed from consideration, the real choice confronting buyers of the 2020 Corvette Stingray is the choice on whether or not to display their engine via the Coupe’s rear glass window or go with the true open-air driving experience provided by the Convertible.

The 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertible will be unveiled at Kennedy Space Center’s famous Rocket Garden on Wednesday evening. It’s expected to start production in early February 2020.


Related:
[PICS] Controls for Operating the 2020 Corvette Stingray’s Convertible Top Hiding in Plain Sight
Chevrolet to Offer Two Public Reveals of the 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertible at the Kennedy Space Center
[RUMOR] 2020 Corvette Stingray Convertibles Could Start Production on February 10th
2020 Corvette Convertible To Make its Debut on October 2nd
[PICS] Options for the C8 Corvette Convertible’s ‘Nacells’ Show Up in the 2020 Corvette Visualizer Code

 



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7 COMMENTS

  1. I’m seriously considering it. I didn’t buy the convertible for my C7 because of the storage issue.

  2. Having a retractable hardtop should address the track safety issue, but there will be a need for the “official” blessing from the sanctioning bodies.

  3. There is nothing better than a Vert when the weather is right? I have a C5 Vert and C7 coupe and still use the C5 when it’s perfect convertible weather. I think the C7 coupe looks a little better than the C7 Vert. For me the coupe with the roof off has a lot more wind turbulence than the C5 with the top down. Like JoeM I fear the C8 vert that storage will be lost even if the top is up. Nothing will beat my 68 coupe with the t tops off and the rear window removed. Talk about flow through ventilation. It’s funny that when introduced in 63 the coupes were always more expensive than the convertibles until the verts were discontinued and reintroduced at a price range much higher than the coupe. Can’t wait to see how the C8 convertible
    looks.

  5. Give me dark metallic green as an option and I’ll buy either one… But thanks to this article, I’m now leaning more towards the ‘convertible’. They now need to start talking about “top down storage space”, in comparing the two models. It sounds like the power hard top retractable of the convertible should have been the default (and sole) configuration of the car, assuming it could be track approved. I don’t see the point of the removable hard top anymore. Just make those cars fixed roof berlinettas.

  7. will the verts be color constrained when production starts? I ordered my C8, Elkhart Lake Blue, on the first day the order book opened. My dealer called me last week and said expect the car in May or June. Is the General taking vert orders that won’t be filled for many months, like my blue car. I got it, bait me with a C8 and switch me to a hi po pick up…..jack

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