Thanks to 56packardman for sending the link to this Motor Trend article about GM subsidizing the Corvette, at least at first. The sub-head states that Chevrolet will lose money on every C8 sold below $80,000. [However, amortization of new C8 systems will lower the per unit production cost of the car over time.—my note] The article also states, not surprisingly, the demand for Corvettes drops off dramatically once the price sails past $100,000.

Of course, that’s for previous Corvettes. I have no inside information, but I would not be surprised if Chevrolet/GM hope some Ferrari and Lamborghini buyers will consider buying the C8—now that the car is mid-engine—and if the higher-performance versions cost north of 100 grand, those buyers won’t balk at the price, especially since any Z06 or ZR1 will still cost much less than a new Ferrari or Lamborghini.

This post from carbonhans.blog reveals that one can spend about $114,000 for a C8 convertible, but that’s the MSRP for a car fully loaded. I am going to wade into it now. Too many Americans don’t understand that a big world exists outside the US. Cars costing millions when new are produced by companies in other countries, particularly in Europe. How much do you think the Swedish-built Koenigsegg costs? The Jesko model is $3 million and all 125 examples will be gobbled up quickly. Even if a high-performance C8 is $150,000, that’s a tiny 5 percent of the price of a Jesko and the C8 is probably no more than 5 percent below the Jesko in performance.

Yes, a $150,000 Corvette will not be within the means of many current Corvette owners, but it will seem like a bargain to those in the supercar/hypercar market. A 900+ HP, all-wheel drive ZR1 C8 Corvette will be able to accelerate from 0-60 MPH in less than 2.5 seconds, have a top speed in excess of 200 MPH and be able to pull well over 1g on a skidpad test for a fraction of the price of high-performance cars made abroad. I find it almost impossible to believe that some people in those markets will not be attracted to a C8 Corvette. In fact, this will be the first Corvette available with right-hand drive, so Chevrolet/GM is anticipating sales in markets like the UK, Japan and Australia.

The US is not the only car market in the world, nor is it the largest market. While Chevrolet/GM cannot ignore US consumers, in order to thrive in the future it must have products that have appeal outside the US. From the carbonhans.blog article a picture of a C8 convertible:

 

 

A McLaren 720S Spider costs more than $300,000 and a Ferrari F8 Spider is at least $300,000; a C8 convertible at $114,000 is not expensive in that context. I think Chevrolet/GM are aiming for that market.

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Thirty days from today will be January 1, 2020! That fact is frightening and amazing at the same time. Remember that you are older now than you’ve ever been before and younger than you will ever be again.

The RAND Corporation, a well-known “think tank,” predicted in 1994 that by 2020 apes could and would be bred such that they could perform manual labor like cleaning your house. Never forget that history is replete with examples of the folly of human beings trying to predict the future. Of course, robots may very well be performing such tasks in the not too distant future.

Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich gained much fame with his book, The Population Bomb, which was published in 1968. Of course, most of his predictions were totally wrong such as, “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”

In the developed world what is happening instead is that it is likely that populations will begin to decrease as the birthrate in places like Japan and the US have declined to at or below the “replacement rate.” EVERYONE has an agenda so what EVERYONE says has to be taken with a grain of salt, including me.

 

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