Will a New Corvette Appeal to Younger Buyers?

Chevrolet has a problem with the Corvette. Despite efforts to appeal to a younger audience with the sleek C7 Stingray, the Corvette remains an old man’s car.

The average ‘Vette buyer is a 59-year-old male, but Chevrolet would love to start sending Corvettes home with guys and gals a decade or two younger. Certainly the C7 appeals to a younger crowd, but the Corvette brand has become associated with being a mid-life crisis purchase. When was the last time you saw someone driving a Corvette who didn’t have white hair?

Younger folks tend to buy the Camaro or Mustang.

Part of the reason is because older buyers are usually better-equipped to buy such an expensive car than their younger counterparts. In fact, more than 40 percent of Corvettes are purchased with cash.

There’s a new Corvette on the horizon, though, that might be enough to persuade younger folks with extra cash to jump on the Corvette train.

There have been rumors of a mid-engine Corvette for about as long as the Corvette has been existence, but they’ve never materialized. Until now, that is.

In August, The Detroit News, citing multiple sources, reported that GM plans to begin selling a mid-engine Corvette in early 2019. It appears that work is underway to meet that goal.

AutoNews reported on spy shots of a what looks to be a heavily camouflaged mid-engine Corvette testing in the snow and said,

Switching from a front to mid-engine layout would entail engineering a new chassis, creating a new transaxle — the transmission and axle — to drive the rear wheels, developing new cooling, air-conditioning and suspension systems, and designing an all-new body.

A mid-engine Corvette would give GM a true competitor to Ford’s GT supercar, which is mid-engined, as well as supercars from Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.

It would also, GM hopes, make the car appeal to a younger crowd. Ferrari’s average buyer is 47 and Lamborghini’s is 48, while the average Porsche 911 buyer is 52.

The biggest problem, in my humble opinion, is that the Corvette was coolest when older people were young. The other brands require a deeper appreciation for quality cars while the Corvette is a feel-good purchase that makes people reminiscent of when they were younger.

A new C8 could change that.

Would a mid-engine Corvette make you interested in buying one, or would you rather have a Camaro?

-tgriffith

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from The CarGurus Blog http://blog.cargurus.com/2017/02/01/will-a-new-corvette-appeal-to-younger-buyers
via Car Gurus