J.D. Power 2023: Do Corvette Owners Prioritize a Good Stereo Over Performance?

J.D. Power naming the Corvette, “Best Premium Sporty Car” is not surprising. But the reason it did has us scratching our heads.

For 2023 J.D. Power named the Chevrolet Corvette as the Best Premium Sporty Car. It beat out both the Porsche 911 and Porsche Cayman, which finished second and third, respectively. That is quite an accomplishment for the Corvette. J.D. Power arrives at these rankings by sending out surveys to verified car owners. The survey is designed to judge how happy the owners have been with their car in the first 90 days of ownership. The survey questions fall into three categories:

1. Quality and Reliability
2. Driving Experience
3. Dealership Experience

Resale value is also a factor based on a formula from J.D. Power.

So, if you send out a survey to a new C8 Corvette owner asking them what they love most about their new car, what answers would you expect? The power, handling, or styling would be obvious answers, right? This is a Corvette after all. You are buying a sports car for performance, right? Well, it seems that most new Corvette owners don’t prioritize performance. The top three things that Corvette owners liked most about their car after 90 days are (drumroll, please):

1. The vehicle cabin is well-insulated from outside noises
2. The sound quality of the vehicle’s audio system is rated high
3. The vehicle’s ride is comfortable

Wait, what?

Who the heck is buying these Corvettes? They love the fact that the car is quiet and has a good stereo, so perhaps they should have bought a… Buick?

Corvette Forum

The first thing we need to realize is that most Corvette owners are not members of CorvetteForum. The folks here are a passionate minority. We track our cars, modify them, take them to shows, and argue online for days about which exhaust is best. Most Corvette owners are not like that. It may seem strange to us, but a lot of people just want a Corvette to cruise around in and be comfortable. They are not interested in forums and modifications and so on. These are the folks answering these surveys. And it is not unique to the Corvette. Most Porsche owners or any sports car owner group for that matter don’t live in automotive forums either. We are enthusiasts who obsess over engine specifications and proper oil weight.

The masses… want a good stereo. And they outnumber us.

The Corvette may have won the J.D. Power Best Premium Sporty Car for 2023 but there were a few things owners didn’t like. The most common complaints were —

• Getting in and out of the seats is difficult
• The C8 is not easy to maneuver in traffic or tight parking spaces
• The C8 doesn’t handle well in slippery conditions

We can’t say that this list is all that surprising given the things that the owners liked most. Comfort and convenience seem to be top priority to non-Corvette Forum Corvette owners.

J.D. Power Survey

We can’t complain about the survey itself. It is sent to thousands of verified owners, so it captures real-world responses. But it would be interesting to see what actual Corvette enthusiasts would have to say about the likes and dislikes of owning a new Corvette. We are willing to bet the answers would be drastically different.

What do YOU think about the C8 Corvette?
Join the discussion HERE in the forums!

Hopefully, your responses will restore a little bit of faith among Corvette owners. Owning a Corvette should be a visceral experience. We want neck-straining acceleration and a V8 so loud we can’t even hear the stereo. But this survey goes to show that there are two very different types of Corvette owners in the world.

Images: Chevrolet

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