You’ll Never Believe What Cars People Are Passing Over in Favor of the C8

The C8 brings with it a new breed of Corvette shopper. These shoppers are putting the C8 above some expensive and exotic machinery.

It can not be overstated how much the C8 has changed the game for the Corvette. The car itself has been elevated from the ranks of sportscar to legit exotic car. This shift is of course making the new Corvette extremely popular with traditional buyers. However, it is also introducing a whole new demographic to the world of Corvette shopping. For decades, the Corvette has been cross shopped against various Porsche models. Typically, it would do battle against the 911. That remains true, but there are a lot of other cars the new Corvette is stealing sales from. Some of them, just might surprise you.

As reported recently by GM Authority the Porsche 911 remains the vehicle cross shopped the most with the C8. That is both expected and a bit surprising. In the past the Porsche 911 was always the more expensive car, and performance was generally close to the Corvette. Recently, the 911 has grown into more of a grand touring car. As good as the 911 is, the new C8 easily beats it in terms of power and speed. To say nothing of the price gap. There is a lot more than just the 911 that potential C8 buyers shop for. Recently a Corvette Forum thread started by user bamlec was titled “Curious what cars you cross-shopped against the C8?” The title is self-explanatory, and the answers gave us some interesting insight into the minds of the C8 shopper.

First, quite a few folks responded with the only correct answer. That answer is of course no other car was considered. These are Corvette people, and when the C8 was announced they knew it was the car for them. No need to look at anything else. And yes, there were several folks that said they looked at new or slightly used 911 models. However, among the numerous Porsche responses it seems that more folks were looking at the mid-engined Cayman and Boxster models. In particular the GT4 and Spyder variants. That makes sense as those models now more closely align with what the Corvette is. Nothing too surprising so far, but we are just getting started.

One of the cars that was mentioned the most in the thread was the Jaguar F-Type. We found that a bit surprising as they are nice cars but not the performance machine the Corvette is. Also, Jaguar can’t seem to give away the F-type. That would make it rarer than the C8 if that is your thing. The Acura NSX and Audi R8 also got several mentions. These more closely align in performance terms to the C8, but they also cost double the Corvette MSRP. While on the topic of high-end cars, one user was about to drop over $200K on a Mercedes AMG GT R before gabbing a C8. Used Ferraris also got a few mentions. Everything from an older F430 to a newer F12. A new Aston Martin Vantage was also considered. Did you ever think a Chevy would compete with these brands?

Another trend we spotted in the responses was the desire to pickup some American muscle. Various Hellcat models were considered as was the new Shelby GT500. European muscle was also cross shopped. A number of Mercedes AMG models and BMW M models ultimately lost out to the C8. Not many folks considered anything from the Japanese market but the Lexus LC500 surprisingly got multiple votes. There was also the mention of someone shopping the new Supra. Although we consider that more German than Japanese.

Quite a few shoppers also simply considered older Corvettes. A C7 Z06 was a popular choice. One person was originally looking at a split-window Corvette, but the price was too much so focused on the C8 instead. Even some hybrid cars made the list. The BMW i8 was looked at by a couple of C8 buyers. As you can see, the results ran the gamut. At the end of the day the C8 won out over all of them. We can’t wait to see what people are going to cross-shop with when the Z06 hits the streets.

Images: Chevrolet.com

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