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Mid-Engined Chevy Corvette C8 Markup Reaching $15k

July 24, 2019

General Motors President Mark Reuss drives the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray onto the stage during its unveiling Thursday, July 18, 2019 in Tustin, California. The 2020 Stingray, the brand’s first-ever production mid-engine Corvette, features a new 6.2L Small Block V-8 LT2 engine producing 495 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque when equipped with performance exhaust. The 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray goes into production in late 2019 and will start under $60,000. (Photo by Dan MacMedan for Chevrolet)

As expected, dealers are excited about the new Chevy Corvette C8. So excited, in fact, that they are already marking up the new mid-engined ‘Vette.

Markups happen when a car is in high demand. That would certainly apply to the new mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8. Priced at less than $60,000 in the United States and less than $70,000 in Canada, the new C8 Corvette is by far the most affordable mid-engined car you can buy today.

That said, YouTuber Speed Phenom is saying that dealerships in Southern California are already readying themselves to charge their clients a little more.

“Dealerships believe that Chevy is selling them for too little”, the video says. Markups will range from $5,000 to $15,000 and that’s before cars have even arrived on the lot, again according to Speed Phenom.

2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8: New Mid-Engined Icon Unveiled

Chevrolet said that buyers could already reserve their C8 Corvette and Speed Phenom says the required deposit was $2,000. Unfortunately, some dealerships are going to use a lottery system to decide who gets to buy the car, at least at first.

Although we had to expect this to happen, it’s still unfortunate. One of the Corvette’s best qualities is its value, and although it would still offer plenty at $70,000 or $80,000, markups do take a lot of way from everything the C8 represents.

It also seems that dealers are simply playing on the car’s current hype and not marking up strictly because of availability issues and rarity. One dealer in Southern California said they were receiving over 100 mid-engine Corvettes and each would be marked up.

Let’s just hope dealers don’t overplay their hand here. Acura dealerships famously tried to mark up the NSX when the new-generation came out and we all know how that turned out. Many of those 2017 models are still for sale. The Corvette won’t be the NSX, but the target demographic won’t take too well to the idea of a markup.