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The average age of a Corvette owner is now 61 (thanks kgrant for that specific info). Lacking the Corvette moving to something like this really soon, it is going to be curtains for the Corvette.
When the C7 came out, it briefly lowered the average age of new Corvette buyers by attracting new, younger, brand conquests. However, not in the numbers needed for there to be a 2030+ Corvette. Why? Because as we all know the income of the average person at retirement is much less than while working. All of us know friends, fellow Corvette club members, or others who due to retirement, can no longer afford be a buyer of a new Corvette.
True, there are other reasons why retirees might not want to buy another one, ease of getting in and out of the car, greater SUV cargo space, the
advent of Lyft and Uber, etc., but one thing is for sure, that if on average ones’ income goes down significantly upon retirement, persons’ chances of buying a new Corvette are drastically reduced.
Consequently, if Corvette does not succeed in massively changing the ages group who buys Corvettes during the next decade, the average age of Corvette owners will continue to climb. Attend a Corvette gathering, look around and how many do you see under 50 years old, for most Corvette functions. I have been to Corvette functions of 50+ people and not seen one person there under 50.
Clearly, doing exactly as what has been done in the past, while wonderful, will not be sufficient to keep our Corvettes going for another 65 years, let alone even another ten years!
We had had 65 years of only having a front engine (FE) Corvette, while it has worked wonderfully, only repeating the past does not look like it will cut it even in the near future.
Bottom line is that I know quite a few folks in the twenties and thirties and forties who would not be found dead driving a Corvette. Not because they do not admire the car’s incredible capabilities, not because they won’t admit to themselves that it a great looking car, but because many worry about what their friends would think about their driving “ the old person’s Corvette.” Sorry, just telling it like it is, especially from candid conversations I have had with folks in that age group.
Ask however most in that age 20-50 group, what they would think about their driving a Lamborghini, a McLaren, or an Audi R8, and they would say that they would look “cool” (or whatever this weeks replacement word would be). Sure part of it is mystique of being associated with being able to own a rich person’s car. But it is also how many who do not even own a car, but who visually look at a mid engine vehicle, and feel that the mid engine design is cool looking, and that it also conveys “I am a success.”
Hence, why GM must at the very least embrace the addition of having a mid engine in its 2020 calendar year Corvette lineup, e.g., to avoid extinction, to avoid the Corvette becoming just like the past Allard, the MGB and the Austin Healey 3000 by the end of the next decade.
When the C7 came out, it briefly lowered the average age of new Corvette buyers by attracting new, younger, brand conquests. However, not in the numbers needed for there to be a 2030+ Corvette. Why? Because as we all know the income of the average person at retirement is much less than while working. All of us know friends, fellow Corvette club members, or others who due to retirement, can no longer afford be a buyer of a new Corvette.
True, there are other reasons why retirees might not want to buy another one, ease of getting in and out of the car, greater SUV cargo space, the
advent of Lyft and Uber, etc., but one thing is for sure, that if on average ones’ income goes down significantly upon retirement, persons’ chances of buying a new Corvette are drastically reduced.
Consequently, if Corvette does not succeed in massively changing the ages group who buys Corvettes during the next decade, the average age of Corvette owners will continue to climb. Attend a Corvette gathering, look around and how many do you see under 50 years old, for most Corvette functions. I have been to Corvette functions of 50+ people and not seen one person there under 50.
Clearly, doing exactly as what has been done in the past, while wonderful, will not be sufficient to keep our Corvettes going for another 65 years, let alone even another ten years!
We had had 65 years of only having a front engine (FE) Corvette, while it has worked wonderfully, only repeating the past does not look like it will cut it even in the near future.
Bottom line is that I know quite a few folks in the twenties and thirties and forties who would not be found dead driving a Corvette. Not because they do not admire the car’s incredible capabilities, not because they won’t admit to themselves that it a great looking car, but because many worry about what their friends would think about their driving “ the old person’s Corvette.” Sorry, just telling it like it is, especially from candid conversations I have had with folks in that age group.
Ask however most in that age 20-50 group, what they would think about their driving a Lamborghini, a McLaren, or an Audi R8, and they would say that they would look “cool” (or whatever this weeks replacement word would be). Sure part of it is mystique of being associated with being able to own a rich person’s car. But it is also how many who do not even own a car, but who visually look at a mid engine vehicle, and feel that the mid engine design is cool looking, and that it also conveys “I am a success.”
Hence, why GM must at the very least embrace the addition of having a mid engine in its 2020 calendar year Corvette lineup, e.g., to avoid extinction, to avoid the Corvette becoming just like the past Allard, the MGB and the Austin Healey 3000 by the end of the next decade.
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