nberry:
Unless the C8 quality is shoddy, I don't understand how anyone can justify buying a European sport car over the C8. It is clearly the performance value king which Porsche for many years. Not today. Here is a peak of the C8 convertible.
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2019/07/2020-corvette-convertible-makes-its-debut-in-gm-video/
1. Quality: I already noticed that the plastic inside the C8 isn't really of high quality but maybe I'm wrong, I need to see it in person and on an actual production car
2. Looks: I hate how the C8 looks with that rear wing and the back is too Camaro-like. Without wing, the rear is OK but still not really attractive. This will be the first thing which needs to be "corrected" in a facelift. I can also imagine, judging by the "whole" look of the car, that this car will be branded "the poor man's Ferrari" in Europe, maybe in the US. GM ignored the image of the Corvette in Europe for decades, I wonder if they learned from their mistakes with the new C8 (I guess not).
3. Service: GM cars were often sold in Europe by Opel dealers or dealers who were not part of an official dealer network. Service is/has been often bad, not really worthy for a sports car. GM really needs to up their game in Europe.
4. Prices: A Corvette C7 is around 82k EUR in Europe...grey import. Officially by GM offered cars are over 100k in Europe, I am talking about the base model here. If the prices in Europe come close to Porsche prices, people choose the "real" thing. Also keep in mind that Porsche has a reputation of having a low(er) fuel consumption, this is (as weird as this may sound) an important thing for many European buyers.
5. Image: Bad image for the Corvette. Not as bad as in the past but still not good enough to compete with Porsche, Jaguar, Maserati or even BMW M and AMG Mercedes. GM needs to do something about it and I think the "right" pricing is important as well. If they want to play in the "big league", they are going to have a tough time in Europe if the prices are too high.
In conclusion, I think that the new C8 is a milestone in the history of the Corvette but it won't change a thing in Europe if GM doesn't start to market this car "right". This won't be easy though because they neglected the past decades.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Lamborghini Huracan Performante (2019), Mercedes E63 S AMG Edition 1 (2018), Mercedes C63 S AMG Cab (2019), Range Rover Evoque Si4 Black Edition (2019)