The Corvette C8 is hot. In Q1 of this year, Chevy moved 6,611 units of the fresh, midengine Vette. Just a few months later in Q2, GM sold another 7,971, while production hiccups have had GM struggling to keep up with demand. The company said in June that it has more orders than it can handle.
Right now, two of the most expensive C8s in the country are in Southern California. Both are peculiar. The first dealer, Premier Chevrolet of Carlsbad, has the cheaper of the two. It comes to us by the way of friend of the site, Zerin.
The dealer has a 2021 C8 3LT coupe. With just over $19,000 in factory options plus destination charges, the MSRP sits at $92,135. Pictured here is the first markup. The dealer added a $35,000 market adjustment along with a $4,999 “Premier Protection Package,” upping the total cost to $132,134.
Now, this price isn’t the case anymore. After some checking, I noticed the price listed on the site had gone down. This may be one of the few instances where a dealer got some semblance of sense and came down on a markup. Don’t get too excited though, because it isn’t by much. The price is now listed at $117,135 with a $25,000 markup. I reached out to the dealer to see what was going on.
The dealer confirmed the price had been discounted but the price online is before the Protection Package and taxes. What does dropping $5,000 on their protection package get you? Not $5k worth of things that’s for sure.
The package is a ceramic glass paint coating as well as an interior protection that has a lifetime warranty, wheel locks, door edge guards, and Karr security system.
Even the most expensive ceramic paint coatings will only run you $250. A set of four wheel locks for a C8 will run you $85; there’s no way to tell how much the interior protection costs as the dealer didn’t give details on it. There are no pricing details on the Karr security system either, since it’s unavailable to purchase from the general public. Overall, none of it is worth it.
The second Corvette is looking like it’s likely the most expensive in the country as of this writing. A C8 convertible listed for sale at Connell Chevrolet in Costa Mesa, CA, this one was a conundrum from a dealer that didn’t seem to want to do business. The dealer has the C8 listed for a whopping $174,834. How’d they arrive at this number? A base MSRP of $99,835 with the fine print saying “Price includes $39,999 of dealer added accessories.” What kind of dealer accessories could be worth the price of a C7? The dealer wouldn’t tell me. When I pressed them on it by breaking down the price, they claim the price quote of $174,834 was wrong and that $138,834 was the correct price even though the $174,834 is listed in two places. Yeah, a mistake.
So if you’re lucky enough to be in the market for a C8 right now, beware. Dealers are still marking them up and giving the runaround. And with over 300 of the nearly 600 C8s I found listed for sale being over $100k, that’s too much money to be playing games over.