With recent spy photos and with even the National Corvette Museum, in its report on production of the 2018 Corvette, musing:
“And as for a ‘C8’ mid-engine Corvette, no official word has been received announcing the highly anticipated model. But it has been photographed quite a bit lately. Perhaps it’s GM’s way of teasing us just a little bit!”
We have a question for you to ponder — but it’s not about that 2019 and apparently mid-engined Corvette. Our question is this:
The Corvette museum, which is located just across the road from the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, reports in its most recent newsletter that the factory will end production of the 2018 Corvette during the week of January 22 and that production of the 2019 model begins the week of January 29.
It also notes that the 2018 model basically will be a carryover from the 2017 version, except for a few features, including color choices, and for the 650 available 65th anniversary Carbon Editions.
It also reports that fewer than 9,700 of the 2018-model-year Corvettes are scheduled for production, “making it one of the shortest model years” in the sports car’s history.
Which leads us to our question for your pondering: With fewer than 9.700 scheduled to be built, does that make the 2018 Corvette an instant future classic and collectible?
Assuming that the 2019 model is, indeed, a mid-engine supercar — the first production Corvette ever with its engine anywhere but in front of the driver — people, including collectors, will be all over that model. But if scarcity is part of collectaability — and it is — might not the 2018 Corvette be a wise purchase for the collector looking to have a car worth more than MSRP somewhere down the road?
By the way, the “order guide” for those 2019 Corvettes is scheduled to be released on November 20. Stay tuned.
Larry. You should remember the. XP 819. 1964. The only rear engine Corvette ever built. It even spent a year in the Museum at Bowling Green. I owned it for several years. Best. Stuart
Yes, there have been mid-engine Corvette concepts, but I was referring to series production vehicles.
I think it would be many years for the chance of the 2018 Corvette in any configuration to become collectible. While the production levels being below 10,000 units are very low. When the economy crashed back in 2008 corvette production for 2009 was below 20,000 units and from 2010-2013 was below 15,000 units, and with a late model production release of the C5 corvette back in 1997 being around 9,700 units they are still very affordable vehicles that have not seen a lot of increase in value due to being a low production year. Corvettes hands down are the best bang for the buck and I have been fortunate to be a Corvette owner several times over for the last 30 years. Being the fact that C3 Corvettes are still soft in this current market with the exception of a few early LT-1 and Big Block cars. time can only tell what the future collect-ability of the newer generation cars will be.
Low production because of poor demand…not collectibility. Huge discounts on 2017 models… People simply are not interested anymore and the market has shifted away from the Corvette.