The revolutionary eighth-generation is not without fault, and we’ve reported on some of the issues owners face in our exclusive CorvSport Durability and Reliability reports. That being said, when GM upped its game with the mid-engine DCT-equipped C8 Corvette, enthusiasts and the industry took notice, with record production and an outpouring of praise. The eighth-generation iteration has cemented the Corvette’s position in history as the most iconic sports car, and it was our own Simon who so eloquently summarized our beloved Corvette:
“While there have been cars to define decades, cars to define generations, and cars that are the epitome of their specific segment, there is only one car that defines America, at least according to MotorTrend. That car is the Corvette, which through 8 generations has redefined what an American sports car can actually do…” Continue reading CorvSport’s Iconic feature here…
Now, without further ado…
The Top 17 C8 Corvette Accolades
(From the beginning to now)
#17
♦ 2020 Motor Trend Car of the Year
“Sometimes, a car comes along that leaves the automotive landscape different than before. In today’s Silicon Valley parlance, we’d be tempted to term such a car a “disrupter.” The last car to so radically shift the car world was the Tesla Model S, our 2013 Car of the Year. This time around, our 2020 MotorTrend Car of the Year, the Chevrolet Corvette, fully scrambles the order of things. Simply put, never before has so much four-wheeled exoticism been attainable for so little money. Or I should say, so much good exoticism…“
Full Motor Trend Article
#16
♦ 2020 Car and Driver 10Best
“The 2020 Corvette Stingray is different than those that came before it. Moving the engine to the middle of the car has not only taken its performance to new heights, but the sports car’s image has been catapulted from mouth-breathing, tire-smoking semi–muscle car to supercar disrupter in a single bound. It good enough to reclaim California from the grip of the imported sports car, and if you’re under 40, for the first time in your life, the Corvette isn’t an old man’s car. All this mid-engine goodness starts at just $59,995. And what you get is a V-8 supercar that costs less than a base 718 Boxster. Corvettes have always aced value and performance tests, but moving the engine has created a different sort of Stingray. Now there’s an American sports car set up to send more than a few Porschephiles into Chevy stores, a Corvette that’s ready to retake the Coast…”
Full Car and Driver Article
#15
♦ 2020 North American Car of the Year
“‘It’s humbling to be selected for this award by such an impressive jury of automotive journalists,’ said Juechter. ‘Our team poured our hearts and souls into this vehicle, and to see such an overwhelmingly positive reception makes it all worthwhile. We are sure our customers will love the new Corvette as much as these jurors and we can’t wait to get them behind the wheel.’
The North American Car, Utility and Truck of the Year Awards honor excellence in innovation, design, safety, performance, technology, driver satisfaction and value. Founded in 1994 by Christopher Jensen, who also formed the first committee, the NACTOY awards are judged by approximately 50 professional automotive journalists from the United States and Canada who work for independent magazines, television, radio, newspapers and industry websites. After evaluating the field of competitors, jurors vote individually by way of Deloitte to determine finalists and winners in each category...”
Full Chevrolet.com Pressroom Article
#14
♦ 2020 Detroit Free Press Car of the Year
“Generations of car lovers — not to mention GM engineers and executives — came and went waiting for Chevrolet to take the plunge and convert America’s greatest sports car to the mid-engine layout used by the world’s legends. If it was good enough for Ferrari, Porsche, the Audi NSX and Audi R8, why not the Corvette? Legend has it that proposals for a mid-engined Corvette date back to Zora Arkus-Duntov, the car’s hallowed first chief engineer. After countless false starts, the mid-engined ‘Vette arrived as a 2020 model. If possible, it’s better than those who dreamed of it could have expected…”
Full Detroit Free Press Article
#13
♦ 2020 MotorWeek Drivers’ Choice Best of the Year
“MotorWeek, TV’s original automotive magazine, has evaluated thousands of impressive cars in nearly four decades – and this year’s top winner deserves all the accolades it will surely receive. MotorWeek Drivers’ Choice Awards evaluators expressed that this iteration of Stingray, 66 years in the making, has been well worth the wait. Described as precise, confident, and incredibly responsive, with driver-centric cockpit and ergonomics, they said the Corvette Stingray breaks all the rules by its predecessors. This eight generation design is the first production Corvette with the engine mounted behind the driver, while producing an amazingly quiet cabin environment.
MotorWeek Creator and Host John Davis said, ‘Chevrolet has managed to engineer a vehicle that delivers on performance, comfort, technology, and aesthetics, the likes of which will give its global rivals more than a little heart burn, and they’ve done it all for a base price of just under $60,000. I love the fact that the new Stingray still centers on a naturally aspirated small block V-8. The new LT2 engine is a delight, and fits seamlessly with the super-fast shifting dual-clutch automatic… The whole Stingray package is impressively well thought out and executed…’”
Full MotorWeek Article
#12
♦ 2021 InMoment eNVy Award for Best Premium Sports Car
“The latest InMoment eNVy Awards are focused exclusively on 2021 model-year vehicles, with winning vehicles delivering on buyer expectations with regard to five key metrics, including comfort, quality, performance, safety, and ownership cost. The award winners are determined thanks to new vehicle buyers’ independent feedback collected in the InMoment New Vehicle Customer Study (NVCS), with 290,000 domestic and 50,000 Canadian responses collected from buyers and lessees of approximately 325 different vehicle types.
Based on these criteria, the 2021 Corvette took the win as the Best Premium Sports Car in the Premium Vehicle Segment. Notably, the accolade designates the 2021 Corvette as a “Repeat Winner” of the InMoment eNVy Award...”
Full Article Here
#11
♦ 2021 & 2022 S&P Global Loyalty Award
“S&P Global Mobility based the winners on a fact-based analysis of 11.7 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. during the 2022 calendar year. Loyalty is determined when a household that owns a new vehicle returns to market and acquires another new vehicle of the same make, model or manufacturer. The newly acquired vehicle may be either a replacement or an addition to the household fleet… Rated according to buying activity from January to December 2022, the Corvette ranked first in the Luxury Sports Car category to lead General Motors to its eighth straight win in the “Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer” category…”
Source 1, Source 2
#10
♦ 2021 Car and Driver 10Best
“In some alternate universe, golf clubs and targa tops don’t exist and the 2021 Chevrolet Corvette is 174.4 inches long. That happens to be the length of the Audi R8, a car that is about eight inches shorter than the Corvette. But Corvette buyers love Pings and they love removable roof panels, so the C8 has a big ol’ trunk behind its mid-mounted V-8. It looks weird from certain angles. Not as weird as a stretch Lincoln MKT but also not as tidy as it might have been. Maybe GM should’ve hired some of the people who used to build secret cargo compartments into Trabants headed to West Berlin.
And that’s about it for our beefs with the Corvette, which is a performance value for all time. Its 2.8-second 60-mph time slots neatly between the Ferrari 488 Pista’s 2.7-second sprint and the Porsche 911 Carrera S’s 2.9-second run, yet its $59,995 base price aligns with those of half-ton pickups and tarted-up Jeep Wranglers. And this isn’t a case where there’s a headline-grabbing value model that rolls on four space-saver spares and has an interior made of soggy cardboard. We’d probably grab the $5995 Z51 performance package, but you don’t need it to secure the Corvette’s essential promise of outrageous speed and exotic mid-engine extroversion. Even the interior, long a Corvette afterthought, is well wrought in any trim, with supportive seats and expensive-looking switchgear…“
Full Car and Driver Article
#9
♦ HotCars‘ Best 2022 American Sports Car
“Out of all sports cars on the market today, nothing can beat the 2022 Chevrolet Corvette in terms of value. Chevrolet has done something they talked about for years, which is to produce the Corvette as a mid-engine sports car. Not only did this make the C8 Corvette an absolute force to be reckoned with, it also moved it from a sports car to a supercar. Many claimed the C8 Corvette is simply too good to be true, but for all of us who have driven it, we can confidently say this is the absolute best budget supercar on the market, even surpassing many supercars with twice and triple its price tag…”
Full HotCars Article
#8
♦ 2023 Car and Driver 10Best
“Critics like us love it for the driving experience and performance. Corvette fans love it because it’s the ultimate realization of their favorite car. People who’ve never had any interest in Corvettes suddenly find that they do now because this one is so different from all that came before. Add in the new 670-hp Z06 version that puts the exotic-car world on notice and you have the makings of a 10Best winner…”
Full Car and Driver Article
#7
♦ J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Multimedia Quality and Satisfaction Study
“This recent “Multimedia” award is kind of a big deal, because according to J.D. Power’s 8/31/23 press release, ‘Vehicle infotainment accounts for 25% of all multimedia problems for a third consecutive year, according to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Multimedia Quality and Satisfaction Study, released today. This year’s study shows problems are at an all-time high, with nine of 10 problems being design-related. The top problem is connectivity issues with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.’ Just how comprehensive is this study?” Continue reading this CorvSport article here…
#6
♦ C8 Z06 & E-Ray named Two of Motor Trend’s 10 Best-Handling Cars in 2023
“When Chevrolet’s first mid-engine Corvette landed for 2020, it was the fulfillment of a sports-car wish after decades of waiting. It was also confirmation that the new Stingray with its engine in the right place was a better car. We called it a “masterpiece on its first attempt” when we named it our 2020 Car of the Year, but that didn’t stop Chevy from making it even better with the world-class 2023 Corvette Z06 supercar that followed in 2022. Now Chevy has expanded the Corvette lineup again with the hybrid-powered 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray.
Naturally—or perhaps unnaturally—the E-Ray broke cover with the icon’s first use of all-wheel drive and—in pure-electric mode—front-wheel drive. Would this mid-engine/front-motor sports car blunt the upward performance trajectory of the Corvette? No. With essentially the same accelerative performance as the Z06, but better handling than the Stingray Z51, the E-Ray proves the science works…“
Full Motor Trend Article
#5
♦ Motor Authority designates the C8 Z06 as the “Best Car to Buy 2024”
The quintessential American sports car has returned to the winners’ circle. The 2024 Corvette Z06 is the Motor Authority Best Car To Buy 2024. It succeeds the C8 Corvette, which was named Motor Authority Best Car To Buy 2021, and the C7 Corvette ZR1, which was named Motor Authority Best Car To Buy 2019. That’s three for three, in case you’re counting. The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 wins first and foremost with a truly special engine that acts like it came from an exotic Italian automaker. The Z06’s dynamics and price seal the deal. It’s a screaming deal even at more than $100,000 thanks to its performance, design, and powertrain layout…”
Full MotorAuthority Article
#4
♦ 2024 Car and Driver 10Best
“In a world where social media holds such sway over public opinion, its easy to lose sight of the ‘gold standards’ that the automotive community has used to identify what’s great in the current marketplace. However, when a publication as respected as Car and Driver publishes its ’10 Best’ lists, the world takes notice. Maybe its because publicatons like Car and Driver have always afforded an objective, seemingly unbiased opinion on the cars we love…and love to hate. But more than that, Car and Driver’s unique perspective of putting the reader ‘in the driver’s seat’ affords us all an opportunity to experience many cars thru the written word. Whatever makes it good, seeing the new Corvette (in all its current iterations) landed among the best wasn’t just good…it was freaking awesome! (Hey, I never claimed we were an unbiased source of Corvette news – afterall, we are CORVSPORT.com – the ULTIMATE CORVETTE DATABASE!)…” Continue reading Scott Kolecki’s CorvSport article here…
#3
♦ KBB’s 2024 Best Resale Value Award
- The annual awards recognize the 10 individual vehicles projected to keep the highest percentage of their original manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) after five years.
- The 2024 Chevy Corvette is estimated to offer a five-year resale value of nearly 60 percent of its original sticker price.
- The Kelley Blue Book Best Resale Value Awards are based on projections from the organization’s Official Residual Value Guide.
- The average new vehicle is worth roughly 42.4 percent of the original sticker price after 60 months.
- In Good Company: 1st; 2024 Ford Bronco (66.7%), 2nd; 2024 Toyota Tacoma (62.6%), 3rd; 2024 Mercedes-Benz G-Class (61.2%), 4th; 2024 Toyota Tundra (60.4%).
#2
♦ J.D. Power’s 2024 Most Dependable Premium Sporty Car
“Vehicle owners are experiencing lower levels of vehicle dependability after three years of ownership, according to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Vehicle Dependability StudySM (VDS), released today. The high number of problems owners encounter indicates a decline in long-term vehicle dependability, with increased levels of problems reported for nearly two-thirds of brands included in the study. The industry average has increased 4 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) year over year to 190 PP100 from 2023. The rate at which problems have increased between 90 days and three years of ownership has increased to 17%, up 5 percentage points from 12% in 2023…”
Full J.D. Power Article
#1
♦ Motor Trend: The Chevrolet Corvette Is the Most Iconic Car of the Past 75 Years
“Was there ever any doubt? MotorTrend readers are largely American, and as much as we love Jeeps, Mustangs, and F-150s in this country, the Corvette has been “America’s sports car” for nearly as long as this publication has existed. That’s why you chose it via our online vote as the most iconic car of the past 75 years. Rewind 71 of those years to January 1953 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and you might not have predicted this moment. Interest was strong in GM’s new fiberglass-bodied sports car, yes, but with a 150-hp “Blue Flame” inline-six under the hood backed by a two-speed Powerglide automatic, it wasn’t exactly the all-conquering automotive hero we know today. Chevrolet built just 300, and even those had trouble finding homes—you could only buy them in white with red interiors, which didn’t help the case. The do-it-yourself ragtop and curtain windows that only worked with the roof in place weren’t any more enticing when it came time to close a sale…“
Full Motor Trend Article
How about that list, CorvSport readers? Let’s keep this as a reminder that despite some of the glitches the revolutionary eighth-generation faces, it is still the iconic American sports car! If you want to keep up to date with all the fresh Corvette news and maintain a pulse on the lifestyle and culture of this exciting, iconic brand, CorvSport has the fastest-growing Corvette community on our Facebook page, with over 173,000 followers (54,000 since January 2023!). Come join other hardcore enthusiasts and say hello, Douglas B.
