We Have to Disagree
The new C8 Corvette has many people wondering about the future of the Corvette brand. One of the voices possibly worth listening to is Bob Lutz. He’s automotive royalty, working for both Chrysler and GM as well as other companies at different points in his career. In a recent interview with Automotive News (paywall) Lutz says the C8 Corvette is a good idea, but that all two-person sports car’s days are numbered.
He says the Corvette brand has the same problem that Harley-Davidson does and that’s a failure to attract many young buyers. The mid-engine Corvette should help with that, but what Lutz says Chevy should do is build a Corvette-branded SUV that reaches for the premium buyer much like the Porsche Cayenne does.
That may sound like the 87-year-old former automotive executive has totally lost his marbles in his old age, but Porsche does sell plenty of its performance SUVs. Lutz says it should be an ultra-premium SUV priced at $100,000. That would put it in line with other luxury high-performance SUVs out there.
We have no doubt that would change the way people think about the Corvette, but we’re not sure if that’s the right move. The Corvette has always been a sports car, and the transition to a mid-engine layout has caused a lot of buzz—not all of it positive, either. We’re all for a luxury high-performance SUV from GM, but we don’t think you need to take the Corvette name to do it. Lutz has interesting ideas, but nobody said all of his ideas were good. Hopefully, GM wasn’t listening to this one.
