Despite some of the reported issues with the eighth-generation Corvette, like a plethora of check engine lights (feature here), transmission issues (click for link), and a profusion of owner complaints (54 listed here), we certainly do not try to be all doom and gloom here at Corvsport, given our passion and love for the Corvette!
A recent feature that illustrated our passion and love was my durability and reliability update, where I reported three straight wins for the Stingray when it picked up the J.D. Power Highest Initial Quality (IQS) award for the 2021-2023 model years. There were also some notable accolades from Consumer Reports, but that feature only touched the surface with the accolades and awards for the revolutionary eighth-generation Stingray.
So dovetailing off those high notes, here is a special feature supplement to the industry research companies’ awards I highlighted earlier this month. Sit back and prepare to be impressed.
C8 Corvette Accolades & Awards
1) 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
2) 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
3) 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
4) 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
5) 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
6) 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
7) 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
8) 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) 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
10) 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
I hope you have enjoyed this comprehensive collection of all the trophies the amazing eighth-generation Corvette has received. If I happened to miss any, please reach out to me on our Facebook page, where we have an active community! I would love to see you there, Douglas B.
