At a time when the cheapest new car in America handily breaches the $20,000 mark, bang-for-the-buck seems harder than ever to quantify. Much of the time, automakers seem happy to charge more money without giving you a whole lot more for your money, which is part of the reason why the average new vehicle costs nearly $50,000. However, some cases of value are clear. The 2027 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is one of them.
Granted, there is an elephant in the room we have to address first. When the C8 Corvette first launched, the initial base price of the 2020 model was $59,995 including freight. Since then, pricing has ballooned to $73,495 including freight, an increase of $13,500 since launch and $1,000 more than last year’s model. If we compare this to headline inflation, however, a base C8 should cost $77,685. Plus, the latest one gives you a whole lot extra for $1,000 more than the 2026 Stingray.
The headline feature for 2027 is a new base engine that’s bigger and brawnier than before. Dubbed LS6, it’s a 6.7-liter pushrod V8 offering a half-liter bump in displacement over the old LT2. More cubes isn’t the only story here, though. Unlike for 2026, every single 2027 Corvette Stingray gets a valved performance exhaust system promising a beefier sound than the old base exhaust system, along with better flow. Together, these two major components mean the cheapest 2027 Corvette makes 535 horsepower and 520 lb.-ft. of torque. That’s 45 horsepower more than last year’s 490-horsepower base model.
That being said, weight is up slightly from 3,366 pounds to 3,392 pounds. Chevrolet has made an effort to balance that out by swapping to a lightweight lithium-ion 12-volt battery, a fancy bit of kit considering the modest increase in sticker price. Still, thanks to the extra output, power-to-weight improves to 6.34 pounds-per-horsepower over the old car’s 6.87 pounds-per-horsepower. This means the new base Stingray should be quicker from just about any speed, and that’s before we consider the impact of an extra 55 lb.-ft. of torque.
An extra 45 horsepower and 55 lb.-ft. of torque, plus a fancier exhaust system and a special lightweight battery for a grand total of $1,000 more than last year’s base Corvette, is one heck of a deal. However, if you want even more 2027 Corvette for your money, the Z51 package seems like the most tantalizing option.
As is tradition, the characters “Z51” signify the track package for the base Corvette. We’re talking more downforce, more cooling, a shorter axle ratio, a fancier electronic limited-slip differential, tweaked suspension, bigger brakes, and a stickier tire setup. This option package also gets some tweaks for 2027, notably new Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 tires, a 5.56:1 axle ratio that’s even shorter than the old car’s 5:17:1 ratio, and an updated rear spoiler. However, because every 2027 Stingray gets the valved exhaust system that previously came with the Z51 package, ticking the box for this suite of equipment only results in a $50 price increase over last year’s cheapest $78,840 1LT Z51 Stingray. That works out to a hilarious $1.25 per extra horsepower. I repeat, cheaper than a McDouble per horsepower.
While the new widebody Corvette Grand Sport is tempting because it looks so much better than the Stingray, the sheer value of the updated base model is hard to ignore, especially with the Z51 package. Ever since Chevrolet yanked out the Blue Flame straight-six and dropped in a small-block V8, the Corvette has enjoyed a reputation as being a lot of performance for the money. The 2027 Stingray might be the best bang-for-the-buck yet.
UPDATE: Chevrolet just released performance figures for the base 2027 Corvette Stingray and while running from zero-to-60 MPH in 2.8 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 11 seconds flat makes it a hair quicker than the old car with the short-geared Z51 package, the big news is that it’s now officially a 200 MPH car. Holy moly.
Top graphic image: Chevrolet
After the mid-’60s, the Corvette has been a cartoon. Now, even more so.
Yep… the C8 is an unbelievable performance bargain. But it’s way more performance than I’d be able to use on public roads… legally anyway.
Honestly, I’d rather spend less on a manual Miata… or even an older Corvette like the C5 which still has plenty of power.
I’m sorry, but I just find myself caring less and less about this sort of thing. 500+ HP is completely unusable in the real world and this car is ugly as sin. Yeah, a 250hp C4 will be outrun by a minvan, but it will still make good sounds and look good (on the outside) doing it.
The C8 Corvette is an unbelievable bargain. Can you imagine what would have happened if Chevrolet hired some good stylists and dropped silly requirements like holding 2 golf bags? This could have been a Jag E-type moment where performance and beauty created an icon.
GM is driving me nuts with their engine codes. I’m fine with memorizing somewhat arbitrary chronological-ordered chassis codes like on BMWs, but this is too far. LTs and LSs since the original small-block is just as insane as whatever Porsche’s 911 chassis codes. Maybe they targeted nomenclature opaqueness as well as GT3RS lap time
“I saw the price
and it opened up my eyes I saw the price
Life is Boring without
V8 power
I saw the sign
and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign
Nobody gonna judge you much
for getting into cargo shorts and hanging out
in parking lots where you belong”
gti; mustang gt. miata; brz; 350z – any of these – higher fun /$
The Corvette is getting tantalisingly close to have a base enigne as big as the biggest engine the C2 could have (and immensely more powerful).
Also, hot take, mid-engined Corvettes are too serious and technical. Front engines ones were better.
Agree. Corvettes were better when they were world beating DESPITE being front engined.
And you used to be able to get them with the correct transmission in them too, even if too many didn’t.
Nope. the C8 is the culmination of Zora Duntov’s decades long dream, and he was right.
*Possibly* right 😉
I agree it was and is an opinion, but I’m rolling with Zora. Without him the Corvette would have been dead in 1955 (except for the Thunderbird kick in GM’s ass).
All good, the Corvette is a great car. And Zora great engineer.
Absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Indeed. Thanks for your comments.
Agree, the older ones felt more exciting. My friend had a 2020 C8 that he let me drive, and it felt fantastic. very solid, stable, and fast. But you could never use all of its performance in the real world (no track near me).
For random weekend play time, I’d prefer a car with more NVH and excitement at lower speeds. My old C6 was so much “worse” objectively, but I miss it. Felt like a big V8 version of my current NB Miata.
But if I fill out the skill points tree, do I Get a ’67 427?
…dumb Forza Horizon 6 references no-one else will get aside, for all the bellyaching, I still think I see quite a few more C8s driving around than you’d think, especially for a relatively small metro area. The mid-engine Corvette plays in Peoria. Literally.
Naw, i got you, lol
But does it come with a liberty walk body kit?
But it’s still ugly and not available with a manual.
For that kind of money – I can get a nice early 80’s Ferrari 308GTS
I firmly believe that the C9 will come with a manual in a special trim just like the 911 does. Why spoil the potential of thousands of C8 owners trading in for C9 just to get a stick?
but you’ll spend more on one cambelt service than you would ever spend on vette maintenance. plus you’d get outrun by every midsize SUV out there.
0-60 times in the mid-5 to low 6 range is perfectly respectable.
My Mercedes is a bit “slower”, but does just fine out in traffic.
Not all of us care about what the Mommy-Mobiles out there “can” do statistically.
Because we have something they’ll never have: Style.
And while that cam belt service is in the $3-5K range every 30,000 miles or so it’s the price you pay for running an older Ferrari.
If you can’t afford that – Enjoy your Corvette.
saturday- barrett jackson. a ferrari california went for $80 large. low miles.
“When the C8 Corvette first launched, the initial base price of the 2020 model was $59,995 including freight. Since then, pricing has ballooned to $73,495 including freight, an increase of $13,500 since launch and $1,000 more than last year’s model”
This should serve as a reminder that the 1% hate you with every iota of their being and don’t even want you to be able to aspire to a goddamn Corvette anymore….
*Xiaomi SU7 Ultra owners laugh in Mandarin*
You are not including the sentence immediately after that: “If we compare this to headline inflation, however, a base C8 should cost $77,685.”
Accounting for inflation, this year’s base model is cheaper than it was in 2020.
But that doesn’t account for stagnating wages, which is the much bigger problem. Inflation can be okay if wages keep up, but they definitely aren’t.
You’re both right. I’m reading this thinking “cool car… that I’ll never buy. Even used.” I suspect most Autopian readers are a lot closer to “one day I might scrape together $15,000 to buy a fun toy once the kids move out.” If someone dropped $100,000 in my middle class bank account, that’s a lot going into retirement and future security, not toys. I still want to know who buys these things.
As a gainfully employed, nearly 40, childless car nut: I expected at this point in my life to be enjoying a v8 mustang and thinking about whether it should be replaced by a new corvette in a decade or maybe I should be looking at a gently used one as my mid-40s hit.
In reality, I don’t expect to ever buy this type of car (whether I can technically afford it or not) and I’m thinking about whether my sorely missed FRS should be replaced by a Miata or a GR86 in a few years.
The Corvette was never “cheap”, but it seems to me that the old corvette buyer has been priced out of the market (and the crazy high resale of manual C6 and C7 vettes because they made this one automatic only isn’t helping anything)
Not that dissimilar, Europe-based, well-employed in a multinational.
I enjoyed my fair share of fun performance cars (M140i, A110). Market was good, finance helped and being childless too. Now though, as you grow older, you understand that you can only go up so much.
So currently driving a Clio Hybrid, reevaluating life choices and saving money. I don’t know what life has in store for me, but it is unlikely it is a supercar.
But a two car-garage (Clio + MX-5) definitely could be possible.
Life choices is the key there. I could technically afford a v8 Mustang. But I don’t drive a lot (since I work from home) and that would therefore be a large expense for a weekend car. A Miata is a great option for what I want out of a car, but again, for how much I drive it doesn’t seem worth having that extra payment. Much more reasonable than a $45k mustang, though.
Most definitely can understand. The (only) reason why I haven’t had a two-car household is because I cannot drive two cars at once and driving relatively little (being European, weekdays to the office are public transport mostly) my only var was the grocery getter and the canyon carver at the same time.
But, there is something even more insidious. I could afford the Alpine, but ended up being like the crown jewels. Precious, valuable, and a bit “fragile”. You stop driving it somewhat because it is not a car anymore, it is an asset.
And that kind of defeats the purpose of a car, doesn’t it?
It’s why I like my ’73 TR6, and before that MGB. They will never be all that valuable, so I can drive the shit out of them and not worry about it. The miles of smiles when the top is down and I’m climbing mountain roads in West Virginia are what it’s about. I just finished a total replacement of every interior part of my TR, and it looks like new, (and it’s not black with the heat of summer coming on), and I did it myself and my neighbor who restores car says it looks like a professional did it. These are the types of cars that help you get better at working on them, and enjoying them.
I’m in my mid 30s, the wife and I are both well employed in the medical field but our salaries have not kept up with inflation/there is no relief on the horizon. We’re in very good shape (so far) as far as retirement is concerned, we’ve already got a year of college stashed away for our two year old in a savings account, and we can afford to not lose sleep over money.
We have no car payments, one fairly sizable student loan payment, daycare (holy shit is it expensive), and a mortgage that’s on the higher end of manageable because we wanted to get in before interest rates when insane (we would struggle to afford to buy our house today because rates are 3-4 times what we locked in in 2022).
The dream of a weekend car is basically dead at this point and my next car is not going to be performance oriented. We’ll need to buy my wife a new, bigger car in the next few years (she drives an 2015 CRV) and are already dreading it. Plan is one more kid, then medical intervention to prevent any more. If you asked me 2-3 years ago I would’ve told you my plan was to get something like a CT4V BW or IS500 next.
But now? Absolutely not. It’s pissing money away for an ego massage. I’m hoping to maybe get a low spec R2 as my next car. We’d talked about getting my wife a certified XC90 PHEV a few years ago, but now? We’ve basically accepted that we’re gonna be stuck with some gas chugging mid trim family hauler.
Some of that has to do with the reality of having a kid, but a lot of it is due to abysmal conservative economic policy that’s driving inflation through the roof, concentrating even more wealth in the hands of the Epstein class, giving corporations unlimited power, forever wars driving up the price of everything, etc.
It is what it is. The wild thing is we’re wildly fortunate compared to probably 85% of the country. But spending on fun? Absolutely not. I’ve turned my hobby attention to my guitar collection and what little fun money we have goes to traveling. As cool as it would be to have a C8 in my driveway I think I’d rather put my kid through college and go on an international trip every few years…
Correct me if I am wrong, but you still drive a Kona N, don’t you?
Everything you say is the absolute truth. Even for “well to do people”, isn’t life bloody expensive? But despite that we still somehow manage to build a life and keep our passion somehow alive don’t we?
At least the wheeled one. For the other one, all strings attached, both my late father and late uncle were amateur guitarists. Music talent sadly escaped one generation, but can definitely appreciate it.
I do still drive my Kona N! It’s a 2022 and it only has 25,000 miles on it. All things considered it’s been a great daily, but once two kids are in the picture it’s going to be on the small side. But I’m still not replacing it for another 3-4 years at earliest. It’s paid off, running well, and will (begrudgingly) handle two car seats so long as the folks up front don’t expect a ton of legroom.
Enjoy it mate! A flash of lights from a fellow car enthusiast!
I was fortunate enough to be at that same spot in 2018, making decent enough money and at that point I was able to pick up a Camaro SS 1LE for just over $40k, brand new. Sold it during the post-covid pricing boom thinking I could pick up a used one for $30k or less in a few years which would be right around now. Lol inflation – nope.
“The Corvette was never “cheap”, but it seems to me that the old corvette buyer has been priced out of the market”
A bazillion folk drop C8 money on pickup trucks with nary a care.
People who have more money (and fewer children still underfoot, or at all). I could easily afford one of these if I wanted one – but they are definitely not my jam. Adjusted for inflation, I bought a BMW M235i that cost this much back in 2015. I am hardly in the .1%, but I have been making real money for a reasonably long time now, am a single dude in my late 50s, have no kids or exes, long paid off student loans, been reasonably smart with my money (until recently anyway). Didn’t even have a mortgage (on multiple houses) for a long time until I got the dumb idea that I wanted a new house with a much bigger garage. And even that is a fairly temporary situation until I sell the current one. And I don’t even make that much in the grand spectrum of “highly paid professionals”. There are sales dudes at my company who make double and triple what I make in a good year as an IT consultant/field engineer, and probably about what I do in a bad one. They work for it though. I’m fundamentally lazy.
But based on the exclusively old duffers I see driving them, most of them are likely retirement presents to themselves. Same as how my Old Man bought himself a $21K loaded Oldsmobarge 98 back in ’84 when he retired. That’s almost $70K today. And I say good for them – spend it on yourself, you earned it, and you can’t take it with you! I have two of these retired duffers in my circle of friends here in God’s Waiting Room, FL. Both very much car guys, and it’s just one of several toy cars each. And very sure they didn’t buy new Corvettes while they were still raising sprogs and paying off houses.
This is probably the realest comment thread in The Autopian.
Probably.
Even in my 30s into my 40s, I never would have dreamed I would be in the position financially that I am in today. So I totally get why somebody really just starting out in thier career with a fat mortgage and a kid or two think they won’t EVER be able to buy this sort of thing. But chances are, if you want it, you can get it. I also KNOW that people don’t realize just how much disposable income rises disproportionately once you are making enough to “cover your nut” and especially once you are out of debt.
The problem is being too old to enjoy it when you finally get there, LOL. At this point, getting in and out of one of these things is painful for me. I have long said I would sell my Spitfire when I can’t get in and out of it anymore. Pretty sure that time is about here. I haven’t really been able to get in and out with the top up for some years now.
Hit the gym and keep the Spitfire for a while longer, mate!
Meh, the gym doesn’t help with advancing arthritis that much. It’s not that I am so wildly out of shape, I am just a huge guy and it’s a very small car that is literally inches off the ground. Time to sell the Spit and get another Alfa Spider. Much more comfortable and easier to get in and out of, and much more suitable for the road environment in Florida. I am selling my place in Maine where the Spitfire lives. Just doesn’t really make sense to haul it down here.
30 years was a good run, many fine memories with that car. In fact, 30 years next week. I bought it on my birthday in 1996, for $3500. It wasn’t even old enough for antique car plates yet.
I’ve been thinking about Corvettes from the late 60’s (high school). I could afford one now, but my interest in owning one has gone. I was quite satisfied with owning my ’86 MT MR2 for 17 years. Now my reflexes could not bale me out of my foolishness in a Corvette.
Some years ago, a friend of mine back in DC asked me to test drive a pristine used 2022 Corvette with a manual out here in California. Someone down in Monterey decided it wasn’t for them. I recall it was a steal in the mid 20’s, probably because of the manual. It was fun and I got to mash the pedals a few times. She had it shipped out and drives it in suitable weather.
I have a Corvette nut uncle who has had examples of every generation BUT the C8. So I have driven them all from a six-cylinder C1 to a manual C7. They do NOTHING for me. Some exception for a C2 Split-Window, but even then, for what they cost there are about 100 cars I would buy first. I just have no real use for “fast” per se. I like refinement and quick enough to be entertaining (and my Spitfire is quick enough to entertain me), and Corvettes have always seriously lacked that. Just not in any way my idea of a good time.
Oddly enough, my uncle is also into air-cooled VWs. Go figure. Now THOSE are far more my thing, though I have never quite managed to own one. Maybe someday.
So don’t have a job with stagnating wages. If you are making comfortable Corvette money, I can assure you that isn’t an issue.
But this website most definitely skews young and if not exactly poor, at least with priorities that don’t allow for $80K toy cars.
I can only think that you are making this comment from a position of entitlement. “Get a higher paying job.” is so easy to say.
What do you have to say about those aged 40-60 who realize that after three decades, the GOP is closer than ever to closing down Social Security and taking everyone’s investment into this program? That is a huge hit to many people’s retirement plans, taking away those toy car dreams.
I say it sucks. But it’s also self-inflicted by the populace. Be careful who you vote for kids! Also, life choices matter. Choosing to have kids, divorces, more house than you really need, where you choose to live, etc. Sticking in a job because it’s “hard” to get a better one is right up there too. Or choosing to stay in a place with wildly expensive costs of living because the weather is nice there, or family is nearby, or whatever. It’s ultimately all up to you how you choose to spend money.
But as the pundits keep saying, it’s a K-shaped economy. You should do every damned thing you can to be in the upper half of that K. Am I lucky to have the job I have? Yes, but as the old saying goes “luck is where opportunity meets preparation”. And my situation just isn’t that unusual. I am no better off than the vast majority of my circle of friends, and many of them have WAY more wealth than I do (two incomes helps a lot there). I worked damned hard to be in the position I am in, I was flat out poor for a long time when I was fresh out of school, then wildly underpaid for a long time too even after I got on my career track. And when the opportunity came for a better job, I really took a chance, because they made it very clear that people either work out or they DON’T at this company – and they started me at exactly what I made at my previous job (I should have lied). I didn’t even have any expertise in what they did, but I had many years of client-facing experience (hard to teach) and they figured I could learn the tech. They were right, thankfully. And then I worked hard to get out of debt. Not saying it’s easy, but if I can do it, anybody can do it. Or you choose different paths and have kids, a bigger house in a nicer place, but no toy cars.
But ultimately, I have never whined about not having money to buy cool cars. When I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, I still drove cool cars. I just bought them very used and learned how to fix them myself. Helps that I have never really been into this sort of high performance nonsense. I won’t call my M235i a mistake (it cost Corvette money), because the memories of blasting around Europe in it for a month with my mother are priceless, but it proved to me that isn’t my overall idea of a good time once it got to the States.
The intersection between hardwork and luck / seizing the oppotunity is an important one.
I always say that my career was just being at the right moment in the right place, and I tend to disregard my contribution to it.
My circle always says that I did very well, and they are probably not wrong. But the opportunities are also important.
Now, fortunately I have met plenty of people with good positions (and of course wages) in my times. Which means that if you want to work for them, they are there for you to take.
Exactly. And like I said, I am fundamentally lazy. I like that when I am not doing client-facing engagements, my time is largely my own. If I was ambitious I would pivot to the sales engineering side of the house, where I would be paid mostly on commission to SELL tech rather than make it work. But those guys have to hustle, hustle, hustle. I am happy enough with where I am at.
I am hoping my new house debacle isn’t going to take too big of a bite out of my eventual retirement, but it will probably all work out fine. It has ended up wildly more expensive than the initial estimates. Thank you Mango Mussolini and your tariff and immigration bullshit.
All of this depends on an uncorrupted playing field, which we certainly do not have anymore, if we ever had it (in the US). While people’s life choices are certainly a part of it, many of those were not “a choice” and overlooks the dramatic difference in purchasing power that’s at play. Life is so much more expensive than it ever has been. That far fewer people still “make it” isn’t because we have far fewer trying, so it’s absurd to me that people can look at today’s reality and think “that’s your fault” for not making it as if it’s 30 years ago.
Wages have also outpaced inflation, especially at the bottom of the wage market, for the first time in decades. It sucks for kids right out of college right now – but it’s been the exception for it not to suck for them – BTDT. They, and everyone else, just have a better platform to whine about it, and that platform shows them what they are theoretically missing out on – but for the most part really aren’t, because most of what you see on the Internet isn’t real.
I don’t believe that lower-level wages have outpaced inflation, but that course corrections after years of minimum wage neglect has skewed the numbers. It is progress, at least.
Okay. Your story is better than I expected. A lesson that we do have a choice, and you were not too preachy.
I’m glad for you.
Spot on
I have first hand experience with your comment, I left a job of 10 years after covid, I checked the wages for that job recently and it’s only about 10% higher than 2020. Meanwhile in my new job I’m making 50% more.
Still can’t afford a 80k toy nor would I want one.
In far too many cases, the only way to get ahead is to change jobs, as corporate America largely sees people as replacable “FTEs”. I freely admit that I work for a pretty unique company where as I have grown in experience they have paid me commensurately. When I was hired they described the pay scale for my role as $50K-$150K, and today it’s probably $75K to $250K+. I started at $50K. Which is why I will have been there 20 years in February, and plan to leave only upon my retirement in 10 years or so. Most of my friends have done just as well, it’s just taken them more job hops in thier now 35ish year careers than my three (2, 9 and now 19 years in my professional career, all same basic installation/training job, if wildly different areas of tech). Typically more like five or six jobs, or at least promotions to different roles. I spent a LOT more time in school than most of my friends since I went to law school, then spent a few years in retail/self-employed before falling into my career trajectory, so I got a bit of a late start.
I can afford an 80K toy car (or at least once my current new house building nonsense is over), I’m just too much of a Yankee cheapskate to spend that much on one. There are just too many cheap and cheerful cars that are just as much fun to me – like a $15K minty Alfa Spider or a TR6 or something. Far more my speed than a Corvette that will land you in jail if you hold the loud pedal down for five seconds. I just don’t get the appeal of that. I had my one pretty damned fast expensive car, and while it was a laugh riot on the Autobahn, on the I-75 Floridabahn with cops everywhere and always some idiot blocking the left lane, yawn. The GTI that replaced it was a lot more fun for less than half the price.
Sounds like you got a good company that values a good worker. Mine also pays for more experienced workers or those with certifications. There are people making high 100’s without college degrees.
My last employer was always understaffed and would lose 5-10% of its workforce every year. About a decade ago they found out they could bring in foreign workers on a 3 year visa, paying the bare minimum ~$35k. The the union would get their dues and they would be gone without collecting a pension and while using very little Healthcare costs. Rinse and repeat with new workers every 3 years.
One of damned few things I agree with the current idiots in Washington about is putting the brakes on H1b visa abuse by companies. It is just rampant and there is no need of it.
Yeah, this. Ladder climbing is a thing and if your wages are stagnant than you have choices to make if you don’t like it. Usually if your wages are stuck then you’ve reached the max for that role.