Despite its $59,995 starting price, the Corvette \u2014 like the Mazda 3 and Telluride\/Palisade \u2014 is a remarkable value in its own right. The first ‘Vette to ever stick its V-8 behind the passenger seats, the C8 offers supercar value for a fraction of the price of comparable European exotics.<\/p>\n
I could buy four Corvettes (outfitted with the performance Z51 package) for the price of the Lambo Huracan. The Corvette would\u00a0match its 2.9-second 0-60 mph time while lounging in a digital interior that puts the Italian to shame. The Corvette\u2019s price point means that \u2014 just five years from now \u2014 you\u2019ll likely be able to find a C8 (just like a C7 today) \u00a0in good condition with 50,000 miles for less than $35,000. That is, the average price of a new car.<\/p>\n
The Corvette makes a larger point about the industry. The ‘Vette is proof that U.S. automakers emerged from the Great Recession making the world\u2019s state-of-the-art vehicles. The\u00a0Toledo-made Jeep is the world\u2019s SUV standard. The California-assembled Tesla Model 3 is the most tech-forward car in the industry and outsells the BMW 3-series. And pound-per-dollar, the Corvette is the world\u2019s premier sports car.<\/p>\n
On the road, the C8 manages to achieve the traction of the similarly sized, rear-engine, $100,000\u00a0Porsche 911 at the price of the smaller\u00a0mid-engine Cayman. Like the Cayman, the Corvette rotates beautifully around the driver into turns.<\/p>\n
The signature\u00a0push-rod eight-cylinder\u00a0is a carryover from the front-engine C7, as is the knife-edge body styling and luxurious cockpit. But the C8 refines them further: The well-proportioned exterior is complemented by an available hard-top convertible \u2014 again, jaw-dropping technology previously available only on $250,000\u00a0exotics \u2013 optioned for a mere $6,000. The interior also pushes the envelope \u2014 it’s a sci-fi sanctuary of digital screens, trigger shifter and over-the-air updatable software.<\/p>\n
Mid-engine toys bring athletic gains, but packaging usually suffers.\u00a0Somehow, Corvette\u2019s elves managed to maintain ample interior space, room for two golf bags, plus a \u201cfrunk\u201d for suitcase storage.<\/p>\n
The C8 is the gift that will keep on giving with the C8.R race car debuting at Daytona in January; a Ferrari-like\u00a0high-revving flat-plane crank engine is in the offing for the Z06 model; a\u00a0planned hybrid configuration may push (gasp) 1,000 horsepower. With its new life, I expect the Corvette to spin off a front-engine SUV in the next few years.<\/p>\n
Not bad for a badge that was on the bankruptcy chopping block at\u00a0the decade\u2019s dawn.<\/p>\n
2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8<\/h3>\n
Vehicle type: Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, two-passenger sports car<\/p>\n
Price: Base price $59,995 including $1,095 destination charge<\/p>\n
Powerplant: 6.2-liter V-8<\/p>\n
Power: 495 horsepower, 470 pound-feet of torque (with $5,000 Z51 performance package)<\/p>\n
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic<\/p>\n
Performance: 0-60 mph, 2.8 seconds (Motor Trend); top speed, 194 mph<\/p>\n
Weight: 3,600 (est.)<\/p>\n
Fuel economy: N\/A<\/p>\n
Report card<\/p>\n
Highs: Sci-fi interior; improved handling, traction<\/p>\n
Lows: Trigger-tranny learning curve; no adaptive cruise-control<\/p>\n
Overall: 4 stars<\/p>\n
2020\u00a0Hyundai Palisade\/2020\u00a0Kia Telluride<\/h3>\n
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front- or all-wheel drive, seven-passenger SUV<\/p>\n
Price: Base price Palisade $32,595, including $1,045 destination charge; base price Telluride $32,735, including $1,045 destination charge<\/p>\n
Powerplant: 3.8-liter, V-6<\/p>\n
Power: 291 horsepower, 262 pound-feet of torque<\/p>\n
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic<\/p>\n
Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.8-7.0 seconds (Car and Driver); tow capacity, 5000 pounds<\/p>\n
Weight: 4,387-4,255 pounds<\/p>\n
Fuel economy: EPA mpg, 19 city\/24\u00a0highway\/21 combined<\/p>\n
Report card<\/p>\n
Highs: Palisade’s interior flexibility, Telluride’s exterior design<\/p>\n
Lows: Palisade’s polarizing face<\/p>\n
Overall: 4\u00a0stars<\/p>\n
2019 Mazda 3<\/h3>\n
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front- and all-wheel drive, five-passenger sedan and hatchback<\/p>\n
Price: $21,895 base sedan, $24,495 for hatchback, including $895 destination fee<\/p>\n
Powerplant: 2.5-liter, inline-4 cylinder<\/p>\n
Power: 186 horsepower; 185 pound-feet of torque<\/p>\n
Transmission: 6-speed automatic, 6-speed manual<\/p>\n
Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.9 seconds (Car and Driver est., AWD); top speed: 130 mph<\/p>\n
Weight: 3,255 pounds (AWD hatchback as tested)<\/p>\n
Fuel economy: EPA 26 city\/35 highway\/30 combined (FWD auto); 25 city\/35 highway\/29 combined (FWD manual); 24 city\/32 highway\/27 combined (AWD auto, as tested)<\/p>\n
Report card<\/p>\n
Highs: Best compact design yet; ditto interior design<\/p>\n
Lows: Infotainment controller learning curve; 250-horse turbo-4, please?<\/p>\n
Overall: 4 stars<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A decade that began with two Detroit automakers emerging from bankruptcy and doubt about the future is on course to end with a bang. Defying experts\u2019 predictions, U.S.\u00a0sales are on track for a fifth straight year over the 17 million sales mark with a flood of new products\u00a0coming from an unprecedented diversity of segments: SUVs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26086,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24507\/revisions\/26086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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