C8 Corvette Production Restarts May 25th, Roughly 2,700 Cars Built To Date
8 May 2020, 17:59 UTC ·
by Mircea Panait
Fighting a global crisis isn’t easy. This time around, not even the automakers had a choice. Like many other players in the carmaking industry, General Motors had to stop production of the C8 Corvette until further – and hopefully better – news.
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The 2020 model year couldn’t start worse for the mid-engine sports car because the UAW went on strike for 40 days in the fall of 2019. As if that wasn’t enough, Bowling Green had to grind to a halt in March 2020 over the health crisis.
It’s understood that 2,700 examples of the breed have been built and delivered so far, and last time we’ve heard, the order books were supposed to jump to the 2021 model year in May 2020. Fast-forward to the present day, and General Motors has announced that 2020 Chevrolet Corvette series production is scheduled to restart on May 25th.
This information corroborates with the automaker’s announcement according to which U.S. production plants will restart on May 18th. Better still, the dealerships have also confirmed May 25th as the day C8 Corvette customers were expecting. However, do remember that GM mentioned “extensive safety measures” for the entirety of the workforce, measures taken from learnings in China and South Korea.
Even more surprising is that the Bedford casting plant is operating three shifts with 20 employees per shift, churning out the chassis of the C8 Corvette as Bowling Green gears up for assembly. Unless General Motors extends production well into the second half of the 2020 calendar year, we may also be witnesses to the shortest model year of the Corvette in the nameplate’s 67-year history. As for volume, well, 1953 holds that title with only 300 series-production cars made, featuring a starting price of $3,490.
That’s $33,740 adjusted for inflation, almost half the price of the C8. The mid-engined Stingray starts at $59,995 including destination charge while the Z51 Performance Package adds $5,000 to the tally. In the classifieds, fully-loaded examples of the breed are listed at close to $160,000 because of the Bowling Green plant’s downtime.
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