Key considerations
- Available for £80,000
- 6.2-litre V8, rear-wheel drive
- Goes like stink and sounds amazing on WOT
- Massively modernised by mid-engine design and DCT trans
- Interior quality much improved too
- Has had some gearbox issues and UK dealer coverage isn’t widespread
On paper, the 2019-on Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C8 looked like the answer to many a sports car fan’s dreams. A big-inch naturally-aspirated V8 and a twin-clutch gearbox mounted behind the driver – a first in the Corvette’s near-seven-decade history – driving the rear wheels. A claimed 0-62mph time in a Ferrari Portofino-matching 3.5secs. A more than respectable top speed of 185mph. A taut chassis and a body that would get even Italian car designers puffing out their cheeks.
All that plus a rich spec for £77,000, a price that under cut the Portofino by more than £100k. Now, we’re not singling out the Ferrari here: whichever comparable car you put it up against, the Chevy looked like amazing value. Better yet, UK buyers could get it with the steering wheel on the right side – another first for the model. What was there not to like?
C8 sales started in the US at the end of 2019. Sadly, Covid put a big dent into what should have been big numbers for 2020, and that pent-up home demand postponed the car’s arrival in the UK until the second half of 2021. By that point the Kentucky plant had ramped up annual production to 50,000 units, an astonishing figure for this type of car.
There would be only one UK sales point, the long-established Corvette, Cadillac and Dodge dealer Ian Allan Motors in Virginia Water, creating a secondary supply bottleneck for impatient would-be buyers who wanted an official RHD car with all the backup that went with it. By way of compensation, UK C8s came as standard with the Z51 performance package which meant stiffer manually-adjustable suspension, an aero-enhancing bodykit, bigger brakes with Z51-logoed calipers, better cooling, an electronic LSD, a shorter final drive ratio, a performance exhaust and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. All UK cars came in at least 2LT trim spec which included heated/ventilated seats, 14-speaker Bose audio, sat-nav, data recorder and camera rear view mirror. 3LT spec added Magnetic Ride Control, better seats, and other 3LT identifiers such as carbon flash accents on the spoiler, roof, wheels and mirror. Launch Edition cars were all 3LTs.
There was only one small catch with UK C8s. Euro 6 emissions regs dictated a 20hp drop from the full-fat 495hp cars that US buyers got, with an accompanying torque loss of around 13lb ft. If it’s truly mad power you’re after look no further than the upcoming ZR1, by far the most powerful production Corvette ever with posted outputs of 1,064hp and 828lb ft from its hand-assembled twin-turbo 5.5 V8, a top speed of 233mph, a standing quarter mile of 9.6/150mph and a 0-60mph time of 2.3 seconds. Phew. No UK prices were available for the ZR1 at the time of writing (Jan ’25) but in the US they’ve been talking about starting at $175,000 for the coupe and $185,000 for the convertible. Quite a price progression from the car we’re looking at here, but it’s still a performance bargain relative to anything else with that sort of poke. Chevrolet reckons that nothing under $1 million compares to it. They also say that the ZR1 is both the most powerful V8 and the fastest car ever produced in America by an auto manufacturer.
With a mere 475hp a used UK-spec C8 might seem like a bit of a comedown, but be assured that you won’t feel let down by its public-roads performance – and you will be saving quite a bit of cash over a ZR1. Of the ten C8 Stingrays for sale in the UK in early 2025 (four coupes, six convertibles), the cheapest was a 2021 9,000-miler at £67,995. That was a left-hand drive car. The most affordable RHD examples were a privately owned ’23 coupe with 4,000 miles at a fiver under £80k and a ’23 convertible with 1,000 miles for the same money.
Is a Corvette C8 worth it at this price point? Well, on paper again, it would appear so. We did say they were a bargain when they first came out at £74k or thereabouts. They were even cheaper in the US, starting at under $60k in 2021. We’re not sure what that would have translated to in pounds sterling back then but in 2025 $60k is equivalent to £48,000.
Although C8s have gone up since – new ones now start at around £94k for the coupe and £99k for the convertible – they still look great for the money. That gradual new price hike has been seen by some dealers as an opportunity to try their luck on used prices but we’re not sure they’ve had much success there. That 2023 convertible with 1,000 miles on it started off at £86k in June. By the end of September its price had been reduced by seven per cent to below £80k, but it was still for sale at that in late January ’25. Another 2023 convertible with an even lower mileage (280) was put onto the market over a year ago at almost £110k before it was given a £15k haircut at the end of August. Again that remains unsold at £95k and even with the good weather approaching you can easily see it taking another chop before it sells. What we’re saying is that they’re not exactly jumping off the shelves.
Why is that? Is there a catch we need to know about? Let’s take a squint at what sort of a car you’d be getting for not much money – relative to the big-name offerings from Ferrari, Aston, McLaren and the like, anyway.
SPECIFICATION | CHEVROLET CORVETTE STINGRAY C8 (2021-on UK)
Engine: 6,162cc V8, 16-valve
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 475@6,450rpm
Torque (lb ft): 465@5,150rpm
0-62mph (secs): 3.5
Top speed (mph): 185
Weight (kg): 1,527
MPG (WLTP combined): 23.3
CO2 (g/km): 277
Wheels (in): 8.5 x 19 (f), 11 x 20 (r)
Tyres: 245/35 (f), 305/30 (r)
On sale: 2020-on
Price new: £74,200 (£79,200 convertible)
Price now (RHD UK cars): from £80,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data are hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
Announcing the C8, the president of GM said that the traditional front-engine, rear-drive layout of the Corvette had finally outstayed its welcome. Nevertheless it appeared there was still room for old-school engine tech in the new car. Not only did the dry-sump ‘small block’ 6.2-litre LT2 V8 not have turbo assistance, being based on the legendary LT1 meant it didn’t have four-valve heads or even overhead cams. Its 16 valves were operated by pushrods. It did have a forged crank and rods, but who cared about multivalve heads anyway when the old ‘one in, one out’ valve arrangement had been serving the entire US auto industry well for what felt like thousands of years. What could possibly go wrong?
Certainly there were no obvious negatives in the way the new V8 blew the new Corvette up the road. Despite being 166kg heavier than the C7, the C8 was claimed to get through the 0-62mph run in just 3.5sec. We’re not sure if that was ever achieved, in the UK at least, but it was still a great engine to listen to booming away there behind your bonce through the double-valved Z51 performance exhaust. The breathing limitations of the two-valve head only really showed up at the very top of the rev range, which was a place you didn’t really need to visit for serious progress. If you were determined to push the long throttle right the way through its arc to explore those largely redundant areas, the rev limit was 6,600rpm, but the real fun was in its mid-range brawn and creamy rumble.
Much of the C8’s accelerative dynamism was down to the Tremec-built TR-9080 eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, another big change in Corvette DNA, this being the first model in forty years not to offer a manual box. A dial on the centre console provided five drive modes, beginning with Tour (which deactivated half of the engine) and going through Sport (longer gear hold, more noise), Track, the customisable My Mode and Weather, which softened off the throttle and boosted the traction control. An additional Z mode controlled by a button on the steering wheel gave you the most aggressive (and loudest) drive, along with the ability to slide-adjust the amount of traction control.
Unfortunately there were a few problems with the trans, starting in late 2021 when GM launched its first investigation into the Canadian-built ‘box. A few owners noticed a reluctance to shift up into a higher gear when tapping off after a bout of heavy acceleration, and more or less everybody noticed a degree of jerkiness at slow speeds. At least one experienced an intermittent refusal to engage odd-numbered gears. Leaks caused by gasket failures and other issues resulted in drivers being warned to park up and call for help.
There was a voluntary emissions recall on some ’20 and ’21 cars due to a problem with the Transmission Control Module. Some gearboxes on 2023 and 2024 model year cars had improperly torqued fasteners. From late 2023 Chevrolet began to feed revised gearboxes into the line, replacing problematic transmissions on earlier cars as and when required. If a C8’s VIN number is later than 37263 it should have the updated unit.
Mid-engined cars can bite you, and we don’t just mean in their potential twitchiness at the limits of handling. Accessibility issues can turn changing even quite routine parts into a bit of a performance that might well involve an engine drop. GM promised C8 owners that their spark plugs, other ignition components and aux belts could all be accessed without moving the motor. Annoyingly, but not for the first time in PH buying guide history, you’ll struggle to find UK service costs online. That may be down to the size, or lack of it, of the UK dealership network. We’ll talk more about that in the Verdict.
Fuel level sensors and pumps have been known to fail. A check engine light could be lit up if the fuel cap was damaged or loose. Some owners have noticed a ticking noise from the engine which has usually been attributed to ‘normal’ fuel injector noise.
Not for the first time in these guides we have to warn you to keep your C8’s battery on a trickle charger if you’re not going to be driving it on a regular basis because this car has around 30 controllers that could draw electricity even when it’s parked up doing nothing. Not all C8 batteries will go flat if left untended: it seems to be down to luck. The standard warranty was three years or 100,000km (just over 62,000 miles). Quite a few posters on US forums have strongly advised potential buyers not to skimp when it comes to extending cover.
CHASSIS
It’s hard to believe that the previous 2014-19 C7 iteration of the Corvette was still using transverse leaf springs. The C8’s suspension was double wishbones all round plus coilovers with manually adjustable springs, and it was excellent too, delivering good pliancy on British roads even in Track mode. It was even better if the car was fitted with the Magnetic Ride Control, an option that cost just under £2,000 in the UK, but you wouldn’t miss it on a car without it.
Centralising the mass of the drivetrain not only radically changed the Corvette’s phallic ‘big lump up front’ ethos overnight, it also gave the Corvette a new feel behind the wheel that would have shocked any serial ‘Vette owner expecting the usual recipe of steady steering and straight-line stability. Happily they still got that stability along with the new-found modernity of the driving experience. It never felt like a small car on British roads but it was a fine high-speed tourer. Grip and traction were top-notch, and there was plenty of accurate feedback through the wheel. The electronic limited slip differential was thrown in with the UK’s Z51 spec as were Pilot Sport 4S tyres and bigger Brembo brakes. That last addition was useful because there were reports of brakes overheating on non-Z51 cars being used hard on track days.
A front axle lift that raised the front of the car by 50mm was standard on 3LT cars. Some early C8s have reputedly had wheel porosity issues and a small number of ’21 and ’22 cars were recalled because of missing ball bearings in their rear halfshaft assemblies.
BODYWORK
The C8 came in coupe or convertible body styles. There have been convertible Corvettes from the year dot of course but the C8 was the first to have a retractable electronic hardtop.
Viewed straight on, the rear end was perhaps the least comfortable aspect of the C8’s styling, the depth of the bodywork sitting a little uneasily against the shallowness of the rear window, which you won’t be surprised to hear didn’t provide much in the way of rear visibility. The ride height looked tall from some angles and the rear haunches looked a bit heavy, an illusion not helped by relatively small wheelarches, wheels and tyres (19s front, 20s rear), but it boded well for the ride quality and for the longevity of the underbody on British B-roads, especially if the Magneride adaptive suspension was in place.
Lighting control software has needed to be refreshed on some export Corvettes and indeed on many other GM vehicles. Passenger windows have been known to go up and down without being asked. Horns have gone off randomly too, or have been hypersensitive to the touch.
INTERIOR
Before the C8, even the most rabid ‘Vette-ist would have agreed that there were better-built cars on the planet. That was still true when the C8 landed, but the number of cars that beat it was suddenly a lot smaller than it had been before. Some uneven dash stitching apart, the quality of the cabin materials and the way they went together represented a big step forward for the car.
The screen of the angled infotainment display might look familiar to buyers of late-2010s Insignias while the digi instrument panel with italicised numerals had an Aventador-ish look to it. The high centre console created a nicely cocooned cockpit feel for the driver. That ‘waterfall’ button bank worked better than you might imagine, the buttons in the lower half being for the passenger. The stalks for the lights and wipers were too high, some of the minor controls were a bit nasty and there was hardly any oddments space, but the squared-off steering wheel felt good and was heated.
Three types of seats were available, GT1, GT2 and Competition, the Comp seats with electronically-adjustable bolsters being the most figure-hugging. Some C8 seats have been reported for making an annoying clicking noise. In June 2024, 13,000 2024/25 model C8s were recalled to rectify possibly faulty seatbelts whose retractors were being locked in the stow position. Three months later that recall was extended to cover all C8s. Long before that in August 2020 the car had its first recall when it was discovered that the mandatory US requirement to be able to get out of a car when you were locked into the boot wasn’t being met by the C8. As Prince said, sign o’ the times.
Track day recording, sat nav and a parking camera were standard on UK 2L/Z51 cars, as were Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Bose audio. A less pleasant sound that one cold-climate owner reported was an intermittent ‘angry bumble bee’ buzz right next to him which happened two or three times in a 15-minute trip. Forum posters thought it might be a rattly seatbelt but the sufferer said he’d ruled that out. There have been malfunctions in the infotainment and dash display screens.
PH VERDICT
Being sniffed at by some as a kind of blue-collar hero is something the Corvette has manfully shouldered for most of its long career. Not too long ago it was viewed as a Bruce Springsteen on a stage full of Pavarottis. Luckily, it’s OK to like the Boss as much as Pav, variety being the spice of life and all that. Besides, the Corvette’s blend of light fibreglass and heavy V8 power kept earlier models well in the frame for fast car lovers who weren’t expecting razor-edged bodywork, crafted build quality or sophisticated suspension.
The C8 changed more or less everything. The most transformative changes were the mid-engine layout, the dual-clutch transmission and the wishbone suspension. These elevated the ‘Vette to a new level of performance and poise that really narrowed the gap between it and the ‘thoroughbred’ opposition. Wisely, Chevrolet stuck with the simple, easily-maintained, normally aspirated pushrod V8 that has always been a brilliant feature of this car. Thanks to intelligent development, it remains so even now in 2025.
Overnight the C8 became a genuine alternative to the usual high-sports suspects from the loftier marques, being significantly cheaper than a basic Porsche 911 and the same sort of money as a BMW M4, both fine cars but also far less individual than the ‘Vette. Despite the ease of mechanical maintenance, buying a C8 in the UK’s one-dealer ‘network’ was always going to be a brave choice. This next bit is shrouded in mystery, but it appears that as the result of a GM reshuffle Ian Allan Motors might no longer be the Corvette’s sole registered dealer in the UK. It was all a bit fluid when we went to press but we think that Arnold Clark in Glasgow and Altrincham and Lumen in Shropshire may have been appointed as UK Corvette dealers. Please throw any knowledge of your own into the forum for the benefit of all.
New C8 prices have been rising and we expect there to be more of that going on in the not-too-distant future. The most affordable C8 on PH classifieds at the time of writing (end of January 2025) was this year-one 2021 convertible with Competition seats and delivery mileage only at £85,000. For another £3,500 you could buy this newer (’23) convertible with under 4,000 miles at £88,500. The dearest C8 on PH was this 2022 delivery-mileage 3LT convertible at £97,995.
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