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Robert Heinlein, in _The Notebooks of Lazarus Long_, "Budget the luxuries first."
I've been a working stiff all my life, but bought my first Porsche in '65, as a PO2 in the Navy. Have owned 4 P-cars, 8 Corvettes, other cars, and a Ferrari. Seven of the 8 Corvettes were bought new. I had payments on the '89, '91, '95... all others were paid for cash, as was the (old) Ferrari. Just a matter of priorities, and buying and selling wisely. I opted to never own a home. Put my money into _rent_, cars, travel, good booze, and friends... No regrets - I'm 82.
for those who don't follow the link, one paragraph from the article..
According to an October report by Market Watch, Americans needed an annual income of at least $100,000 to afford a car, at least if they're following standard budgeting advice, which says you shouldn't spend more than 10 percent of your monthly income on car-related expenses.
Sadly. Those days are over. I remember the Fixed Roof C5 at introduction was to promote "entry level" Corvette model. Then in a matter of couple model year, the it became the ZO6. I had a 2003 version and it was no where close to the "entry level" price of the original concept.
The FRC was still $44k in 1999, not exactly a "blue collar guy" price then or since.
^^^
Today I don’t see anyone buying them except us old guys.
And a lot of that is because we know we can't take it with us.
In general, one has to have accomplished some kind of success (whether through higher education or hard work/entrepreneurship) to be able to afford an expensive toy and that usually comes to those closer to 40 & up. Depending on ones definition of old but I do see a lot of younger 35-55 year olds driving the C8 in the SoCal area.
for those who don't follow the link, one paragraph from the article..
According to an October report by Market Watch, Americans needed an annual income of at least $100,000 to afford a car, at least if they're following standard budgeting advice, which says you shouldn't spend more than 10 percent of your monthly income on car-related expenses.
That's a gross over-generalization. They're claiming one needs to earn $100k to afford a brand new Hyundai Accent with a base price of $16k?
Sadly. Those days are over. I remember the Fixed Roof C5 at introduction was to promote "entry level" Corvette model. Then in a matter of couple model year, the it became the ZO6. I had a 2003 version and it was no where close to the "entry level" price of the original concept.
The FRC was $38,777 in 1999 when it was first available and $38,900 in 2000, the last year it was available.
The "Sport Coupe" was $37,495 in 1997 and $43,895 in 2003 so just over $1k/year increase.
I have no idea who the C8 is priced for but I can tell you there is nothing in the market that offers the mid engine sports car/super car experience for anywhere near the Corvettes price. Other mid engine super cars include McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Pagani… all their mid engine offerings are $250k and up. Many in the $400k range. Even Ford which has brought back the GT40 (GT) is priced over $300k.
You can absolutely buy a C8 that can run with a quarter million dollar competitor for $75k. The Corvette may or may not be priced for the average guy but more than ever it represents one of the best, if not THE best, performance car values.
These two pictures made me get off the fence and buy my first gm product in literally decades…..
$300k Mid engine Ferrari, and it’s six years old and has no warranty (scary AF on a Ferrari)
vs
this car was $85k but you can buy this car, new, with a new car bumper to bumper warranty for under $100k…. Probably a lot less depending on options…
The C8 is an absolute bargain which is why gm has raised the price $10k over the last four years.
It's age. 1960 Corvette MSRP was roughly the median household wage, as it is today.
We just whine WAY more these days, as we luxuriate in a way kings could not have imagined barely 100 years ago.
Average blue collar wage earner lives a life of luxury unimaginable to their parents. Pays ZERO income tax. Whines 24/7. It's just the way it is.
I dare say that household earnings in 1960 was with a single earner. My grandmothers didn’t drive , nor did my wife’s grandmothers.
ZERO income tax ? How is this possible for the blue collar workers?
Sure, Corvette prices have gone up over the decades. Just like milk and gas. But as long as income has gone up faster, then I don't think we can call them less affordable.
Pretty sure in my area, blue collar are now making as much or more than white collar unless they're at the exec level. Pretty much everyone around here is $100+/hr whether it's a carpenter, mason or electrician and even at that price, it's hard to get someone who cares about the quality of their work. Most are so busy they won't even take smaller jobs. There's a large battle over the local vocational school happening in my area right now, they want to spend almost half a BILLION $$$ on a new school (it would be the 2nd most expensive public high school ever constructed in the US)
Bottom line up front: Yes, Corvettes have become less affordable. Here's why.
It's true that Corvette prices have tracked closely with median household income from 1984 through 2022:
But that's an incomplete picture because people don't earn an income to only buy a Corvette and nothing else. The relative cost of living would be more informative on Corvette's affordability through the years. But I'm struggling to find a single consistent data source for cost of living over the years. The BLS website has a long history of every modification done to the inflation formula throughout the decades. The Fed moves the goal posts from CPI to PCE by arbitrarily modifying how each is calculated. Hard to trust with confidence. The most consistent, irrefutable measuring stick might be M2 Money Supply. Granted, it's an imperfect metric. But due to its consistency, it's not as imperfect as the metrics that the Fed arbitrarily redefines with moving goal posts. So I took Median Household Income divided by M2 Money Supply to chart an index of our buying power over time.
If buying power instead charted as a flat line to track with monetary inflation, then I'd believe Corvettes have remained affordable. But monetary inflation has gone parabolic, causing our buying power to plummet and cost of living to shoot up as a byproduct. So despite Corvettes tracking with our incomes, people have less disposable income left over to buy them.
Corvette prices have gone up relative to our buying power. Hence, less affordable.
Last edited by switchlanez; 01-22-2024 at 03:07 AM.
Here's Corvette priced in number of bitcoin. Notice the y-axis is in log scale because price dropped from about 10,000 bitcoin to single digit bitcoin which, in linear scale, would appear as points clustered essentially at 0.
Corvette has only gone up in dollar terms but down in bitcoin terms. Next year a Corvette will be a fraction of 1 bitcoin.
Corvettes historically have been attainable to the "workin" man if they worked hard & wisely saved some money....I think the base C8 is right on the edge of that now but the Z06 is now sadly out of reach
Is the C8 no longer priced for Blue Collar workers?
If in 2019 the C8 was announced at $59,995 then general inflation* would price the base model car at $73,935.52
The actual 2024 base model is at $68,300 or an increase of 13.84%
So the question is... have wages since 2019 to 2024 increased by 23.23% to keep up with inflation*? Have wages increase 13.84% since 2019 to make the C8 base model just as affordable in 2024 as it was in 2019?
It does not seem that GM pricing is the problem since their price increase over time has been 13.84% vs. real inflation* of 23.23%.
To compound the problem with inflation is the cost of financing as others have said.
I am sure you can surmise what the cause of the problem is.
* Note: The US Inflation Calculator uses the latest US government CPI data.
01-20-2024, 05:44 PM
