What It Will Cost Chevy Dealers To Sell & Service The C8
If the base 2020 Corvette C8 really does get sold in any kind of quantity around its promised sub-$60,000 MSRP, it will be a pretty remarkable democratization of high-horsepower mid-engine performance. The car should be accessible once early hype cools off, but you won't be able to rock up to just any Chevy store to get one.
This week a Reddit thread went up saying that not all Chevrolet dealers would be able to sell the C8; that dealers which did would be "on the hook" for $50,000 to $60,000 in tooling to service it. We reached out to GM to get the scoop on that and the real situation doesn't seem quite as outrageous.
As Corvette PR man Chris Bonelli explained to me over email:
"Corvette has always been a vehicle that requires advanced training and service tools beyond the requirements of the other vehicles in the Chevrolet portfolio. The process to become a certified dealer has remained the same from the seventh generation..."
He went on to bullet-point the steps for said certification:
1. Opt-in to be a Corvette certified dealer.
2. Complete the required web-based online courses and attend in-person training at our Spring Mountain Corvette Spring Driving School. The content of the program combines in-vehicle driving and handling skills, with in-classroom training on customer experience and product knowledge.
3. Maintain a Corvette Sales Specialist on staff in their dealership.
4. Purchase the necessary tools to service the Corvette.
Significantly, Bonelli went on to promise that the service tools are not in the $60,000 neighborhood. "If the dealer is not a current Corvette dealer," he explained, it would be "under" $20,000 to buy C8 servicing tools, depending on what the dealer had already. And if a Chevy dealer is already selling Corvettes, "then additional tool costs are minimal."
Source: Andrew Collins - Jalopnik
Posted 8/10/19