Thursday 12th May 2005

GM announces Corvette prices

400bhp car priced at a premium

---

Six litres of muscle making 400bhp

GM has announced its prices for the Corvette. The coupé will cost a chunky £45,850, and the cabriolet, £51,850.

GM boss Bob Lutz announced plans last November (see story link below) to launch the Corvette (top right) into the UK. The new 400hp Corvette houses a 6-litre V8 generating 400lb-ft of torque at 4,400 rpm for a 0-60 of 4.2 seconds, with a top speed of 186mph.

The first Cadillac and Corvette showroom, at a prestigious site on Park Lane, was officially opened last year, while Corvette dealer Stratstone is expanding into Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester shortly, with Edinburgh and Leeds dealers due over the next year.

• Related story

[sublimatica]

Perfectly possible (and easy, I believe) to bring in your own C6 Vette (coupe) for around £35k...

[dunno]

Certainly is, I've done it a few times with the C5 and my next Corvette will be the latest C6 version. Even with shipping/change of lights and SVA costs on top you will still save 10K

[v8-fettler]

Its a bloody joke!! Straight conversion from dollars to pounds, just because they can get away with it. Its almost 2:1 at the moment, why cant they stop stuffing us brits, not to mention we'll need to save every penny for the fuel it'll drink! Somebody needs to write a guide for importing cars. theres loads of wishy washy advice, but no "Step 1, do this. Step 2, do that!"
Think business will be brisk for american car importers then!!

[jpf]

FYI, here in the states a Carrera gets similar MPG to the Corvette and costs on average $40,000 less.

If that value equation held true in Europe, the Corvette would offer an incredible value for the money.

Great car!

[thirsty]

sublimatica said:

Perfectly possible (and easy, I believe) to bring in your own C6 Vette (coupe) for around £35k...

Those UK prices sure do seem high !! Are the cars left or right hand drive?

Here in CA, you can get the coupe (loaded with goodies)on the road for about 50K dollars (27K pounds) and the drop top OTR for about 60K dollars (32K pounds).

I may be moving back to the UK within the year. I am tempted to bring one with me... or then again, I'll hold out for a TVR.

[sublimatica]

thirsty said:

sublimatica said: Perfectly possible (and easy, I believe) to bring in your own C6 Vette (coupe) for around £35k... Those UK prices sure do seem high !! Are the cars left or right hand drive?

They're all LHD. There may be some differences between Euro-spec C6s and the imports but they will be minor. (All Euro-spec C6s have the sports suspension package as standard IIRC.)

thirsty said:

Here in CA, you can get the coupe (loaded with goodies)on the road for about 50K dollars (27K pounds) and the drop top OTR for about 60K dollars (32K pounds). I may be moving back to the UK within the year. I am tempted to bring one with me... or then again, I'll hold out for a TVR.

Bring a C6 and sell it immediately. Use the profit you'll make to buy your TVR.
Import costs are 10% duty + 17.5% tax, although if you've owned the car in the US for more than 6 months and can prove it (with insurance docs etc.) I think you avoid paying these taxes. (I'm running from vague memory here though.)

>> Edited by sublimatica on Thursday 12th May 22:18

[thirsty]

sublimatica said:

Import costs are 10% duty + 17.5% tax, although if you've owned the car in the US for more than 6 months and can prove it (with insurance docs etc.) I think you avoid paying these taxes. (I'm running from vague memory here though.) >> Edited by sublimatica on Thursday 12th May 22:18

Actually, you are correct. The only problem is that it will probably be less than six months... so TVR it is.