Wednesday 23rd July 2008

Motor Show: Corvette ZR1

Ultimate Corvette will cost £100,000 in the UK

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Chevrolet flew in a ZR1 for the British Motor Show and has confirmed the car will cost £100,000 when it goes on sale in the UK. This will include practically every option available in the US as standard.

However the company only expects to sell a very small number of ZR1s and wants it to serve as a 'halo' model to provoke interest in the rest of the range. Steve Catlin, operations manager for Corvette, said no more than 20 ZR1s are likely to find homes in the UK.

Obviously the fact that the car is LHD only could limit its success here but Catlin said the company was always looking at the feasability of RHD if demand is strong enough. At £100,000 the Corvette will be up against some pretty serious competition but it comes armed with soem impressive stats. The car is capable of 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds and top speed is 205mph. It has also lapped the Nurburgring in 7.26.4 - faster than a Nissan GT-R.

[don logan]

WOW faster than a GTR by about 3 seconds over a 7.5 minute lap for £100k!

[cvegas]

If it is to sell for £100,00 and the buyers are to get more than peanuts back for it when they sell it then it needs to be right hand drive. (The chrome wheels will need changing to something more tasteful too.)

[Mr J]

How do they justify 100k when it's still LHD?

[Magners P.H]

Strange that, ten to fifteen years ago Corvette's suffered from the old stereotype of being fast in a straight line, not to brilliant around corners. Definitely not the case any more.

Seems that they have really honed and properly engineered the car (with help from the Corvette Le mans team no doubt)

I think they are playing the right game by keeping the numbers down. Although I would probably have an Audi R8 (or R10 when it arrives) myself.

[Mclovin]

£100,000 wow I thought it would be around gtr money as everybody seems to be comparing it to that. I bet their half the money in the US.

[dhampton]

I dont think they're playing any game keeping the numbers down, they'll have trouble shifting more than 20 at that price!

[RB Will]

so whats that roughly double the price of a US model? As much as I love the noise these things make I would take a GTR and pocket the change. 100k I may as well buy a fully built ultima with all the options.

[thandar gor]

It's $103,000 in the US, there is a 10K option pack that's thrown in but it's still a lot cheaper!

[Callan.T89]

A few weeks ago I got blasted on the forum when I said this wouldn't cost the £50k that people were saying it would cost. And an M5 for £50k would be a better bet.

It was always going to cost £100k, so severely overpriced compared to the American market that I wouldn't buy one out of principal.

[DamoLLb]

How much are all those options worth? Still I can't see them being 40K worth. I always think of a 'vette as a bang for buck motor-not any more!

[gezkc]

How can they justify charging £100K? With the dollar being so weak at the moment, the car should cost a fraction of that - it's not even as though there's been any additional costs converting it to RHD!

[SS HSV]

Save some more and buy a Mosler or a Datum instead.

[morgrp]

100 grand? ridiculous - I'd take a 911 turbo or an Audi R8 or an Aston V8 Vantage et al. - Silly money and let me guess, its about $70,000 in the states?

"Provoke interest in the rest of the range?" Yeah I'm sure Reg and Doris will be imnpressed by the ZR1 when going to buy their Chevvy Lacetti on a 3 year 0% finance deal

Edited by morgrp on Wednesday 23 July 12:09

[Robinlarge]

Sadly the numbers work out. Take the US cost - add shipping, car tax in import, VAt on shipping charges etc and the usual extras.
Then add in a dealer supported 3 year warranty, UK dealer profits (which are higher anyway) - the cost of added tooling for repair and service centres, plus training etc and it starts to look as if they are only covering costs.
You could import it yourself for around £85,000 and save a bundle but it would not carry any warranty - bit of a gamble.
So - nice car - overpriced - will be a 'must have' when 2 year old second hand models are available in US.

[.:dweeb:.]

dhampton said:

I dont think they're playing any game keeping the numbers down, they'll have trouble shifting more than 20 at that price!

Exactly - it's not like they are going to get hundreds of people wanting one and Chevrolet saying "Sorry you can't have one, we only want to sell 20 of them".

[jsr]

I'd still have the GTR and save myself £40k!

[Mar10]

RB Will said:

so whats that roughly double the price of a US model? As much as I love the noise these things make I would take a GTR and pocket the change. 100k I may as well buy a fully built ultima with all the options.

Or you could buy the GTR, and use that extra £50k in your pocket to have your car shipped to Japan, have it fettled with by Amuse or one of the other tuning houses, have it shipped back, and still have change for the insurance.... Oh and a much better car as well!

[RallyRider]

Didn't look like a 100k car to me

[davidcharles]

nice that you can buy one here but £100k....?...

i'll take a GTR at £56k, caterham thingy £20k and an extension for my house instead......

[davidcharles]

nice that you can buy one here but £100k....?...

i'll take a GTR at £56k, caterham thingy £20k and an extension for my house instead......