5 Thoughts About the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Author:
Sean Tucker.
Most cars are cars. A special handful is the silk dreams are woven from. It’s probably safe to say that most Americans, at some point, have imagined owning a Corvette. That lends weight to testing a Stingray. One of the conventions of automotive journalism is that we test performance cars on the track and family cars on the ride to the hardware store and the day care. With most performance cars, that’s fair. Few people ever buy a McLaren Artura to drive to work. But someone reading this will probably buy a Corvette and drive it to fetch No. 6 drywall anchors. The ‘Vette has a place in the American imagination that almost no other car can match. It needs to compete at Le Mans and negotiate the Ace Hardware parking lot. Oversteer wasn’t invited to drive the Circuit de la Sarthe this year.
But we did get a week in a convertible 2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 3LT in Torch Red, which carries a base price of $87,050. Gloss black forged aluminum wheels – 20 inches in the back and 19 in the front, add $995 to the price. Red-painted brake calipers add $695. Our test car had an interior in Sky Cool Gray with Nappa leather seating surfaces and sueded microfiber inserts, and Torch Red seatbelts (a $495 option). A sueded microfiber-wrapped steering wheel adds another $695. A mandatory $1,695 freight charge takes the total to $91,625. But you don’t have to spend that much to get most of what we enjoyed (more on that later).
1. It’s Still Baffling That This Car Exists at This Price
The eighth-generation Corvette has been on the road since 2020. Four years isn’t enough time to fully wrap your mind around what it is. For the uninitiated, Chevrolet made a long-rumored move with the C8 ‘Vette. For seven generations, it had been configured like a traditional American sports car with its engine in the front and the drive wheels in the back. With the last redesign, they turned it into a mid-engine machine. That’s the approach exotic automakers like Ferrari and Lamborghini have long taken with most of their cars. Placing the 6.2-liter, 490-horsepower V8 behind the passenger cabin reduces unsprung weight, putting all the heaviest parts between the axles. That gives the car astounding handling balance.
But the 2024 Corvette, in coupe form, starts at just $69,995 ($68,300 plus a $1,695 destination charge). Similar mid-engine exotics often start at three times that price. Four years in, it’s still mind-boggling that you can buy the Stingray for about $70,000, park it amongst quarter-million-dollar supercars, and look like you belong. The Corvette was an impressive performance car long before Chevy did that. But skeptics could always point to a substantial way it wasn’t like a McLaren and Koenigsegg. Now, they can’t. It’s one of the most impressive cars built in 2024, not because of its 194-mph top speed or 2.9-second 0-60 time. But because it gives you those things for less than half what you’d expect to spend.
2. Believe It or Not, This Could Be a Daily Driver
The second remarkable thing about the Corvette Stingray is how easy it is to live with. Many exotic cars feel like thoroughbred racehorses – fast but wound so tight you can’t use them for anything but their one hyper-specialized purpose. The 2024 Stingray is surprisingly docile at neighborhood speeds. It’s a forgiving car in traffic – easy to drive, easy to park, easy to live with. Yes, there’s a big button on the steering wheel with a Z on it that, when you press it, gives you a G-meter in the instrument cluster and wakes the beast in the engine bay, snarling at traffic and begging for permission to leap. But, in Touring mode, it’s just a pleasant car.
We tried treating it about like we’d treat a Honda Civic, and it mostly worked. No, no two-seater would work as a family car. But for a version of a car that won its class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans again last year, the ‘Vette gives a decent impression of a commuter. We even stuffed a week’s worth of suitcases for two in the two small trunks (one front, one rear) with ease. Neither one would take a 52-gallon hard-sided cooler. But we hear they make soft-sided coolers. A certain type of person without kids could live with this as a daily driver. But they’d have to be a bit extroverted. Because…
3. You’ll Have a Lot More Conversations
Very few cars spark delight from almost everyone who sees them. With a Corvette in your driveway, you have to learn to budget time for that. Going anywhere in one takes a little longer because someone usually stops you to talk. I walked outside once to find an 11-year-old marveling. He was shocked to learn that there’s such a thing as a hardtop convertible. I know what it looks like to fire a lifelong love of cars in a child (look at my chosen path). I put the top down for him and watched it ignite in his eyes.
Even in a few seconds at a stoplight, strangers call to you. From the car beside me: “You’re driving my wife’s retirement gift. I’m not gonna buy it for her, but I know it’s showing up someday.” From the sidewalk: “They only made them in red for the first year, right?” (Wrong) From a teenager walking by: “#$&@, a Ferrari. #S&@, that’s not a Ferrari.” A bike courier on the phone: “This man puttin’ the top up as I get near. Why you do that to me, man!?” It’s occasionally too much. I put the top up just to get some peace and quiet once or twice.
But, now and then, it’s something to treasure. My favorite elderly neighbor was a racecar driver before I was born. In all my years of parking press cars on his street, he has stopped to talk twice. This one brought out his best stories.
4. The 1LT Is Probably Enough
Notice something about all of the praise we’ve offered up to now? It would all apply equally to one priced about $15,000 lower. I’m a fan of the way a sueded microfiber steering wheel feels in the hands. The red seatbelts lend panache. The Bose Performance Series audio system sounds great. So sure, our $90,000-plus 3LT was nice. But everything you’ll fall in love with about this car, from the conversation-starter looks to the way pushing the ignition button frightens nearby animals, is available on the cheapest model. The 1LT convertible starts at $76,995 (including delivery). If putting the top down doesn’t matter to you, you can pay under $70,000. I’m a convertible devotee and would spend extra for the retractable hardtop. But the 2024 Corvette Stingray democratizes delight. All the spendy extras are completely unnecessary.
5. Complaints? OK, Fine. We’ll Lodge a Few
It’s not a perfect car. Rearward visibility is a problem. The ridges behind each seat mean anyone who didn’t start at power forward in high school has enormous blind spots. Every car in this class is low to the ground. But getting out of the ‘Vette requires more hip mobility than most of us will have by the time we have an empty nest and the savings to afford one. And, of course, there’s always something absurd about driving a nearly 200-mph car on a 25-mph street. Can you really enjoy it properly? You can drive this car to about a quarter of its limit legally. You might as well go home, put your all-time favorite album on a tinny phone speaker, and microwave yourself a filet mignon.
The Wrap
Am I suggesting you consider a 2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as an alternative to, say, a luxury SUV for the family? No. I am suggesting this: if you’ve always dreamed of owning one but considered it impractical, it’s probably more practical than you realize. There are trade-offs in owning any car that comes with its own romance. But, for what’s probably the American car that has inspired the most dreams, there may be fewer than you think. You probably shouldn’t add it to your list if you weren’t already considering it. But if part of you has always wanted one, a week in the Stingray 2024 convinced me that you might want to make the leap. The conversations alone will reward you for it. And then you put the top down on a clear day and hit that Z button. Related:
2024 Chevrolet Corvette: Choosing the Right Trim
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