Since the Corvette C8 start of sales in Australia (January 2022), up until the end of June 2023, there have been a total of 370 new Corvette C8s sold. At the time of writing this article there are 37 Corvette C8 cars available for sale on Australia’s most utilised marketplace for used cars, Carsales.com (Carsales).
The most expensive of these cars is a 2021 Hypersonic Grey 3LT Coupe with 19,866 km on the clock and an asking price of $309,490 (excluding govt charges). The lowest price for a C8 on Carsales is a 2022 Torch Red 2LT Coupe with 1,900 km on the clock. The asking price for this C8 is $239,000 (excluding govt charges). The prices on the cars are quite “haphazard” with many instances of higher trim level, lower milage cars being offered at lower prices than cars with apparently less desirable numbers. It would appear some sellers are offering keener prices in an attempt to get the sale.
According to a keen market watcher, the average asking price over the last 3 months has decreased from $290,811 to $267,392. He also reports that the average time a C8 Corvette has been on Carsales is 53 days, with the longest time a car has been on there is 219 days (7 months). The drop in the average price being asked is nearly 10% over the 3 months which is quite significant.
What does all this mean? Firstly, the numbers show that a large proportion (one-third) of C8 buyers bought the cars with the plan of putting them straight back on the market at an inflated price. Because of the relatively low numbers of C8s being officially imported into Australia, there were buyers who were desperate enough, and wealthy enough, to pay well over the odds to skip the queue and get hold of a used C8 quickly from one of these profit orientated flippers. For some time, waiting list were being reported to be as long as 5 years, although you could expect many people on those waiting lists would change their mind when the crunch came to find the money for full payment and would drop out, getting their deposit back.
Another interesting statistic is that in addition to the 37 cars currently advertised it would appear that some 88 C8s have been sold on Carsales. This number represents the cars that have been advertised in the past but are no longer appearing, suggesting they have been sold. So, adding this 88 to the 37 currently advertised we have an approximate number of 125 cars being “flipped” by the new car buyers. This represents some 34%, or one-third of all the Corvettes imported by GMSV.
The numbers are now starting to show that the number of people willing to pay a premium to get their hands on a C8 in a hurry has dropped. As could be expected, most of those who were really desperate for a C8 now have one. Those who still want a C8, but are not as keen as the “desperates”, are not willing to pay quite as much. Early buyers, many of whom paid excessive dealer “delivery fees” spent around $240k with their dealer for a 3LT with a few options. It would seem that the remaining buyers who don’t want the long wait are not willing to pay much more than that amount. There are reports that a realistic waiting time for a new C8 from a dealer is not much more than 1 year if you search around.
Finally, there are other reasons for a slow down in the purchase of used C8s, such as the cost of finance, the uncertain financial future and the large cost of living increases. Of course, the continuing arrival of new cars each month means the demand for C8s is slowly being met by the supply. We’ll keep looking at what is happening in the C8 market and update again soon. Many thanks to Peter Graham who gathers all this data for the Australian market.
6 Responses
Appreciate the update,
Thanks for the info. Do you know if many are getting after market exhausts and headers on the c8 s . I was looking at fitting an aftermarket exhaust and headers from USA and would like to know of any company that has a good reputation to fit this to a C8 in Aus .
I understand the issues around noise and warranty etc.
Thanks
Hi Brett, I suggest you contact American Speed who are the Australian distributors of Borla Exhaust. As the rear of the Australian C8 is the same as the US LHD version, there is no issue in fitting the US product. I have heard good reports on the Borla product.
Your comments in a nutshell are since the C8 came out here just over 12 months ago the price has gone up $30,000 from GM, and the GMSV dealers are ripping us off between $10,000 and $30/40,000.
Dealer delivery is fit number plates, clean, check lights and other operations.
In the States it has gone up $1,000 per year since 2020.
Started off at$59,995US base model which we can’t get in Oz.
When it first came into Oz, Z51, 2″ lift minimum $144,990 + several other taxes and charges.
Exellent Article Andre,
There’s also over 1000 R.H.D. Mustangs you couldn’t originally aquire on Car Sales for less than half purchase prices..
Now Corvettes are set follow suit in the next year or so if what’s occurring in America is an indicator..
Also the Government are being pressured to squash the luxury car tax by European Country’s , originally to protect Australian Manufacturers that dont exist now.
There’s going to be 100 SCALPERS lose their balls on their undriven C8’s they’ve intentionally bought to mark up ripping people off..
I’ll toast it with Moet ; )
Be patient and you’ll get a fair priced C8 very soon