By Mary Barra

It is with great sadness that I must inform Corvette’s core demographic that the new C8 is not meant to appeal to them, but I can say we at General Motors also do not care, because most them of will be dead soon enough. When I first approved the new Corvette, one of my biggest worries was how this would play out with some of our most valued assets, our customers. Then I looked at their median age and realized a good portion would be taking dirt naps before the C8 was even rolling off the assembly line.

That is not to say the Corvette design is not iconic, but what I am saying is we needed to attract younger buyers who do not spend most their days sharing racist Facebook memes or spending hours at Costco taking all the free samples.

When the general public thinks of the Corvette, they think of open roads, throaty V8 engines, and old white men wearing those socks that prevent blood clots. You know just by looking when they climb out of their C5 that the Reaper is somewhere nearby. Once in a while one of them will trade in their C5 for a C7 but croak before the deposit is due, and as a successful business woman, I knew this was not viable for General Motors.

Porsche owners are pretty terrible but are not one step away from the pearly white gates, and Mustang owners usually have multiple felony convictions but are not worried Obama is using a microwave to read their minds. Have you ever seen either of them sitting around debating the finer points of the Eisenhower administration? Enough said.

In any case, it is my responsibly to position General Motors and Corvette for success far into the future and depending on a group of people who still bemoan the loss of Golden Girls was never going to workout long term.