Why Thousands of Corvette Buyers Pay to Pick Up Their Car From a Museum

Buying a car is often a special experience, or should be at least, especially if that car is a Corvette—as American as cars get, and as sports car as sports cars get. That might also explain why thousands of Corvette buyers choose to spend $1,495 extra to take delivery at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky—because you might as well make an occasion of it.

Some 20,000 Corvette buyers have taken up Chevy on the offer, according to Car and Driver. The VIP expeirence includes delivery of your new car—it can be paired with any new ‘Vette on sale, from the base Stingray to the ZR1X, which starts at $207,395—and includes various other goodies, like admission to the museum, of course. More than entrance: You and up to three others get a guided tour. You also get membership to the National Corvette Museum, a decal, and a plaque. In addition, there is a “delivery presentation” and “drive-off ceremony,” according to Chevy.

The National Corvette Museum is located not far from where the sports cars are built, at GM’s Bowling Green Assembly, which has been making Corvettes since 1981. Recent exhibits at the museum include a 1965 model that was used in the 2009 movie Star Trek; Brad Paisley’s 1961 Corvette, along with some other Brad Paisley things like a “Corvette-themed carbon fiber guitar”; Zora Arkus-Duntov’s personal 1974 Corvette Stingray, the only edition the “godfather of the Corvette” ever owned; and several C3s from the 1970s that have been exceedingly well-preserved by their owners.

The museum is, in short, a monument to a car that, for about half a decade in the 1960s and 1970s, was simply the biggest car in the world, with big power, high sales, and, especially, influence that hasn’t been seen from an American car since. For generations, it is also a dream car, maybe the dream car, and it’s not hard to see why many might celebrate ownership with a day to remember.

The museum reaches out to buyers to coordinate a time for their big day, at which time they’ll also inform buyers of the documentation that they need to bring to claim their car. Chevy’s website says that this delivery option is available “on sold orders only, not available with accessory wheels,” so those cars might need to be delivered at the dealer level.