Corvette: Year By Year

    

About The Corvette

    

1954 Corvette

  
1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Polo White

1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Polo White

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When the going gets tough…

1954 was a very rough year for the Chevrolet Corvette. The biggest problem was that the latest GM sports car suffered from an identity crisis that could not be solved on any psychiatrist's couch.

The Corvette featured removable plastic side curtains for windows and a two speed automatic transmission. The plastic side curtains were popular on foreign sports cars at the time such as MGs. But the sports cars could boast about their four speed manual transmissions, not two speed automatics which were appropriate for boulevard cruising, not performance. The Corvette appealed to neither crowd.

The asking price for a 1954 Corvette was also an issue. It cost $2,774.00 without options, more than a Cadillac which featured a V8 engine and a top that did not leak. On the sports car side there was the Jaguar which also cost less than the Corvette AND featured a sophisticated, more powerful engine along with a genuine four speed transmission.

1954 Chevrolet Corvette

1954 Chevrolet Corvette

Close1954 Chevrolet Corvette
1954 Corvette Automatic Transmission

1954 Corvette Automatic Transmission

Close1954 Chevrolet Corvette Automatic Transmission
So was the Corvette a boulevard cruiser (above) or (below) an all out sports cars destined for the race track? Consumers could not decide and stayed away in droves. Right: the two speed automatic transmission with its funky shifter (a manual would not be available until 1955) did not help the situation.
1954 Chevrolet Corvette Race Car

1954 Chevrolet Corvette Race Car

Close1954 Chevrolet Corvette Race Car


1954 Chevrolet Corvette

1954 Chevrolet Corvette

Close1954 Chevrolet Corvette

Just when you think things couldn't get worse, they did. For 1954 GM had an all new just-for-Corvette assembly plant built in St. Louis (the first 15 units were built at the same Flint MI facility as the 1953 Corvettes) which was equipped to produce 10,000 Corvettes a year. The General (Motors) cranked out 3,640 1954 Corvettes, a full one-third of which were unsold at the end of the model year. According to Corvette legend, dealers were forced to sell many for below their cost, which is something they liken to cutting off their fingers.

1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Pennant Blue

1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Pennant Blue

Close1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Pennant Blue

Chevrolet attempted to widen the appeal of the Corvette with new colors including Pennant Blue (above) and Guardsman Red although the majority were still Polo White. A few Black cars were also built. All of the soft tops were beige and the Pennant Blue offered a beige interior. The other interiors were red. In the middle of the 1954 model a more aggressive camshaft boosted the horsepower from 150 hp to 155 hp.


1954 Chevrolet Corvette Brochure Illustration

1954 Chevrolet Corvette Brochure Illustration

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Collector Value

The 1954 Corvette model year might be one that all involved would like to forget, but time has healed many of the wounds and a 1954 Corvette is treated better by the marketplace today. The distinctive styling still is greeted with smiles and the various ills that afflicted the car when it was new now seem not to be a big deal. Limiting the attraction to collectors is the six cylinder engine; Corvette people like ground pounding V8s. Of the three model years with the early body style, the 1954 is the most affordable as it was the highest production volume.

1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Black

1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Black

Close1954 Chevrolet Corvette in Black

1955 Corvette

1953 thru 1955 Photos

1954 Corvette Options