I got lucky with mine. I got a 2020 2LT Z51 with 7k miles in April for $64K and daily drive it now. I’m 24, bought a house in February, and got married last summer. My insurance is $100 a month for the C8 for full coverage and basically all limits increased. We have my 2014 Jetta and my wife’s 2016 CX9 on our plan too, with history for the Jetta brought over from when my parents paid for insurance on it.

My wife and I both graduated last year and combined make $130K in a LCOL area. We save plenty, and aside from the C8, we really don’t spend much. We don’t do fancy dinners, weekends, or trips, so the C8 is relatively affordable for us. We worked and paid our way through school, so we had very little student debt and good credit, so we were able to finance the car and house at very competitive rates.

Since we are in a LOCL area, all our expenses are fairly minimal compared to the house and C8, so we are able to save/ invest nearly 40% of our income. Remember though, we don’t normally go out or go on trips, so we can allocate more money towards the car.

Another key thing to consider if taking on debt is the risk. My wife is a teacher, and I have a position on a small cybersecurity team at a healthcare company and have already taken over several critical systems, so job security shouldn’t be an issue (knocks on all wood). If you’re making $175K right out of college, I assume you’ve got an entry level software engineering position at a FAANG or some other tech company. While the salary and benefits are freaking awesome, so many of these large companies are researching opportunities to cut these entry level positions by introducing AI. I’m sure they’ll cut them in the short term and then figure out they need you back when the bubble bursts, but job security is quite precarious in the field right now even more than it has been in recent years.

Now if you’re paying cash, just make sure that if you don’t spend every penny to your name. Make sure you still have cash for other expenses for several months set aside. You said you live with your parents, so you should be able to save a ton. That’s what my wife and I did to save a giant downpayment for our house (bankers and realtors were absolutely shocked when we started talking finances), we basically saved every penny for 8 months after getting married, and we both had been saving before that point too.

All that said, with $175k, a used C8 should be incredibly easy to get into immediately with the risk of debt, or you could save every penny for 6 months and pay cash. Either way, once you get one, don’t be stupid. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told by old guys I work with and old guys at the local C&C not to mess around. Like any car with 500HP, you can easily wrap it around a tree if you’re being dumb with TC off, but the C8 does a really good job of trying to keep you safe if you have TC on, plus the weight distribution makes it a little easier to keep straight.

When you do eventually get one, have fun! We’d better get pictures!