After 87 Years, Man Finally Purchases His Dream Corvette

It’s nice to see some uplifting stories on occasion for the sake of our morale. A story originally posted in The Spokesman-Review about a man by the name of Vern Eden, who after 87 years, made the purchase of a lifetime is bound to make your day as well. This former truck driver and world traveler found himself behind the wheel of a 2021 Chevrolet Corvette after waiting his entire life to purchase one.

We’ve all seen the videos online of people glowing with happiness standing in their driveway for hours mesmerized by their new car or truck. For Mr. Eden, his shiny red Corvette had the same hypnotic effect, and a man who worked diligently throughout his career for this moment can appreciate everything it took to reach this point in life.

The Spokesman-Review asked Mr. Eden why he waited so long to purchase this dream car, and his response was typical of an auto enthusiast. “They finally got it right on this one. I didn’t like the way they were balanced before – heavy on the front end.”

He’s not wrong, although it depends on who you ask. We have previously written about the about Corvette taking a bold step into a mid-engine future, which produces supercar numbers at a reasonable price. The engineers at Chevrolet discussed in a promotional video how they reached a point where it was impossible to improve the previous-generation Corvette any further, leading them to try something new.

It paid off for enthusiasts like Vern Eden who know their way around a vehicle. Eden spent 44 years behind the wheel of a truck navigating the country, so if there’s anyone who could tell you a thing or two about how a car or truck should operate, he’s someone we’d listen to.

Despite all of his years as a truck driver and covering the United States, Eden had an appetite for more exotic travel, leading him to 65 countries in his lifetime. His advice on how to travel internationally? You guessed it – by car. He talks about driving 6,500 miles throughout Europe and how many countries you can see this way.

Good things indeed come to those who wait, and even after 87 years, the last year and a half were the most challenging as Mr. Eden had to wait quite a while for his purchase to arrive. He initially felt he should get the car in blue to match his truck. However, he came to his senses and realized red is a Corvette color, but he had time to figure it out with the delays caused by chip shortages, a pandemic, and a strike at the manufacturing plant.

His purchase doesn’t come with a perfect storybook ending, though. Mr. Eden hoped to travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and do a factory tour at the Corvette Museum, but he found they weren’t allowing tours right now, so he and his son picked up the car locally. Hey, at least they got the car!

A new Corvette is always a good purchase, but one reason that prompted it sooner than later was that Mr. Eden wanted the car before GM goes all-electric. He had the perfect response: “That would be like a trumpet player blowing and no sound coming out.”