Return Of The Corvette Stingray

Blah blah blah I own my cars, I'm not a race team or a Magazine getting a new hand built car for the dog and pony show, to do a article. I drive on the street,not Nurenberg. A GM dealer will service the car, not Chad knaus,For the years I will drive it. Not a day or week to do a report. Their advertising dollars don't cover my nut. GM will after the runaround,or won't provide the Warranty. They will Use the cheapest components to build the vehicle to make a low price point.So for that Reason I'm out,

P.S come from a GM Family back to the 30s Love the looks of their cars. Just don't want any of them in my garage anymore. Tired of:mad2:
J.D Power and Consumer reports mean more to me. And even they can be bought.
Did I say I like to Argue:D
 
Old Geek said:
Now if Ford would just do an inexpensive '68 Mustang...
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I thought the 68 Mustang was inexpensive. The front end sure was cheap and flimsy. Thank goodness. Got hit broadside by one while riding a motorcycle in college. My wife and I spent some time in the hospital. The motorcycle still ran. The car had to be towed. And you could tell in the bumper where our legs were. Did I mention how thankful I am that the 68 Ford Mustang had a flimsy front end? And that that idiot wasn't driving my 1954 Buick Special?
 
Ghery said:
I thought the 68 Mustang was inexpensive. The front end sure was cheap and flimsy. Thank goodness. Got hit broadside by one while riding a motorcycle in college. My wife and I spent some time in the hospital. The motorcycle still ran. The car had to be towed. And you could tell in the bumper where our legs were. Did I mention how thankful I am that the 68 Ford Mustang had a flimsy front end? And that that idiot wasn't driving my 1954 Buick Special?
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My mom wants one of those. I'm looking for a '56.
 
aviatingfool said:
Front looks as nice as the new Ferrari. The rear looks hideous...
Performance is astounding! Weird mix.
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Exactly what I thought. I have a C6 convertible, and the front is as nice as a 5 year-old Ferrari, the rear is nice, the performance is nearly outstanding, and the interior is hideous.

The rear of the new one is so bad, you would have to pay me to drive it.
 
Love it. A new generation Vette for a new generation. Still says Corvette, but in fresh way. Sounds like the performance is up to snuff too! My only concern is the interior. Looks awkward and cheap, but I'll reserve judgement until I see it in person.

Many of the Baby Boomers have bought their last Corvette, so designers have to keep up with the times and desires of the next generations. I think this car has that and yet is still uniquely American. I was so affraid they were going to go all Japanime on it and come up with something like the new Acura NSX concept, or the Lexus LF-LC. They didn't. It says American and it also says can compete with anybody in the world.

Good job GM!
 
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I don't care for the interior. Why have such a huge center console? Same with most of the new cars now.
 
us AAirways said:
I don't care for the interior. Why have such a huge center console? Same with most of the new cars now.
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Probably a major structural component in the 'vette


-Jim
 
jhausch said:
Probably a major structural component in the 'vette


-Jim
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This could very well be true. This car is designed from the get go to be a drop top version as well. In this day and age, discerning, higher end buyers expect convertibles to be nearly as stiff and tight as the hard top. No one wants the rag top to be significantly less than the hard top. This means a lot of the strength has to come from the floor pan and chassis. Quite probably a huge=stiff center tunnel.
 
Dav8or said:
Many of the Baby Boomers have bought their last Corvette, so designers have to keep up with the times and desires of the next generations.
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I'm a member of the "next generation", and a current 'Vette owner.

The C7 looks like they took the rear end off a Camaro, and smushed it on to the midsection of a Mustang (those little triangular windows behind the main side windows are ridiculous looking), and smushed that on the front of a Lambo hood that was left in the courtyard at a Detroit elementary school for the kids to hack on for a week.

The front is the only part of the C7 I like (that and the improved numbers for the base model). The interior looks better than the C7 interior, but it still looks like AC Delco crap. A Dodge Dart interior is better than a C6 interior. The design is actually pretty good, but the quality and components look and feel like they came off a Cobalt (they probably did). They need to do a better job with the trim and electronics. If they improved this in the C7, I would add that in the 'pro' column.

For me it looks like this:

C6 Pros: Looks awesome. Good performance. Paid off
C7 Pros: Even better performance. Possibly better interior (will have to see to evaluate). Sexy front end.
C6 Cons: A little slower than C7. Interior build quality of 1992 Cavalier.
C7 Cons: Ugly rear end. Expensive. Ugly midsection. No convertible (yet). Ugly side panels.

I'm in no rush, at all, to upgrade.
 
ScottM said:
I prefer cars that can actually perform well on the curves.
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Go to any race track in the world, see how a modern vette holds up. The C5 and especially the C6 regularly hit well above their weight class. It's far from perfect but how many cars at the same price perform like it does?
 
tmyers said:
I think we should merge Jays thread about "one less courtesy car" and have him buy one of these to replace the two existing courtesy cars. Should we vote on it?
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I like the looks of a Corvette, but I wouldn't own a GM car again if you gave it to me.
 
I'm waiting for a reboot of the El Camino.
 
GeorgeC said:
I'm waiting for a reboot of the El Camino.
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Chevy made an SSR for a couple years.

ssr_01.jpg


Personally, I liked it. But most didn't.
 
A friend's wife has one all decked-out and souped-up. The owners' group is quite active and they all love them, but as you say their ranks are thin. Jerry

Temple of Twin Cessna brokerage has one too, but doesn't drive it much.

EdFred said:
Chevy made an SSR for a couple years.

ssr_01.jpg


Personally, I liked it. But most didn't.
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GeorgeC said:
I'm waiting for a reboot of the El Camino.
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You almost had your chance. The Pontiac G8 was to be imported from Australia in "El Camino" form called the G8 ST. Lack of public interest and the GM bankruptcy killed this idea. Bob Lutz described it as "a Camaro you can put two dirt bikes in."

pontiac_g8_st-t1.jpg


pontiac_g8_st_2010_rear_angle_top-t2.jpg
 
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EdFred said:
Personally, I liked it. But most didn't.
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Many people liked it. It failed in the market because it was very expensive and it under performed. $$$$+slow+poor handling=pass. If they had been able to magically offer it for about $10,000 less, or had they had it perform near Corvette territory, they would have sold a lot more, but neither were practical and so it goes down in history as neat collectible.
 
Alexb2000 said:
The thing about style in my opinion is less is more.

The classics have just enough style and subtle touches without being overboard.

63' split window 427, oh hell yes.

This one.... looks like some 16 year olds tried to make it look like their Honda Civics with a bunch of over the top body work.

Keep it classy Chevy.
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Yes, fully agree.
Looking at this newest version it is easy to understand why the old Corvettes are in such high demand.
 
us AAirways said:
Why can't a pickup just be a pickup? *sigh*
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Because the majority of buyers don't use them that way anymore. They satisfy the market for testosterone driven, over sized, badly designed sedans. If they were mostly for actually working out of, they would have proper sized beds, be much lower to the ground, stripped down and cost much less.
 
Dav8or said:
Because the majority of buyers don't use them that way anymore. They satisfy the market for testosterone driven, over sized, badly designed sedans. If they were mostly for actually working out of, they would have proper sized beds, be much lower to the ground, stripped down and cost much less.
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exactly. if it can't carry a 4x8 sheet of plywood what is the point.
 
tonycondon said:
exactly. if it can't carry a 4x8 sheet of plywood what is the point.
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of having room for a 4' X 8' sheet of plywood? Beats hell out of me, I've had pickups since the crust cooled and can't ever remember caring if it hung over a little until I got it home.
 
I prefer a 6' bed. the 8' bed gets to be a bit of a pain when trying to park somewhere.
 
tonycondon said:
exactly. if it can't carry a 4x8 sheet of plywood what is the point.
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Had two pickups "back in the day". One, a 1966 Chevy Fleetside Longbed, could carry the plywood flat. The other, a late 1970s Datsun (yes, Datsun, not Nissan) was lucky to carry anything worthwhile. Too darned small. Both purchased USED, both beat up and I didn't care. They were trucks.
 
I'd like an 82, last of the St. Louis Vettes and a 72 Convertible, last of the chrome bumpers.
 
Seanaldinho said:
Move to Australia!

They make "Yutes" which are quite sporty and very popular small pickups.
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Yep, I'm thinking about shipping back a Holden SS Ute and grabbing one of the late model GTOs out of a wreckers and getting the steering and dash out of it for the left hand conversion then stick so El Camino tags on it.:yes: You can also get them in a cab-chassis with a tray back.
 
Dav8or said:
You almost had your chance. The Pontiac G8 was to be imported from Australia in "El Camino" form called the G8 ST. Lack of public interest and the GM bankruptcy killed this idea. Bob Lutz described it as "a Camaro you can put two dirt bikes in."

pontiac_g8_st-t1.jpg


pontiac_g8_st_2010_rear_angle_top-t2.jpg
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That would be Monaro...;)
 
Dav8or said:
You almost had your chance. The Pontiac G8 was to be imported from Australia in "El Camino" form called the G8 ST. Lack of public interest and the GM bankruptcy killed this idea. Bob Lutz described it as "a Camaro you can put two dirt bikes in."

pontiac_g8_st-t1.jpg


pontiac_g8_st_2010_rear_angle_top-t2.jpg
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BTW my GM sources tell me that the cost of cold weather testing required for the North American market was the final nail in the coffin for importing these.
 
Skylane81E said:
BTW my GM sources tell me that the cost of cold weather testing required for the North American market was the final nail in the coffin for importing these.
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Please, you're source is nuts, we've already imported them in a 2 door coupe version.
 
The Pontiac G8 and GTO sold shyte in the US. It cost more for them to import them from AU than they could sell them for. The forecast was 22k units for the G8 and I think they barely did 13k or so. Same, same for the GTO. Good platform, no market interest.

If they could have done 20k unit, GM would likely have stayed the course. They tried, they failed, no one got fired and they moved on

QED.
 
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