Garrett W

I agree on the wide low stance is mean looking! I look at a porsche and am not impressed.

I'm 22, and nobody my age likes corvettes. They would rather have a G35, 3 series BMW, or EVO/STI, I say good, ignorant people who just like foreign cars don't deserve a vette.

rag1998

I had lot of frnds & co workers say that, I am 23 & I bought the vette for its performance & looks

Racer X

It's funny, a new Corvette has not be a young person's car for a long time. When i bought my first new Corvette in 1989 (a 1990 model) I was 29. At that time about 1% of all new Corvette buyers were less than 35 years old, IIRC. Or maybe it was under 30. Either way, that indicates that even at that time new Corvette buers were not young. I searched yet but I wonder if those historical statistics are available.

Perhaps the reason that the younger crew is going for aomwthing else is becausethey have to buy cheaper because they want to really "bling" the car out. Well that is easier to do if you start at 30k and added 15k of mods, than it is to start at 50k and add 25k of mods. Let's face it 20x7" wheels are cheaper than 20x12 inch wheels. Same with tires. Also the insurance is likely much higher as well. Little do they know they are very under insured.

Yes the age of buyers has gotten older, but so has the population as well.

I suppose it is about the mythic techno babble. DOHC sounds cooler than OHV. It sounds newer and more advanced. They are about the same age, one is more complicated and less fuel efficient. Problem is that the younger guys think it is the OHV and they are wrong.

So a big piece of the Corvette's problem with the younger crown is their ignorance. Perhaps their marketing should they to educate them. They should also react faster to adapting to the electroics connectabilty. having bluetooth connections and iPod ports, things that really are not that costly.

Do the young guys know that the adjustable suspension on the Corvette is the father of the Ferrari 599 and 612 systems? Do they know that that the brakes on the ZR1 are the same as the Enzo and the FXX? Do they know that the transverse leaf spring system is lighter than the coil-over spring system and works just as well for the street?

Could they make other changes? Absolutely, they could add a dual clutch auto shift manual. Direct Injection, variable valve timing, all of those would add cost and push a New Vette further out of their reach. But maybe it would make it more aspirational as a used car or in the future when they could afford it.

I would not suggest a Fiero like car as a Corvette, maybe the "baby" Corvette. Of course maybe they could make minor frame adjustments to make a cost effective rear mid-engined Corvette.

Garrett W

I totally agree except about the money issue. I grew up in south orange county, ca. If you go to a local high school you see very pricey cars. I spent 28 on my vette, got it about 6 years old but w 5k miles.

A few examples. My friends bought a G37S for 43k new. About 25% of guys have new BMW 3 series, which run 38-44k. The girls get C300s or a similar variation (mercedes).

I mean my best friends first car was a 42k EVO... A lot of kids get new STI's starting at 36k, or M3's which are 60k. Money really isn't an issue.

These kids with any brain would get a used vette, but for the 4 years I went to high school, and up to now, 5 years later, I was the only student with a corvette. One other student bought one after I got mine, but he started with an audi, and some other cars before he got the vette.

Bottom line. They have the money, but every kid I have every talked to about cars says "is corvette a pontiac? or is it a ford? they are only fast in a straight line, they dont compare in performance to an STI, EVO, modded 3 series, M3, etc. American cars are junk. American cars cant break, or handle. The interior is junk, who would pay that much for a corvette."

I hear this daily, and just laugh, and watch kids drive around in their A4's, 330i's, and STI's/Evo's, which all have blow off valves, that whistle when they shift haha.

IGNORANCE is bliss.

z edge

don't you mean "their parents have money?" I doubt any of these high school kids had a job where they could buy $30-40K cars AND pay for insurance, gas, TICKETS, etc...

No offense to you, of course.

When i was in HS i worked part time at a grocery store to pay for gas and insurance on my old POS Dodge Ram truck. It was pretty cool though, now that i think about it. I went to school with kids' who had new BMW's, Porsches', TA's, IROCs, & even a vette or two. Most of them were bought by mom and dad, and most of those kids didn't have a clue what it took (blood sweat and tears) to make the kind of money to be able to provide that for them. It just suddenly appeared to them when they were 16 like a "rite of passage" or something!!

I went into the Army at 18 while most of those kids went off to college. I really wanted a new IROC so bad i could taste it, so as soon as i though i had enough money for a down payment i went looking at these cars and found one i couldnt live without. The first hard reality hit me that not only could i not get approved for a loan for this car, even if i had a co-signer, but there was no way in hell i could afford the insurance for a new V6 Camaro much less an IROC-Z!! Plus my credit, while not bad, was almost non existent. Twenty years ago it took some credit to get credit, so i was basically out of luck any way you look at it. Life was so much different back then.....yet im probably better off for it. Even though i did finally get a nice IROC when i turned 23, the 5 year wait seemed like an eternity. I didn't even get my first vette until i was 32. But after reading how some guys here wait until they are 50 i guess i shouldnt complain. Anyway i am rambling....

Cheers

ccs1

If the vette is going to pursue the younger buyer, IMO they will need to keep in mind $3.00 gas, all wheel drive, and still provide 300+ hp that can be easily modified. My kids love the vette but would buy a civic si and put on a turbo before they would consider a vette.

I do not see the vette ever changing to attract the younger crowd unless it could be bought for the $30K range and avg. 25+ mpg around town.

Garrett W

Haha yes, I was implying that 90% of the cars are bought by our parents, me included. Although, if you ask them, none of them will admit it...

OnPoint

If they haven't settled on the design yet, doesn't this suggest we're still a few years out from seeing a C7. I.e. may not be a late 2012 (MY 2013) intro? Or can they get enough work done on the rest of the car that something as "trivial" as body style won't stand in the way of the other engineering? I'm not an engineer, but seems the styling would impact the schedule/other work.

Travis.

Sammgb

If GM hasn't decided on the final styling, don't look for a new C7 until 2013 at the earliest. 2011 is already in the pipeline. 2012 would be development and, assuming they picked a design right now, the engineers and the stylist have to go back and forth on packaging and that'll take 6-months. By the time tooling and everyhting was setup and in place, 2013 would be an EXTREMELY optimistic guess as to when the C7 would appear. Based on this report, think 2014. It takes anywhere from 3-5 years to take a car from clean-sheet to production. Even if they use the C6 as the starting point, and the C7 is just an evolution, it'll still take 2 years minimum.

SSphantom

There's rumors going around that GM isn't going to redesign the C7's chassis.

I think everyone is wondering why the design hasn't been finalized - I firmly believe it's because of the reason I mentioned above. In other words, GM is taking a little bit more time to design the interior and exterior because they are still going to utilize the C6 chassis. It’s just a matter of adding new body panels, exterior components, and new interior. I don't doubt it and as a matter of fact, I don't have a problem with it.

The C6 chassis is already amazing and very versatile. I personally don't see the need for GM to spend millions to redesign the C7's chassis, when it's arguably the biggest strength of the C6 along with the engine. I think the theory makes sense. Maybe someone can give some insight into how much it cost to develop the C6, but I'm guessing it was at least 100 million. It’s not GM’s priority to spend that much money or more to develop a sports car. Fortunately, I don’t think they have to because the C6 has a lot potential.

GM is better off putting some serious effort into the tranny (dual clutch please!), suspension, interior, etc.

No one wants a hugh price bump in the C7. The R&D has already been done on the chassis. GM can bring the best value to the customer by not spreading the cost of millions of dollars in chassis development across the price tag. It will allow room for other more important improvements. The ZR1 really brought all of the C6's performance components and potential together in a nice way - Power, handling, breaking, streetability, trackability, etc. GM simply needs to build upon that.

The ZR1's technology is already being past down to the Z06. If the evolution continues like it has been, by the time the C7 comes out, we should see signs of the ZR1 in the base model - Lighter brakes, better suspension tuning, reduction in unsprung weight, maybe some carbon fiber, etc. You never know. Something similar to the “Z07” maybe a more appropriate expectation to become the base model, just as the LS3 pretty much equaled the C5 Z06.

I’ve also heard in other talk that the C7 might go with the aluminum frame from the Z as standard – No more steel frames to reduce weight even more.

When you think about it, the C7 has some amazing possibilities, many of which can happen if GM spends their money in the right place.

Sorry for getting off topic, but I’m anxious to see the new design as well. I just wanted to share a few ideas because I really think it’s the reason why the design is still in the works.

By the way, I’m not trying to spread any rumors. I’m just discussing some ideas from what I’ve heard and reading between the lines.

pdefrancesco

I am a 28 year old male and am looking to compliment my g37 with a (used) corvette. I do not think appeal to younger buyers has as much to do with the design of the corvette as the general perception that buyers have of the car and company that makes it.

Drivers my age grew up with civics and corollas because the domestic offerings in the same price range were thought to be mediocre in comparison. Branding has a huge impact on buyers. An extreme example is in the bike scene where Harley is trying hard to target new motorcyclists and erase its image as an old man's bike after years of alienating new/young motorcyclists with their target demographics. It is too late to capture most of those who have already identified that corporate image in their mind of what the product is and who the product is designed for.

When an attractive coworker of the fairer sex found out I was looking for a corvette, she joking asked if I was already going through a midlife crisis. I laughed at the joke as I am married and am not buying a car to impress anyone, but if I were a young single male trying to impress ladies with something as superficial as an expensive automobile, that little comment would probably resonate in my purchasing decision.

ST Graveyard

This sounds like a great idea, and it reminds me of the C2-C3 era.