The good and the not-so-good report
02-14-2014, 01:09 PM
#21
Lifetime Supporting Gold
Great write up, basically the same car I have on order just different colors. Faults and all just makes me more anxious for it to arrive! Relative to blue tooth I found in my C6 vert I just had to use an ear piece (which I dislike) due to the road noise as you described. One way to over come the input hassle on nav you described is if you're willing to have the extra expense use the Onstr app to send directions to your nav, I do that in my GMC Denali.
02-14-2014, 01:12 PM
#22
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The starting line and the finishing line. 
02-14-2014, 01:12 PM
#23
Drove it cross country for 2400 miles over 4 days. Z51 manual convertible with 3LT trim, performance exhaust, and magnetic ride shocks.
Here's an assessment (and my opinion only. Others may disagree.)
The good:
Looks much better in person than photos. People truly love the new look and it gets a lot of positive comments. The CRM color is pretty amazing and gets a lot of good comments.
The exhaust sounds wonderful. Between 3 grand and the redline, it's terrific.
The mag ride works really well. Touring mode very comfortable, Track mode will shake your teeth loose. That's what you want.
The motor is excellent. It has plenty of torque. I could go up hills in 7th at about 1800 and it would just pull like nothing else. Impressive. (My one issue though is that it's not a smooth idler.)
Completely reliable. I lost the Sat radio and vocal nav one time but it reset after restarting the car. I don't view it as a fault. Everything else worked beautifully with no problems. This car gave me complete confidence to do almost anything with it.
The Electronic diff saved my bottom side. Hit some black ice in Little Rock and the rear went out big time. I corrected and it came back nicely. I'm sure it was the ediff at work here.
Fuel mileage is very good. Averaged 23.2 on a cross country trip at high speeds, most of which were over 70 mph the entire time.
Top works great. The car really comes to life with the top off. It's like a completely different vehicle. Drove 1200 miles topless. Used the heater when necessary. Tremendous fun.
Standard seats are very comfortable. I sat in them for 8 hours at a time and I was very surprised at how I felt during and after. These are very well done. Seat warmers work great but even in the low setting, can get pretty hot of you don't turn them off.
Rev matching: I was shocked how well I ended up liking this feature.
Radio and entertainment: Easy to figure out and use. Sat radio worked great, blue tooth easy to sync, phone worked well even with top down but obviously noisy from the wind noise.
Performance exhaust. Love you can switch it from quiet to noisy. Quiet is quiet and noisy is noisy.
HUD: Originally I thought this was a gimmick but I really liked it. It's great it's in color now as it's easy to read.
Museum delivery: Worth every penny. I can't say enough for the staff there and the help given to me to get on the road.
The not so good.
Ok, I know it's popular to rag on the paint but... there's more orangepeel on this car then I've ever seen on an expensive car before. Some areas are just .... poor. I am not a picky person on this issue but it really surprised me how some areas came out. This needs to be addressed.
There's sections of leather on the dash that look like wrinkled elephant skin. I'm shocked that it was not picked up and rejected. Should have been better given the price.
The Nav isn't as good as some other cars I've used. Its gives information in a confusing way some times and isn't easy to stop.
The touch screen is annoyingly slow to react to touch, particularly when you are trying to input addresses. Some of the arrows on the bottom are really difficult to use. There should be a "favorite" area where you can quickly shut off the nav or enable or disable the loud exhaust instead of going through several screens.
The radio switches between inputs for reasons unknown to me when you do different things.
The car has some terrible blind spots. Even looking out the back is a problem. It needed the side lane changing radar which should have been standard. With the roof up, visibility to the rear is worse than I expected.
Climate control a bit disappointing so far. The car gets really stuffy with the heat on. It's difficult to get the blower to blow full and stay that way for topless driving.
It has more road noise in Touring mode than I would have guessed. The exhaust is quiet but maybe it's the tire noise that's pretty loud. Talking on the phone at speeds of 70 mph with the top up was difficult for the other person on the other side to hear because of all the background noise.
Eco mode cylinder deactivation: I'm not sure how effective this is in the real world. I used it quite a bit but as soon as you get into a slight headwind or go up the smallest incline, it goes back to V8 mode. If you have the exhaust on loud, the sound level change is dramatic. And, when it goes from V8 to V4 it makes a shutter like the engine misfired. It takes some getting used to because your first reaction is "what's wrong with the motor". It works... I just wonder how much V4 mode is really usable given the added weight and complexity.
The manual box and clutch.... hmmm. Where to start. Now, I've driven manuals all my life so I'm no stranger to them but this one is really hard to get used to. The clutch is too light and the friction distance too small. The gearshift lever centering spring is too strong and requires you to "think" about each shift or the gears almost always end up differently than what you want. 1st gear is very hard to engage and move out smoothly without carefully and slowly slipping the clutch or releasing it and jerking your head off. The 1-4 lockout is bloody annoying when it happens! It makes zero sense to me.
Summation
Overall, the car is excellent. Perhaps with time I will get used to the gearbox and clutch. My feeling is, if this car had a DCT and some better paintwork, it would be near perfect. It's darn good as it is now though. But, everything can be improved no matter how good.
The C7 is a terrific GT to travel long distances in. Driving cross country in it was fun and thrilling. I never suffered in any way as you would expect from driving a sports car long distances.
Am I glad I bought it? Do you really need to ask?
Here's an assessment (and my opinion only. Others may disagree.)
The good:
Looks much better in person than photos. People truly love the new look and it gets a lot of positive comments. The CRM color is pretty amazing and gets a lot of good comments.
The exhaust sounds wonderful. Between 3 grand and the redline, it's terrific.
The mag ride works really well. Touring mode very comfortable, Track mode will shake your teeth loose. That's what you want.
The motor is excellent. It has plenty of torque. I could go up hills in 7th at about 1800 and it would just pull like nothing else. Impressive. (My one issue though is that it's not a smooth idler.)
Completely reliable. I lost the Sat radio and vocal nav one time but it reset after restarting the car. I don't view it as a fault. Everything else worked beautifully with no problems. This car gave me complete confidence to do almost anything with it.
The Electronic diff saved my bottom side. Hit some black ice in Little Rock and the rear went out big time. I corrected and it came back nicely. I'm sure it was the ediff at work here.
Fuel mileage is very good. Averaged 23.2 on a cross country trip at high speeds, most of which were over 70 mph the entire time.
Top works great. The car really comes to life with the top off. It's like a completely different vehicle. Drove 1200 miles topless. Used the heater when necessary. Tremendous fun.
Standard seats are very comfortable. I sat in them for 8 hours at a time and I was very surprised at how I felt during and after. These are very well done. Seat warmers work great but even in the low setting, can get pretty hot of you don't turn them off.
Rev matching: I was shocked how well I ended up liking this feature.
Radio and entertainment: Easy to figure out and use. Sat radio worked great, blue tooth easy to sync, phone worked well even with top down but obviously noisy from the wind noise.
Performance exhaust. Love you can switch it from quiet to noisy. Quiet is quiet and noisy is noisy.
HUD: Originally I thought this was a gimmick but I really liked it. It's great it's in color now as it's easy to read.
Museum delivery: Worth every penny. I can't say enough for the staff there and the help given to me to get on the road.
The not so good.
Ok, I know it's popular to rag on the paint but... there's more orangepeel on this car then I've ever seen on an expensive car before. Some areas are just .... poor. I am not a picky person on this issue but it really surprised me how some areas came out. This needs to be addressed.
There's sections of leather on the dash that look like wrinkled elephant skin. I'm shocked that it was not picked up and rejected. Should have been better given the price.
The Nav isn't as good as some other cars I've used. Its gives information in a confusing way some times and isn't easy to stop.
The touch screen is annoyingly slow to react to touch, particularly when you are trying to input addresses. Some of the arrows on the bottom are really difficult to use. There should be a "favorite" area where you can quickly shut off the nav or enable or disable the loud exhaust instead of going through several screens.
The radio switches between inputs for reasons unknown to me when you do different things.
The car has some terrible blind spots. Even looking out the back is a problem. It needed the side lane changing radar which should have been standard. With the roof up, visibility to the rear is worse than I expected.
Climate control a bit disappointing so far. The car gets really stuffy with the heat on. It's difficult to get the blower to blow full and stay that way for topless driving.
It has more road noise in Touring mode than I would have guessed. The exhaust is quiet but maybe it's the tire noise that's pretty loud. Talking on the phone at speeds of 70 mph with the top up was difficult for the other person on the other side to hear because of all the background noise.
Eco mode cylinder deactivation: I'm not sure how effective this is in the real world. I used it quite a bit but as soon as you get into a slight headwind or go up the smallest incline, it goes back to V8 mode. If you have the exhaust on loud, the sound level change is dramatic. And, when it goes from V8 to V4 it makes a shutter like the engine misfired. It takes some getting used to because your first reaction is "what's wrong with the motor". It works... I just wonder how much V4 mode is really usable given the added weight and complexity.
The manual box and clutch.... hmmm. Where to start. Now, I've driven manuals all my life so I'm no stranger to them but this one is really hard to get used to. The clutch is too light and the friction distance too small. The gearshift lever centering spring is too strong and requires you to "think" about each shift or the gears almost always end up differently than what you want. 1st gear is very hard to engage and move out smoothly without carefully and slowly slipping the clutch or releasing it and jerking your head off. The 1-4 lockout is bloody annoying when it happens! It makes zero sense to me.
Summation
Overall, the car is excellent. Perhaps with time I will get used to the gearbox and clutch. My feeling is, if this car had a DCT and some better paintwork, it would be near perfect. It's darn good as it is now though. But, everything can be improved no matter how good.
The C7 is a terrific GT to travel long distances in. Driving cross country in it was fun and thrilling. I never suffered in any way as you would expect from driving a sports car long distances.
Am I glad I bought it? Do you really need to ask?
02-14-2014, 01:16 PM
#24
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02-14-2014, 01:17 PM
#25
I think orange peel is just something that you'll have to learn to live with. This is not a Chevy or a Corvette thing. Lots, if not all cars, are like this nowadays. It has something to do with the paints that are mandated by the government -- they need to be safe, or something and so are water based. For the very expensive cars they can hand sand the paint before putting on the clear but for mass produced cars I believe this is too expensive. I know there are some vehicles that seem to be without orange peel but I don't know how they do that. It would be nice if they could fix this, but I won't hold my breath.
In my opinion side lane changing radar, if offered, should be optional. This is a deal breaker for me. If the radar is standard I will not get the car.
I'm sorry to hear about the clutch. I wonder if a stronger spring on it would help. Are there any third parties offering a stronger spring? And I've heard that so far nobody has been able to "tune" the 1-4 skip out without throwing an error code or something. I could be wrong though. It would be nice if they could code out the 1-4 skip, and code in a 7th gear lockout unless coming from 6th.
It's also too bad about the climate control. You really want to be able to turn it on full blast in a convertible. Maybe they can do something about this with software or a firmware update or something.
But it sounds like even with its warts, you're having lots of fun with it.
Cheers.
In my opinion side lane changing radar, if offered, should be optional. This is a deal breaker for me. If the radar is standard I will not get the car.
I'm sorry to hear about the clutch. I wonder if a stronger spring on it would help. Are there any third parties offering a stronger spring? And I've heard that so far nobody has been able to "tune" the 1-4 skip out without throwing an error code or something. I could be wrong though. It would be nice if they could code out the 1-4 skip, and code in a 7th gear lockout unless coming from 6th.
It's also too bad about the climate control. You really want to be able to turn it on full blast in a convertible. Maybe they can do something about this with software or a firmware update or something.
But it sounds like even with its warts, you're having lots of fun with it.
Cheers.
02-14-2014, 01:27 PM
#26
Le Mans Master
02-14-2014, 01:31 PM
#27
Apex has a skip shift eliminator that won't, apparently, throw codes, etc. Also, companies offering tunes can do this too.
02-14-2014, 01:31 PM
#28
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I was told that if there's a scratch or something spotted at museum delivery, they will replace the entire door or panel. At the dealer, they would send it out for repaint which may not be as good.
That's what I was told anyway...
02-14-2014, 01:38 PM
#29
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As others have said great write up, and makes you wonder why some of these things were not discovered on their long term testing they did for the last few years before releasing it.
I can't figure out how the dusk illumination thing got past them.....for one.
I can't figure out how the dusk illumination thing got past them.....for one.
02-14-2014, 01:43 PM
#30
Cheers.
02-14-2014, 01:45 PM
#31
Drifting
Very well written and good detail on the topics. I've got almost 5K on Lola now but haven't had a long trip yet short of sprints into the local mountains with my local club (lots of fun). The 'Bash' in April may be my 1st day long trip, looking forward to it (if NCM doesn't fall further into the cavern).
I have TR w/Kalahari. I think both reds look great with it. I went with TR because I wanted the Black wheels and liked that combo better.
I have TR w/Kalahari. I think both reds look great with it. I went with TR because I wanted the Black wheels and liked that combo better.
02-14-2014, 01:48 PM
#32
How'd the cruise control work, or did you use it? Were you using CC when you almost lost it on the black ice in Little Rock?
The orange peel was very prevalent on the Torch Red one I inspected the other day at the Chevrolet dealer.
The orange peel is something that can be easily corrected with a sanding and a finish renewal process I'm quite familiar with, but haven't done to any of my high-end car's finishes.
I wonder why a high end car like the Corvette isn't cared for more in the painting process. It'd be interesting to learn why they choose not to deal with this paint issue.
Good write up, and thanks for exposing some of the weak points you discovered.
The orange peel was very prevalent on the Torch Red one I inspected the other day at the Chevrolet dealer.
The orange peel is something that can be easily corrected with a sanding and a finish renewal process I'm quite familiar with, but haven't done to any of my high-end car's finishes.
I wonder why a high end car like the Corvette isn't cared for more in the painting process. It'd be interesting to learn why they choose not to deal with this paint issue.
Good write up, and thanks for exposing some of the weak points you discovered.
02-14-2014, 01:56 PM
#33
Melting Slicks
Some observations on your negative comments:
This is bothersome. I am sure it is easier to get a good finish on sheet metal, but you'd think by now getting a good finish on SMC would be second nature. The paint is laid down by robots (if you have taken the factory tour) in a whop-de-whop special drafted booth. How can this happen?
Natural leather has many imperfections. Unless you are Rolls Royce and have a special herd kept in fields with no barbed wire, there can be issues. Of course, without seeing what you are talking about, who knows?
No comment. I will probably never own a car with a touch screen anything unless forced. Tactile switch gear makes so much sense when driving so you do not have to look down at the screen. I have never understood touch screens in cars.
True of many cars. That is what side mirrors are for. Doesn't worry me much, but I can see some would be concerned.
I have never liked automatic climate systems, either. Any car. I want to turn it to "blast" and when I get comfortable, I will turn it down. I live in the South and I do not want any machine trying to figure out what is cool enough for me. I assume those up North feel the same about winter weather.
Touring car versus sports car. A big Mercedes vert would surely be more quiet. But it also is a big Mercedes vert.
I realize this is just to get around the guzzler tax, etc. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have V8-V4, either. The exhaust on the C7 sounds great when lit, IMHO.
Lets' talk: First, never judge a gearbox on a new car until you have put several thousand miles on it. Has to break in. Autocar loves the new manual box, so it must break in well. Second, as to the clutch, short travel is great for the track where you just want a quick push to shift rather than drop it to the floor. To each his own. Again, as the clutch wears, you may like it better. Third, get a skip shift delete plug for the box, or have your computer reprogrammed. Again, saves on the gas guzzler tax but most folks defeat it. Of course, if you drive it like, well, a Corvette, you won't engage it much. But I still would get CAGS neutered just for short shifting before the mechanicals warm up.
I am glad you generally like the car and I am sorry you have some issues. To me, though, I would have skipped the Nav and some of the gadgets. The paint problem, to me, is the biggie. Chevy needs to get this remedied. When a 40K baby Mercedes has perfect paint, and usually they do, there is no good reason a 70K Corvette cannot have perfect paint, too. If this is the govt EPA paint boys at work, then we need to write our govt about this (I know, get in line. Our govt is so, well, nevermind....).
OH, and you need to post a full size photo of your avatar. Just sayin'.
Ok, I know it's popular to rag on the paint but... there's more orangepeel on this car then I've ever seen on an expensive car before. Some areas are just .... poor. I am not a picky person on this issue but it really surprised me how some areas came out. This needs to be addressed.
There's sections of leather on the dash that look like wrinkled elephant skin. I'm shocked that it was not picked up and rejected. Should have been better given the price.
The Nav isn't as good as some other cars I've used. Its gives information in a confusing way some times and isn't easy to stop.
The touch screen is annoyingly slow to react to touch, particularly when you are trying to input addresses. Some of the arrows on the bottom are really difficult to use. There should be a "favorite" area where you can quickly shut off the nav or enable or disable the loud exhaust instead of going through several screens.
The radio switches between inputs for reasons unknown to me when you do different things.
The touch screen is annoyingly slow to react to touch, particularly when you are trying to input addresses. Some of the arrows on the bottom are really difficult to use. There should be a "favorite" area where you can quickly shut off the nav or enable or disable the loud exhaust instead of going through several screens.
The radio switches between inputs for reasons unknown to me when you do different things.
The car has some terrible blind spots. Even looking out the back is a problem. It needed the side lane changing radar which should have been standard. With the roof up, visibility to the rear is worse than I expected.
Climate control a bit disappointing so far. The car gets really stuffy with the heat on. It's difficult to get the blower to blow full and stay that way for topless driving.
It has more road noise in Touring mode than I would have guessed. The exhaust is quiet but maybe it's the tire noise that's pretty loud. Talking on the phone at speeds of 70 mph with the top up was difficult for the other person on the other side to hear because of all the background noise.
Eco mode cylinder deactivation: I'm not sure how effective this is in the real world. I used it quite a bit but as soon as you get into a slight headwind or go up the smallest incline, it goes back to V8 mode. If you have the exhaust on loud, the sound level change is dramatic. And, when it goes from V8 to V4 it makes a shutter like the engine misfired. It takes some getting used to because your first reaction is "what's wrong with the motor". It works... I just wonder how much V4 mode is really usable given the added weight and complexity.
The manual box and clutch.... hmmm. Where to start. Now, I've driven manuals all my life so I'm no stranger to them but this one is really hard to get used to. The clutch is too light and the friction distance too small. The gearshift lever centering spring is too strong and requires you to "think" about each shift or the gears almost always end up differently than what you want. 1st gear is very hard to engage and move out smoothly without carefully and slowly slipping the clutch or releasing it and jerking your head off. The 1-4 lockout is bloody annoying when it happens! It makes zero sense to me.
I am glad you generally like the car and I am sorry you have some issues. To me, though, I would have skipped the Nav and some of the gadgets. The paint problem, to me, is the biggie. Chevy needs to get this remedied. When a 40K baby Mercedes has perfect paint, and usually they do, there is no good reason a 70K Corvette cannot have perfect paint, too. If this is the govt EPA paint boys at work, then we need to write our govt about this (I know, get in line. Our govt is so, well, nevermind....).
OH, and you need to post a full size photo of your avatar. Just sayin'.
Last edited by quick04Z06; 02-14-2014 at 02:01 PM.
02-14-2014, 01:57 PM
#34
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How'd the cruise control work, or did you use it? Were you using CC when you almost lost it on the black ice in Little Rock?
The orange peel was very prevalent on the Torch Red one I inspected the other day at the Chevrolet dealer.
The orange peel is something that can be easily corrected with a sanding and a finish renewal process I'm quite familiar with, but haven't done to any of my high-end car's finishes.
I wonder why a high end car like the Corvette isn't cared for more in the painting process. It'd be interesting to learn why they choose not to deal with this paint issue.
Good write up, and thanks for exposing some of the weak points you discovered.
The orange peel was very prevalent on the Torch Red one I inspected the other day at the Chevrolet dealer.
The orange peel is something that can be easily corrected with a sanding and a finish renewal process I'm quite familiar with, but haven't done to any of my high-end car's finishes.
I wonder why a high end car like the Corvette isn't cared for more in the painting process. It'd be interesting to learn why they choose not to deal with this paint issue.
Good write up, and thanks for exposing some of the weak points you discovered.
Yes I used Cruise a lot and I loved it!
I was driving at about 40 MPH in weather mode when it decided to kick right. I was not in Cruise at that time. There was a lot of snow on the freeway at the time so I knew it was dangerous.
The rear got about about 30 degrees in a violent snap to the right. I thought I was in a spin for sure. I corrected and it snapped left about 10 degrees out then back to center. It all happened so fast I didn't really think about it until it was going straight again.
The snap was so violent, I thought someone hit me. Obviously, no one did.
Last edited by Sin City; 02-14-2014 at 02:03 PM.
02-14-2014, 02:45 PM
#35
The paint problem, to me, is the biggie. Chevy needs to get this remedied. When a 40K baby Mercedes has perfect paint, and usually they do, there is no good reason a 70K Corvette cannot have perfect paint, too. If this is the govt EPA paint boys at work, then we need to write our govt about this (I know, get in line. Our govt is so, well, nevermind....).
When I saw the orange peel on the new C7s, I was very disappointed. I guess that's the way of the world of high end cars, or is it?
02-14-2014, 02:49 PM
#36
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I have one last comment on this Orangepeel issue.
I was told that the entire car is painted at BG with the exception of one part: the outside rear view mirrors. These have to be done by the subcontractor making the mirrors for whatever reason.
I look at the mirrors on my car and they are perfectly smooth -- no OP. The rest of the car... well.
So it obviously can be done better.
I was told that the entire car is painted at BG with the exception of one part: the outside rear view mirrors. These have to be done by the subcontractor making the mirrors for whatever reason.
I look at the mirrors on my car and they are perfectly smooth -- no OP. The rest of the car... well.
So it obviously can be done better.
02-14-2014, 03:32 PM
#38
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I have one last comment on this Orangepeel issue.
I was told that the entire car is painted at BG with the exception of one part: the outside rear view mirrors. These have to be done by the subcontractor making the mirrors for whatever reason.
I look at the mirrors on my car and they are perfectly smooth -- no OP. The rest of the car... well.
So it obviously can be done better.
I was told that the entire car is painted at BG with the exception of one part: the outside rear view mirrors. These have to be done by the subcontractor making the mirrors for whatever reason.
I look at the mirrors on my car and they are perfectly smooth -- no OP. The rest of the car... well.
So it obviously can be done better.
02-14-2014, 03:49 PM
#39
Safety Car
Nice write-up. Only thing worth mentioning is I doubt it was the eDiff which saved you on the black ice, but more the active handling system which these cars have had since the C5. The eDiff is for optimal power application, the active handling mitigates and corrects yaw conditions.
02-14-2014, 04:08 PM
#40
I have one last comment on this Orangepeel issue.
I was told that the entire car is painted at BG with the exception of one part: the outside rear view mirrors. These have to be done by the subcontractor making the mirrors for whatever reason.
I look at the mirrors on my car and they are perfectly smooth -- no OP. The rest of the car... well.
So it obviously can be done better.
I was told that the entire car is painted at BG with the exception of one part: the outside rear view mirrors. These have to be done by the subcontractor making the mirrors for whatever reason.
I look at the mirrors on my car and they are perfectly smooth -- no OP. The rest of the car... well.
So it obviously can be done better.
Same with ALL my Mercedes-Benzes AND my 2002 Ford Super Duty 7.3 PSD's mirror cowlings! ALL these materials are plastic too, not metal - so, it seems to me that the manufacturers must realize the issue too!
As I wrote above......I would like to know the company stance (GM's) on this orange peel issue?