My Generation: To Buy or Not To Buy, Page 6

And I refuse to beat a dead horse and discuss the rear fascia. All I will say is the problem goes beyond the tail lights. The rear fascia resembles a Camaro’s with a bad body kit tacked on to it. It was a serious mistake to dump the traditional round classic tail lights. They were one of those styling cues which helped define the car. Even the designers at Ferrari, who recently unveiled the new ?LaFerrari? supercar, which costs about $1.3 million and is already completely sold out, retained the traditional round Ferrari tail lights in an otherwise overdone rear fascia. The designers at Ferrari knew that once important, unique styling and performance cues are abandoned part of the car’s individuality is lost.

Beyond the B pillar, the rear fascia, and the ?over-angular? styling there is a matter of the black trimmed B pillar post and the numerous vents and scoops all over the body. At least all of the air intakes, vents and scoops are functional but there are too many and not making them body color interferes with the flow of the design. The black contrast simply cheapens the car and makes one wonder if they weren’t just J.C. Whitney add-ons. Again, maybe one off the things that helped the convertible was the cyber gray color which camouflaged the black trim. There is a rumor that Chevrolet is considering offering them in body color as an extra cost option which would definitely help improve the look. But come on GM we aren’t talking economy car here?make them body color at no cost. I mean with all that black trim what’s next?a flat black hood or black plasti-dipped body panels? The fact that the convertible C7 does not have the rear hip vents is a huge improvement that cleans-up and enhances the look and flow of the rear fenders. If the convertible has found an alternative way to cool the transmission and limited slip differential, then why couldn’t the designers apply the same design enhancement to the coupe, especially if it improves the styling?

So that is my take on the new ?globally inspired? Corvette. Understand, I haven’t given up on it. As I said before, I want to love it but I’m not in love, not yet. And then there is the traditional, proven, beautiful, performance-based 427 C6, which will only be available for consideration for a few more months. You can see my dilemma and I am still slogging my way through the quagmire of pros and cons. Further complicating the issue, I have found a cyber gray C6 427 convertible for about the same price I anticipate the C7 base convertible selling for?a fully optioned 427 for the same price as the C7! I do think one thing has been resolved, the decision is now between the C6 427 convertible and the C7 convertible. I certainly won’t forego the C6 427 convertible for the new C7 coupe. Ideally I would love to be able to actually see and sit in the new C7 in the next few weeks and have additional information on prices, options, performance specs and availability on the C7 vert. That would go a long way to helping the decision. Who knows maybe the marketing wizards at Chevrolet would do something really innovative, like inviting all current owners of the C5 and C6 Corvette to a special viewing where a potential buyer could actually be able to inspect one. And rather than make it just a considerate PR move for their loyal customers, they might just want to have some blank production orders on hand in order to sell a few cars, even if it is to their traditional American customers.