The impressive plastic GM decided to use on the early car's interior.

It looks cheap and it's look isn't contradicting, it's cheap crap. Be really careful or **** up a screwhole.

 

Man, yall are lucky. I cant seem to fit anything im my cupholders :P Was the 84's smaller? A coke bottle does NOT fit...

 

My 84 Doug Nash 4+3

Hugh

 

If anyone has taken apart the center console shifter plate, those little round metal brackets that hold on the gear indicator plastic in the automatic and the leather shifter boot are poorly designed. They just don't attach properly. The rubber coating on the shifter plate is located in a high wear area and starts peeling and is easily scratched. The visor backing material is prone to splitting and giving you floppy visors. The door panels are poorly designed as the ribs crack and the top of the panel then fails to sit properly on the door. The frame of the coupes should have been made stiffer to compensate when the targa is removed. Changing rear bulbs, spark plugs, the optispark, headlight gears, and weatherstrip have already been mentioned. The bladders and pumps in the sport seats are prone to failing. The heater core is a task to get to should it need to be replaced. Despite these shortcomings the car's positive features outweigh the negatives by far and the car is a blast to drive. Thankfully there are aftermarket fixes for many of these problems.

 

Wow...

Not the thread to read if you just bought your C4 a week ago.

Seriously...any car has issues as we all know. I'm kinda glad to read some that I might come to expect. I noticed the rear cover clips right off the bat. Thats a crap design. I like the rubber tube idea.

What is the Opti? Something with the ignition I take it?

My C4 is a forged 355 LT1 4 bolt out of an F body. Would I even have this thing?

Not all that impressed with the bose system. I can hardly even hear the thing with the Borla exhaust on it. The car is pretty loud. Sounds better with the car off...but still not really all that impressed with it.
Whats the deal with the guy who rebuilds them?
Did I read 4 amps in this thing? Where are they? I did notice something under the storage tray by the jack. Is that the amp?

 

The pointy outboard part of the dash on the driver side of my 96 that I jam my right shin into when getting into the vehicle; on average about once every 10 days.

 

Inner door panel armrest on early interiors.

Pretty chitty and flimsly design, in the area where you pull to shut the door. Those aftermarket reinforcement inserts are a good mod.

Also the upper door panel trim. The retaining posts where made of plastic and break. Aftermarket replacements come with metal posts. I fixed mine rock solid with some screws.

 

You think the battery's bad,try getting at the windshield washer resevoir to repair or replace.It was like I had to take half the car apart.But on the good side,ya gotta admit,everything does deter thieft.It's hard to get anything off quick.You'll never walk out and find your taillight lenses missing.

 

Putting a perfectly cold drink in the cup holder, give it about 5 minutes, atop the ZF trans....Trying to navigate the ZF to reverse with what is by now a hot drink, without knocking it on your wifes lap.

 

my vote goes to the Bose system

 

Same here..........WHY!

 

It may be the Opti positioned in back of the water pump.

 

Ab-so-frigging-lutely!

 

Changing the battery
Changing spark plugs
Weak exhaust
Crappy Bose
Rear Curtain Hooks
Crappy electricals on early models
Cheap plastic interior
Early starter is huge and gets in the way
Pop-up headlights are a pain to fix
Hard to adjust the rocker arms correctly

Most of these are easy to fix or replace with better parts. Either way the good parts about the car far outweigh this stuff.

 

One offender that I haven't seen mentioned: The parking brake handle that goes back down when you set the parking brake. At least mine does. I'm still trying to figure out if this was by design or if it's broken. I keep forgetting if it's set because it doesn't stay up like a handbrake should.

Got to agree on the Bose stereo - mine's dead, and the clock always reads 7:15.

The spark plug changes could be a lot worse - I'm thinking of my wife's Nissan that required taking apart the intake manifold to change the plugs. Or any V6 minivan; these always have the rear cylinder bank against the firewall. At least C4s don't require any of those shenanigans.

 

OK... Let's pretend you are all mechanical engineers for the moment.

Tell me what you would do differently to fix the things you have complained about. Don't forget the car has to meet target weight and performance goals and has to sell for whatever the one you are complaining about sold for when new.

The high frame rails were necessary to produce a stiff frame with the roof removed or you would have complained about Honda Civics beating you through the turns at the local autocross. The roof is bolted in to stiffen the frame even more. Want latches? Buy a Miata.

Optispark has greater timing resolution and accuracy than anything else available at the time which was partly responsible for making 10:1 compression available again. Accuracy comes from unique square wave output which magnetic trigger cannot do. Want reliable Opti? Hose the car all you want, just leave the engine alone. Your buddies won't notice dust on the valve covers anyway. Didn't hear anyone complain about the waterpump, why not? If waterpump was better you guys wouldn't be talking about the Opti so much. Besides, waterpump is driven off the cam, You lose your belt and you get to still drive home, not a bad feature to have.

Plastic parts: Plastic is a clever way to produce a good looking part to perform a function without incurring a weight penalty. I didn't hear anyone complain about Corvette's competitive weight. Want a tank? buy from a competitor.

 

The steering wheels in all the Corvettes after 1982 are ugly.

 

1.Hood latches that hold water
2.rear hatch weather strip holds water in corners
3.Parking brake on left
4.Floppy door panels

Never had any problem with the Bose on this car I actually think it sounds way above average for that time
And the Z doesnt have opti so cant comment on that

 

Inadequate chassis stiffness leading to a loose rattley ride and degraded handling. Seems to be less of an issue on my Roadster, but maybe that's because it has such low mileage. Complicated by the high door sills mentioned earlier.

No storage space in the Roadster, really, almost none at all with the top down.

Power top would have been nice.

Overall though my '96 is a great car, especially for the money and I love it.

 

Yours is not broken. It goes down to stay out of your way when you get out of the car.

It's in the perfect spot, IMO. The conventional place on the center console (if it were even available on a C4) is ugly & a waste of space.