I'M sure this has happened to many of us, But it never gets old...
Beautiful sunny day this morning.. after a week of rain... its already getting warm out... So I went to five different stores this morning.. Bank, Hair cut, Deli, Grocery Store, a Strip Mall... to the point.. My car always looks good, but today for some reason it was glowing , wheels blindingly sparkling, paint is flawless, rotors and wheel wells, all sparking clean.. At every single place I stopped ( every one ) Someone had a nice comment to make..Nice car, beautiful car, did you just get it?, etc. But the very last guy took the cake... A guy with his wife , stopped all the traffic behind him as I was leaving the Supermarket, I'm waiting to leave the parking lot and get into the flow of traffic.. I was looking right, and this guy about 35 years old with his wife were stopped right next to me on my left. He stopped about three other cars from entering the parking lot.. .. these two had smiles so bright you know it could have been a candle.. This guy just kept repeating.. I Love you man, I love you man.. he said it three or four times before telling me how nice the car was.. the funny thing is no one behind him beeped. and he was there at least a minute.. Nice day ! but this has been going on with me for 45 years.. it never gets old... dont you agree.. I know someone was saying in a post from a few days ago that " It's Just a Car".... you do not see this kind of reaction with just any car.. and considering my car is 11 years old with 80,000 miles on it.... anyone else get this kind of attention? This could be a very long thread

 

Yep, it's happened to me too...... and I just love the car!!!

 

Mine never has been, and never will be, "Just a car" to me... Although, it's not a garage queen, either!

Someday, I hope that mine looks half as good as yours, Bill

 

I too always get comments and I always look back at is as I walk away!

 

Sometimes it's all worth while. Nice ride.

 

I have the advantage of being retired.... but its fun to keep a nice car.. and all the comments are just an added bonus. Although I have always maintained my cars this way... when I was younger and had more energy, it was an easy thing to do.. now that I am older, its nice to spread out any maintenance over a few days if necessary..

Also , many folks show off photos of their car when they first got it or after they spent a ton of money modding it... but its usually when the car is new... Ive show photos from 10 years ago and have showed photos from a few days ago... the photos from a few days ago are better than the ones i took 10 years ago.
Thank you for the nice comments, mine is not a garage queen either.. with 80,000 miles on it, It really doesnt qualify, its been in the rain many times.. a few times in snow,, and alot of times in muddy paddocks where my daughter keeps her horses. I drive it and park it anywhere, but I do park smart and thats not out in the boonies...I try to keep as low a profile as possible, keeping it next to other nice cars that are well kept. I always park where the most foot traffic is, so no one will be tempted to do something stupid.. because most people do things under the cloak of being a coward where no one can see them

 

It is almost impossible to drive by a group of kids without at least one of them screaming "nice car!" to you. It helps to have a bright color like red or yellow too

I've owned a few "nice" cars, including a very nice Lexus, but none have gotten the reaction that the Corvette gets on a day-to-day basis. It's just a car that people love to love.

 

Awesome story, Bill!

My Pace Car gets that kind of attention, my Black car hasn't been out since the beginning of December. But I've spent most of my free time in the last week working to get the Black car back to a point where I can be proud of it again.

I stayed at the shop Friday night and worked on it on a lift for about 5 hours - until about 10:00 pm. This was after a long day on my feet all day running around. It was strangely therapeutic to be at the shop all alone - just me and the car. While working on it, I felt sad that I had allowed my dream car to fall into a state that I was embarrassed to let anyone see it. So these guys that say it's just a car.....whatever. It represents a lot more than that to me.

It's the car that I waited to own for 45 years. It is my pride and joy....just like your beautiful red coupe is to you. I plan to have it out at our local show and shine this weekend, for the first time since November. I took some pics of the car on the lift just now......

 

It absolutely never gets old.

I drive through a few different routes in my neighborhood and where the kids are/boys are playing, they wave excitedly and I both wave back and beep the horn. My wife gets a kick out of it as she never thought that the car could garner so much attention.

One day, while reading magazines in Barnes and Noble on the 2nd floor, we watched for a little while, all the people who would walk by the car in the parking lot among all the other cars and just stare at it the whole way, people even pointing it out to whoever they were with, all the time my wife still incredulous.

It never gets old and fortunate are we who get to drive and own these beautiful sportscars.

 

Pride in ownership and grateful we're able to accomplish our life goals...

 

Has happened to me twice today!

 

Awesome story and your right! It just never gets old! Every time I take my 02 out of the garage it gets compliments. Every so often I get the let's trade offer. Just last week a guy with a fairly new BMW Z3 made the offer. I just smiled and said no thanks, but you can get on of your own! Light turned green and that ended the conversation.

 

THAT is a sharp ride!! It takes time and dedication to keep them looking that good, but how many cars, with those kind of miles, will look like that? I try to keep mine exceptionally clean, and nearly every time it goes out, someone will make an appreciative comment. That's cool!

 

Like many things, having the time to spend being attentive to details comes in phases. When I was younger, spending 4 hours to detail my 68 was the norm, and quite often I might add. That changed for a couple of reasons - kids and living in a condo complex. Eventually, both work and kids reduced my detail time substantially, so I started using a car cover every time I took the car to work, which in San Diego is much more often than was possible when I lived in Connecticut. The car cover allowed me to refrain from washing the car every week. The intervals could be extended to 3 weeks.
Now that the kids are in their upper teens, I have even more tasks to take care of, so no 4-hour detailing sessions are possible. The funny thing is that if we wait until we are retired, those 4-hour sessions will probably be two 2-hour sessions. I look forward to the spare time but not the lack of endurance.....

Regarding comments about the car: I did receive far more when I lived in CT. Folks here are used to seeing Lambos, Ferraris, Porches, and may other high-priced vehicles, so C5s are considered to be more or less common-man vehicles. But that's okay, I do enjoy driving my maggie until the active handling, traction control and ABS warning lights come on........

 

Great story ET.

I drove my car to work yesterday. I stopped at a large gas station (Sheetz) near my house. There were two C6 coupes already filling up. I pulled up to the pump next to them. About 6 or 7 people walked right past the C6's to hang all over my car. Helped that I was checking the oil.

 

Pretty sure I'm the "It's just a car" guy. I tell people that all the time. But it's usually in reference to driving in the rain. In that aspect I do look at it as just a car. But no,it won't ever be just a car.

Your car looks great man.

 

My dear lod thats a sick looking engine!!! very nice

 

I've often wondered myself when I hear people on here say,"its just a car" or "it not like a supercar or something" and have hesitated from posting because I felt like it would sound like I was bragging to say it, but I am still AMAZED (and proud) at the people that literally stop and take photographs WITH my car as the background when it's parked at gas stations, restaurants and malls (I do park WAY out by myself)
Whenever I see them in time, (If it looks like they would like that type of thing, and especially kids) I always ask if they'd like a picture with them sitting in it I've never had anyone turn me down, and they never act like it's "just a corvette"
BTW, all the young guys want to see "what's under the hood"

 

It's the American Sports Car and has been for some time.

I know I always wanted one when I was growing up.

 

That's a beautiful example of a clean yet aggressive looking C5, in a proper color to boot These cars really seem to get the attention in red and yellow, as I've had numerous encounters with people from all age groups giving me thumbs up and compliments. I agree, it makes the detailing sessions and long hours in the garage worth it