Yeah the column lock. But other than that, close to 40k miles now, no major problems.

 

My 2000 FRC with 49K miles has made 25 or 26 trips to the dealer...all under warranty.

Lots of fun, but the most problem car I have ever owned. Hardly worth the trouble.

 

Well, it's official! I've had my corvette for a year now. :seeya And just like day one, I had to pick it up at the dealer. :mad

Anybody know of a good attorney in the Jacksonville, FL area who has experience with Lemon Law cases? :(

 

You do not necessarily need an attorney. In my state, Maryland, all it took was a letter to GM to have my 99 C5 taken back. You need to ensure that you have been in exact compliance with the lemon law. ANY deviation and you may not have a case. You may also have a state agency who will assist you with the claim.

 

I'll chime in. In a year and 8 months that I've had my '01, I've beat the **** out of it ever since I bought it. Not just on the street either (where I run it hard too), ,but drag racing, autocrossing, roadracing (20-25 minute hot lapping sessions) and guess what? My car had the faulty brake booster which was fixed quickly and efficiently. THAT'S IT. Almost 23,000 hard, hard miles so far. I haven't even changed out the pads, figure that one out. I've changed my stock brake fluid because I boiled it so many times, it's not even funny. I've had 4 Honda's and while they were very reliable, I have to say this one takes the cake. Also, check my sig, it runs pretty good too for the few mods I have. :D Another thing, I've seen over 170mph on my HUD on about 5 different occasions (check the kill section look for the Dallas threads), I see triple digits pretty much every time I drive it, (I'm not exagerating either), it's an absolutely AMAZING machine. Either most of the people that have posted in this list have gotten lemons or they don't know how to drive/maintain them. I let my car warm up, I change the oil regularly, I don't ride my brakes, I don't keep my foot on the brake pedal at a stop light, so the brake discs can dissipate heat, etc. It's common sense. :flag :chevy :chevy :chevy


[Modified by QUIKAG, 9:04 PM 4/27/2002]

 

Sometimes you get lucky, but based on what I hear from my dealer's mechanic who works exclusively on corvettes, there have been lots of problems. My problem has been that it often takes multiple trips to get something fixed. The brake problem you had, I had on a FRC well before the Z06 even came out. It took at least six months and lots of test drives for the problem, which happened intermittently, to occur in the presence of a mechanic. Then they screwed around for a few more months until Chevy acknowledged the problem with a new pressure boost regulator.

That has been my experience with this car since day one and, while I am happy you have had such a great experience, I can assure you that I change the oil, don't ride the brakes, use torque wrenches when I remover the wheels. Yet, I have had to replace three sets of front rotors and I don't race. Kind of frustrating.

 

I've owned Corvettes of all series over the past 30 years and I really believe that the C5s will go into history as the worst series of Vettes ever built. These cars, as a series, have had problems from day one.

GM has compounded the C5's bad rep by not adressing most of these problems as the car matured. It appears that the 2002 Vettes have some of the same problems as the first 1997 C5s had! :nonod:

Tom

 

Nah, You've got to be kidding, right? The reliability of C4 was almost non-existant. I'm not even talking about older generations.

 

Whenever I read one of these threads, I'm always struck by two things: how many owners have problems with their cars (and some are fairly significant problems); and, yet, how loyal we are to the Corvette despite those problems.

You've read the book "All Corvettes Are Red"? I think I recall that Russ McLean had something like $250M to develop the C5. And everything came out of that budget, engineering, development, testing, etc.

Two hundred fifty million bucks to create a car, even if you are carrying over lots of components, is next to nothing. The real testing was done by a half-dozen development engineers who were almost always behind on one thing or another. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that when you step into a Chevrolet showroom and sign up for one of these cars, you just have to accept the fact that you, too, are a development-and-test driver. Some Corvettes are relatively trouble-free, and you can see that reflected in the responses on the forum. Others are dogs, subject to the excentricities and production gaffs of the component suppliers. (And you can't blame this on the assembly-line crews; they are only as good as the stuff they are given to put together.)

These facts are reflected not only here, on the Forum, but every time an owner survey is taken. If you really want to be impressed/depressed, take a look at how "average" owners -- i.e., non-enthusiasts -- rate the car in a pub such as Consumers Reports. The Corvette's "reliability" record is always poor (ok, it's terrible). (And, yes, I know: lots of CR readers save string and are hyper-critical. But like it or not, the Corvette has never been thought of as a high quality car.)

But, so what? They are (relatively) inexpensive to buy for what they can do, they look great, and they are fun to drive. Be glad they're not Jaguars: they really stink, and they cost a third more. Besides, who buys these cars just for transportation? I've always thought of Corvette ownership as a hobby, one with lots of owner "involvement." Bottom line, I'm glad someone's making these cars to mess around with. If the quality gaffs are wearing you out, there are lots and lots of cars that will go 100k with virtually no problems. But I doubt seriously that anyone is posting a photograph of his/her Zaino'ed Camry on the ToyotaForum, if you get my drift.

 

Maintainence and driving style play a big part. If you take care of her I think they should go at least 100K-150K easy. :yesnod:

Mine has 27K miles on her and the only problem I've had is the column lock which I fixed with the bypass. :yesnod:


[Modified by Doughan, 6:38 PM 4/28/2002]

 

As posted in another thread I recently created, this will be the 4th week I have been in posession of my Vette and it will also be the 4th time I will have to take it into the shop for a problem. :mad

1. Intermittent wiper problems (turning on with L turns and off with braking.)
2. Leaky rear diff, R side (replaced seal and o-ring)
3. Still leaky rear diff, R side (replaced R cover)
4. Now, Service Active Hndlg message (going into the shop tomorrow!

PeterK - Where are you taking your car that has so many Vettes up on the lifts???

 

That bytes big time. :mad Bad experiences like that can really turn people off to Vette ownership. have you contacted a Chevrolet Zone rep?

 

I'm not so sure that the vette is the problem in as much as American cars in general are fair at best when it comes to reliabilty. Because of this, the vette has never been my daily driver. I buy vettes exclusively because of their performance and fun - thats it. I know reliability will be an issue which is why it will never be my daily driver. I always hope that a small number of enduring-problems will surface as a result of putting few miles on the vette. The low miles factor has also always allowed me to sell the car at a very nice premium (with that premium well-exceeding the Tax benefit accompanying the Rip-off trade price).

 

Not yet. I don't think there is really a problem with the dealership, per se...just the car has been problematic since I brought it home. I am thinking I will let it go and see if anything else crops up. Appears that the ABS was mis-calibrated, per a TSB, and had to be reprogrammed today. My guess is it was just a gremlin, and I am hoping that it was the last of them. :D

 

I don't see any reason that the C5 shouldn't last well over 100,000 miles, if it is maintained properly and not abused.

 

MSN Carpoint give the C5 high marks in reliability :yesnod:...hmmm...I'm not sure what to think :crazy:

http://carpoint.msn.com/vip/overview...=Home&pos=Find

 

From a foreigners perspective I'll say this...the C5 is WELL engineered. The problem is the way the car is put together. Before I visited the plant people always told me that it was the best car plant in the whole of the United States. If that's the case, then God help the rest of your automobiles! There is a little too much human involvement in the C5 build process IMHO. Plenty of it could be automated. No seriously, take a look at Japan if you don't believe me. And the other astounding thing (at least to me) was the number of employees I saw standing around doing next to nothing (reading the paper etc.). I even saw one asleep in a C5 as it advanced down the line. I kid you not! And what about the "No Smoking" signs that abound in the Factory and yet it seems plenty of employees still do? Sorry guys, but I was not impressed with the workers and their attitudes towards the cars they were working on. I expected more. And now it kind of makes sense as to why you can have a perfect C5 with no problems and then immediately next to that is a lemon. While the chasis design may have fixed a lot of the flaws the C4 had they still need to look at putting it together better...

 

Hmmm, they don't have UAW's in Japan do they??? i wonder if that has something to do with it? Na, couldn't be. :confused:

 

Replaced water pump at 6k miles

serpentine belt and tensioner at 12k miles (should have done with pump at 6k)

serpentine belt and tensioner at 15k miles (poor job at 12k miles)

brake rotors turned at 17k miles (warped and pulsing brake pedal)

I have yet to have the body damage forward of the right rear wheel fixed (from when I drove off of a curb and dragged it along the concrete curb 4-5", ouch!).

 

Exactly. I was hinting at that in my statement. Oh yeah, robots don't get tired either...

What I don't get is in my country (New Zealand), unions are frowned upon and seen as a hinderance to good business. Supposedly this is an American idea, yet you guys still have these huge Auto Unions. What's up with that? :D