Please keep in mind, many of the new C7 owners have those cars on a lease. In two or three years they'll turn it in and pick up some other super-car and they'll tell anyone who'll listen how much better it is than the C7. These types come and go and have been for years. There are still a lot of cool C7 folks who bought it because they're into Vettes.

 

I am a former C4 owner, wrencher and waxer. A good friend of mine has a 72. I can appreciate them all, plan on working my way up to a C6 , maybe up to a C7 one day. They are all awesome. When I had my C4, and it was a nice 95 that I restored, I got snubbed by a C5 owner, just don' t get it, or maybe he did not. Abviously not from this forum.

 

ArtGle:

I am in a similar boat...ASE Certified Master Tech from the early 80's to the mid 90's. Worked in various dealerships and independent garages earning enough money to put myself through college. Eventually, I let my certification lapse as I didn't need it for my career.

I was already "into" cars before I started working on them, but having the mechanical aptitude to repair almost anything built upon that appreciation.

I love all cool cars. Not just Vettes. Not just GM. Not just American. However, my heart is with GM cars in general and Vettes and Oldsmobiles in particular.

I am also an incurable "waxer." Cannot stand to have a dirty car...especially my collector cars. Obsessing over the details is what I do...and I don't apologize for it...some understand, many don't. Either way is OK...there's room enough in the world for both of us!

I do agree that it is sometimes disheartening to run into the "snobs" and non-car guys who don't return to you the appreciation you give them and their cars...but I see it as their loss, not mine...

Rock on!

 

Those guys are everywhere. In most cases, they don't even understand that they don't understand. It's not just "Corvette guys"--you see 'em in chess clubs, gun shows, the gym lifting weights, salesmen who think they're part of the "elite" because they're scramblin' to sell some "expensive" item (car, watch, carpets, etc.) on and on and on and on...

I'm always dressed "like a ragamuffin"--overheard my wife's aunt say that describing me once. It doesn't bother me at all-- t-shirt, slaps, and cargo pants; it's my disguise--I can flow through the crowd like an invisible man...The t-shirt will have some logo on it. Not Nike, the LA Lakers, the NO Saints, Budweiser, Coca-Cola--maybe something like XXX Beach, SPCA, XX Car Show--no advertising, but events or sites. ALL my t-shirts are Salvation Army. My pants are ALWAYS casual, and if you catch me in shoes, somebody's either died or getting married. Everything feasible that I can, I'll buy on the internet to save money--I get it all the time; most folks think I'm a blue-collar minimum-wage guy struggling to keep two nickles so I can rub'm together. I've been retired since I was 51. Bought my last house with cash. Don't wear a watch. Who cares what those guys think? It ain't worth the breath to stick around and insult'em. They're inconsequential.

 

Its Not a smart idea to brag about paying cash for a house when a secure mortgage can be had for 2.6 %. And a secured guaranteed CD can yield 5.8 %. so if you took the cash money you Say you used to buy a house and invested it in a secured CD at 5.8 % you would have yielded a 3.2 % gain. A good investment advisor would be a good move .

 

Huh?!? Care to share where you're seeing 5.8% CDs?

(I agree if you already have a high-interest-yield investment, it makes no sense to use it to pay off a low-interest mortgage. But that's not the situation you're describing.)

 

That all depends. When I paid cash, the 15-year mortgate rate was 5.25%. CD rates didn't break 3%. I think I did alright. So did my adviser.

Sorry we've hijacked your thread, Art.

 

Oh NO, HIJACKERS !!!!

 

Not trying to defend rudeness or just plain ignorance, but just wondering if this is a result of a repetitious wate of time? Let me try to explain.

I'm mostly talking about places like gas stations and such, not car shows or car gatherings. I drive and own lots of unusual cars. I'm an old classic car nut and like to do all the wrenching and body work myself. I get stopped all the time by guys wanting the full story on the car. At first you are flattered, and spend 20 minutes swapping stories. Lots of times it is at a stop light where the other guy is frantically waving and hollering trying to get you to roll down the window so he can compliment you. It's all good! You know what I mean!

After the new wears off, I get tired of being pinned down while trying to show enthusiasum when an elderly man tells me his story of how that is his favorite car and blah, blah, blah...

Is it perhaps just that the C7 guys get so much attention that they are worn down with the stories? Probably not, but I hope that is it.

 

Sorry .. Not CD, guaranteed high yield investment fund. My point was that you gain nothing by paying cash. You can always find an investment to trump any cash deal...

 

Those kinds of people are around for the first year or two of a new model release, then disappear as soon as the next trendy car is introduced.

 

Reminds me when the C6 came out. Since my C5 is a 2004 my car had less than 1000 miles on it when I saw the first C6 on the road back in late 2004. At the time my C5 vert was still very new to me.

I was parking our SUV at my son's little league game when a new C6 parked next to me. I got out and said "Nice C6!" The owner/driver replied, "This is a Corvette!" I replied, "Yes, a C6 Corvette, I own a C5 Corvette and yours is the first one I've seen on the road." He replied, "The new ones are a lot better than the older ones."

At that point I walked away laughing however if it makes anyone feel better, he had a vanity plate that made it obvious he was an attorney.

 

How about the a-**** with a coupe that told me my convertible was not really a Corvette? "Only coupes are real corvettes"

 

Like they say..."You can't fix stupid!"

 

Couldn't agree more, well said!
I sometimes amuse myself reading over in the C7 general section. Watching those guys commit filial cannibalism upon each other, is hilarious, to the point of being so very sad....

Don

 

Next one that does that, ask him, "So how come they charge more for the convertibles?"

 

I've found that having more knowledge about Corvettes is a great equalizer. Find out all there is to know about their 'latest and greatest' then play a with game them. Most of them that act that way know little or nothing about what they're driving, it's really fun to observe their ignorance...

 

Well the only reason I am not retired yet, and I am of the age, is that I have seen the list my wife has prepared for me to do in my golden years. I wouldn't live six months into retirement. I continue to work in order to stay alive!

 

This thread reminds me when I was riding motorcycles where you had the HD riders and everyone else's bikes were crap, never really understood it.

 

Been to several cruise-ins this year around Birmingham, and normally all the vette owners park next to each other so we can keep an eye on our cars & socialize. However, at every one where there has been a C7 they have chose to park away from the row of older vettes, usually all by themselves. Their arrogance is laughable & all too obvious. I've met some great guys who own C3s, 4s, 5s & 6s........too bad the C7 snobs don't know what they're missin.