Been here a few years, excellent forum and very informational and funny......

 

maybe more than a handful.



There are several of us that have been around quite awhile. I too enjoy helping others, and every so often I learn something new. I also have a C-7 so I spend a bit of time there also.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm with him...... cracker

 

Evil Twin...a few things

1) Congrats on 50 years - I wish more couples were like you in this country to squash the 50% divorce rate we see today...

2) You have corvette knowledge I could only dream about...so thank you for all you share

3) I agree postings are down - but it may also be because its summer vs winter. Guys are out driving their Vettes, taking them to shows, on vacation etc. Once the cold weather comes around, and folks are couped up inside, I think we will see an increase in activity...

Im on this site 2 to 3 times a day...I just cant get enough!

 

ET,
I have been around here a long time but I do not post a lot. There are very helpful folks here and I too have learned a lot from generous members like you.

On another note, I have a twin sister and I tell her that she is the evil twin. She always replies with an eye roll or two.

 

I am more of a reader than a poster. We have had our C5 for 13 years and I have been a member for 12 I think. I check in often and continue to benefit from the information posted.

 

This forum is the holy land as far as I'm concerned. The amount of information past and present is astounding. You could probably design a C5 300 hundred years from now with all the information on this forum. This is vastly different from the various import forums I've been apart of, including a 30+ year old BMW. All you old timers are the backbone of the site, if you guys hadn't started tinkering 20+ years ago, the C5 would be dead.


It's a great car to wrench on and upgrade, most things are relatively easy and packaged well. Plus if you have a problem, odds are someone has had it before and posted about it....here. In short, a heartfelt thanks to anyone who's stuck around awhile, I've had my C5 for less then a year so far, and I'm learning new things daily on here, even from ancient posts.




PS. I'm 23 and both my parents are under 50, my dad will be jumping into a C7 soon, mainly because of my C5. The dream lives on!

 

I hope that's not true. I hope they moved on to a newer Vette. I've seen allot of posts of members saying goodbye to the C5 forum as they purchased a C6 or C7.
Me, I don't ever plan to sell my 2002 C5 even though it's giving me all sorts of electrical problems currently. For instance, the hatch lid will pop up on it's own. WTH? I did't even have the switch hooked up.
Not the C5's fault but I'm also having LED problems. Two of the four controllers stopped working. WTH? They got power, just no output. How can two just suddenly go bad?

 

I think if a lot of these lurkers would jump in more, the activity on the board could pick up a lot!

 

Depending on the mood, how much time I have or how unique the subject is, I'm inclined to use the search function. Finding the information that has already been discussed. I may post a question in an old thread or hit the Thanks button.

I have little doubt the C7 section is the hotbed of activity now.

 

Here is some data I can offer. 16 years ago, I did several polls on participation.. I did a poll on color, I did a poll on transmission. All the time my actual purpose was to get a Talley of active members. You could only vote once in the poll, so there were no duplicates. at the4 high watermark for this forum we had only 330 active members, the poll lasted for one month. A couple years later I did it again and the numbers were similar... Now with a quarter million C5's manufactured, this is a very small sampling of actual C5 owners. I would think out of that 1/4 miilion cars, that atleast there are 150,000 still on the road. Many have been bought and sold three or four or five times.. making those cars New to the owner.

What has changed?
Most of the cars owned buy members back then were New.. Most looking to make their car unique. The demographic was more professional and semi professional. Most paid 45,000 to 55,000 for their car and their passion was very high. Many seeking help with new car issues outside the dealership resource. Most members seeking new ideas, and subtle changes. Vetting all of the New products for these cars and feedback on the pros and cons.

Today
The demographic is much different, anyone can buy a C5 today, if you have the most pedestrian job. Most people buying a C5 today, do not have the passion found in an original owner. Many of the cars remaining of that 1/4 million are 10 to 15,000 dollar cars. Many of those cars ( average cars ) are just bragging rights for someone who can only afford a 10 or 15,000 dollar car. This demographic , for the most part is interested in owning a Corvette, no matter what the shape. Many of the people here today are not looking for fixes for old problems.. most of the fixes have been fixed right here on this forum. People today are , for the most part dealing with a 10 to 15 K car with 20 year old paint, 20 year old interior, with less than modest income. Very few people here today have the same passion, the guys who originally came here and spent 50 K on a car. equating today 20 years later to someone who is willing and capable of spending 70K.

Its a known fact that when I came here from GM after retiring, I use to get 50 to 100 PM's a day.. this went on for almost 7 or 8 years. All seeking help and guidance and insider information.. NO one here today cares or wants to know about how this car came to be. What wound up on the cutting room floor and why.. sure there are books, but not everything is in those books.. I've often said I could write a book about this car that would not be found anywhere else.

If I took that poll today, I doubt we would find 100 active members, members who come here every day and actually participate. of course there are the transients who come here check it out ask a few questions and are never seen again.. IM not bitching about the participation, I understand why it is. But its not for the lack of C5's that are still on the road.

Bill aka ET just my opinion.

 

I'll be honest, I never had any dreams of Corvettes, never was my dream car. Associated them with old men and chromed out tail lights etc etc. The "ricer" of the domestic world. I'm more of the performance type, and there simply isn't a V8 car in it's price bracket that offers such good vehicle dynamics and uncompromised suspension layout. You can get an F-body, then you're stuck with live rear axle and an even worse GM interior. You can go for a 4.6 Mustang, again, live rear axle and generally lacking engine. Both of these options are heavy, and not a "purist" sports car. The transaxle and lightweight V8 body is what drew me. Double wishbone front and rear, a proven SBC, and the ability to run a ton of tire are all huge positives that you just can't ignore. Autocrossers and track rats keep this car alive atm, they run them hard and maintain them even harder. I can respect a low mileage C5, but I don't think it's to be exemplified. I'd be in an S2K if I didn't fall in love with a V8 on the first test drive.

 

I don't have the very lengthy C5 ownership or forum participation to have the perspective you long term owners and forum contributors/members have. Having said that and being a real automotive enthusiast I have seen a lot of forums that are much less active/informative than this one. I've owned my C5 and been a forum reader/participant heading into the two year mark. I think its a fabulous resource. I think that ET hit it right regarding the forum and the ownership demographics changing and impacting on forum participation. I don't know about other members in different areas of the country but here in E Texas, C5's have gotten to be a rare thing to see on the road and really nice ones are like hens teeth. I do see some C6's, and C7's seem to be everywhere. I wonder if the C6 and C7 forums have gotten busier while the C5 is slowing down, maybe just as a natural evolution as ownership changes from generation to generation. Food for thought! Anyway, I really do enjoy the forum and all the info available from other members to any question that may come up. The knowledge and experience that ET and other very senior members possess and are willing to share with us newer owners is acknowledged and very greatly appreciated. As a personal note to ET, congratulations on your 50 year plus marriage and hope you are doing well. Take care!

 

One other thought about this car.. the introduction of the LS1.. no mistaking its impact on the automotive world. It continues today.

 

I don't think it's a car problem - it's a 'forum' problem in that online forums are a dying thing. Social media pages such as Facebook tend to pull much more daily traffic and news. This really stinks because forums offer vast wealths of archived knowledge. Hopefully places like this will always be around; if anything at least cached via Google.

Age certainly plays a roll. I'm in the young guy crowd. So lot of things here seem trivial and horses are beaten to the ground daily. Interestingly corvettes just don't have the youth draw. I follow SVTPerformance.com (big cobra forum) and it's slowed substantially as well, but still holds pretty decent traffic from youth posters as mustangs are always 'in' no matter the demographic. That said, actual Terminator talk went downhill.

Eventually this will fade into the progressively slower c4, c3 etc forums as each newest generation garnishes the spotlight.

 

I check the forum everyday, never know what I might learn. However, I don't much care to post since I'm not interested in getting opinions (I make my own decisions) which is what a lot of the replies tend to be. Members tend to go off topic and downright insulting. I use the search engine but many don't so many questions are duplicates. Members may get tired of all this but I accept and appreciate the hard work necessary to maintain this forum. Many thanks.

 

I really can not complain about this forum because majority of the members here have been a very big help in get people in the right direction to keep their Vettes last for years to come, especially in the C5 model community. Personally, it has been a pleasure and a great time for me on this forum.

 

I check the C5 forums every day. I love my C5 more than any other car I have owned. I came upon it quite by accident. I had just sold my last C3, the money had not even hit the bank yet, when one of the dealerships I deal with took my C5 in on trade for a Grand Cherokee. One of the salesman knew I was a Corvette guy and asked me to check it out and give him my opinion. I was really thinking of getting a late model C3 again but I thought what the heck and took him up on it. I was completely surprised by what a wonderful car GM had produced, I love everything about it. Long story short I bought it that day, for just a few bucks more than I had sold my C3 for. It is my last Corvette. I don't always post because I am busy with work and have undertaken an experimental aircraft project but I think about and drive my car every day weather permitting. I would like to thank all the long time owners and C5 lovers for all the great work they have put into this forum thanks to all of you I have a car that everything works on as designed and it has not thrown a code in some time. It is great to se Evil-Twin feeling good and posting regular as he is wealth of knowledge about these cars and has opened my eyes and provoked much thought about the care and feeding of the C5. Now back to working on airplanes. Mike

P.S. My C5 is the only C5 I have ever driven or been in, amazing.

 

Obviously you do not frequent Photographic forums.. Photographers are artist and one of the most passionate groups of people I know.. also the gun forums I frequent are the same way. No more passionate people than 5th amendment rights people who wear their choice on their hip. I also frequent high end watch forums.. BTW I go to no social media outlets. To many people give out too much personal information on a daily basis. People on social media know when others flush the toilet.. social media has been the down fall of many part goers when it comes to home robberies and loss of jobs.. IM very security conscious but find it amassing that people will; share very intimate details of their daily life.

If you have a C5 issue you come here, Not twitter.. at least here you can decide who you can trust, who actually knows a few things about this car and who actually give credible information.. Social media is too generalized, too personal, too revealing.. here you can skirt some passions, Photography , guns , painting etc, without revealing the launch codes.. on social media, people know who you are, when you are on vacation, who you slept with, and how drunk you got Sunday night before going to work Monday morning.

 

I'm not saying you are wrong in that some forums are more live; likely specifically photography as facebook tends to suck out all the resolution as they 'optimize'; but there is no doubt a drop in online activity forum wise due to it.

While you may chose never to go on such outlets; being ignorant to what gets posted does not affirm your opinion on what goes on. Certain pages most certainly have a forum like following. There are 'go-to' posters in many groups. No, you don't get a post count trophy- which doesn't always align with correctly spread information, but there are patterns.

ANYONE, facebook or CF can create a profile. Anyone can give information - correct or incorrect. I would wager to say the benefit of social media is you can generally see the person posting and get a feel for them more personally. Which makes sense as that is what social media is designed to do.

I'm not saying facebook should or will replace the forum nor is it a better value. Infact I wrote quite the opposite. However it is undeniably affecting forum use on certain levels.

Forums, as noted are where vast amount of knowledge is stored. I don't really care what it pertains to be it AR15, 4chan, or Corvetteforum. Facebook has no real archive. I do not wish them away - I only recognize their distractions.