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I wish I lived in the same fantasy land where the C5 doesn't have a poorly assembled interior with cheap materials, terrible electrical system, poor lighting and subpar visibilty, it would be the perfect car for everything. Unfortunately I live in the real world.
Why do guys like you and chillin014 even own a Corvette? You obviously don't like them, and your views of the car go against what about 95% or more of the people in this forum say about them...
You guys make me laugh with your break down of these cars. 1998 my car cost me 40000 dollars out the door. Not 60 not 70 grand. Compare a c7 too all these other great cars that you guys own. My car in 20 years has cost me next to nothing in maintenance cost. My warranty period my car went to the dealer once. No electrical problems, Subpar visibilty??? Maybe just maybe you should have bought one new instead of one that sounds like has been beat to death and then comparing it to a 20 year newer car. Save yourself while you can a get out from under that junk you must own, because again, doesn't sound like what i have in my garage.
Why do guys like you and chillin014 even own a Corvette? You obviously don't like them, and your views of the car go against what about 95% or more of the people in this forum say about them...
I have no delusions about the car, I bought it to beat the **** out of. I put up with the other stuff because of the price I paid. If I paid window sticker price when it was new I'd never buy another.
How can you and the rest of the members blatantly ignore the short comings? Everyone here says "on a track, for what it costs, blah blah blah" when 99% of the members drive them like an ice cream truck. In that comparison a camry is better assembled.
Things like status, appearance and the like are all subjective.
You guys make me laugh with your break down of these cars. 1998 my car cost me 40000 dollars out the door. Not 60 not 70 grand. Compare a c7 too all these other great cars that you guys own. My car in 20 years has cost me next to nothing in maintenance cost. My warranty period my car went to the dealer once. No electrical problems, Subpar visibilty??? Maybe just maybe you should have bought one new instead of one that sounds like has been beat to death and then comparing it to a 20 year newer car. Save yourself while you can a get out from under that junk you must own, because again, doesn't sound like what i have in my garage.
With inflation that 40k is 61k today, so that's that. How many miles does your car have? Cause toms of members who've owned their car 20 with 20k or less on them don't get to talk about mileage longevity.
What does the visibility have to do with the car being a junker or not? You can't see **** out of it, makes no difference the mileage. It is what it is and the electrical issues are well known whether you agree or not. Hydraulic system is also a joke.
I bought the car knowing I'd change the stuff I didn't like about it, I didn't buy it because it's a gift to the earth from the Greek gods. If I was buying a new car, dollar for dollar it would be a GTR, not a C7.
With inflation that 40k is 61k today, so that's that. How many miles does your car have? Cause toms of members who've owned their car 20 with 20k or less on them don't get to talk about mileage longevity.
What does the visibility have to do with the car being a junker or not? You can't see **** out of it, makes no difference the mileage. It is what it is and the electrical issues are well known whether you agree or not. Hydraulic system is also a joke.
I bought the car knowing I'd change the stuff I didn't like about it, I didn't buy it because it's a gift to the earth from the Greek gods. If I was buying a new car, dollar for dollar it would be a GTR, not a C7.
Show your car if you own one because the more you have to say the less sense you make.
Why do guys like you and chillin014 even own a Corvette? You obviously don't like them, and your views of the car go against what about 95% or more of the people in this forum say about them...
First of all, just because I am objectively critical of the car does not mean I don't like it. However you will find me even more vocal of my criticisms in an environment where someone may be asking for unbiased opinions or perspective and most replies are coated with an "excess of optimism". It also becomes hard to tell if this optimism is ignorance-based: Maybe most corvette loyalists are simply previous camaro guys and all they know is a GM product or something worse (like Dodge ) .
But to be completely transparent- I own a C5 essentially as an experiment for myself. I gave myself a timeline and a budget for this car (and my previous car was a $1500 Infiniti). I can tell you my C5 is the fastest thing I've ever driven and when I drive it I do feel a sense of "cool". But I am also reminded every day of the sacrifice I make to drive the C5. The noise, the lack of technology, the weirdly common oddball broken components. Plastic pieces that creak and groan when I enter and exit the car. These things often outweigh how fun it is to look cool and how hypothetically fast it might be at a race track. I laugh at the thought of recommending the C5 to someone who is looking for a sporty daily driver. A corvette is an enthusiast's car and we should not sit here and pretend that it "check's all boxes" and its simply "better than the all rest CUZ CORVETTE!!". Personally I'm going to start looking at C6's. I can afford it and I think it may have a bearable amount of refinement for me.
I have no delusions about the car, I bought it to beat the **** out of. I put up with the other stuff because of the price I paid. If I paid window sticker price when it was new I'd never buy another.
How can you and the rest of the members blatantly ignore the short comings? Everyone here says "on a track, for what it costs, blah blah blah" when 99% of the members drive them like an ice cream truck. In that comparison a camry is better assembled.
Things like status, appearance and the like are all subjective.
I don't think anyone here ignores the C5s shortcomings, I just think some of the guys like you and chillin014 exaggerate them, i. e., disintegrating interiors, rattle traps, poor build quality....if they were actually as bad as you guys claim they are, nobody would buy them...
First of all, just because I am objectively critical of the car does not mean I don't like it. However you will find me even more vocal of my criticisms in an environment where someone may be asking for unbiased opinions or perspective and most replies are coated with an "excess of optimism". It also becomes hard to tell if this optimism is ignorance-based: Maybe most corvette loyalists are simply previous camaro guys and all they know is a GM product or something worse (like Dodge ) .
But to be completely transparent- I own a C5 essentially as an experiment for myself. I gave myself a timeline and a budget for this car (and my previous car was a $1500 Infiniti). I can tell you my C5 is the fastest thing I've ever driven and when I drive it I do feel a sense of "cool". But I am also reminded every day of the sacrifice I make to drive the C5. The noise, the lack of technology, the weirdly common oddball broken components. Plastic pieces that creak and groan when I enter and exit the car. These things often outweigh how fun it is to look cool and how hypothetically fast it might be at a race track. I laugh at the thought of recommending the C5 to someone who is looking for a sporty daily driver. A corvette is an enthusiast's car and we should not sit here and pretend that it "check's all boxes" and its simply "better than the all rest CUZ CORVETTE!!". Personally I'm going to start looking at C6's. I can afford it and I think it may have a bearable amount of refinement for me.
There have been others on the site who have complained about the same things you complain about, but for everyone like you, there are 10 others who say they have none of these issues...it sounds to me like guys like you and Shaolin Crane just got ahold of lemons...in other words, your C5s are more of the exception, not the rule...
My 04 manual coupe is still basically stock, however I've tuned it and adjusted the throttle table (made it near linear/1:1 with pedal angel so I get to 50% throttle at 50% pedal). Before adjusting the throttle table, it did feel rather "slow" (had to mash the throttle to unleash HP). After adjusting the throttle table, it's a whole new (fast) car. Over the years I've owned faster cars, but the vette (with the throttle table adjusted) feels faster than any of them.
There have been others on the site who have complained about the same things you complain about, but for everyone like you, there are 10 others who say they have none of these issues...it sounds to me like guys like you and Shaolin Crane just got ahold of lemons...in other words, your C5s are more of the exception, not the rule...
... My '04 is now 14 years old and has nearly 170K miles. Other than some minor issues (rubber door seals need replacing), everything still works. Zero creaks, squeaks or rattles from my car (I'm am **** about these sorts of issues). I couldn't be happier from my Vette.
You guys make me laugh with your break down of these cars. 1998 my car cost me 40000 dollars out the door. Not 60 not 70 grand. Compare a c7 too all these other great cars that you guys own. My car in 20 years has cost me next to nothing in maintenance cost. My warranty period my car went to the dealer once. No electrical problems, Subpar visibilty??? Maybe just maybe you should have bought one new instead of one that sounds like has been beat to death and then comparing it to a 20 year newer car. Save yourself while you can a get out from under that junk you must own, because again, doesn't sound like what i have in my garage.
My wife's car is a 2010...so not a world of difference. I have owned much older Nissan,Infiniti and Toyota cars that I drove upwards of 200k miles. They did not suffer from the poor build quality that my c5 does. I've never replaced seat foam and seat rail bushings, sun visors, headliners, horn contact membranes in ANY of my other cars. I've never had DRL housings melt by their own design either. I've never had a car where the center console couldn't be disassembled and re-assembled 100 times without leaving massive gaps between panels. I've never had a car where the door panel material was 1 sheet of pleather that de-laminated. I've never had a school bus sized steering wheel with an airbag that became sticky and deteriorated. I've never had to replaced a throttle body for $300 simply because the sensor went bad and caused random limp-mode. I could go on...
There have been others on the site who have complained about the same things you complain about, but for everyone like you, there are 10 others who say they have none of these issues...it sounds to me like guys like you and Shaolin Crane just got ahold of lemons...in other words, your C5s are more of the exception, not the rule...
You have an interesting way of pulling statistics out of thin air. I'd like to see the data you've been collecting from your census of the Corvette community. I can easily type "corvette fix ___" into google and get forum thread after forum thread of people with a similar issue. That's a clear sign that enough people have the same problems that we don't have lemons. We have old Chevy products.
Last edited by chillin014; 01-17-2018 at 04:53 PM.
Jeez. You guys sure have a lot to say without saying anything about the topic.
I dont think any c5 can really be called slow considering they can do 170+ at the top end and get to 60 in sub 5 seconds.
Think about it like the worst team in the NFL, the browns. Compared to other teams, they're trash, but in reality they're amongst the best in the world at their sport.
Its fast, but it's no longer elite fast when stock.
Fast is obviously subjective. I wouldn't call a stock C5 in any form slow, but it most definitely isn't fast any more. A z06 is still decently fast, but a base Corvette certainly is not. It's not slow by any means, but not fast. What does that mean then? In today's world, it's just simply average. Anyone can drive around in their C5 and think it's fast, and it's perfectly ok. But it shouldn't come as a shock to realize that it's not really much faster than a LOT of cars on the road today. It's just a fact.
So then the question becomes do we say all of those cars are fast too, or do we adjust the standard? I vote to adjust the standard. Cars from the 60's aren't fast any more, and neither are a lot of cars from the 90's. Times change...but as this topic suggests, people don't.
i am still all OEM.....but i dream about a supercharger every night when i lay my head down on my pillow.....i dont know what I would ever do with 540hp, but i am sure it would look pretty
...but I am ready for a polished Maggie anytime now...I'm mostly show anyway...show and getting attention...I'm an attention hoe...I post a pic of my hood every chance I get...tons of people email me in secret about how good it looks and are afraid to post it on the forum...here...look AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN...
My next attention getter is hopefully this>>>
Heres the rear I almost mistakingly posted instead of the one above...
My wife's car is a 2010...so not a world of difference. I have owned much older Nissan,Infiniti and Toyota cars that I drove upwards of 200k miles. They did not suffer from the poor build quality that my c5 does. I've never replaced seat foam and seat rail bushings, sun visors, headliners, horn contact membranes in ANY of my other cars. I've never had DRL housings melt by their own design either. I've never had a car where the center console couldn't be disassembled and re-assembled 100 times without leaving massive gaps between panels. I've never had a car where the door panel material was 1 sheet of pleather that de-laminated. I've never had a school bus sized steering wheel with an airbag that became sticky and deteriorated. I've never had to replaced a throttle body for $300 simply because the sensor went bad and caused random limp-mode. I could go on...
How many miles are on your vette by the way?
My car has 48000 miles and i own every one. By the way, not one of those problems you mentioned i have encountered. You guys buy cars that you don't have a clue who owned them or how they were treated and throw a blanket statement over all C5 are junk. I guess your not the first and won't be the last
My car has 48000 miles and i own every one. By the way, not one of those problems you mentioned i have encountered. You guys buy cars that you don't have a clue who owned them or how they were treated and throw a blanket statement over all C5 are junk. I guess your not the first and won't be the last
Just because you haven't experienced it doesn't make the existing issues any less true. So you baby it and it lasts, great but others baby there's too and experienced all the same issues. Others drive theirs like it was designed for and they start to experience the symptoms. I don't want to baby a track car, I want to drive it.
Whether you like it or not the car is full of the typical GM short cuts. You and the other posters here are missing the point, I never said I don't like the car, it's a great looking car with great potential, but the issues still exist. I can look at them objectively instead of the typical Corvette war cry of "you just got a bad one"
Funny how C5 owners are quick to point out the C6 and C7 issues as justifications but ignore the cars own short comings.
Even after a few autocrosses with my 97, I have decided that anything more than 345HP would be a total waste of time/money. A different car would be the way to go, but I can still have a ton of fun with a stock motor that the chassis can easily handle. Most of the time, it is more fun to drive a slow car fast, than drive a fast car slow.
01-17-2018, 03:55 PM
) . 
... My '04 is now 14 years old and has nearly 170K miles. Other than some minor issues (rubber door seals need replacing), everything still works. Zero creaks, squeaks or rattles from my car (I'm am **** about these sorts of issues). I couldn't be happier from my Vette.
