ok, just to make it clear, im not intending to start a flame war, or put down the vette in any way. driving a C5 has been my dream since 97, and i have now owned one for about 5 months... and wouldnt have it any other way!!

my hobby is basically fast cars. i hang out on weekends at shows, and race here and there at the local track. since i was younger i have always heard about the "typical vette owner." i never really believed there was such a thing until i began browsing this board. so you ask what is the "typical vette owner"??? ive heard comments such as stuck up, conceited, arrogant, and so on. and in a way, thats the impression that i get off this board.

my question goes out to you fairly stock C5 owners... have you ever really driven a fast car other than your vette?? ive been browsing the board daily since i purchased my car. i come from camaroZ28.com seeing as how i had a modded LT1 previous to the vette. ever since ive been on the board i cant seem but notice how stuck up some of you guys really are. over at camaroz28 everyone really seems to respect all cars. they understand that there are always faster cars out there, and not EVERYONE stays stock!!!

i argue everyday with my boss about how great the C5 really is. he drives a G35 coupe, and will buy a new 911 turbo once his 2 boys are done with school. he brings up great points about how the vette really isnt all that. of course i disagree because i really wouldnt be driving any other car.

but seriously, is the vette all we really make it out to be?? i read tons of posts where the owners swear we have the fastest cars on the planet. owners swear we have the great cars for the money, the best bang for the buck. but do we really?? do we have a fast car... sure. do we have a well built high quality car... well ill get to that later!! how many posts come up trashing mustangs?? you wanna talk about best bang for the buck??? the new cobra is the best thing going!! it will blow our doors off, and it cost about $20,000 less!!! you guys laugh about "rustangs" all the time! do any of you realize that a cobra will spank our cars?? would i ever buy a ford?? NOPE! i dont like mustangs at all, but sure do respect a good car.

the cost of our cars is always brought up. do you honestly think paying $50,000+ is worth it for our cars? they are a dime a dozen. quality?!?!??! quality sucks. we have steering columns that lock. our gas guage fails. our seats slide when we stop. our rotors warp within 20,000 miles. our 6spd's sound like they are going to fall out of the car, i have to sit on a towel because im affraid i will wear out the fake leather. and yes... our interior is plastic (which i dont really care about.) its just a bunch of little things that add up. so basically when you all brag about having a C5... what is it that you really brag about?? IMHO we have one of the best looking cars on the road, and its quick. but thats about it.

when you guys get out on the open road and go WOT with your cars... do you really think they are that fast?? i mean dont get me wrong, our cars are quick, and faster than about maybe 70% of the cars on the road. the other day i was toying around with one of those new turbo neons. the kid was real nice, complimented the vette, and i did the same for his car. we went WOT a few times to play around, and you know what... i didnt blow the little neon away. sure i beat him, but it took a while. he hung there right with me. did i mention there was 3 people in the car?? so of course most of you will say... "its still just a neon"... and to that i reply... yes, you are right, thats why i would still never drive one!! but it goes to show.... a STOCK NEON for god sakes!!!

i dont agree with street racing, but i have done my share. i know most of you guys are against it, and your lucky you are. you would be surprised how many cars out there will hang with the "MIGHTY" corvette. do you realize a stock Z28/TransAm will run the same times at the track and still cost 1/2 the price?!

im not looking for an arguement here. or for people to bash me. thats not the point. the feeling i get when i drive my car everyday is unexplainable. i smile ear to ear everytime i get behind the wheel. so dont tell me to "find another forum" "sell my car" or "get something else." just looking for some feedback. id love to hear where some of you guys come from, because im sure most of you disagree with everything i have posted. just looking for a friendly debate i guess.

so to the "typical corvette driver".... where does it come from?? what makes us so much better than everyone else? what makes the C5 the "god" of cars??

 

Well for one thing - what makes these cars great is their history - 52 years of one marque is a real acheivement, and not one to be taken lightly. Consider the odds against such a thing, GM is all about making money, and the Corvette is a relatively low volume car - no more than 35,000 or so a year.

In every walk of life, including Corvette ownership - you're going to find some , that's just a simple fact. But for every , there are literally dozens of great people. the coolest thing for me about owning a piece of a legend is the people that I've met through it.

I know it's not the fastest car out there, nor is it the best car ever made - but it is a Corvette and it is the car I've dreamed of owning since I was four years old.

So am I the typical Corvette owner - maybe. But when I got my car, I vowed that I would be an ambassador for Corvettes. I vowed I'd never talk down to someone who owns something else or bad mouth their choice. When little kids come up to me at our weekly show and shine and oooh and ahhhh over the car, I let them sit in it, honk the horn, turn on the lights and patiently answer the questions. Same goes for the adults. So if I'm a typical stuck up snob - so be it. I drive the only sportscar that matters - the Legendary Corvette!

 

It's not about being the fastest car. it's a combination of speed, handling, braking, looks, history. I don't pretend the vette is an exotic. That's reserved for Ferraris IMO. The vette is unique in its own way.

I don't have any dillusions about vettes being god's speed gift to man, but i think your estimate that a stock vette is faster than only 70% of road going vehicles is a bit off.

As for making fun of Mustangs, I see it here every once in a while. I don't feel we have to be politically correct about a damn car

I don't put down anyone's specific ride though... that's not cool in my book.

 

I love Corvettes for the performance/price ratio, the torquey V8 motor, the HUD, the titanium exhaust, and the very cool look both inside and out. It may have defects, but I have fun babying it and keeping it up. I still enjoy it immensely after 2 years of ownership.

It may not be the fastest car in the world, but there are not many cars that pass me on the race track. In my opinion, the C5 was not designed to race Neons off red lights. It was designed to pull hard to 150 mph, brake hard, and fly around a high speed carousel turn pulling almost 1 G. Don't try that with a Neon ! As far as the Cobra, I've never seen them on the road courses, but I very much doubt they would hang with a C5, especially one with a Z51 or Z06 suspension. One time on the track, there was a guy with a big supercharged mustang who flew down the back straight, but he was as slow as a tricycle through the turns and his laps times were pretty shoddy.

I agree with you that it is distasteful to express one's satisifaction with Corvettes by putting down other cars. I really like and respect Porsche and BMWs. While they generally don't have the low down power, with a few exceptions, the brakes, handling, and interior are outstanding, and they perform very well on road race courses.

 

 

I enjoyed reading your post. You made some interesting points. Coming from a camaro to a Vette is like going from a yugo to a civic. Please dont go there. I guess you will say I am a typical Vette owner and proud to be one. Do I think the vette is better then other cars.. hell ya. Thats why we drive them. Are we sometimes a little cocky and defensive about our cars. I am sure we are sometimes. Having a vette is more then just the car. Its more of a lifestyle. I very rarely meet a vette owner that I dont get along with. Alot of people do think a stock vette is fast and they are happy with it.. Thats great and let them enjoy their car and be happy. Fast is a relative term on what people are use to driving. My version of fast and other people might differ a little. I do respect all cars and enjoy fast cars as a whole but my heart will always be with the corvette. Its just the way it is..

 

To me, it's the whole package that counts...which is why I think it's one of the best cars you can buy, especially for the dollar. I don't want a 4 door sports car, if I did, I'd buy an M3. Part of the appeal of the vette to me is it's beauty, it's exclusivity...but the majority is the feel when I accelerate continually to speeds up to 150mph.

While you're going to have cars that can "hang" with you on the streets, that's not all the vette has...let's see that neon hang with you at 170mph!!!

I don't think the typical Corvette owner is a snob or an elitest. I think that owners here are very friendly and proud of their purchase. Just because we don't all want Mustangs doesn't make us snobs...we just know what we like.

Corvettes do extremely well in the race circuits, and you'll find that there are not really that many cars that can truly perform as well as a corvette...and of those, how many are comfortable to ride in?

What I think really needs to be grasped is that $50k is not an heck of a lot for a vehicle any longer...more and more people spend figures approaching that on their family SUV's (the modern minivan replacement). Heck, my 2003 Silverado had a sticker of $42k.

Certainly there not just for the few, I think there are something like 1/4 million C5's on the road...Yes less than some cars, but not really all that uncommon.

 

You do make some good points. The Vette, for lack of a better description, is a much more complete package than many of the cars on the road today. Power, handling, economy, safety and ergonomics are good features that are built in to the C5. Is it better than any other car - depends on your point of view. I love my C5 - or else I would not have it. Does it have build issues - certainly - but so do most other cars. I like many cars, I just choose to have a C5 in my garage for now.

I'm sure you can find many arrogant C5 owners, but you will find many more that are just good old car nuts who respect cars for what they are - fine pieces of machinery. There are many here on the forum that also care about others in a very generous way - just look at the fine charity work that is done on the forum.

If being proud of my car is being conceited, then I guess I am guilty. I worked very hard to be able to own my dream, probably just like you did. Now, I guess I need to retire to the garage to do some more pampering on my baby - got a car show to go to soon. Hope you enjoy your C5 as much as I do.

 

silver6spd C5.

Do you know what my favourite car is. A 1970 Dodge Coronet R/T. A close second is the 1969 GTO.
My dad worked for Chrysler for 45 years as a body man. According to him the only good cars built where Chrysler. You know what his favourite car was. The Corvette.
I was able to purchase a muscle car this year. Called my dad with a 1968 GTO Convertible I found with a 400 V8 Ram Air(360 bhp) all original with 58,000 Km's, Yes KMs. You know what he told me. Hold off for a vette.

You know what we own. 1999 Pewter Convertible C5. A 1999 Muscle Car.
I have been at this forum for a short time and have yet to read a post that is arrogant. I have yet to meet someone with a vette that puts down mustangs.
People are mostly proud of their purchase.

Do you know what my favourite car is know. 1970 Dodge Coronet R/T. A close second is the 1999 Corvette Covertible.
For my dad owning a Corvette is like believing in the tooth fairy. Maybe you can figure that one out for yourself one day.

Let me quote thee
so to the "typical corvette driver".... where does it come from?? what makes us so much better than everyone else? what makes the C5 the "god" of cars??
I have news for you I don't think I'm better than anyone else, and for me the God of cars is the Ferrari... but I'm starting to think that the tooth fairy drives a Corvette.

 

Am I the typical Corvette owner? Let's see, I am a 57 year old white male, bought my first Corvette, a 2004 Z06, in March of this year. It is totally stock and I plan to keep it that way. I really enjoy owning the car, but was not really a Corvette fan until recently. I bought the Z06 for it's performance. Were there no Z06 models, I most likely would have purchased something else. Let me make it clear, I am not a mid-life crisis performance car owner. I have been building fast cars since I was about 16. My Z06 shares garage space with a high 10 second 1923 Ford Model T Street Rod that has been in a few national magazines. I have a trick Dodge diesel dually that tows my enclosed car hauler with the T inside. My daily driver is a '93 Ford Festiva and I can park it about anywhere without worry. I have always been involved in car clubs, but mostly street rod clubs. They are a great bunch of guys and gals. I am finding that the Corvette community is as nice or nicer than street rodders and that says a lot. I am proud to be in a great group of people that just happen to have a car in common. I truly believe these people would be the same good people even without owning the same marque. Corvettes are like Harley- Davidson Motorcycles: history, comradarie, and you will always have a friend, no matter where you go.

 

I gotta chime in about one comment... You said a stock neon with 3 passengers was close in racing to you....

Did you forget to shift gears? Were you riding the brakes? If you can't destroy a stock neon which runs 16s then you seriously cannot drive whatsoever.

As I was driving the for over an hour today on the highway I did not see one stock car that could beat mine except for a MB E55 AMG, and with an $80,000 price tag there aren't that many of them. So to say our cars are faster than just 70% of all cars is a huge understatement. A stock Corvette is faster than every single stock Saturn, Honda, Toyota, Kia, Saab, Audi, Nissan, Should I go on?

 

Wow.(Sincere, but solem). I'm not sure what you're looking at ... I totally see your questions and understand your curiosity.

As for me, I loved Vettes since I was 8 yrs old. Last April, when I was 30, I woke up, thought "How come I don't have my car?". I couldn't find a good answer, so I got mine that day. Before that, people said, "Oh you want a Vette? People who drive Vettes are ... (never finished). You know you'll be projecting an image." I'm not a pretentious person but I didn't ask, more importantly, I didn't care to ask. I have no freegin' idea what that person meant.

We've all heard the stereo types: "Mid life crisis?", "Small Pen|$?". Blah, blah blah. I just got my car because it's something I knew I would have pride owning and driving it is a blast.

I don't put down Stangs, F-Bodies, etc. Each car has it's strong points and I think anyone who buys ANY car for respect, keep up with the Jones, etc, is in a sad place in life.

I just drive car with perma-grin, music playing and appreciate the fact that I even got up this morning. Life is simple, why worry about the little things ... and it's mostly little things. I'm more concerned about the 20% of the things I can control, rather than the 80% of the things I can't.

BTW, I think those Turbo Neons are zippy little cars. They are fast and if that's your taste, so be it? Dodge is targeting the teens with this car and I have to admie, if I was in High School/College, summer/weekend job, etc., I might consider it as well. Who the hell cares what car a person drives. Humility is important to maintain a level, down to Earth personality. Heel yeah! I LOVE MY CAR! I LOVE WASHING IT>WAXING IT>DETAILING IT>DRIVING IT>Repeat. But whatever my car was/is, I'd have the same Pride of Ownership.

Be proud of you car, be happy for the owners of the other cars. This is a completely circular philosphy. To anyone who isn't collecting assistance out of fraud or laziness, and doing something other than committing crimes against the innocent/weak.

 

You do make some very good points, but I feel you may have missed the point of vette ownership. C5s are not "muscle cars" so to worry about going fast from a red light means your missing over 50% of a C5s purpose and abilities. The C5 is "sports car", it has the whole package, horse power, torque, braking, and handling. I came to my first C5, a 97 6spd coupe, by way of a 92 5.0 Mustang GT. That was a great "muscle car", but to make it go fast on the SCCA circut, it took a ton of money and mods on the suspension, brakes and transmission. That was not very cheap mind you, and it still wouldn't hang with a Z06. I hear people on this forum and in car conversations all over categorize thier cars on how fast they are in a 1/4 mile. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against any one who likes the 1/4 mile, but that is a very narrow defination of a cars abilitites, there is so much more waiting for you out on the road course.

I to have come across many of the "elitist, snobby" vette owners you speak of. That's why I make it a pesonal quest to be as nice as possible to any one who asks about the car, be that a small child, another adult man, or even the "ricer" teens many here complain about. So am I a "typical" vette owner. I'd like to think so. I've owned many different fast cars, but this is the whole package I've been waiting for since I was a small child and watched all my uncle's running SCCA events and hill climbs and other road events. I'm proud to be a C5 owner and won't have it any other way!

 

I have dreamed of owning a Corvette since I was a young kid, a 30 year + dream. Growing up on Long Island during the 60's and 70's, we lusted after GTO's, Chevelles, Camaros and especially Vette's as much as the cheerleading squad. During my adult life since I could first afford a new car, I have only owned American muscle cars as the family car; Firebird 400, Camaro Z-28, currently a Mustang Bullitt GT and now finally an '04 Mag Red, 6 speed Corvette Coupe. The Corvette is the American Dream Car with that honest "in your face" American personality, that the foreign sportscars do not have. The power, the lines, the aura, that intangible feeling the the Corvette gives to an owner is truly mindblowing. The Corvette is also a Supercar that most of us can potentially own and maintain, something to aspire to, unlike the foreign exotics. For me, the Corvette is numero uno.
Ken

 

Everyone buys a vette for their own reasons as you've no doubt read above. I've had a passion for fast cars all my life. My first one was a '69 Chevelle SS 396. Since then, it's been a life long obsession. Probably one of my fastest is a heavily modded '93 Rx7 (my son now has), and I'm not one to dis a mustang, I owned a '98 Cobra. So yes, I've owned a number of fast cars and I respect everyones ride. As for Corvettes; since I saw my friend's father drive one up (a '67 vert), it was love at first sight. I love everything about them. Their history, styling, power, the whole package. You bring up points about reliability, but every car I've owned has had some problem, that's part of life. As you push performance, you tend to push on reliability. My stock Rx7 was reliable, but as I pushed the envelope, it became less reliable.

The bottom line, I don't think there is a "Typical" Corvette Owner. The owners are a diverse lot with different reasons for owning their corvette. You have guys that never drive their vettes and others that have them as their daily driver. You have those that leave their vettes bone stock and others that have terminal mod fever. So...there is no typical vette owner.

 

it's kind of late for me to respond to such a long and complicated post, but the one thing that comes to mind is the analogy of a Harley Davidson. The Harley is and allways was a piece of junk, but if you are not riding one you don't have a "real" bike. A rice burner is way better, more dependable, smoother and way faster, and then the pinnacle of all bikes would be the BMW. Having said that, and barring all of the new v-twins after the patent was lifted, if you are not riding a big V-twin it's just not cool, and noone's going to say "hey man, nice bike".
It's a good comparison, because they are both American. If not for a Vette, I wouldn't even own an american car, period. If you want a "good" car buy a new Nissan 350Z, or better still a Lamborghini.
In summary, I would say that my Vette is the fastest thing I'd even want to drive, it is absolute power, and is a major head turner and has serious WOW effect, and way worth the money.

 

The typical Vette owner? Well, I'm a 52 year-old African-American who for all my life has lusted over the Corvette since the first one I saw in the early 60's. I was finally able to get my first one 3 months ago and have been nuts about it ever since.

I don't think you'll find many guys who, once they saw their first Neon or any other car as a kid, ($250,000+ exotics excluded) always wanted to have one. The car has so much history, it's just exciting to be part of it.

There is a reason that the Corvette was named "Car of the Century" by the Society of Automotive Engineers. It's simply been the best example of a well built automobile over the last several decades in terms of speed, handling, durability and styling. Can't say that about a Neon or a Mustang, now can you?

 

Silver6...That was a nice honest post. I'm almost 50, and have driven many different cars in my life time. We grew up poor and my first 4 or 5 cars were 500-800 dollar specials. My brother and I would keep them running for a while and then go get another. As I got older and had a better job, I 've owned a mustang, camero, thunderbird, corrisca, accord, toyota truck, Chevy van, Ford fullsize and Ranger. Today my daily driver is an Acura TL. I love the way it drives. It's so smooth almost like floating on air. The interior is beautiful and it's maintanence free. But none of the cars I've ever owned give me the pleasure that I get when I drive my Vette. I bought a new 04 C5 and I get a smile on my face everytime I start it. The car is not the fastest, most comfortable and reliable, but it is my favorite. I feel different when I drive the Vette. Is that weird?....Maybe, but the Vette guys in my area wave and seem pretty cool. I'm keeping the vette for as long as I can.

 

This is right up my alley. I have owed a 67,69,72,91, and still have a 99 mustang GT. I strongly disliked camero people because I was never a race person(i prefer show) and they always wanted to race. Finally after saving all my pennies and a great GMS discount I got my vette on july 4th weekend this year and DAMN RIGHT I LOVE IT.

I paid about 40k for my vette, my friend paid close to 40k for his cobra so i wouldn't say there is a 20k difference. The cobra was designed for straight line speed, come on iron block and super charger add 5k in bolt ons and your close to 500hp... Take if from someone who had a blown mustang straight lines are fun, braking and turning suck. The vette can do all 3, and i still love the mustangs.

I have always respected great cars and their drivers. There are bad apples in each bunch.

 

"typical corvette owner" ... no such thing exists.

I mean just because my car is better than every other car on the road, is no need to get your panties in a twist.