I think one of the things we have to be careful about is giving Dave Hill and company the impression that the forum does nothing but complain and will never be happy. If I were them I would get real tired of seeing nothing but complaints and criticism. I believe that GM did a great job on this car and will continue to "tweak" the issues to make it better. And yes I know we do talk about how much we like the car but unfortunately the complaints tend to overshadow this. I for one had my car for a year before I sold it and other than changing out the brake pads had absolutely no issues. I wish I could say that for the MB, Porsches, Toyotas, etc. in my life. I only sold my C6 because I have a Z06 being built next week.

Mike

 

I found it interesting to note that Zoomin, who mentioned the emperor's clothes, doesn't have a C6; he has a '71. Some of the other complainers don't identify their car/cars. Maybe some don't even own a corvette, let alone a C6.

 

 

Some posts are tottally retarded, stupid and funny.
For ex:
That's not crying! For $60K I expect Lexus Quality NOT go ole USA poor workmanship.

Poor Poor sillyman sorry u ended up buying the wrong car. Go ahead and trade it in a get the lexus.

Dont blame GM for ur mistakes

PS: make sure u stay 2 lanes to the right when u get the lexus.

 

I'm not mad at anyone. I am a bit irritated at the constant stream of apologists who say fixing the car's imperfections would "cost more", or that "they spent the money on performance so the rest of the car suffered." What I'm trying to say is that's not true.

Most of the things people have complained about are not a function of lack of money spent by GM, and most of them could be fixed without spending more money. As I've tried to indicate, in many cases the designers and engineers choose solutions that are inferior to other solutions that cost less. The constant drumbeat that we must accept the car the way it is because it was the only way to get it at the price for which it is sold is just wrong.

I've offered some examples of solutions that cost less, but work better, which have been implemented in other cars and trucks. In response, the apologists tell me to "buy the other car". For most of the examples, I already own the other car. That's called first hand knowledge.

If you want a list of the shortcomings of those other cars, I can list them too. But that's not the point. It isn't a matter of either/or, it is a matter of illustrating that the Corvette's designers and engineers did have other choices, choices that wouldn't have increased the cost of the Corvette, but would have resulted in a better car.

Now you haven't seen me complain about the paint. I know the difficulties of painting fiberglass with low VOC paints. They did the best they could. It might not be perfect, but I accept it because they did do the best they could short of hand color sanding every car, which I will be the first to admit would have cost more. There are other things like that on the car which are as good as they could make them given the price target they were trying to meet. That's not what I'm talking about here.

What I've been talking about are things they could have done differently to make the car better without costing more. That list is fairly long. These are things I want to see them address in future cars, so when I go to buy a 2008 or 2012 Corvette, the car will be better.

 

I don't think I did. I said:

"I can go along with legitimate complaints, ie something does not work as it should. But complaining about steering wheel stalks, sound systems steering wheels, and cruise control buttons is a bit over the top I think".

 

You haven't been around here long, so as "chief complainer" in this thread, let me tell you about my Corvette. I own a Millenium Yellow C6 purchased October 18th 2004. It now has 15,278 miles on it. I use it as a daily driver. I've got more seat time in a C6 than most of the people on the forum, and I still like the car. But I'm not so blind as to think it is a perfect car. There are real issues, annoyances, and aggravations with this car. Most of them could be addressed at little or no cost by the factory. In some cases, the solutions would cost less.

I think we should talk about these things. The squeaky wheel (or brake pad) gets grease. If we just sing praises to Bowling Green, they won't know we are unhappy about some of the choices they made. I'll likely buy another Corvette when this one wears out, so I have a vested interest in seeing those improvements made.

 

Ditto!

 

Well, I have been around here "long enough".

As your now, Millenium Yellow C6 purchased October 18th 2004, with 15,278 miles on it, sat on the showroom floor at your dealers, before you purchased it, You knew:

That it had keyless start. You knew that it had a Bose system in it, when you test drove it, you knew that its steering was not similar to the 350Z.

You knew what kind of steering wheel it had.. You knew what was on the steering wheel stalk. You knew that it had no controls on its steering wheel. You test drove it, or should have before buying it, and you knew, or should have known, how it shifted......

Why on Earth, would you purchase the car with all these things that you cannot stand, and then come back 15 thousand miles later complaining about them????

 

Why dont you sell your Vette and guy buy and SL500 or SL55. It seems to have corrected all of the problems you mention. Oh wait, it's 2 or 3 times the cost of a new Vette. Hmm, wonder why....

 

No problems after 6k.. Best built yet.

 

From what I hear and read Mercedes has an big on going electrical problem with their lineup of cars.

 

First off, I did not critique the legitimacy of any of the complaints made in this thread.

Second, WTF does how long I have been a member have anything to do with any comments I provide?

Third, I knew that Shopdog had a C6, but there are others that either don't, or do not indicate that they do, but still voice their complaints.

 

 

... and I find it interesting that some of you think that not owning a C6 invalidates an opinion. I've been on this forum since 99, I've owned 7 different Vettes. I just sold my C5 Z06 to make room for my next car, which may or may not be a C6. The guy that bought my C5 is an ex-C6 owner that did not bail for financial reasons. Quite possibly, my opinion will be more objective than yours, so get off your high horse. If I wanted a C6 I'd have it.

I frequent these forums to learn more about one of my favorite interests - and I want the good and the bad. Quite frankly, it disappoints me to see things like column lock STILL being an issue, but I learn that the 06's won't have ths problem. WOW! Do you think the complainers on the forum may have had a role in getting that change made? I think most definitely so, and I'm another step closer to pulling the trigger on buying one.

Like shopdog, I love the Vette enough to urge the engineering team to make better choices, to keep advancing the ball. In the mean time, I keep reading these posts in the hopes that changes have been made, or are coming.

I want to buy a new C6 next Spring - I wish it weren't such a painful ordeal putting up with the dealers, hoping I draw a car with decent paint, brakes, pulleys, batteries and so on. I plan on doing a museum delivery this time because I want to have that experience. That means the car in the museum is mine, like it or not. Dropping 60 or 70K shouldn't have to be such a gamble, bang for the buck or not.

The 71 Vette is a hoot to drive because it dramatically shows just how far the new Vette has come. These threads show how far the Vette has to go and the apologists (or Winged Monkeys, as I call them) that want to do nothing but pump sunshine are more of a nuisance than the complainers, in my book. You guys need to grow some thick skin and learn to see some negative comments are healthy and constructive.

 

I did know about most of them before I purchased the car. I knew I'd have to replace the Bose sound system, and did. I knew I'd have to live with awkward and poorly thought out controls, and do. I've discovered other things I do not like about the car in the year since. But there are also many things I do like about the car. That's why I bought it, and have kept it. That does not mean, however, that I am blind to the car's faults, and it does not mean I won't be vocal about them. When it comes time to replace this car, I want one with those issues already addressed. The only way to make that happen is to be vocal about things which should be improved.

Mainly in this thread I've tried to point out that those improvements needn't raise the cost of the car, nor require sacrifices in its performance. In some cases, the car could be made better while at the same time lowering costs.

I'm an engineer as well as a car enthusiast. I tend to look at things from both points of view. When I see bad choices, I look to see if there were better solutions available. With the issues I've raised in this thread, and others, there were better choices available, and in most cases they wouldn't have cost more, in some cases the better solution would have cost less.

Now neither Dave Hill nor his crew are incompetent or stupid. They did a lot of things right in the C6. It is by far the best Corvette they've ever built. But they aren't perfect, and their view is a bit insular. Not everything about this car is right. The same is true for other cars and other car design teams. Some get one thing right, others get a different thing right. None get everything right. But they could learn from each other's experiences. They could adopt ideas that work better from each other. They could all make better cars. I see one of the roles of the enthusiast is to point out where they could have done better, and the engineer in me wants to point out how they could have done it without raising costs.

 

Anybody but me thinking, enough already?

 

For God's sake - it a Forum.

People are going to post negatives, as well as positives

And, each has the right to do so

 

If I were a moderator, I'd say,

"That was a great debate. Goodnight! "

And that would be that.