01NEWB

I agree completly that you get exactly what you pay for. There is no doubt that the corvette is always labeled "most bang for a buck" but then again for the first time corvette is going to go head to head with other supercars in the same price range and will do great in perfomance but will loose to quality and craftsmanship. If gm was to build a corvette with quality parts, craftsmanship and above average service it would earn the respect of other supercars with excellent reviews.

The truth is the corvette buyer wants the fastest car with the cheapest price, and gm is delivering it, you cannot build a 600 horse power car with out adding some zero's to the price.

01NEWB

I want to clearify that I am not comparing the new corvette to a base porsche, they are completly different vehicles, I was stating that the same amount of money could purchase a porsche and be assured the resell value with be much more that the corvette. This is like comparing a seiko to a rolex they both tell accurate time one is a watch the other is a instrument.

I also use to believe that the porsche was over-priced, that was until I bought one.

BobG

Having a vette serviced at the Cadillac dealer isn't necessarily the answer you are looking for. My local dealership is a Cadillac-Pontiac-Chevy-Geo-whatever else combined dealer. The caddy's are driven by the same monkeys who don't give a rats behind, crashed into the same walls in the service bays, worked on by the same underpaid bubbas, washed with the same dirty rags, etc as the rest of the products they sell. I cringe when I am forced to take my silverado or tahoe in for warranty work, as you usually end up with more problems than you started with due to their "service".

Some are very lucky and have a good dealership experience. I have to agree with those who believe the worst part about a corvette is the chevy dealer. But I'm also not interested in paying any more for a fancy waiting room, free starbucks, or a fleet of loaner corvettes, so I don't expect that much will change with the ZR1.

MyBeaches

Its not about being treated differently. GM/Chevy needs a remodel from ground up to every dealership. Its well documented they have about 3X as many dealerships than they actually need. There is no excuse for a dealer to have a waiting room like a truck stop. Spend some money on upgrades for a change.

As for the ZR1 - they should limit sales to only dealers that meet the new standards for GM quality. Have ZR1 authorized dealers.

RC45

I do believe you will be in for a rude awakeing when you come to sell your 997... there are a select few Porsches that keep their value - the rest tank at a rate of knots not unlike a BMW... which after 5 years has depreciated more %age wise than a Vette

RC45

Bingo... those extras do come at a cost....

Please give this man a free coffee and loaner vehicle while he waits

shawn h.

We went to trade in my ex-girlfriends 05 911 and the dealer was offering something like $30K below the original MSRP.....I realize all new cars lose in value, but that is not exactly stellar resale value.

And please stop w/the nonesense comparisons!! A Porsche is not a Rolex and a Corvette is not a Seiko!!! I'm tired of people over-stating Porsche's.....they're not all that....not even close!!!

I too was fairly sure that Porsche's were over-priced until I spent about two years w/one and now I am 100% sure that they are!!! I wouldn't buy a 911 even if it was half the price it is now!!

ranger 66

I agree with this poster. No to pile on but I recently bought a 5 series BMW and the difference in the quality of service is night and day. The BMW service dept has loaner cars parked out front ready for you to use versus asking for a loaner and the service writer laughing at you "saying yeah right we don't do that". In all fairness if I call my salesman before I arrive at the dealership then he will have a loaner car for me. I just really see the difference between GM service and the other highend/luxury brands.

RLTW

Linn_Boyd

I had a G500 MB and had horrid service. I was lucky to get a camery if I brought it in for service. I have an in with a Chevy dealer now, but before that I had one of the first 745i's in town, it was in the shop for 105 days of the first 120 owned, i never had a rental. I bought it from the same dealer, but didn't get a rental because they knew I had another car. I asked for one and they fussed at me for trying to get one.

A lot of the service depends on the dealer you use, all of the people here ask for the lowest price, but expect maximum service. What pays for the service at the local level? It is what you pay for the car in a lot of ways! You have to think about that when you are asking a dealer to sell at invoice.

SharkbyteLT4

Unless you are buddy buddy with the service director, you will be treated the same as a lowly aveo owner.

I onced had a service director mouth off at me to telling me he treats all his customers the same no matter if they bought a calvalier or a corvette

Linn_Boyd

I don't think there is anything wrong with this, as long as the customer is treated well. One thing that a lot of people don't know is that the CSI survey's that you recieve after you buy the car makes a big difference to the dealer's bottom line. I think that all customers should be treated well, no matter what line, or what car the have in the line.

I recently learned that you can't go into Aston Martin in Houston without driving something nicer than a 07 Tahoe Z71 4x4 because they don't think you can afford it and won't speak to you. I really wanted a DBS, but don't know if I will even purchase one after that experience.

01NEWB

I agree with the last post, can you imagine how many people walk into Aston Martin and waste the salespersons time. The last time I stayed at Wynn in Las Vegas, no one off the street can walk through the ferrari dealership without paying a viewing fee, then you are assigned a "minder" to walk with you so no one touches the cars. Think about how many forum members talk about test driving corvettes at dealeships with no intentions on purschasing a car, then the person gets into a pissing match for the saleperson for telling them what their trade in is worth. I could not imagine how many people will attempt to test drive the new "ZR1". Each time I have purchased a new corvette, I never even did a test drive, because I know what to expect.

Hopefully, corvette is going with the "ZR1" where ford took the GT40...

boxerperson

The last time I was in a chevy dealership for a test drive, the salesman tried to talk to me about his sex life and his girlfriend while I was driving the car. I cut the test drive off immediately and left. I'm young. Not a tool.

I don't care about fancy coffee and an aesthetically nice room to wait in. Give me some magazines, maybe a pop, and make 100% damn sure I never have to deal with a hustling douchebag, and you get my thumbs up.

1991Z07

What many people fail to understand is that Parts & Service in every dealership in the country makes up at least 80% of the profit that a dealership makes.

When they don't make an effort to have good customer service, those dollars go to another dealer. The service managers who get it, have great service and loyal customers. The ones who don't struggle to get by.

The only ones who don't worry about that are small towns who only have 1 dealership for that franchise.

The high line dealers don't charge that much more for their service. Many are at the $80/hr + rates, and in some markets they are in the $110-$125/hr scale. Where BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus and others have to bump the prices is parts. Most of your Chevy parts are manufactured in country. Some of them are manufactured elsewhere.

The high-line parts are manufactured in THEIR country and must be shipped to your dealership, incurring higher costs because of this. This is either by boat or by air, but either way it costs more.

Having a nice (clean) waiting room, coffee (and bottled water) and internet access does not cost the dealer much monetarily but costs him HUGE when combined with a crappy service attitude and a customer who not only won't come back BUT tells everyone THEY know how crappy said dealership is.

A business DSL line runs about $45/month.

The difference between the high-lines and GM is that THEY understand where their bottom line is anchored. If their service isn't up to snuff, then the death spiral begins. Parts sales (and warranty work) dwindles, and eventually sales start to wither.

I know this because we work in dealerships every week consulting. I see the P&L statements, see the numbers for each section of the dealership (F&I, Parts, Service, Sales). You don't need to invest much in the customer to have huge returns.

It comes down to the attitude of the owner of the dealership. Do they want to run with the profits, or invest some of that back into their store? It is pretty easy to tell the difference.

If GM wants to play in that market, they need to think like the other players in that market to survive. Otherwise, the ZR1/C7 supercar will be another failed effort that will drive another nail into Chevy's (and GM's) coffin.