69L79

Its naive to think that an increase in the price of a Corvette would directly correlate to an increase in Quality Control. GM would pocket the extra profit. And, continue to produce problematic cars. There is no evidence to the contrary.

punky

Recently looked at a 911 Turbo S with a $196,000 price tag. The salesman told me that it was a little bit faster than even a C7 Z06. Damn that really makes you wanna bust open your wallet for that one. What exactly does one get for an extra $110,000? Do those ugly little Porsche emblems cost that much?

OVR60

Well said, its all about selling more cars and keeping the production line moving at any cost. Where will the C7 market be in the fall of next year when the 14's come out of warranty and you do not have a service contract. With winter coming the market for 2014 C7's right now is in the high 40K low 50K range. If GM comes out with some surprises in 2017 the next cycle will start all over again.

jimmyb

This post misses the point on many levels, to the point of being extremely naive. GM REACTED to what OWNERS wanted in the new generation (C7) car. Feel free to read literally years of complaints in the C6 section about the lack of this electronic doodad or that (my Honda Accord has....why doesn't my Corvette). As far as "planned obsolescence", well, that is the standard of the car industry, not just Corvette. Most folks don't keep their cars for many years, and "profit maximizing" is what EVERY car company is in business to do (just like Apple, etc). I am shocked that you don't understand the most basic parts of business. Maintaining ANY old car is a nightmare, with a C7, it will be LESS of a mechanical nightmare and more of an electronic one, but a nightmare just like everything else.

As far as AFM, GM has a little entity called the EPA that they answer to. Want a really fast car? No problem. Want a really fast car that is SUSTAINABLE in today's regulatory climate? Well, that's a lot harder.


PS. There are numerous posts complaining that the C7 doesn't have blind spot warning, lane departure warning, etc. While you may want the Corvette version of the Lotus Elise, the market very clearly doesn't.

Dif

Wow, interesting thread
I must be the luckiest person in the world with GM products.
Have had nothing but GM vehicles since 1970 and all of them were the most reliable vehicles I owned.
My 1st ever New vehicle, a 1986 GM Pickup went 60K miles in 10 years with nothing but basic maintenance.
Traded it in for a new 1996 Pickup truck.
Traded that in for a new 1999 Pickup truck.
Traded that in for a new 2002 Avalanche.
Traded that in for a new 2004 Escalade EXT.
Traded that in for a new 2007 Escalade EXT.
Sold the 2007 EXT in 2012 and bought a used 2007 Envoy.
Granted, most of them I didn't keep for long, but none of them had any problems what so ever.
Bought my 1st Corvette New in 2009 and drove it for 25,000 trouble free miles.
Last month, traded that in for a 2016 Z51 Stingray.
So far with 1,000 miles on the 2016 it had one computer glitch around 400 miles when the 8 Speed Trans stayed in 4th gear until I shut off the engine and restarted it.
Yes it's early yet and Only Time will tell how things go with this 2016
But IMO, I would have to think it's been more than just Luck considering all the GM vehicles I've had without any problems

Ajaste

10

Dif, I'm happy for you but for every story like yours there are probably at least a couple guys whose GM vehicle came "pre-f*cked up by the factory"

Bo

Dif

I have friends that have Not been as lucky if it has anything to do with luck.
But in reality, IMO, it doesn't matter if it's GM, Ford, Chrysler, or whoever.
There's going to be Really Good things happen and/or Very Bad things happen with their Products.
In my personal experience in life I've been a mechanical enthusiast since my youth and Tool Maker by Trade.
When it comes to anything mechanical, all anyone can do it try their best and hope for the best.
No matter how well something is designed or made, there will always be something about that thing that will Not be known, even after testing it.... until it is built and put into production.
IMO, the reality/history of NEW vehicles throughout time, is it takes a few years before all the bugs are worked out.
That's not to say the first few years are not going to have good results.
But it's the nature of the Beast and certain things do not rear their ugly head until it's actually put into production and released to the public into the hands of the abusers .... I mean Users

Ajaste

Good points all

JoesC5

News article from 2012......

"The latest data compiled by global market intelligence firm R.L. Polk & Co has found that Americans are now holding onto their new vehicles for a record 71.4 months. On the used vehicle side, that interval has risen to 49.9 months, a figure that also represents a new high mark. Collectively, the ownership period currently stands at 57 months, up from about 38 months back in 2002."

Now, would the person that buys a new Corvette toy, plan to keep it longer than 71.4 months? I bet so. Not being a daily driver, I bet that most people that buys a new Corvette plans on keeping it for much longer than the 3 year warranty period.

Not only did Consumer Reports give the C7 a bad rating, so did J. D. Power.

xmonger

Car and Driver's long term C7 test mule needed an engine replacement early on. Recently, a Z06 had engine issues in their comparison testing. What the odds of that? Scary stuff as most C7 users don't put their cars through the pace a CD tester will.

stingraymyway

Every dealership has a parts and service department for a reason.

punky

Identical experience here. 7 Corvettes, 13 Cadillacs, IROC Z, Envoy Denali, Grand Prix. Never had a single problem with any of them and my 1st Corvette was an '84. We had a Lexus, Mazda, and 2 300 ZXs. Had problems with every one of those. The Mazda was an absolute disaster. Paint actually peeled off the both of the 300 ZXs. Please don't tell me about how good imports are. My neighbors love their Mercedes. I see them up and down the street on ramp trucks on a regular basis.

MikeLsx

its without a doubt a better made car. its also going to hold up much better at the track.

But its not 110k better. if i am spending 200k on a car, better believe its not going to be a 911.

HAD2HAV2

In all my 43 years of driving I have never had a water pump to fail at 15,000 miles usage. Had I not been installing side skirts and saw the coolant leak I would most possible be stuck on the side of the road somewhere on my daily commute. Love the car, but?

SublimeZ06

Don't play village idiot. You know exactly what I was refering to. Read my post instead of just trying to attack me, A$$hole.

jimmyb

Who's attacking who?
And I give, what are YOU referring to? That C7's will be difficult to maintain 20 years from now? I agreed. I suggest YOU learn how to read.

Jimmy

Ajaste

JoesC5

I love my Mercedes. Not only has it never been on a ramp truck, wrecker, or rollback truck, it has never been in the shop except for a defective battery when new which was replaced under warranty. And that's with 17 years of ownership. I have not had that kind of trouble free ownership from any new American car that I have owned(and I purchased my first new American car in 1964, a 1964 Malibu SS).

My 7 year old C6 Z06 has been a trouble free car(my C5 was a disaster) with only one trip to the dealer for minor warranty service, but I did, proactively, replace the original GM heads with aftermarket heads at a cost of $4300, two days after my 5 year warranty expired.
I might have been able to run my Z06 for a 100,000 miles, but with all the reported problems with the LS7 heads, I wasn't going to take a chance on blowing a $15,000 engine, to find out if I might be one of the lucky ones.

Oh, and the problems with the C6 Z06 heads have definitely lowered the resale value of the C6 Z06's. There is even a class action law suit against GM because of the heads. So, just because my Z06 hasn't spent a lot of time in the shop, it still has cost me a lot of money, that my Mercedes has not.

wrecker3

My 2016 Z-51 C7 has no issues in 3 months and 1052 miles and so far has exceeded my expectations !!!!!