kulwinds

Hello all, first time poster. I am currently in the market for either a used or new C7 corvette, looking for a 2015 or 2016 z51 LT2 or LT3. Recently I came across a dealership in southern California that buys exclusively from Ron Fellows Driving School. The cars are 2016's, LT3, fully loaded cars with typically around 8k miles on them (including a 1500 mile break-in period) listed at 51-52k (but willing to negotiate). Based on my research so far, the reviews of the dealership are very good - 4 stars on yelp, no reviews reporting any long-term problems, people happy with their purchases. I am posting just to field any general comments/suggestions on this type of purchase. I am hopefully planning on keeping this car long-term, and so reliability is very important to me. Also, if anyone has been to the driving school, any feedback to how the cars are generally treated/pushed would be much appreciated. Thank you everyone!

Desmtg

The cars are driven hard and harder. Every two days in class student drivers put on about 135-150 miles on the track. You still have balance of GM warrenty and a new set of tires.
The class is a blast! You get to drive to the limit of your ability!

Indy-hp

The cars are very well maintained. They are driven hard, but having been there and talked to the instructors about this very subject, I would not hesitate to buy one for the right price. Most of the track driving will have been by students of varying experience, so most of the miles will have been at 5/10ths or less in my opinion. Others may have a different opinion. Good luck.

Gio's C7

Someone was on the same dilemma as you couple weeks ago, you might want to take a look in to this thread.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c7-general-discussion/3899782-factory-licensed-gm-driving-school.html#post1593388624

rmorin1249

Might want to confirm status of the BtoB and drivetrain warranties.

TBF

I purchased a 2015 C7 Z51, 3LT, M7 with 8000 miles on it on July 28 2015 from DC motors. The car was never reregistered because it was used by Ron Fellows driving school for 6 months.

Important info:
The folks at DC motors are used car salesman. The initial salesman I talked to on the phone was willing to say what ever he had to get a deposit on the car. He was very aggressive and some what obnoxsious. I was out of state and flew into John Wayne airport (very near DC motors) and grabbed a cab to DC motors. After I was there I learned they have a courtesy pick up service. My salesman failed to tell me this when pressuring me to put a deposit on the car. I had informed my salesman I would be arriving by air on Thursday. He was no where to be seen when I got to DC motors. The only person available to help me was the Ferrari salesman. The first car he showed me was the correct color but had a lot of little issues. After I checked the VIN I informed him this wasn't the car. Once we found the car I put I deposit on I found no less then 25 discrepancies that the salesman told me were good. I should have walked away but continued to try and work with the new salesman. Like a fool I went ahead and purchased the car. The paper work took for ever to finish so I could drive the car back to Vegas. It took over a month to get the title from DC motors. Bottom line, DC motors was not easy to work with.

NOTE: On a good note was able to get the service records for the car. It was very well maintained. All fluids were replaced in accordance with the Chevrolet track prep and the alignment numbers for tracking the car were set with paint marks. the standard settings were marked too. Over all I am pleased with the service records.

Hows the CAR- GREAT. once I detailed the car cleaning up many of the issues I realized the car is well worth the money I paid. I just wish DC motors wouldn't have been as poor to work with as they were.

I took the car to the Ed Bozarth Chevrolet in Las Vegas to learn about the warranty and have the factory directed recall to fix the roof panel accomplished. I must say, Ed Bozarth was worse then DC motors for customer service. Long story for another thread. Bottom line, if you have a corvette don't bring it to Ed Bosart. They will insist on keeping your car for a minimum of a day and require you to pay for a check of the car before deciding if they will honor any part of the GM warranty.

I do recommend Findley Chevrolet in Las Vegas. Slim is the name of the corvette specialist. He is world class. Slim did a vin check and explained what is covered and what isn't covered with the warranty. Bottom line the drive train, steering and suspension are not covered.

I went driving at spring mountain during a local track day last spring. Ron Felows driving school was using one of the other tracks. I went to talk to the mechanics, they weren't busy pretty much hanging out while the cars were on the track. I tried to ask them questions about maintenance and the cars. They really didn't want to talk to a non Ron Fellows Driving school track rat driving one of their old cars. Very disappointing. However the car was great on the track.

Bottom line. If you can make a good deal (one that you are happy with) the car will not let you down. My mistake was expecting a car enthusiast at DC motors instead of a quick talking, say anything salesman. After all they are a USED car dealer trying to make as much money off every sucker that comes through the door.

Skidplate

Without a drive train warranty, you better pray it doesn't let you down.

Best of luck to you.

RicK T

We've seen this scenario several times, GM blocks the power train, brake and suspension warranty on driving school cars, whether Spring Mountain or Bondurant.

Here's just one example from SM and I linked another example of a Bondurant car, just in case you're interested:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ranty-zr1.html

kulwinds

Wow thank you all so much for your helpful responses! I am totally blown away. I think at this point I will keep looking around at other dealerships. I won't rule out DC Motors entirely, but I am pretty concerned about the warranty issues and feel that it may be in my best interest to either pay 5k more for one that hopefully hasn't been tracked and has a warranty or settle on a z51 2LT (which I am totally fine with) for a similar price as to what is offered at DC Motors as opposed to risk getting a car without a strong warranty. This was extremely helpful, thank you so much.

AORoads

Yes, I would say in about 3 hours yesterday the OP got a great education from the CF members above. Kudos to all!!!!

l2vette

I was at Spring Mountain last month and the question was asked about the cars they purchase for track duty. It was stated that the cars purchased from Chevrolet came WITHOUT a warranty for various reasons including cost. DC Motors buys most of the Corvettes from Spring Mountain with approximately 10k miles on the clock. The warranty provided by DC Motors is not a factory warranty according to the discussion we had at Spring Mountain.

kulwinds

Totally, very helpful. Thank you all, excited to get into my first corvette but want to make sure I do my research and make the right purchase. I tend to keep my cars for around 10 years so definitely want something that will be reliable.

roadbike56

OP,
You might want to look at Criswell in Maryland. Mike Furman ships to CA all the time, no big deal. Talk with him about your price point to see what he has in inventory. Mike is straight up guy who will answer all your questions about warranty, shipping, options on the car he has, etc. They usually have a selection of used C7s. That's where I picked up my certified 14' Z51, 2LT, mag ride coupe.

DAFFYDRUNK

So the savings vs a similar non tracked car is only $5k? Skip that. Maybe if it was $10k. Most are prolly driven 5-10ths, but you never know. I was definitely hard on the car I used for class. They have to have lots of rock chips on em too unless you fix em up prior to sale. If you're out there, try to pay attention to the rocks flying everywhere. I'm sure they clean the track every day, but by the time the instructor takes you for a ride there's pebbles all over the track getting kicked up by your own car and the ones in from of you. Kinda cringe worthy actually.

Hopper12

OP: looks like you've pretty much decided to keep looking, and IMO that's a good idea. While the school cars are well maintained, they are driven much harder than most 'non-school' cars, warranty, the price difference vs. what you can get used isn't that great, etc.

If you plan on keeping the car for a long time, I would recommend one of two scenarios:

Take your time and look for a great used car that you can tell/see/validate has been maintained and has the colors and options you want. There are a lot of used C7s on the market now - nothing unusual for this time in the series life - but you can find what you want. Or what I would really recommend:

Work with one of the forum dealers and get a great deal on a new car with the colors/options you want. This way you start with a new car, new warranty, etc. You mention that you really wanted a 3LT but may go for a 2 LT if you look for a new car. Our '15 had a 2 LT and we were extremely happy with it. Very well done. We have a '17 GS in transit to our home now, and it has 3LT. We bought the car out of inventory and if it had 2LT we still would have purchased it - but the car had everything else we wanted and we got a great price so we went with it. I doubt you would be disappointed at all with 2LT.

If you look for new, I would suggest working with one of the forum supporting dealers. We purchased our '15 from Kerbecks and it was a great experience. We bought our '17 from MacMulkin and it has also been a great experience (car isn't here yet, but will be in a few days. They have been outstanding.). Our local dealer had a nice GS in stock in one of the colors we wanted, but they just couldn't come close to the price from MacMulkin, even figuring in about $2k for shipping - even with that it was a difference of about $5k.

Whatever your decision, you're going to enjoy one of the finest performance values on the planet. Good luck!!

kulwinds

Thank you very much!!

Vetteman Jack

I think I would keep looking unless I got a killer deal, and $5K difference for no warranty isn't it. Good luck, hope you find a car.

kulwinds

I totally agree. I've spoken with a few members on the forum who are trying to sell their cars, and otherwise have reached out to a few forum vendors.

dvilin

In my opinion you have made the correct decision to keep on looking. Good luck.

themonk

out of all the C7's for sale, this was the best deal you could find?