On a serious note - I do hope they don't put the oil filter on top of the engine. I'd really like to avoid having to clean up a mess when I change my oil.

 

3/36 BTB and 5/60 Powertrain Warranty is not much to me. I keep my vehicles much longer than 5 years, so maintainability is very high on my list of considerations. If you trade up every 5 or so years, they yes; who cares?............. Nice C7 BTW.

 

You will not be doing a lot of work from the top down, so if you plan on working on it, consider a lift.

 

Please elaborate on the training sessions your tech attended. You know, like where they were, what EXACTLY was discussed/covered, what the qualifications were to be selected to attend, who came up with the $12k /15k mile maintenance figure, things like that.

TIA

 

he was joking people!

 

I have worked on mid engine , - rear engine - front engine cars.
There is no rhyme or reason why some are nearly impossible to work on, others are really a pleasure.

It all depends on the access that the designers supply to the normal replacement parts.

Based on todays thinking the steering will be electric assist, the water pump most likely electric. There has been talk of all electric HVAC . If these things are true and used, access will be better than most cars with front wheel drive.

Time will tell …

 

GM is smart and they have designed the C8 so it will be very serviceable.

 

sometimes function wins over design and serviceability, packaging space will be key. Not sure how you could change the DCT without removing or at least unbolting and moving the engine.
Lets hope servicing is somewhat easy, lord knows the guys at the stealership will need it.

 

New tools, some extensions and service manuals. May have more than one oil drain plug to get the job done. A friend said his service tech told him his Huracan has 8 drain plugs and several panels need to be removed to do an oil change, I'm betting GM will do better than that! lol

PC

 

I just find it hard to believe that they're still using plutonium for the flux capacitor. It's not 1985 anymore. Maybe the guy who compared C8 to the Fiero was right...

 

My NSX has 9 drain plugs.

Quote for an oil change was $350.

Oil is made from unicorn ****.

 

"Warranty" =/= "maintenance".

Any owner who wants to keep his/her car for more than a year or two (and still have a warranty if something goes wrong) is going to have to maintain it. Some will do that via the local dealer and the question becomes "how much is that oil change going to cost me and does the car being ME make it more difficult/expensive" and some will do it at home themselves where it really is more "how big of a PITA is it going to be?"

For me, glad I'm putting a lift in my shop.

What I'm more curious about with this car, are they going to mandate some of the more exotic oils like Castrol Supercar (what used to be called Castrol TWS). That stuff has doubled in price since BMW mandated it for M cars (I guesss McLaren/Lambo/Koenigsegg/etc doing the same will have that effect).

 

FWIW, in my garage, once the warranty is gone, the car is gone.

I believe you're right about that...they wouldn't make such a mistake IMO.

Why would anyone change their DCT?
How often do transmissions need to be changed these days?
It isn't the 1960s anymore.

I doubt many buyers will be interrogating Service Managers before they sign.
Life's Biggest Lesson: If ya wanna play, ya gotta pay.
That's why God invented Service Depts.

GM won't...it's a Chevy.

 

That really wasn't the point.
Ironically, I've had more problems with my Chevys AFTER the service department worked on the vehicle. So I avoid them like the plague.

 

My personal opinion is GM isn't going to attempt to sell us a Corvette that is too hard to complete basic maintenance tasks. Word would get around quick that the new C8 is going to be too much to handle for most home repair mechanics like myself.

In regards to the oil drain joke... I think they would at least put a dipstick to siphon the oil out at the minimum.

 

.. but its not exclusive to GM or Chevy.. how would feel if you needed two doors painted on your new Cayenne after its first oil change at a big Las Vegas Porsche dealership because a tech opened the driver door with a screwdriver in his hand and put a 3 inch scratch right to metal... a year later a Wis Porsche dealer scraped a pole with the front bumper... you can find idiots at almost any dealership. Once I find guys I have confidence in, I’ll go out of my way to use them. No more do I just assume just because they have a factory authorized service sign out front that its safe to enter. And always do a walk around before and after..

 

The 2006 Cayenne S oil change costs 300 bucks and it only has 2 plugs.

Dry sump lubrication usually adds $$ to an oil change.

 

I agree... this forum is hyper-sensitive to any Corvette criticism. I love the car. I've owned two of them. I'll probably buy a C8 (if they make it in a manual). That doesn't mean we can't discuss pros and cons.

Look, the fact is GM service can't even change the oil properly in my C7 and it shares what is essentially the same basic engine design with a number of other Chevy models. If you don't have ANY concerns about service competency/cost of a dramatically different mid-engine design than you've been lucky enough to not have to deal with Chevy service or rich enough not to care.

 

Took a test drive wilth a local Vette tech a couple of months ago (the service dept said he just returned from a training session). I asked him if the new Vette would reguire a lot of extra training. His response was: "Not really, just in a tighter package".

 

yes, it will be, As with modern c5 - c7 vettes, lots of service involves dropping the front or rear cradles,.

so let's take a tranny service, you likely drop a cradle. Not necessarily more expensive, but like the "exotics" many people fear working on these cars

take for example the C4 ZR-1 for example, due to the DOHC engine, many ham fisted mechanics shyed away from working on them. For example, a HG change required the engine to be pulled

so yes, working on a TT DOHC packed to the gills c8 will likely be more expensive than the current pushrod based corvettes

for a few simple reasons, the rear engine "packaging" can involve tigher access to service things like the water pump, belts, alt, ect..... it's crammed up against the rear firewall and can be tight depending on layout

take a look at some of the cad drawings and ask yourself, will this be easier to work on than a c7? NO, it won't be. But folks always fear what they can't see.

At the end of the day it's a corvette and GM mechanics will be trained to work on it in droves.

once the "newness" wears off and the ink on the service manual is dry and I can read it, I'll let you know. I for sure will be fixing it.