Completely wrong. Mid engine cars (and I've owned about 8 of them) are far more complicated to engineer, maintain, and repair than their front engine counterparts.

 

Some observations...

People losing sleep over the oil change procedure on a car that has not yet been revealed?... How about losing sleep over something really important.. like an alien abducting Ole' Gus, the mule?

My last oil change was something like 11 qts at $12/qt, a filter and maybe $60 in labor. Why would you change your own oil? You have to pay for the oil and filter anyway. Do you grow your own chickens because eggs are $3.99 a dozen at the store?

I track my car, so I flush the brake fluid each year, and have replaced all rotors and pads (that's all my choice, BTW, not Chevy's), and my total maintenance expense in 4 years is about $2.5K. Depreciation is about $30K... if you are worried about maintenance...ahh

Serviceability is a design decision just like fender lines, or paint color... the Marketing guys and designers set parameters for expected maintenance cost, and its up to the Engineers to meet them... after all, GM has to eat them for the first three years, and resale value is a critical factor in preserving brand equity.

There is simply no reason to believe that the C8 will cost substantially more to maintain than a C7 or C6.

EXTRA CREDIT: My lowly FE '98 Ford F250 (a good ole, honest 'merican truk) had the engine jammed so far under the cowl that the rear spark plugs were virtually inaccessible without disassembling half the engine compartment... its about intelligent design... not configuration.

 

I hope the C8 is nothing like the rear engine 911 where the entire bumper cover has to be carefully removed and reinstalled to change the air filter. Hard to be believe any engine compartment could be that retarded.

 

My $0.02:

1. So long as Exxon has the GM contract the car will require some form of Exxon-Mobil lubricant. Contracts don't last forever though and many lubricants manufacturers what that Goodwrench business.

2. A local race buddy has a lot of Porsches. With a 2 post lift the cars are very easy to work on. Yes I know the average guy doesn't want/have that, but the cars just aren't inherently hard to work on. Plus, dropping the engine/trans/rear suspesnion is quite easy. Much easier than a clutch job on a C5/6/7.

 

Amazing how a simple question can cause such controversy. It’s been awhile since I have posted but it appears the dynamics of the forum has not changed. My only reason for posting was to suggest that that a person may want to learn about the possible cost of maintenance on a C8 before purchasing. IMO one of the reasons that Corvettes have been so popular is the overall cost of owning a Corvette. I just hope GM does not significantly reduce the potential number of customers based on overall cost but marketing may indicate that the millennials are not that interested in performance cars and this is the time to focus on the few that can afford and desire a performance car. I hope I am wrong!

 

LOL wut

Its just an engine, just a few feet away from its original place, instead of lifting the hood, lift the trunk.

 

lol

 

Oh I get it, believe me. Just pointing out that Service Departments are not God's gift to car ownership that some play them out to be. Your example is a great one.

My own fairly "recent" (about 5 years ago) story. My E46 M3 was killing the battery at a ridiculous rate, the alarm would sometimes go off for no reason at all, and sometimes the car would not start even with a fully charged battery. I talked to the service advisor for 5 minutes and explained the car was a track toy only and it sat alot because of that, which often meant the battery would drain down so I had just replaced the battery.

Well, the "tech" said the battery and alarm issue was related to my brand new Optima battery not being an official BMW battery. He showed all of the "low voltage" code stored in memory (never mind the discussion I had with the service advisor explaining the car had been sitting for most of a year). They wanted something like $600 for a new battery. The starting issue they said was the clutch safety switch, said the part was $130 and two hours of labor to install. I fell out of my chair.

I called their very own parts department, clutch safety switch was under $60. I went and picked up my car (no work done) but did buy the clutch safety switch. On the way home (at night), went over a bump, the car shut off and the lights as well... on a narrow two lane road with oncoming traffic! Fortunately another bump turned the lights back on and I had already clutched in so I was able to restart the engine. A brief investigation found the "tech's" screwdriver sitting on top of the battery, and the battery hold down loose, which allowed the battery to shift and contact the hold down, which shorted it to ground which is what caused the shutdown. Simple fix, but could have gotten me killed. The next day I put the clutch safety switch in, it took 15 minutes. The alarm still went off at random, a half hour of internet searching and a couple of tests, narrowed it down to a bad hood switch, unplugged it, alarm hasn't gone off since.

So they quoted me about $900 in parts and labor to fix stuff that I fixed for under $60 in parts and an hour of labor. The hood switch (if I bothered enough to replace it) is also under $60. And they nearly killed me in the process.

That's why I avoid service departments!

 

I work on my cars because I have a valid distrust of service departments based on personal experience (Honda, GM, and Ford), and honestly I enjoy the work (well, most of the time).

One of the things I've always enjoyed with my cars is the ability to work on them. If I can't do reasonable maintenance on a C8 then that's going to be a problem for me.

Have a good one,
Mike

 

This has been brought up in other identical threads on the same exact topic, but I hope they add a removable access panel from the interior of the car, behind the seats. That would make it INFINITELY easier to service.

 

That's how the Cayman is... makes things pretty easy working on the front of the motor.

 

Getting to the engine is easy - all you need is an M18 or M28 Milwaukee Sawzall.


In less than 10 minutes you will have complete access...

 

I did a belt swap right after we got ours, that removable panel makes a world of difference. I sure hope this car is able to have something similar. It all depends on where they located the fuel tank.

 

^good point, which makes me ask... are there pics of them fueling the car? Wonder where the fuel fill is, I don't see anything obviously the fuel door on the NYC car.

 

There are pics of the fuel door on the ring cars... same spot as the C7 basically.

 

 

Give a brief overview of your contention.

 

Not for a second would I pretend Service Depts. (ANY) are filled with completely competent personnel.
More often than not, they're terrible.

I try to establish a relationship with the Service Manager.
At least to the point of having them keep an eye on the grease monkeys for me.
Not perfect, but it helps.

^^^ THIS. ^^^
Always do a walk around with the Service Manager.
I've had dealers damage my vehicles more than once.

 

Hard to tell and completely believable on this forum.

 

Who's ready for $3,000 motor dropped cam-only swaps?