Former driving school Z06 - warranty limitations?
 

I see a few C7 Z06's listed at cargurus that include a disclaimer in the car description: "this vehicle is a former factory licensed GM driving school Corvette and is under factory warranty with limitations" . It goes on to state you need to inquire for further information, but rather than trust a sales person, I'm wondering if anyone here knows what the limitations are. I assume these cars are from Spring Mountain school. From some videos I've seen a lot of the driving is "follow the leader", at well under track pace, but I also assume there some actual spirited driving where the cars get abused.

Not sure what the limitations are but I attended the spring mountain school, and the follow the leader laps do not hold you to driving well under track pace. I was able to drive as fast as I could. Sure there are some drivers who get put into the slow groups who are not comfortable pushing the car. They do take care of the cars but they are put to the test in the hot summer out there.

I suspect that most of these are from Spring Mountain. When I was there, I didn't drive as fast as I could have, but also appreciated the opportunity to work on other things, which I think would eventually make me a faster and better track driver.

In other words, I don't think the cars from Spring Mountain have been abused much. Since we weren't allowed to pass the lead instructor, I'd guess that we drove those cars around 6/10ths of what they were capable of. The lead instructors tended to maintain a view of the slowest drivers in the group, so they could be given instructional feedback.

I was there and I beat the piss out of mine, haha! There was plenty of opportunity to put the foot to the floor and they encourage it... The instructor just goes faster if you get close and unless you're a seasoned track guy you're never going to catch him.

I would stay away, those cars have a hard 7 or 8K miles. How long does it take you to put 8 sets of tires on a car (they replace them every 1k), think about it...

I know someone who bought one of these cars (not a Z06, a C7 Stingray). GM places a warranty block on anything powertrain related. Infotainment screen goes out? Your covered. Engine drops a valve? You're on your own.

My opinion? If it managed to survive a whole year at Spring Mountain, and they DO take very good care of the car, the likelihood of a serious powertrain catastrophe is astronomically low. But the problem with a block on the powertrain warranty means, say, the A8 developed a "warble" or the valve train is making a weird noise? There's no implied warranty here, you pay for the diagnostic, you pay for the repair (if any).

When it's time to sell the car? A buyer who do good due diligence will likely find out about the warranty block, so IF you want to sell the car, make sure the warranty is well and over before even listing it. It will also show that it's been owned by either a dealer in NV, or a private party in NV, then POSSIBLY a dealer, then you.

So it's a good deal, but it IS a bit of a gamble. A good aftermarket (because you can't get GM extended warranty for these, I don't think) is a must.

You're dreamin'!

If you had to beat the piss out of your car to push or stay up with the instructor, you are just a really poor driver. The instructors could go pretty fast, while spending most of their time looking in the rear view mirror and coaching the people behind them over the radio. But it was nothing close to what the instructors or these cars can do.

You might as well go to DCMotors website. Right now the Z06s are about $70k asking. That is about $3k less than in the past, but they are 17s. Also on the plus side they are 3LZs. The GSs are about $60k and are 3LTs but are 2018s. Typically they get 1500 miles of breakin by the instructors driving them to/from LV where they live til the 1500 miles are up. Than they accumulate about 1000 miles/month on track. The instructors likely drive them at 10/10ths but the students are closer to 7/10ths on average. Based on the Youtube postings of PDRs from different students that might be giving them too much credit. Even if you are fast the instructors work pretty hard at slow in fast out and get you to brake around the 4 marker rather than the 2 marker. They concentrate on lines and control and smoothness and do a very good job of it.

Now, if you are willing to take a bit of a stretch, a member on the Cadillac V board bought a V Academy car with the same GM block. He had a friend at a dealership and they went back and forth with GMEPP and actually got somebody at GMEPP to carefully review their contract and the warranty block and they told him they thought the GMEPP extended warranty would cover the entire car even short of the (in his case) 4/50,000 B2B warranty running out. Now he may be whistling Dixie but so far hasn't had any claims so doesn't really know if he is covered or not. But at about a grand that would be something worth trying.

DC Motors gets all the Corvettes but the Cadillacs are kept by Cadillac and sent to an open (non GM dealers allowed) auction after their usage, which is typically a bit less time and a lot less miles than the Corvettes.

I particularly like the blue 2018 GS 3LT with white and red stripes.

Remember the COS (Corvette Owners School) is only one of the 'vette/Z06 classes at Spring Mountain. They also have Level 2 and Level 3 classes, which is a lot more open lapping and a lot less "follow the instructor." Level 2 was a blast.....I was not constrained at all by an instructor nor anyone in front of me. They group you based on ability/speed, and essentially turn you loose......(on-track stupidity, of course, is not permitted).

The Z06s I saw and drove when I was at Spring Mountain last year were all Z07s i.e. with CCBs. I would be concerned about a need for early replacement of the ceramic rotors, which would add $4K to $6K to the buying decision.

I concur with the "want it $10k less than market" idea. I have been told by DC Motors that the cars have new pads, rotors (?), clutch and tires when they leave SM.

Looking at car gurus list for used C7 Z06 3LZ M7 in LA / OC area of California, 6 of the 9 cars listed are former track school cars from DC Motors. There are 8 used C7 Z06 3LZ A8's for sale in the same area. Looks like most of these (both M7 and A8) have been on the market for about 2 months or so, so listed as "selling slowly". I don't know the ratio of M7 versus A8, but I'm getting the impression that M7 owners may have a somewhat higher tendency to hang onto their cars.

I just got back from Spring Mountain, and the subject of buying these came up. They do take much better care of these cars than the average Joe, but they do get beat. That said i did not see any with chips or scuffs on the paint, and they do replace all brake components and typical wear items. Looking at the sight that sells these cars I see 2017 Z06 w Z07 and 3LZ for $69k. I think that is more than a 3-4 k discount.

https://www.dcmotorcars.com/used-che...aheim-hills-ca

It would be most interesting to actually here from a buyer what they actually paid for a DC Motors ex SM car. They typically are listed in the $69-72k range. My guess is that a buy price is likely $65k or so. Putting them in the $8-10k discount range for a Z07, 3LZ 2017. These are $100+k sticker cars with about 8 months and 8,000 miles of service on them.

Too big of a purchase for me to get a tracked car. I’ve been there twice. While SM does take excellent care some of the drivers struggle. I’ve heard shifting errors, grinds etc, cars off track, folks barfing in the cars both times I was there. Add in summer time usage, personally I’d stay clear.

Ya get what ya pay for.

I'm not so sure about how much the DC Motor cars are discounted. I did a cargurus nationwide search for 2017 Z06 M7 3LZ Z06 with or without Z07, and the listed prices are generally in the same price range, depending on mileage, around $70,000, a bit more for lower mileage (one had less than 3,000 miles on it), with a few that cargurus considered "overpriced" at $75,000 or more.

As for the SM cars that DC Motors sells, Chevy drops the power train from their warranty. DC Motors sells a +4 year, +48,000 mile third party warranty that starts on the day you buy the car for $4,000, which does cover the power train in addition to being "bumper to bumper" (I forgot to ask about the deductible, and what "bumper to bumper" really covers, usually stuff like squeaks won't be covered). If the Z06 wasn't a former track school car, you could buy a GMPP or a Ally Major Guard warranty either for less or for more years and mileage. If SM was so confident about not having power train issues, then why does Chevy drop the power train from their warranty? A privately purchased Z06 can be tracked without voiding the warranty.

Is a $8K savings worth a $22K risk of replacing a motor? To some. As for warranty block.......drive it for 3yrs and 36K miles and then it's irrelevant?

Last July (2018), I bought a used 2015 C7 Z06 3LZ M7 (without Z07), and I bought a 10 year, 100,000 mile, 0 deductible Ally Major Guard warranty, which wouldn't be possible with one of those DC motor track school cars. The other issue is the DC motor Z06's aren't discounted much compared to what I've been able to find on sites like cargurus. I was contemplating trading in for a 2017 or 2018 in a year or so, depending on the cost and our budget (we're in the process of doing some interior upgrades to our home), and I've been trolling car sites to track prices of the 2017 and 2018 cars over time to see what the trend is.

No significant changes so why take a financial bath for the essentially same car?

I was contemplating a trade, but looking at the out of pocket cost for the trade, including getting another long term warranty, I'm no longer considering this. As for this thread, I was curious as to who would buy these track school cars? Part of this depends on how long you could get their third party warranty for the powertrain, and how often someone tends to buy a new (to them) car. In my case, it's been around 10 years per car, and 12 for the 2006 C6 Z06. I plan on keeping the 2015 Z06 for quite a while and being an old guy (67 years old), my next car might be a golf cart.