I have a similar background as you. I ordered a new 2016 about 1 1/2 years ago and it has been one of the best moves I have ever made. I find it so much more fun just to get in it and Drive, Drive, Drive. Hey: Go for it. Good Luck.

 

I will give a couple examples of what I am talking about. I had a guy recently bring me a Subaru Tribeca that had the check engine light on, It also had the ABS light on, and the traction control disabled because of a evaporative leak code. In other words if the check engine light comes on for any reason the ABS, and traction control are disabled even though there isn't a thing wrong with them.
What a moronic thing to do that some young engineer fresh out of school thought would be a good thing because he wants to reinvent the wheel.
Example 2: In the mid 80s the Chrysler mini vans switched from a external voltage regulator for the charging system to one built into the computer. So what would happen is the voltage regulators would fail, and it would cost over 600.00 for a new computer just because the regulator quit, which didn't have anything whatsoever to do with the computer other than the fact they were inseparably connected for some inexplicable reason.
So I started buying the earlier external regs, and pigtail, cutting the wires to the computer, and wiring them in, and solved the problem without replacing the whole computer.
6 months later Chrysler sent out a TSB and this was their recommended repair.
Stupid things like this irritate the heck out of me.
#1 consumer complaint on practically every new car made?????
ELECTRONICS

 

Stick with a C3

 

You might be right. This is probably my favorite Vette currently. Black on Black leather with every factory option 500" BB with modern heads, roller cam, big carb, big exhaust, flawless paint, and trim. It is fast, but your stock C-7 would probably beat me in a strait line, and definitely in the twisting stuff.But you sure can't beat the looks of a chrome bumper C-3

 

That's a beauty!!

 

Those are the key elements of course, but for me it's how they make it all come together. By far the best Corvette ever built.

 

Over the past 25 years or so, I have put probably well over 100,000 miles on my Corvettes, including 11,000 on the current C7. Started with an '87 C4. That was probably the first "high tech" Corvette with an electronic dash, EFI and ABS but not much else. After 10 years with it, I moved on to C5's (2 of them) with much more tech including traction control.

The only tech related problem in all those years was a failure of the ABS computer on the '87, I believe it was one of four computers on the car. Never replaced it since I learned to drive, and did so for many years without ABS. The only other major problem with all my Corvettes was the day the A6 in my '98 sounded like a box of BB's and lost drive in all gears above 4th. That was an expensive fix that even your old school cars could easily suffer. Can't say as much for the BMW's I have owned.

I bought the C7 new December a year ago and it was the culmination of a childhood dream. Fourteen months and 11,000 miles later and I can't believe how much I still love driving this car.

Like you, I sometimes worry about all the tech in new cars, I even got the MSRC on my C7. But I embrace it. I have a lot of tech gadgets and gizmos in my home and my hobby is computers. I very rarely find any of this equipment that goes bad or fails without some sort of "operator error" as the root cause. Stay away from hacking the car's systems and they should give you many years of trouble free service.

 

I get what you are saying. And your right, if you look at Consumer Reports, etc the biggest issues are almost always electronics. I currently daily drive a 2016 Golf R and the car has been perfect outside of the head unit flaking out sometimes with Apple Carplay.

But..

Those electronics also give us better handling, different drive modes, more creature comforts...

Have you thought about renting a C7 for a day?

 

Believe me the hook is set, and I do have access to one for a weekend.
The feedback is much appreciated, and mainly I just wanted to hear from current owners to see if they have been trouble free for the most part or a huge source of frustration.
It sounds like to most or all of you they have performed better than advertised.
The plan this year was already to sell several classic cars to make room for a possible new or nearly new Corvette.