Back to this topic......

* I would never be caught dead in a Corvette. Maybe if I was some blonde chick with a sugar daddy, but I am not. I am male with hair.

* How many Corvettes have been made vs. Porsches? How many are still left on the road, and why are they still kept alive? How many Porsches are stil on the road? (I think there is something like 20-30 in my small town). People lose interest with Chevy, and the people who buy them run out of money after they go through their mid life crisis and divorce their wives. Sociologically speaking they appeal to older men who want nostalgia for a once quality product, and are often times on the hunt for women. Most old vettes I see are beat to death now.

* We all bought 911's for nostalgia and mystique. Some of us race - some do not - personal choice. But the one thing is that there are a hell of a lot of us, and we care for our cars more that any other car "group" that I have been associated with.

* I once lost interest in my car, something wasn't right or something needed to be fixed as it was 20 years old and broken. As soon as I drove my car one time after I replaced whatever annoying little part it was - the radio was off and all I had was a sh$t eating grin across my face for the next hour. Now I have over 160K on the clock.

* One word Chevy = durable good - basic economics (think about it)

Nuff said.
Off my really tiny soapbox.
;)

I drove the C6 on the track (Willow Springs big track) at a press introduction last year.

With gobs of torque, it was really fast and well balanced. However, it still felt way too wide and big. Outward visibility was much worse than in a Porsche. Power everything made the experience very disconnected (compared to my Carrera).

I only spent about 10 minutes behind the wheel, but I just wasn't blown away. Great car on paper, but it just lacks an emotional appeal.

There have been 246,625 C5 Corvette's made between '97 and '04.

I have yet to see a junked out C5.

Personally, I have been eyeballing the early 97 and 98 cars as a bargain. They are well made, usually well taken care of and can be had for a song. Not a bad augmentation to my '77 911 3.0 car. :)

Mike

There are more calories per dollar in a Big Mac than in wine and cheese, FWIW.

YUM!!!!

Here's a link to theGM info

I still have my hair('60s style long) and am not overweight but I wam thinking very seriously about this car.

Let me put it in perspective

'95 - 98 993RS $65 -90K 300hp 2700#
'95 -98 993Cup $70-80k 310hp 2500#
'06 - C6 ZO6 $65k 500hp 3300#

'07 Shelby Cobra GT500 <$40K approx 470hp

I deal with Chrysler and MB on a daily basis. Chrysler has had no impact on the fall of MB's quality. Don't think for second that executives in Auburn Hills are flying to Stuttgart to tell the boys in Germany how to make a car, it's not happening, trust me. In fact, it's just the opposite. The new LX Vehicles (300C, Magnum, Charger) are using a MB transmission and stability management system along with other componentry.

As far as the transplants are concerned, the "junk" that GM, Ford and Chrysler are using in their cars are manufatured by the same US suppliers for Honda, Toyota and Nissan. The difference is how the cars are engineered and the time it takes to get a car to market. The japaneese cars have horrible styling, why? It's because they repackage systems into the vehicle year after year after year. They don't redesign a completely new car that often. In the automotive world we call it a "refresh." They are selling their cars based on quality so they don't need to come to market with new desings all the time like the US manufacturers. This is a huge cost driver for the US automakers but this is how they try and compete against the Japaneese perceived quality. And by the way, as far as JD Powers and Consumers Reports are concerned, ever hear of lobbyists?? Don't believe everything you read, money talks.

Bottom line, for the fellow Pelicans that do not work in this industry, you simply do not know what your talking about.

As far as the Z06 is concerned, you cannot discredit its performance. It will eat a 911 and have room for more. Porsche just simply does not get it. Look what they so every year, I'm sure next years Carrera will be just awesome. I expect a 10 Hp increase, this is about average for them. The new 997 is nice, if you like Lexus's. The 911 died a long time ago.

.....

For those thinking the Corvette is too long, it is actually shorter then the new 997. (Not that it is much of a comparison.)

KQW, your comments on the Crossfire are wrong. The Crossfire is a MB with a Chrysler badge. There is very little Chrysler content on the vehicle. It is made in Europe off a MB body (SLK) and the majority of the parts are MB.

Hey..I prefer not to continue to discuss the issue of the quality of certain domestic car manufactures.

If you've lived long enough or have owned several makes of auto's, both foreign and domestic...wisdom sets in sooner or later.

For instance...

Plymouth/Chrysler has ALWAYS had issues with SAFETY. They have always been reluctant to address the issues until they were forced to do so. And to this day they STILL have problems with how safe their auto's are. Please don't try to refute that....

GM's arrogance over the decades has cost them dearly by not heeding to the signs of the times. They ignored Japan and Europe when it was a CRITICAL juncture in the cycle.

And just announced today....Ford is/has recalled over 4 million SUV's and trucks. cruise speed de-activation switch that causes a fire whether the car is on or off. Houses have even been burned down because of it. 16 million more Ford auto's are potentially affected. CNN 06/16/05.

Japan in the '60's and '70's manufactured auto's cheaply and were basically "tin" cans. But continued to improve while our manufacturers were banking on the American public's patriotism to not buy foreign.

Then we had the times in the U.S. where folks in general needed to hang on to cars longer than usual therefore, the "quality" and longevity factor kicked in.

That's when the world market really opened up and people began to want cars that would not disintegrate or implode in 3 years. STILL our domestic manufacturers did not heed the signs.

Most folks were forced into going to cars that would last longer than 4 or 5 years. Not that they wanted to move away for GM, Chrysler, Ford etc..They had no choice. And by the way, the dealerships were not sympathetic.

It's unfortunate but some folks that can now afford to purchase the high end domestic auto's will not do so regardless of the quality and reliability.

We need to have our domestic auto industry thrive and be profitable and the new Vette may be a step in the right direction.
Look at GM reducing jobs by 25K. That's not good. Those a families out there....We have our talented young engineers (the future) opting NOT to work for the domestics and there are reasons. One reason is that the parents were turned off to domestics while their children were growing up!!!

I still own domestics and foreign auto's by the way.

This thread has degenerated seriously. Chryslers are cheap junk. MBs are bloated luxo carriages (with scary sick torque numbers). Corvettes on the other hand are America's sports cars - read "Corvette From the Inside" - of interest will be the chapter on how the early C4 (L98) dominated SCCA against the porsche factory turbo 944s, there will be scarcely any production car in the world at any price which will beat a 500hp C6 on the track - track prowess was developed at Nurburgring. If I could afford one I'd own one. I agree that they don't have the same appeal on the street. My wife says they are for pimps and picked out a tired old Targa for me instead.

Of course, I might have spoken too soon about American cars getting better:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/16/ford.vehicles/index.html

Come'on dd74...I'm trying to go to bed....

Sweet dreams! :D

Hope you saved that pic...it's gone....

Corvettes are a great performance value but they lack something in the way they drive, I would not call it boring but the newer cars require arresting speeds to be fun compared to older exotic cars

New cars are disposable these days, look at the prices of an 85 Vette, they were the performance value and media darlings when they came out, but if the electronic dash goes out in them it costs more than the car is worth to replace which is what will happen with this car down the road with all its electronics and computer boards and sensors, these are propreitary parts and software that controls them which is expensive and will be hard to find down the road.

Concerning image, of all the sports cars I have owned, Porsches, Ferraris, British and so forth I owned one Vette which was a 68 Convert about 9 years ago, looked mint and was black but consistently every so often some guy would yell "Corvettes Suck!", that car got more flak than any other car I have owned so the image is not that great, I think they are stuck in the parked in front of the disco or club cruiser category. I would never have one again, not to mention all the annoying squeaks and rattles they get from age and design flaws that show up.

Yup. But they like makin' stuff up, though!

Vettes have been fast in comparison to other more expensive cars for decades. Unfortunately the've been Futt Bucking UGLY since 1969. You can keep it and I'll drive my little 2.0 911 instead.