My vette inquiries have been brief . I looked at one in the 90's and thought it was the most deplorable sports car i ever drove . Fast or not .. it just felt cheap .

The most recent crop have greatly improved ... so i looked again at the Z06 (Sidenote- I have never seen anything depreciate as fast ) . The last Z06 looked great but I never got to drive it . I walked into the local chevy dealership and it was like a completely different universe in terms of customer service . The salepersons were all standing outside in sloppy clothes smoking . That in itself was almost enough to get me to walk but I overlooked it .It was hard to overlook the other Chevy cars though . Then I saw the Z06 car with a 10K over MSRP tag. I stood next to it for 10 minutes and no one even came to help me (they saw me) so I asked the nearest sales guy . He looked hungover and annoyed . I thought to myself that I am facing attitude and i haven't even looked at the car . Then I walked . I never felt like I missed out on anything .

 

Interesting how much sales satisfaction played into your purschase decision...I used to work for JD Power and Associates and never much understood this category as it related to loyalty and purchase intent.

I too owned a Vette (C4) and test drove (I mean really test drove) the C6 Z06. Way different driving experience...I'm by no means an expert or a junior driver, but I had trouble handling the Vette...specifically, when you punched it in any gear, it was hard to control because the steering was so loose and back end is wobbly. Same problem with the CTS-V btw...

All that said, GM's biggest barrier is their brand. Great car for the money, but there is a negative moniker that comes with a Vette. Would love to run marketing for those peeps for 3 years...

 

Adias - I'm shocked to see you briefly left the family...you strike me as one our strongest loyalists! I guess sometimes even when you're with the prom queen, trailer park girls can still look hot

 

That is a shame b/c it is an incredible automobile. So many people pass criticisms and judgement who have never even spent a minute behind the wheel. You will have a hard time finding a car at any price range that can beat the Z06 performance wise.

 

The Vette has a wall of torque and its gripping must be finessed. It's a car to drive smoothly, like all great sports cars BTW, and should not be punched. Squeeze the throttle, do not slam it. See my posts on this thread above - I know Vettes (I owned a C6) but I prefer 11s.

 

Well...I must be a bad P owner as I "punch" my car all the time...and LOVE it!!!

 

Feb's edition of CD has their annual lightening lap, where in this issue the ZR-1 and Carrera S are in the same category. Perhaps it should have been ZR-1 against Turbo or GT2 for true comparison, but the rules (I believe) omitted the other two.

Anyway, check out the link and the comparison results at the 4.1 mile Grand West Course at Virginia International Raceway.

I am a sports car enthusiast with a slant towards the P-car. I, too, test drove the Vette and was totally turned off by cheapness of interior (a few rattles during test drive, too), and the attitude of the salesperson. Acted as though they were selling a Lambo.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...p_2009-feature

Comparison PDF (loads a bit slow)
http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezfl...d89b0eeff1.pdf

Cheers!

 

You missed out on a competent rough around the edges sports car but saved yourself appx 65-70% depreciation on MSRP(+/- greed markup) and perhaps the aggravation of having ones car serviced by Mr. Goodwrench. I too had a sartorially challenged GM salesperson who only understood that car was fast (not much else) but I guess you have to expect indifference or incompetence when they have the same guy (or gal) who sells the SUVs and pick-ups also selling the company's flagship. If there's a marketing blind spot, it's the company's failure to follow through on the presumed customer service one expects at that price point. That said, if you want a bargain priced supercar the Z06 is an incredible value now that prices are bottoming out.

 

I don't own a Porsche or a Corvette so I consider myself pretty unbiased. It seems to me that if you want brute force power and don't care so much about the quality of the interior or depreciation then a Corvette is perfect for you. For those with more elegant taste a Porsche makes more sense. The bottom line is that Corvette's are really, really fast. I found this link which was created earlier this year (or I guess last year now). The Vette's clearly dominate. Even the 997 Turbo and GT3 (pretty close to the same HP) get beat by a base C6...and this isn't just a straight line drag race.

Like some others have said - great car for the money and probably unbeatable in terms of performance per dollar.


...but I'd rather have the Porsche.


https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ime-v-i-r.html

 

I was reluctant about the Corvette before walking in . In fact my M3 buying experience was not all that great but I still bought the car . With the Corvette .. I really didn't want the car . What I wanted was to think about saving money and a Z06 was cheaper than the Porsches . In fact even back in the 80's when I had less to spend and looked at a Vette I still bought a 300Zx Turbo (Nissan) .

I do feel however that every aspect of a car's ownership is part of the overall equation . There is no detail too large or too small to ignore . Sales professionalism is only one aspect but in some cases it may just be the icing on the cake.

 

WOW, looks like I opened a can of worms here..

 

Yup!!

 

Bit of a strange remark, don't you think? He started a conversation with an interesting point and you are getting personal (by the way, I don't think that Chevy is trying to convince Porsche drivers to switch, the ad campaign is aimed at a) Corvette drivers to feel better about their cars and have more brand loyalty and b) potential buyers to be swayed to compare the two - and when it comes to performance per dollar it is an easy decision to go for the Corvette.


Why would you ditch him because he owned a Viper and I'd rather don't comment on your snide remark of the cab not being a performance car - its just stupid ...

 

I find it ironic that he was complaining about one the best handling sports cars on the road (Vette) while he had one of the worse (Viper), which couldn't take a corner on a dry day at speeds in excess of the posted limit.

As for the CAB comment? You can't be serious about a CAB being a true sports car, can you? That's not as bad as calling the AWD cars sports cars, but pretty close. Only blond women in their 20's should drive with their top down.

BTW: Taking every post on this forum seriously or literally will **** you off more than unnecessarilly.

 

well, he did not complain about a Vette, he commented on the fact that he believes that GM is wasting money trying to convince Porsche owners to switch to Corvettes - judging by the comments in this thread pretty much rightly so.

It must have hit your Corvette-Nerve, especially as you are now ditching his Viper (a car that was awfully cool in 1994 - the vintage he had (and by the way, some people like going fast straight - drag racing is pretty popular and the Viper is pretty awsome at that).
Besides - as recent as 05 the Corvette was not able to follow the Viper on the Nurburgring:
8:13 --- 150.43 km/h - Dodge Viper SRT-10, 506 hp (sport auto, 10/04)
8:15 --- 149.82 km/h - Corvette C6, 404 PS/1491 kg (sport auto 08/05)



The other nerve that might have been hurt is your 'manly' nerve, judging by your comment about the blond woman (pretty funny, actually). Not sure how you define 'true sports car' or 'performance' car - but if you are one of these guys that gets excited that the same driver might get a second more out of a coupe than out of a Convertible (which is pretty unrelevant as long as you are competing with Amateur drivers as the skill of the driver makes all the difference), then we would be in for a very long discussion that is rather pointless.

Enjoy your 996Coupe - its a great car (despite being slower than the Vette)