mundo

I love the car, its styling and performance but man so many 'little' things on this car need fixed or tinkered with. Simetimes I feel its like a British car. Most C5s original cost were high $40Ks to $50Ks. I wonder if Lexus from '97 -04 need this much tinkering? A couple of my friends are Mercedes freaks. They're cars always go beyond tinkering - they just break.

Dave68

Based upon the zero problems my wife has had with her RX400h in the last 5 years, I would say that no, if you like to tinker, stay away from Lexus, Toyota, Acura, Honda, and Mazda.

NicksZ

I dont understand this post at all... left untouched... these cars are very, very hearty!!! The reason most people buy vettes is becaue they are so moddable! So it's not that you 'have' to tinker with them, it's that people 'want' to tinker with them...

Dave68

He included "need fixed" and yes, when the dif gasket leaks, the door lock module fails, the column lock relay sticks, the outside temp display fades away, the EBCM fails, etc, etc, you need to "fix".

NicksZ

Comparing a Vette to a British car is very unreasonable... I own, arguably, the most world renowned vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser... and it still needs little fixes here and there...

The point is that the vette isn't on some level where it can't go 5k miles without needing some sort of fix... many never need the 'fixes' you suggest...

mundo

I love my car. It's also bad a** with a ZO6 motor. For as expensive as these cars were when new one would expect less problems. Yes they are small problems but irritating. Here are some of my problems.

1. Rattles. The interior rattles. Something in the roof, interior rattles.
2. TC, ABS, AH warning. Probable the lousy grounds on the C5.

3. Sway bar bushing creeking sound.

4. Leaking rack and pinion gear.

5. Clutch sticks when I get on it.
6. Bladders in driver seat not working.
7. Now once again the exit seat option quit working. probably the same damn connector I once fixed.
8. replaced head light gear.

My daily car is a '99 FORD Escort ZX2 which I drive over 80 miles daily with 224K miles on it. Uses no oil. The only thing I had to change in 224K miles was the altenator. Bought it brand new for under $10K. BTW, no rattles, original everything. My vette is FULLY loaded which means in '99 it costs $50K. You'd think a car that cost this much would require MUCH less tinkering and fixing. What saves the car is it's a Vette, great styling and fantastic performance.

C54CSTER

Gee, I hope you never try to sell your Vette on this board. The guys on here will slay you with their cut and paste job of your post above. Especially when you post up that it's in "mint condition" and that it "needs nothing".

Although I'm just messing around with you, I do actually disagree with you on the Vettes (at least the C5s and C6s) needing constant tinkering. I have owned several and think that they are actually very, very reliable. Did you put the Z06 motor in yours? It may be that a lot of the little issues you are describing are simply because you've modded the car a fair amount...

Christian

Silverbullet6spd

Just because a car costs more money doesn't mean things wont break. The corvette was/is a great performance car for the money. Ferrari's, Porsches, BMW's, Mercedes, they all break. Some cost more than others to fix.

Bill Dearborn

I would like to see any Toy, Honda, etc take the beatings I gave both my 97 and 03Z for 6 years each and not have more problems than either of them did. By the way with all the autocrossing on rough Go Kart tracks, many HPDEs and many miles on the road I didn't get any rattles. The cars are stiff and just not that prone to rattles. The sway bar bushings on the Z squeaked but that wasn't a big issue.

Bill

spoolin7

you think this is bad, try owning an rx-7

evildave

i have done, rebuilt rotors, ecu probs, etc etc, and the mitsi evo i had got crank walk too.

that's mostly the reason i've moved to an american car, sure it's kinda too big for small english roads but you get great power&torque and decent basic maintainable parts. even with shipping to the uk parts are cheap for a vette! the evo crank alone cost me over $800 and that was only half the price that the main dealer wanted

jonwymore

Whats wrong with things that you can fix fairly easily going wrong? it gives you an excuse to get away from the mayhem inside the house and escape to the garage. My way of relaxing on a weekend is fixing something on my 02 vert. A cold beer and some good music makes all the difference plus nothing beats the feel of putting your foot down in one of these

phils C5 vette

At best, My car has had little tinkering issues.

-Blinker sometimes dont work
-Sometime the starter doesnt engage ( starting happening after clutch replacement, but havent left me stranded lol)
-and Column lock

lucky131969

That's just not possible. Everyone knows Japanese cars are superior in quality. The only reason Mazda has a service department, is to do oil changes........

2_99_c5s

The great thing about a vette is that when something breaks it's usually inexpensive. Even better, the car is so simple that you can usually fix it yourself with the help of the guys here on the forum.

chevylad

Look up consumer reports and see what they think of corvettes. Then go to motor trend and see how they viewed the C5 when new. You'll get two very different opinions on two completely seperate topics from the same car. I love my vette, but drive my tacoma every day. It's like a bee's life. You got the queen and you got the workers.

NicksZ

Many people use their Corvettes as daily drivers although that really isnt the intent of the car... Those that dont, like myself, although I drove mine to work today... dont want to submit their toys to the mundane and often wet duty of communting to work etc... Can it do it.. sure.. most people just choose not to...

mundo

I guess I expect more from such a well engineered and costly car. Mine always starts and runs great. At anytime I can blow the doors off of anything else on the road. When I'm blowing past them I wonder can they hear all my interior rattles? I sure do get the looks when I go over a speed bump in a parking lot. The creeking sound is so loud people are expecting to see Fred Sanford's red pickup and surprised when they see this beautiful Corvette. I'm getting used to the clutch peddle sticking. After I get on it the downshift into a turn I just flip up the sticking pedal with my foot. This weekend I'm going to drill into the front copper ground post with the stud broken off and tap with a self tapping screw and star washers to see if TC, ABS and AH warnings go off. Just tinkering with the old girl.

lucky131969

Just curious...are you the original owner?

NicksZ

I wonder what the motor swap did for tinkering factor...