cor28vettes

OK it's a done deal. A winner for many but a turn-off for others.

First impressions count.

Let Corvette Design Team know you would purchase much sooner than later if they changed _______________ in the years ahead:

cor28vettes

Hey, this went page 2 and no bites. Looks like I got the eyes and ears of Chev Design all to myself, at least for now.

I'm thinking outside the box guys. Photoshop your 59 Impala rear lid & lights for the butt solution. I know it sounds but I just drew it and it works with the flow of your rear Ferrari window and roof curvature. You already have the existing side flow (rear quarter panel) waiting to connect. It will look amazing with the V and halogen cat-eyes underneath. Not suggesting anything 1959 on the side like a fin or any chrome just to be clear as can be.

Wait about 3 or 4 years on that and add the following touches while you're at it...

Since your design team went retro to the 90's C4 dash curvature do a reversal and dump it in favor of the 84-89 C4 dash concept (what I call the aircraft dash). Go fully digital. Those GMC instruments are tacky on the 2014 Corvette.

And get rid of that GMC/Chrysler 300 steering wheel and go for something like the MercBenz C 300. Feels and looks all sports car but they put it in a sedan and U know why. It helps sales. While I'm on MB, incorporate their split down the center console lids that open from either side. Small details like that are nice. Also, and this is very important, incorporate the high tech type heat shield insulation MB uses underneath the car.

Kudos to your front end design team.

kozmic

I may get shot for this one, but squeeze in a twin-turbo v8 mid-engine/transaxle with awd, and I would order one today...lol

To me, 'Corvette' is the look, not the guts...although Corvette guts are usually quite nice...

(heck, the bulbous rear end of the C7 looks hella big enough to do it!)

keeks2915

I think if no one buys the car they will go back to drawing board and figure out what customers may want that is different.

However, if they sell a shipload of these cars, they won't care about outside suggestions.

It is like the hot chick at the bars continuously getting hit on all the time.

Until she notices a drop off in attention she will keep working the same approach.

cor28vettes

I predict they will do very well as-is judging from responses. They can pick up the slack with moderate changes and win over the other half a few years down the road.

Larry/car

Steering wheel doesn't go with the sleekness of the car. Redesign, maybe with flat bottom. All those louvers and air vents (black, needs to be body color), to profound on the red car. Don't like black wheels, don't like them on the C6 either. I feel the C7 needs a silver/competition gray wheel just like on the gray intro model. Chrome would be to gaudy. I need to see/drive and sample all the offerings, prior to placing an order. I am waiting on a convertible. I will be trading a 2006 C6.

BlueOx

For those who want that new without the big expense.

Axial

I'll be back to this thread. I've actually been literally sketching my own take for Corvette for the last month or so and I've still got some kinks that need worked out. I have serious appreciation for how hard it is to make a rear-end end look good. All other views are easy, the rear is damn hard.

And no, it doesn't have round tail-lights. Rounded, sleek, and organic is out. Squared, swoopy, and mechanical is in.

R&L's C6

That actually works better than round taillights on the C7...

B747VET

I think folks kinda need to figure out that Corvette is fighting for its life. It hasn't been going anywhere catering to a bunch of old guys who just want more of the same.

Just like Cadillac, the Corvette has to break into a couple of younger generations of buyers or its remaining years can be counted on one hand.

It has to be a lot edgier and a lot more cross generational. I would say they've pretty much accomplished that goal. What people say on here is now completely irrelevant. There will be no changes for at least six years.

What determines everything is how sales progress. IMHO, the C6 never escaped the shadow of the C5. It was a compromise design which because of economic issues, had to utilize as much of the C5 systems as possible.

That didn't work. GM realized it wasn't working and went for a whole new market. We will see if they succeed, but, anyone who thinks the values of the C6 will remotely hold is living in some fantasy land. The C6, except for the ZO6 & ZR1, will become irrelevant.

Sell the base C6's now. Do not wait for the crash to recover because it simply won't. The C2's and C5's will likely continue to grow in popularity, but the base C6 is toast.

If one adds up all of the advances of the C7, and then looks at the price, there is no other new car on the planet that even comes close at this price break.

Get the Z-51 with all the options for maybe $62k?? And toss on a roots blower with maybe some lower compression pistons and you have a car that can eat the lunch of any Porsche or Ferrari priced under $400k. Or wait two years and get the new ZO6 or ZR1.

Now, if the new C7 look doesn't work for you, that's certainly OK, but it doesn't mean this isn't a worthy new Corvette. This is the future. Either get on board or go back to the past.

But, please don't be petty or vicious because change upsets you or makes you feel betrayed.

quick04Z06

Comments:

1) DCT is on all top-flight road racing cars now. It is faster and quicker. It is easier to drive. Corvette needs it. I have driven Porsche's version and it will make you very happy.

2) The new Corvette will weigh a little more, as I understand it. Well, we got the nicer interior we always wanted and it adds weight. You gets some, you gives some.

3) The Corvette still has composite leaf springs. It should have cockpit adjustable coil-overs. The old transverse leaf springs are obsolete.

4) The new Corvette engine will be grand, as they always are, and we'll see about the brakes but they appear very good.

5) Styling. I like it okay, but I'll let it sit for a while before deciding. I hope it has a really good Cd and negative lift and really stays stuck at high speeds. That is the best kind of styling for me.

6) I hope it is really easy to add harnesses without doing much to the interior.

7) I hope it is easy to add track performance options--preferably from the factory. Coolers, gumball tires, etc. I would like to be able to pick and choose from an option sheet instead of order an entirely new car model, a la ZR1, Grand Sport, etc., to get goodies. Plus, this should put more money in Chevy's pocket.

That is about all I have now. Still, good to finally see the new beast. Can't wait for independent test numbers to surface.

quick04Z06

I have thought a long time that Corvette needed to become more of a car line than one car. Chevy has done this, really, with the base car, the Grand Sport, and the Z06 and ZR1. The problem is that are still too similar and the line still starts in Camaro price territory and demographics.

If were Chevy, I would move my base car UP in price to somewhat under the base 911 price--but close--and then price up from there and upgrade looks and mechanicals to justify the price point. I would try to become the American 911 not just in performance and price but in panache, too, and cater to a richer demographic with more disposable income.

The traditional Corvette buyer will be left out in the cold, but as you said B747VET, that buyer is dying out anyway.Leave the Camaro for the traditional Corvette buyer (Drag racer or road racer; the ZL1 is a fine car and the Camaro line can be broadened) and build up the Corvette into a high margin car like a Porsche.

Porsche and Corvette are natural rivals and I think it is about time to truly make the Corvette Porsche's equal in quality, service, style, etc., without any "buts", like "but the Corvette costs less...."

B747VET

I think you make very valid points. The Camaro could be part of a Vette family just like the various Porsches are within one family.

When Chevy brought out the C4 ZR1's, Dick Guldstrand begged them to make it a very different body. Chevy was scared to death that such a move would destroy the sales of the other C4's so all they did was widen the rear end 6 inches and give it slightly different wheels.

Chevy somewhat learned their lesson with the C6 line. They made distinctively edgy mods to the ZO6 and then the ZR1 but they still didn't have the guts or savvy to make either of those cars completely distinctive as Porsche does in some cases.

We'll see what Chevy does with the Z cars this time around. My guess is that one of them will be super edgy, but nothing beyond that.

Stingray23

For every person that doesnt like it, there will be tons that do. It will be successful regardless if the haters dont buy it. There will be plenty outside the corvette circle that will buy the C7.

cor28vettes

This is the point of this thread. Nothing else.

CaryKen

I would buy MUCH sooner than later if my options were less tied to trim packages. Currently I have to make tradeoffs in serious price differentials and inclusion of many things that are not important to me in order to get one or two things I would like. That makes the purchase decision more difficult and acts as a barrier to acquisition.

And yes, I understand how the package approach adds profitability to the vendor's bottom line, but that wasn't what this thread was about.

CaryKen

I would also buy more readily if there was a spoiler delete option. The additional high speed performance advantages of a spoiler are less important to me in my own day-to-day driving and usage scenarios than the convenience and confidence that I can temporarily rest an item on the rear lip while levering it into the trunk. It's just one less part sticking out that is susceptible to damage.

B747VET

A friend who likes my C5 and has always said, "Very nice, but I'm sticking with Porsches," called today out of the blue and said he is very interested in test driving and maybe acquiring a C7.

Believe me, this is huge for a guy that has owned several new 911's and high end Audis and has always slightly looked down at Corvette ownership. (Never obviously in any way but you could tell what was in the back of his mind.). Hey, I've owned a 911 SC and a 930 Turbo so I can understand.

Again, for this quality guy who is very car savvy to suddenly say that the C7 may just be the best dollar for dollar buy he's ever seen is huge and likely exactly what GM & Chevy are trying to accomplish.

e.g. Change the stereotypical Corvette vehicle enough to engage and draw in whole new types of other high end buyers. I'm also hazarding that maybe they are pricing the basic C7 close to break even as they did with the C4 ZR1's in a gamble to redefine the Corvette?

Anyway, I wonder how the C7 is going to change the Corvette world?