SD1

Let me help you out

Well we finally got our hands on the all new C7, no handlers, no PR guys whipering in our ears, just one shiny red C7 stingray with fresh tires and the company gas card in hand. Of course its a Chevrolet so we the orange peel paint and mismatched panels are a given, but maybe this latest iteration will be so fast it wont be able to hold on to the paint anyway. I am not a big fan of Red and but the guys at GM sure are, this is the closet thing to a new Orleans *****'s lipstick as I have seen but it dont make the mouth any purdier oh well, kind of like a piranha with few teeth missing. The interior seems pretty cool but its the color of band aids. I start the car with great hope only to hear the infernal motor boat brackety bracking out of the wall of exhaust outlets, space portals or french fry friers whatever GM is calling that ocotopi looking arrangement hanging out the back of the diffuser. I moved the stick to the one position, only a few pieces of gravel block my path and the clutch travel is long and indecisive, I let out clutch and a box of marbles fall into a coffee can and I immediately hit the brake knowing I have just obliterated the internals of the manual trans of the first press car, oh my I was just getting strated

Stingray23

and then you woke up

speedlink

Agreed Paul, with all the negativity that pops up on trivial items. How much nonsense would we read about things like HP, when the actual number is even 2-3 HP off?

We will all here soon enough. It's not slated for production until July.

Raitzi

As European I see Motortrend to be the best out of your big magazines/sites. Car and Driver with their VIR test is also revealing. The best European magazine is Sport auto with their complete three track testing method which also includes a wet lap.

There is of course plenty of good "video guys" on youtube

Bill17601

If you trust Motortrend you need to be schooled. Just go back and see their cars of the year program and then tell me the magazine will not sell out their ethics. Car and driver does not make themselves out to overly serious. at least they have a sense of humor. Sport Auto would be more aliened with Road&Track in my opinion.

SCM_Crash

I haven't seen a single car magazine that isn't guilty of being a sell out. Some more than others. It's the lesser of evil at this point.

While consumer reports isn't really a car magazine, I've even seen some scores in it that was complete and utter BS. I used to think that was the only trust worth magazine until I saw some of these scores and I completely gave up.

Now the only thing that matters to me are the JD Power scores and my instincts.

DREAMERAK

He may like it , but will bash it anyway, It's very fashionable to bash America in the EU and UK.

Mike Mercury

exactly.

Car mags -at one time - would test a pre-production unit, But there was a lot of flack from subscribers over it; they stopped doing it.

Turbooo2u

Don't worry Paul, you're still "da man".

B747VET

There are enough diverse quality individuals saying, "Trust me, it's that good", that I'm pretty comfortable with the likely quality of the overall C7 product.

That having been said, the only tests that matter are multiple tests of true assembly line vehicles.

I also agree that JD Powers ratings followed by Consumer Reports experiential ratings will be the final arbiters on the C7 as they pretty much are on any quality car. But those ratings will take more than a year to begin appearing.

b4i4getit

Paul I don't know how you can make that statement since you have only seen pre-prod cars. The final product may be better than the pre-prod vehicles but that is not a given. The production cars may actually be worse as the factory tunes their processes to maximize production output.

B747VET

Conspiracy theories already? He's only stating the obvious, but you choose to question the obvious. Why?

Obviously, he has only seen the pre-production cars. Production cars do not exist. He never stated or implied otherwise.

*********** *************** ************ *******************_

Speaking only for myself, some things may change slightly with an actual assembly line car, but in this day and age, the differences are pretty much known and pre-identified. Tolerances are what they are. This is no longer the 1980''s.

They can pretty much build the pre-production cars to the level of tolerances to which the various stamping machines and robotic machines are capable of performing. Either way, they can intelligently brief others on the extent to which the production cars will differ and in what areas they will be identical.

Or, is there truly a grand conspiracy afoot? Do Tadge and his team pray each night that Corvette owners are easily bamboozled and that they will remain clueless in Cleveland or Rancho Cucamonga?

b4i4getit

Who said anything about conspiracy ? You have been watching too much television. The only point I am trying to make and evidently did not make too well, is that at the end of the shift what counts is how many cars get built. We have all seen questionable product shipped out of Bowling Green that should never have left the plant. And this is much later than the 1980's. You don't think it will happen with the C7 ? Its a GM product for crying out loud its not a Rolls Royce. Quit being so defensive. They have not shipped a C7 yet so don't assume perfection will be there.

B747VET

I guess calling people crazy who disagree with your positions is not defensive behavior in your world, but it is certainly at least somewhat offensive in most people's worlds.

Are you really bemoaning the fact that the C7 isn't rolling off the equivalent of a Rolls Royce assembly line or are you merely stating the obvious that only a Rolls Royce comes off such a line and then concluding that all other new cars coming off a new line will be "questionable products"? Or, are your criticisms limited to Corvette assembly lines?

Is it not possible or even likely that GM has evolved along with the rest of the automotive world and learned from past mistakes? I believe your premise is prejudiced but I have no idea why you are so negative on the new C7. If it turns out your paranoia is justified I will come back and give you sincere kudos, but I believe that today's computer modeling, extensive testing and advanced manufacturing technologies make your scenarios much less likely than ever before.

As far as conspiracy theories, I readily admit that nothing you stated specifically referenced such goings on, but I found it difficult to comprehend why you were directly attacking a credible gentleman for simply saying that the pre-production C7 car is "not only as good as it has been described, it is better." He asked us to respect his more than earned credibility.

The gentleman made absolutely no assertions regarding assembly line production cars which as yet do not even exist.

Yet, your immediate response was to jump right out there and incredulously question how he could possibly make that statement since he had only seen pre-production cars?

Since ... again ... he was only speaking of pre-production cars, the question that might better be asked is why you are so anti-C7 that you feel the need to jump on anyone with specific real world knowledge expressing his positive opinion on what he has seen and what he knows thus far about the C7.

While I certainly do not blindly worship at the altar of GM Corvette, neither do I run around in circles proclaiming the Corvette sky might be falling and we should be on guard for misrepresentations of reality.

All that having been said, if that many people in the GM Corvette world are truly making all these supposed misleading statements to the outside Corvette community about the production C7 Corvettes viability, that might just constitute conspiracy. You can be the first to sign up for the class action suit and say, "I told you so."

Or, alternatively, you could just make a leap of faith and take credible people at their word.

b4i4getit

In retrospect maybe I was a bit too agressive.

Let me give you some insight to some of the things I said. I have witnessed a continuing decline in quality over the years with GM products. For example, poor fit and finish, lousy paint jobs, squeeks and rattles. You would think after a few years of making the C6 that they would have flawlesss production. How about the crappy alignment that cars were getting out of the factory ? How about the balancing problem that plagued the front disk brakes of so many Z06 and ZR1 models ? How about the seats that rocked on many cars over the years and this problem was identified on the C5. The way I see it GM has sophisticated computer modelling, design for assembly and FMEA protocols to support the design and production of a superior product. Yet for years the C6 just limped along with some cars being good and some being poor quality. Talk is cheap so I get a bit alarmed when some people make dangerous assumptions about a product that is not released yet. What will some of you say if the cars out of the factory have bad fit and finish, lousy paint jobs, etc ? Will you blame it on first year model issues ? Or will you say that GM still does not have its act together even after its painful reorganization. The jury is still out on this one. I am neither wrong nor right at this time and I can accept that. I really hope they have their act together with this car because if they don't I believe the car will not survive to become a C8.

Bill17601

As for the magazine test they have at least a six week lead time. When they do get the car it will take maybe two issues before we get results. It is time for the Magazines to go all electronic so they can get information out much quicker.

LT1V8

I hope they don't give out pre-production cars, remember when SRT did with the Viper? That was a disaster, the production cars have addressed all of the issues, but damn, the auto mags beat that thing down. I hope the C7s that GM supplies are 100% complete and they don't go handing out cruse, unfinished cars like SRT. Love Vipers, but that was a massive mistake, and quite embarrassing.

b4i4getit

It would make the most sense if the mags would go out and purchase a vehicle at their closest dealer. That would be a fair playing field. However in their desire to get one of the first C7 cars to test I would not be surprised if GM has some hand built mules that are meticulous in their build that are handed over to the mags. That would not be in our best interests because the review would not reflect the reality that we will face when we purchase a car from the dealer.

B747VET

I think we all have our fingers crossed on all those issues.

Bill17601

I prefer optimism to any other approach.