Driven-first thoughts,detailed
04-06-2014, 12:27 PM
#1
Lifetime Supporting Gold
Thread Starter
Driven-first thoughts,detailed
I was going to wait and post my first thoughts on the car until I could take some good photos but the rain and a busy week of travel will likely prevent photos being taken until next Sunday. A couple of points that may provide a frame of reference for my opinions. This is my 4th Corvette, three of which have been new. The other two were a 2004 C5 convertible, manual, Le Mans Commemorative Edition and a 2007 C6 manual convertible. Both cars had magnetic ride control which I wanted again causing me to order the Z51 option in order to be able to order the magnetic ride control again. (By the way, they have a cool interactive display at the museum which let's you really feel the change in the shocks). The fourth is a 65 which was my first and I still own it. I'm 6'-1" and 215 pounds, fairly long legs and relatively broad shoulders. The progression of these cars has been amazing to me. With my C5 I was impressed with the power and how the car felt like it was on rails and didn't see how the next version could be dramatically better but when I bought my C6 I was amazed at how much better it was in terms of handling and power. For perspective you should probably know I've never tracked my cars, never taken a driving course, and while occasionally accelerate hard and enjoy pushing it slightly on curves, I generally don't drive my sports cars hard/aggressively and never have come close to using all the capabilities of even my C5.
With that background here are my initial thoughts on the car after a little less than two days and slightly under 1000 miles of driving from the museum back to Texas.
Visual impressions- while I've seen countless photos of C7's, seen maybe five on the road, and spent maybe 20 minutes total looking in person at two local dealers, I did not spend extended time looking in person and never even sat in one till I sat in mine at the museum. The car looks so much better in person than it does in photos, from every angle there are different lines that just pop in a way photos cannot do justice to. For me I'm very happy I stayed with a convertible as I really like how it looks with the top down and am a huge fan of top down driving. That said I could see myself getting a coupe or even a Z06 in a couple of years (or sooner as I regularly support the museum by purchasing raffle tickets and you never know, I might get lucky!) and getting on a track some. I plan on going to Nevada sometime this next year to take advantage of the discounted driving school to see how I like driving on a track as well as learn to be a better driver. Yes, the car has some orange pearl but I am 100% sure that if I had never read all the threads on this forum I would not have noticed or given it any thought. Now they I have the car and looked for it I don't intend to give it another thought. I didn't examine every panel for fit and consistency but did not notice any obvious issues with spacing etc. Everything about the car feels solid and like it is put together "right". As far as physically fitting in the car I quickly found a comfortable position that left me with some travel space for the seat to move back further. I think that a much taller person could be comfortable in the car depending in their proportions between leg length and torso length as well as their personal preference on driving position. A greater challenge in my opinion would be for people built much heavier/wider than I am as I feel like if I was bigger that I would not be comfortable. I did sit in the passenger seat briefly and was comfortable but I did have the seat all the way back and think a bigger person would run out of room more quickly in the passenger seat than the driver's seat. While this car is to me is much more visually appealing than the C5 or C6 where it really shines is in the interior both in layout and the quality of materials. My car is a 3LT so my comments are limited to that trim level. The leather, aluminum, and optional carbon fiber all look great together and look/feel world class. I was a little unsure of my choice for grey due to the two tone on the dash but in person it looks great and with NRB is a really sweet combination. Before taking delivery I ordered Lloyd's floor and trunk mats (haven't arrived yet) and I will use them but I found the factory mats to be of better quality than in the past. Simply put its beautiful and to me looks and feels like a car that was over 73K should.
Driving- I've read many comments on museum delivery that surrounded concerns about driving a brand new car a long distance, like most things on this forum and the rest of this post this is just my opinion but for me I'm glad my drive home (well over 900 miles) was a great time to get acquainted with my car and get past the break in period. My only concern was picking up chips and had originally scheduled Expel for the bumper to be installed at the museum however was caught up in the museum suspending that service due to issues they have had. Maybe I just got lucky but I didn't puck up even a tiny nick in my drive and I'm not sure I will have Expel installed now. No knock to anyone who has or does and while I know I will eventually have some chips (I did on my C6), i just amniotic sure that to me it's that big of a deal. I had not driven a manual other than my 65 since selling my C6 in November of 12 so I had given thought to how it would feel to be back in one especially with MN7. The clutch and tranny on this car ate in my opinion a big improvement over my C6. I had no issue with finding the right gears, no issue with skip shift even while stuck in stop and go traffic on the highway a couple if times. So far I really like the active rev match and pretty much drove with it on the whole time. Power in this car is plentiful and easily accessible at any time in any gear. The first 500 miles were a little more taxing for a road trip as I always use cruise on the highway but for the break in period I kept it off so I could vary my speed. Whole doing so I was between 6th and 7th a lot and can say that even up hill in 7th there is plenty of power/torque. Watching the tac change at 500 miles is pretty cool (I shot a video of it with my phone) and after that I kicked the speed up and drove with the cruise on when I could. The cruise is pretty responsive but does seem to keep me about 1 mph above the set point. As a side note I noticed that the data available to the system showing the speed limit was somewhat out of date as it didn't reflect many areas in Texas where the limit has been raised and I don't think it's that recent that they changed but could be wrong. It was pretty accurate coming into towns or other areas where the limit dropped. Comfort for both my Dad and I was great even considering it was a long drive (drove in touring mode). Not a lot of opportunity to test out the handling but I gave her a good push on clover leafs and the fewer other opportunities I had to do so and even in touring mode she felt glued to the road. Exhaust sound was still sweet in touring mode as well. We drive much of the first day and part of the second with the top down and I can say (windows up) that both wind noise and buffeting were not bad at all. Conversation or listening to the stereo were both great. The power top operation without the latch of previous model and operable up to 35 mph may seem like a small change but they were much appreciated and will be a more useful feature than I thought they would be. Much of the trip down 59 through a East Texas includes small towns that you have to slow down through which I know impacted fuel economy as did varying my speed the first 500 miles but even considering that I averaged just over 25 mpg as shown on the DIC and cross checked by manual calculation.
Misc- I was perfectly satisfied with the sound of the stereo. I had intended to put some music on a memory stick or sad card before but didn't get around to doing so. I do have a couple hundred songs on my iPhone and was very happy with the integration of my phone with the car. I also found the voice control in the car to work really well, much better than Siri works for me. The one area I was slightly dissapointed in was the routing the nav wanted to use. I haven't yet researched to see what the options may be to adjust route preferences so there may be a way to overcome the challenges I encountered. I'm used to the iPhone navigation giving me a choice of three routes as does my wife's Audi, maybe the Vette will do the same if I find the correct settings. Seems like manufacturers should just allow your phone to drive the navigation and show up on the car's screen. I do appreciate that in this car unlike my GMC the "passenger" can I put an address while driving. Not as necessary as it might have been in my C6 since the voice integration seems to work well. I did like the weather feature showing the forecasted weather along your route. All in all I found the infotainment and information systems pretty intuitive and easy to navigate. Another good benefit of starting my ownership with a long road trip was having the opportunity to play with these features. While I've had HUD in the past the new version is much improved in the appearance and content compared to the previous generations I really like the slide down screen, might be a great place for personal protection device to reside from time to time but simply using it for my phone is great for me as I'm a habitual offender when it comes to checking my phone while driving, out of sight out of mind is nice. It would be nice if the button for the screen was placed somewhere discreet so it wasn't advertising that there is a compartment there and if the licking feature was accessible very quickly.
All in I live everything about this car. I'm extremely satisfied with the value for the money I spent both for the car and for the museum delivery. Doing it all with my Dad was dimply priceless. I've attached a "selfie" we took at the water tank. More photos of the car when the weather (and time) allow.
If anyone has specific questions please ask, I'd be happy to help as that's what this forum is all about. Thanks to all those who've either indirectly or directly provided information to me along my journey.
Hopefully I will enjoy many miles and smiles of trouble free driving but if I don't go problem free I won't stress over it, life is too short to do so and that's why we've got a warranty.
Please excuse any typos from my iPad typing!
With that background here are my initial thoughts on the car after a little less than two days and slightly under 1000 miles of driving from the museum back to Texas.
Visual impressions- while I've seen countless photos of C7's, seen maybe five on the road, and spent maybe 20 minutes total looking in person at two local dealers, I did not spend extended time looking in person and never even sat in one till I sat in mine at the museum. The car looks so much better in person than it does in photos, from every angle there are different lines that just pop in a way photos cannot do justice to. For me I'm very happy I stayed with a convertible as I really like how it looks with the top down and am a huge fan of top down driving. That said I could see myself getting a coupe or even a Z06 in a couple of years (or sooner as I regularly support the museum by purchasing raffle tickets and you never know, I might get lucky!) and getting on a track some. I plan on going to Nevada sometime this next year to take advantage of the discounted driving school to see how I like driving on a track as well as learn to be a better driver. Yes, the car has some orange pearl but I am 100% sure that if I had never read all the threads on this forum I would not have noticed or given it any thought. Now they I have the car and looked for it I don't intend to give it another thought. I didn't examine every panel for fit and consistency but did not notice any obvious issues with spacing etc. Everything about the car feels solid and like it is put together "right". As far as physically fitting in the car I quickly found a comfortable position that left me with some travel space for the seat to move back further. I think that a much taller person could be comfortable in the car depending in their proportions between leg length and torso length as well as their personal preference on driving position. A greater challenge in my opinion would be for people built much heavier/wider than I am as I feel like if I was bigger that I would not be comfortable. I did sit in the passenger seat briefly and was comfortable but I did have the seat all the way back and think a bigger person would run out of room more quickly in the passenger seat than the driver's seat. While this car is to me is much more visually appealing than the C5 or C6 where it really shines is in the interior both in layout and the quality of materials. My car is a 3LT so my comments are limited to that trim level. The leather, aluminum, and optional carbon fiber all look great together and look/feel world class. I was a little unsure of my choice for grey due to the two tone on the dash but in person it looks great and with NRB is a really sweet combination. Before taking delivery I ordered Lloyd's floor and trunk mats (haven't arrived yet) and I will use them but I found the factory mats to be of better quality than in the past. Simply put its beautiful and to me looks and feels like a car that was over 73K should.
Driving- I've read many comments on museum delivery that surrounded concerns about driving a brand new car a long distance, like most things on this forum and the rest of this post this is just my opinion but for me I'm glad my drive home (well over 900 miles) was a great time to get acquainted with my car and get past the break in period. My only concern was picking up chips and had originally scheduled Expel for the bumper to be installed at the museum however was caught up in the museum suspending that service due to issues they have had. Maybe I just got lucky but I didn't puck up even a tiny nick in my drive and I'm not sure I will have Expel installed now. No knock to anyone who has or does and while I know I will eventually have some chips (I did on my C6), i just amniotic sure that to me it's that big of a deal. I had not driven a manual other than my 65 since selling my C6 in November of 12 so I had given thought to how it would feel to be back in one especially with MN7. The clutch and tranny on this car ate in my opinion a big improvement over my C6. I had no issue with finding the right gears, no issue with skip shift even while stuck in stop and go traffic on the highway a couple if times. So far I really like the active rev match and pretty much drove with it on the whole time. Power in this car is plentiful and easily accessible at any time in any gear. The first 500 miles were a little more taxing for a road trip as I always use cruise on the highway but for the break in period I kept it off so I could vary my speed. Whole doing so I was between 6th and 7th a lot and can say that even up hill in 7th there is plenty of power/torque. Watching the tac change at 500 miles is pretty cool (I shot a video of it with my phone) and after that I kicked the speed up and drove with the cruise on when I could. The cruise is pretty responsive but does seem to keep me about 1 mph above the set point. As a side note I noticed that the data available to the system showing the speed limit was somewhat out of date as it didn't reflect many areas in Texas where the limit has been raised and I don't think it's that recent that they changed but could be wrong. It was pretty accurate coming into towns or other areas where the limit dropped. Comfort for both my Dad and I was great even considering it was a long drive (drove in touring mode). Not a lot of opportunity to test out the handling but I gave her a good push on clover leafs and the fewer other opportunities I had to do so and even in touring mode she felt glued to the road. Exhaust sound was still sweet in touring mode as well. We drive much of the first day and part of the second with the top down and I can say (windows up) that both wind noise and buffeting were not bad at all. Conversation or listening to the stereo were both great. The power top operation without the latch of previous model and operable up to 35 mph may seem like a small change but they were much appreciated and will be a more useful feature than I thought they would be. Much of the trip down 59 through a East Texas includes small towns that you have to slow down through which I know impacted fuel economy as did varying my speed the first 500 miles but even considering that I averaged just over 25 mpg as shown on the DIC and cross checked by manual calculation.
Misc- I was perfectly satisfied with the sound of the stereo. I had intended to put some music on a memory stick or sad card before but didn't get around to doing so. I do have a couple hundred songs on my iPhone and was very happy with the integration of my phone with the car. I also found the voice control in the car to work really well, much better than Siri works for me. The one area I was slightly dissapointed in was the routing the nav wanted to use. I haven't yet researched to see what the options may be to adjust route preferences so there may be a way to overcome the challenges I encountered. I'm used to the iPhone navigation giving me a choice of three routes as does my wife's Audi, maybe the Vette will do the same if I find the correct settings. Seems like manufacturers should just allow your phone to drive the navigation and show up on the car's screen. I do appreciate that in this car unlike my GMC the "passenger" can I put an address while driving. Not as necessary as it might have been in my C6 since the voice integration seems to work well. I did like the weather feature showing the forecasted weather along your route. All in all I found the infotainment and information systems pretty intuitive and easy to navigate. Another good benefit of starting my ownership with a long road trip was having the opportunity to play with these features. While I've had HUD in the past the new version is much improved in the appearance and content compared to the previous generations I really like the slide down screen, might be a great place for personal protection device to reside from time to time but simply using it for my phone is great for me as I'm a habitual offender when it comes to checking my phone while driving, out of sight out of mind is nice. It would be nice if the button for the screen was placed somewhere discreet so it wasn't advertising that there is a compartment there and if the licking feature was accessible very quickly.
All in I live everything about this car. I'm extremely satisfied with the value for the money I spent both for the car and for the museum delivery. Doing it all with my Dad was dimply priceless. I've attached a "selfie" we took at the water tank. More photos of the car when the weather (and time) allow.
If anyone has specific questions please ask, I'd be happy to help as that's what this forum is all about. Thanks to all those who've either indirectly or directly provided information to me along my journey.
Hopefully I will enjoy many miles and smiles of trouble free driving but if I don't go problem free I won't stress over it, life is too short to do so and that's why we've got a warranty.
Please excuse any typos from my iPad typing!
04-06-2014, 01:07 PM
#6
Melting Slicks
Congrats on a great C7, and the Museum delivery experience.
Sharing 1000 miles of the travel home with your father, priceless!
Sharing 1000 miles of the travel home with your father, priceless!
04-06-2014, 01:12 PM
#7
Safety Car
Member Since: Oct 2012
Location: Austin Texas
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St. Jude Donor '15
Thanks for the insight and good luck with the new car. I love that you took your dad with you, and I am sure that he had a blast, too. Like your color combo, had an 01 with the dark blue and the grey interior.
04-06-2014, 03:05 PM
#10
Excellent review and i'm jealous you got to do this with your dad! My dad is not well enough to do this with me. I wish I could have done this with him since he a car guy. 
. You are one lucky guy. Enjoy your new C7 and your time with dad.
. You are one lucky guy. Enjoy your new C7 and your time with dad.
04-06-2014, 05:40 PM
#13
Lifetime Supporting Gold
Thread Starter
Thanks, I know it's a real blessing to have my Dad around still let alone as healthy and active as he is.
04-06-2014, 07:09 PM
#17
Lifetime Supporting Gold
Thread Starter
My Mom liked the car too. Took her for a long ride when my Dad and I got back, she had a blast then wanted a picture in the driver's seat.
Congrats
04-06-2014, 08:12 PM
#19
Scraping the splitter.
I really looking forward to pics of that NRB 'vert with the blue top and black wheels and opened this thread hoping we would see some nice, post-detail shots.
S.
S.
04-06-2014, 08:17 PM
#20
Lifetime Supporting Gold
Thread Starter