Atari_Prime

Build quality and reliability are different things. Build quality is just that 'quality'. From the materials used, to the fit and finish of how things go together, to the fasteners. Reliability is how the real world impacts all those things. For example, the build quality in any Porsche, Ferrari, Bugatti, Pagani, Volvo, BMW, etc. is better than anything put into an American car, and always has been. That's part of the difference in price and is one of the reasons American cars are often made fun of by others. On the flip side of that coin, while some of those may be more reliable overall they are not known to be substantially more reliable than American cars. But if you look at Japanese cars, their build quality isn't particularly impressive and is very similar to US cars often, but their reliability is above and beyond everyone. Hondas never die, even the terrible ones. Look around at those little trucks you see gardeners driving, not one of them is a Chevy S10 or Ford Ranger. Because all those trucks are essentially dead whereas a small Nissan or Toyota from the same era is still going strong.

loyalsince72

Not me. I want it RIGHT more than I want it soon. And I've already sold my C7 to make space in the garage.

Dr. ice

Spot on!

84 4+3

All my friends with Tacomas from the same era as my truck had them totaled out because the frame rotted through. Still mechanically sound though aside from a couple timing belt sets. My neighbors 92 Toyota pickup though, 290k on the stock clutch in that little pickup. I was very impressed. Then the syncryos grenaded a few months later and it started having a light piston slap. I was surprised the trans went out. He sold it to a guy that had one and it's still out running around last I checked.

The most bulletproof vehicle I've ever had was a 95 isuzu rodeo. Sold that at 150k and are still in touch with the new owners. 300k last I heard, 2 brake jobs and 2 sets of tires and then just oil and gas. Only vehicle honda couldn't top, that's why they joined them.

jcp911s

"Quality" is a subjective term. There are really two aspects:

ABSOLUTE "quality"... this is entirely subjective... is a Prime Filet Mignon higher "quality" than a hamburger? This is a meaningless discussion that only makes sense after all the principles are about three beers in.

"Build Quality" has a specific definition... "how closely does each unit conform to the absolute design parameters." this is an objective, statistically-based measurement of variance from the mean. The design engineers, and production engineers have to get their heads together, and negotiate acceptable levels of variance, and the "quality control" engineers must constantly monitor real-world performance to make sure they are met.

I've seen hundreds of C7 Corvettes, and frankly, they all look alike to me... I suspect they are all pretty much the same, which means the "build quality" is pretty tight.

What is being argued here over and over and over is "Design Quality"...

- Gaps are too big (how big is "too" big)
- Orange peel... (find a production car without some)
- "cheap" materials... (how cheap is "cheap")

etc, etc, etc...

Bottom line, when you buy a Corvette, you pretty much get a Corvette... If a Corvette does not meet your "absolute quality" requirements, buy something else.

RapidC84B

Nobody has said gaps are too big... gaps are not uniform and panels are not aligned.

NORTY

What would give you the idea that the build quality would be any different than the C7, or C6, or C5...?

raymond86

Buddy of mine has a ‘99 911 with similar milage as my ‘99 C5 and he has had much more electrical AND mechanica issue than my C5 had. Even required a new engine at some point!

bgspot

^^^Thats a silly question. Uh lets see, C6 build quality was better than the C5 and the C7 build quality IS better than both the C6 and C5. Logic would dictate that the C8 build quality will be better than the C7, thus better the C6 and C5 as well.

Notice i did not say the quality will be great because that would depend on what you're measuring the build quality against.Those that are hard die hard European brand loyalist probably don't believe American cars have good build quality anyway.

SilverGhost

Never mistake a feature for a bug. Bowling Green is slowly but surely adopting the Enzo Ferrari mission statement:



Unfortunately, he went on to say:



And no really pissed by Enzo story would be complete without the day Ferrari almost became Ford, but left Henry Ford II standing alone at the altar, dejected.

The acquisition contract stated that Ford will take over both Ferrari's racing and automotive division. Enzo Ferrari did not like losing his racing team one bit. He underlined those clauses in the contract with purple ink, and next to it, wrote "unacceptable" before throwing a string of insults at Ford executives that Ferrari's secretary who was with him at the time, Franco Gozzi described it as "'words you would not find in any dictionary."

Ferrari, Gozzi, and other Ferrari executives stormed out of the conference room, leaving Henry Ford II and his team baffled and confused. Ford returned to the US empty handed.

Henry Ford II was fuming with anger. He gathered Ford's top executives into a conference room and said this sentence that would become the beginning of the one of the most intense, tough and biggest rivalries in the history of Le Mans. Henry Ford II had given a very clear and direct order to Ford's chief engineer, Don Frey, with one goal in mind.

"Go to Le Mans, and beat Ferrari's ***."




Congrats to Chevy for finally entering the fray, fifty-five years on......

AORoads

with his statements and temperament, Enzo just proved he is both human and fallible. Henry 2 was the same way, as are all of us. but we don't get "print" for all ages to see and say, "ahhh, how right he was" or, "ahhh, how wrong he was."

1SG_Ret

All things being equal, I'd be happy of the C8 had the quality as the C7 (exception being the A8 tranny).

golden2husky

When I ordered my '14 I told the dealer when it arrived to check the fit of all the body panels, this after hearing some complaints. I'm pretty fussy about assembly quality and I had no interest in accepting the car if the fit was not correct. Mine was certainly one of the better ones; the passenger door was slightly off (left it alone) and the waterfall had a rather big gap that was slightly crooked. I realigned the waterfall myself to perfection. But I noticed that Corvettes in general seem to have much more variance than other cars regardless of the price. Kind of like the old days where assembly quality on American cars varied all over the place. Watching the video of Bowling Green compared to a "normal" steel car it became more obvious why. The typical steel unibody car has a skeleton welded together with laser precision. As such the parts that are "hung" onto the frame fit exactly where they need to be. Parts often have alignment pins and the item drops into place with no need for the assembly worker to adjust anything. Vettes are not like that. They are assembled in a manner that seems to be much more like the old days where the fit of the parts is much more worker-dependent. Couple that with high unit-per-hour output I can see why there is more variance in assembly quality than pretty much any other mass produced car. I, for one, am hoping for a much more consistent level of assembly quality with the C8.

The SMC panels are not nearly as flat as stamped steel panels - this may be anathema to the purists, but I'd rather have the flat steel surface over the tradition of plastic panels.

jimmyb

I will give you panel fit on Toyota but NOT paint quality. My father in law is CONFIRMED Lexus guy. Has 2 now, and in the time I've known him, he's had 10 total. And EVERY one of them had horrendous orange peel, much worse than my C7.

JerryU

Sure hope my C8 will be as good as my September 2013 built Z51. It was back to the dealer twice. First when I bought it and GM sent a note to have the dif fluid level checked. Watched the newly trained C7 Certified Tech check- it was fine. Second time was just before I sold it to buy my Grand Sport- that was to have seat belt software ungraded. I do all my own oil changes etc.

Grand Sport is 2 years old an it’s been back to the dealer twice. Once at ~400 miles to have alignment set to my specs (within GMs) for better tire wear. The Second was to get the MRC software upgrade. Also did my own oil changes.

Can’t ask for better!

Warp Factor

Yup. Some people think quality is something like having just the right amount of starch applied when their underpants were ironed. I can only feel sorry for them....

jcp911s

All I can say is the Enzo/HenryII story is true, and Ford did win at LeMans (in an English LOLA chassis)...but fast forward... today Ferrari is Ferrari, and Ford is, well, Ford... so remind me who "won" again?

jcp911s

How variable is "variable? How aligned is "aligned"?

RapidC84B

Gaps should be of uniform thickness and equal side to side... period. Was at a car show this weekend and a nice GS vert had the tonneau and trunk nearly touching the quarter panel on the passenger side and a near 1/4" gap on the driver side. Crap like that is common on these cars.

punky

This is good, very good and what many, many, Corvette owners enjoy.

Tell you another good one, I've had 10 Corvettes and never had a single problem of any kind with any one of them. The 2 911s that I owned years ago were disasterous maintanence nightmares.