C7 test fleet completed 1,000,000 miles of real world testing last week....
 

Attended the quality seminar conducted by Steve Grilli. He is in charge of the quality program at the Bowling Green plant. Couple of things from the notes I made out from that seminar:

* Test fleet is about 202 cars
* They sub-contract the testing of cars
* 1,000,000 mile testing was completed last week (about 5,000 per car if my math in my head is correct)
* Blue car that was wrecked in AZ (the one on it's side on the rocks) has been repaired (body panels and frame) and put back into service (testing). Apparently, if I got it right, it went into a 6' drop off on the edge of the road, skidded on it side for about 50' before coming onto the rocks where it was photographed for the internet. Driver got out and walked away.
* The cyber grey C7 t-boned by a Lincoln Town car in MI is waiting for body parts (fender, door, quarter panel) and will be going back into testing service. Lincoln driver didn't see the C7 and was destroyed in the front end. The C7 driver got out and walked away. No frame damage.
* Production has started and they are at about 20 cars per day. Their goal at full production is "18.5 jobs per hour" which equals 135 cars per day.

All those cars and all of those miles and still no sightings in Georgia :( lol

Well, in all fairness unlike many states Georgia has some very nice scenery-both geographic and female-so perhaps something else has distracted you from seeing the C7s that were present :)

Thanks to the OP for the update and the details on the accidents/repairs. :thumbs:

Some issues won't show up until individual units actually have fairly high miles put on under normal driving conditions and these oddities won't show up except under the right environmental conditions but usually they can be addressed through calibration updates. But this standard testing should result in early production that is far closer to perfect than those older new vehicles we all remember with fond nostalgia through our rose colored glasses that filter out unpleasant memories of the problems that were so common in early production vehicles.

"The cyber grey C7 t-boned by a Lincoln Town car in MI is waiting for body parts (fender, door, quarter panel) and will be going back into testing service. Lincoln driver didn't see the C7 and was destroyed in the front end. The C7 driver got out and walked away. No frame damage."

Now that is impressive! Did it occur on wet streets?

A 5K mile test will not reveal anything but the most obvious problems. Many engineering issues are not mileage dependent but time dependent. A car can sit in storage for 5 years and when it is taken out a number of problems will surface due to oxidation of metal contacts as well as deterioration of petrochemical plastic parts. Long term testing requires time.

I wonder how many LS7's dropped valve during the first 5,000 miles, or how many Vegas were burning 1 quart of oil every 200 miles, or had the body full of holes due to rust, during the first 5,000 miles,etc

I wonder if all cars were treated the same. Such as one car being mostly highway driven while another car sticking mainly to city driving. Or even one car being the "beater" car while another never see's redline. GM can only do so much to see what kind of unseen issues pop up. Isn't this million mile testing somewhat new? First time I heard GM doing it was with the cruze. Nonetheless, I like the GM has done this but every car maker has recalls and TSB's. Its only a matter of time before we find out the "hopefully few" quirks the C7 has.

I'm sure GM bypassed their standard new car testing and rushed the C7 to market. The myriad problems that they are going to experience should start very soon now. If they wanted to effectively test the car, they should have had a fleet of 100 cars complete 100k miles each over a three year period.
S.

There is a company in Michigan that provides the drivers for the 50,000 and 100,000 miles tests. I thought that would be a neat form of employment up until I learned that it requires a near perfect driving record.

So, three years of captured test fleet experience instead of three months? Interesting idea. I suspect those buyers who wait until the second or third year of production to buy new consider the buyers of the first model year production to be the testers.

Laborsmith

My wife saw a C7 in Alpharetta, Ga last week. It moved too quickly for her to get out her phone for a pic. I've not seen any in Georgia otherwise but was glad to hear that there was one roaming around.

Now a days they do so much computer simulation and bench testing, they don't need as many miles on the road. The road miles just verify what the computers are saying from real world experience.

Of course, there is nothing like real world driving. But if you want to know why cars have been getting more and more reliable over the years, a lot of it has to do with computer simulations.

Yes, it was raining. There was also a rumor that the C7 driver didn't WAVE at someone, but that's a completely different story. :D

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/memb...ent-149928.jpg

I understand on a much smaller sample, they take the car out for 24 hours of high speed driving or 24 hours straight, stopping for gas, brakes, tires. While this won't show time dependent things, it will show problems that don't show in street tests.

Accelerated deterioration tests would be made on plastic, "rubber", metal parts on an individual basis. Also there would be some tests on a jig to simulate many miles of driving on rough roads to test the suspension and friction points in the assembly.

This is not the only testing, it is part of the testing. It would also help them with the early at delivery kind of problems that J.D. Powers surveys.

135 cars a day, thats ridiculous. Wonder why base price is 51k if they sell all of these, Corvettes will be everywhere in a year. Just like usual. These will be a dime a dozen next year at this time.

Is this a serious statement that you believe to be viable?

:crazy2:

Sarcasm. :rofl:

:woohoo:I'll buy all you can find for a "dime a dozen"!!!!!! At full production only about 30,000 C7's will be built the first year. You will not see them "everywhere" until the 3rd or 4th year of production. And so what if you do? They are meant to be seen and driven. If you want a car that no one else has, then cough up a million or so bucks and buy one of the "exotics".

I read it in response to other guy three times...I had a tough time determining. Coupled with the other guy I quoted, I am thinkin...man, its a full moon on the forum, the crazy is comin out!

:( So, let me get this straight, you would go through 3 years of pre-production, to develop a new vehicle, then manufacture only 100 cars to put on the roads for another 3 years, before building any more to release to the public? What would your employees do for that 3 year period while you were "effectively testing the car"? Would you pay them their full wage? What about the Millions you invested in new technology, engineering, plant updates, machinery, etc.? Would you just pay interest only for 3 years on all the $ you borrowed? OH, and all those suppliers that you contracted to build parts for your new vehicle, would you pay them to set idle for 3 years while you got the bugs out? You might put a little more thought into your posts before making this kind of absurd statement!