EM Racer

Summary:

Drive Great!

Museum Delivery experience – bad, not worth it

Tail of the Dragon – OK, but…

Hendrick Chevy, AL –Service, Terrible – do not go!

Roads: KY, TN – wonderful; NV, CA – Good; AL, GA, MS, NM – ok; LU, TX, AZ – the worst!

Car: Way more than awesome and way more than I expected!

I bought my Z06/Z07 Convertible from MacMulkin, did a Museum delivery and drove it home to CA and here are my thoughts on everything from deposit to parking in my home garage. First a little about me…This Z06 is my 49th car purchase and 17th new one. All of the new cars I bought have been purchased significantly below MSRP and this Z06 is included in that list…but not so significantly, about $2500 below MSRP…but more on that later. I have only owned one other Corvette, a ‘66 that I picked up in about 1995, VIN 000013, the first production car with headrests and owned by AO Smith, VP GM Personnel at the time, so it came with a Protect-O-Plate with AO Smith as the name…many of you may not recognize the significance of that, but I digress…back to the C8 Z06. So I found out about the upcoming Z06 version in early February 2021 and sent 3 deposits to dealers that said they would sell at MSRP, one in N CA, one in S CA and one to MacMulkin. My MM # was around 380ish. About 6 months into the 2023 MY for the Z06 I got contacted by one of the CA dealers stating they had an allocation, but it would be $50K above MSRP. I was in a dilemma regarding my desires verses my adamant desire to never pay above MSRP for any car, so I sought advice from this forum…resulting in sticking to the other two at MSRP. Shortly after that I received a similar communication from the other CA dealer, with the same result…just sticking to MM at MSRP. I did receive full refunds from both those dealers, so not a horrible experience, just disappointing.


Fast forward a bit, not sure exactly when but I received a couple of communications from MM asking if I wanted to order now (at that time), the first time my number was about 240 and the second time about 210. But because of all the constraints, no Z07, no CF, etc…, I chose to wait, just like many others. Then around November 2023 I started noticing the Z06 numbers moving really rapidly, so I decided to contact MM. I was able to configure my order in December 2023 that was accepted by Chevrolet in January 2024 with no constraints for what I wanted. The only constraint for anything I might have wanted was the CF mirrors and I had already planned to buy them after market. Now the below MSRP part…so I managed to lock in a 2023 MSRP 2024 price for my 2024 build, then Chevy, in their infinite wisdom, raised the 2024 prices again about $2500, so my car came in about $2500 below MSRP for what I paid…still way more than I had paid for any other car in my life, but I was happy (sort of…) with that. The previous high was $65000 for my 2022 BMW X5. MM and Chevy informed me the car would be built the week of 3/18…which actually had me a bit worried since it was the week after St. Patties day. Then the worst possible case happened (my opinion), my car was built early on 3/18, the Monday after the holiday…just what I needed in my mind, a bunch of hung-over workers, hap-hazardly putting my car together…luckily, that was not the case…I think.


Because of my work obligations, I could not arrange to get my car until around the last week of April/1st week of May. That actually worked in my favor since I wanted a full-car PPF put on before I left Bowling Green and I decided to use Auto-Armor which is near local to the Museum and they have a delivery arrangement with the museum. A little more about that…they did a great job on my car and even caught a factory defect scratch in the Driver’s window, though it probably cost about twice as much as I would have paid locally. Because of that window issue, they sent it back to the museum to get the window replaced and the museum then sent it back to the factory. This caused a few problems. I think the factory is very used to assembling the car on a line but not used to addressing problems afterwards. In replacing the window, the factory put several scratches on the outside window trim that I really could not do anything about because of all the people/companies touching the car during the process. This delayed the delivery process, but working with the Museum personnel and the PPF personnel made it really easy.


So next was the Museum delivery, and here is where I really have a problem. I paid an extra $1500+for that privilege, which should have come with a lot of extra bonuses, but because of the factory tour closures…not available. So what did I get or not get? First the good…the Museum delivery personnel were great, super professional and nice and very easy to deal with, including all the issues. Now the bad…What did I get/or not get for the high price. In addition to the above good experience with the personnel, I got a 10% discount on the museum store high prices, I got a self-guided tour of the museum and I got a plaque…nothing else. I had to pay for the photos of my car delivery. I had to pay an additional $1600+ destination charge to get the car from across the street to the museum. I did not get the opportunity to get my car’s production photo book. I did not get a factory tour. I did get a one year free factory tour within one year after they open the factory to the public again…(never to be used, unless they give me free RT airfair)…so in my opinion, $3000 of near nothing but very polite and nice personnel. Also, the museum dealer prep personnel did not install my scrape armor screens properly (not discovered till my first wash in CA).


OK, now the fun part…the drive back. I’m not going to go into any real detail, just mostly generalization and observations. I did install a 1 TB SD card into the PDR and recorded the entire 9 day journey on about 1/3 of it in 1080p. Before the drive back, I flew from CA to Nashville on American Airlines for $124 one way and rented a car from there one way to BG for $114. (Important tip – the Nashville airport rental car PU is a really dark parking garage. Use a light to look for damage or they will try and charge you for it on the other end). I stayed 2 nights in cheap hotels in BG with no issues. The absolutely best thing I did before I left on my trip was to change the tires. I knew my originals were going to be the Cup 2 Rs and I knew I wanted to change them. I called the Discount Tire store there and talked to the Manager and ended up buying new PS 4Ss and have the Cup 2Rs delivered back to my home. That was basically $2700 with free delivery of the Cup 2Rs to my home. The guys at Discount Tire were all awesome and I would recommend the same experience to anyone!


The first 500 miles…so my trip went like this…BG to Tail of the Dragon to Atlanta, GA to Rick Hendrick Chevy in Birmingham, AL to San Antonio, TX to Phoenix, AZ to Henderson, NV to Lake Elsinore, CA to home. The 1st 500 miles included the trip through Tail of the Dragon, Atlanta and the trip to Hendrick Chevy. Tail of the Dragon was great and disappointing. The time I got to go around the corners the way I wanted were great, but most of the time they were repaving and the delays and gravel kick up were really annoying (but not near as bad as AZ). How I did the drive there and beyond to satisfy the 500 miles varying speed was setting my cruise control at some set speed and then down shifting 2 gears every few minutes to vary the engine speed. That plus all my other varying speed, I felt I did pretty good to not keep at a constant engine speed. Also, I never went above 4500 rpm…lots of self-control here.


I had pre-arranged an appointment at Hendrick Chevy to get my engine and oil filter changed and to also get my DCT fluid and filter changed. When I got there, they acknowledged my appointment, filled out the paperwork and so on. At that time I gave them 6 oil sample bottles and the GM oil filter and GM DCT filter and explained what I wanted. The oil samples were supposed to be: 1) a new engine oil sample from Hendrick Chevy for what they put into my car; 2) a new DCT fluid sample from Hendrick Chevy for what they put into my car; 3) a used engine oil sample from what they drained from my car; 4) a used DCT oil sample from what they drained from my car. Those 4 samples were to go to Blackstone labs for their analysis. Two more samples were supposed to be: 1) a used engine oil sample from what they drained from my car; 2) a used DCT oil sample from what they drained from my car. Those samples were supposed to go to SpeeDiagnostix for additional analysis. They said it would take about 3-4 hours till my car was done, which was about what I expected. About an hour and a half later they contacted me and said my car was done…big red flag for me…I asked them what they did and they stated an engine oil and filter change and a DCT filter change. I told them I had also wanted and asked for a DCT fluid change. They said they never do that. I asked about the DCT fluid change now required by Chevy at 7500 miles and they said they don’t do that, they just do a DCT fluid analysis for Chevy at 7500 miles. The guy that I was talking to said they had never had to do a DCT fluid change. So now I am disappointed, but I had a pretty tight schedule to try and keep and this was not a game changer, just something I wanted done. I then asked him if they replaced the DCT fluid that was drained with the filter change. He said of course they did, so since I noticed the rear trunk components had not been touched, I asked him how they did it (I thought through the trunk was the only way, but learned later there is another…). He said he wasn’t sure so he consulted another service tech and they both agreed that the refill was done via an access in the front trunk, to which I almost coughed up laughing. I said that I have done a lot of research and investigation and in none of that did anything mention accessing the DCT fill via the front trunk. He insisted that it was done that way so I asked him to show me. So now we go to the front trunk, and again, none of the panels look like they have been disturbed or moved. At that point I asked him if he could get the technician that actually did the service to come talk to me because I did not think this explanation was realistic. The tech came to me with a diagram and explained that after a DCT filter change they jack the car up on only one side that gives them access to the fill plug and they put about 8 ounces of DCT fluid in after the filter change. This explanation satisfied me for that but was still overall not at a very satisfying experience. After a long discussion and finally settling the bill, I was finally out of there and on to the rest of my journey. I have met Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon and found them to be very genuine and nice people but my experience at his dealership was really subpar and not anything like I expected. I would not recommend them for anything.


That dealership experience was at about 625 miles…now for the rest of the drive…The rest is nothing spectacular, just a summary. The roads in Kentucky and Tennessee were by far the best of all, and by a significant margin, kudos to them! The next best roads were Nevada and California (these are based on the roads I drove on…). Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and New Mexico were about the same, some good, some bad, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona were the worst! By a long shot! In Texas and Louisiana the transitions from the freeway to a bridge entailed a 3” or more transition, I probably have a bent wheel or wheels as a result, but have not yet checked. Do that for a thousand miles and you will know what I mean. I managed to notice , and avoid, 49 speed traps along the way. The Radar detector got them all but I had integrated Apple Maps and it had warned me of about 1/3 before the radar detector. The roads in Arizona were particularly bad in that they repaved with oil and gravel in al lot of areas. I have an oil film on parts of my car as a result that I have yet to determine the correct way to get it removed. The parts of the drive that were especially bad were the very fresh oil and gravel lay down. I did the recommended 25 MPH on the road, but none of the opposing traffic did, most of them don oing double or more. I got showered with rocks each time, 6 to 10 of the rocks actually coming into the car since I had the top down for that drive.


I stopped in Las Vegas to meet a friend and gambled at GVR and won $500 at Baccarat (BTW Baccarat helped pay for the car). After LV, I went to my daughter’s home in the LA area and the next day went to the Vertical Doors shop in Lake Elsinore to get that modification to my car (I know…half will go are you are going to be, are you kidding me and the others will go way cool…whatever). Those guys were great and totally professional…if you are thinking about that mod…go there, well worth it! I picked up my wife in that area and we drove the final 600 miles home.


About the car! Sorry you had to read the previous to get to this…Nearly flawless! Only minor issues. First issue was the INFOTAINMENT scree would not respond to anything on the second day. I shut the car off and re-started it about a minute later and that fixed that. 2 days later, similar issue, this time started the car and no INFOTAINMENT screen. Again shut the car off and started again about 30 seconds later and everything cured. My only other issue is the passenger seat has a rattle in it that I need to get addressed at some point. The car has surpassed every expectation I had for it. I have driven several Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s on a track, plus autocrossed a few BMW’s (by far much less experience than most here), and this car is so much more responsive and better by a margin that I just can’t quite describe. It does what you want, when you want and it does it just right, each time. Again, it is just amazing!


I hope you found what I wrote relevant…if not, please just ignore me, I don’t care. I don’t post much, but I am interested in what you all do to you cars and how you use them in your life experience. Take car and enjoy your cars the way you want to, that is the most important thing!

chevyrules727

Congrats on the car!

The 7500 mile service is still just a DCT filter change. DCT fluid changed at 3 years or 45,000 miles still.

Or where did I miss the change?

Joe’s Z06

Excellent writeup! Thanks for sharing

Phil1098

Sorry, but that's not how it works. I had an order in the GM Global Workbench (sold retail at 1100) during the 2023 build year. When GM finished building 2023 cars they sent me an email and said, "sorry but your order is no longer valid" (because they weren't building 2023 cars any more). The day prices were released for the 2024 cars, I placed another sold order in the workbench at my dealer and locked in that price because it was a retail sold order (as long as no changes were made to it). Then price increases came and the prices today are different than when my original 2024 order went in. I too paid $2,300 less than my window sticker says, so I guess I can say I paid less than MSRP, but in reality, I paid what GM said the price was when I committed to the order. I picked up my 2024 at the museum less than a week ago.

Z0HS1CK

He probably did it as peace of mind.

I changed my engine oil/DCT filter at 1100 miles. Totally not necessarily but i felt more comfortable doing it this way. I'll use the "free" service around the 24 month or at 7500 mile.

Phil1098

This is what he said "I asked about the DCT fluid change now required by Chevy at 7500 miles" , doesn't sound like peace of mind to me. More like he had some bad information from some source.

Z0HS1CK

No i mean that he did that supposed 7500 mile service very early for that peace of mind. He said the dealership experience was at 625 miles?

That's why i was saying he had pre-scheduled that service knowing that's what he wanted to do very shortly after taking delivery of the car.

As far as them not replacing the fluid when he asked them to is something else. I wasn't commenting on that part. Although i might have someone do the fluid change and one more DCT filter change before i even use GM's free 7500 mile service.

Phil1098

Agreed and understand. One bit of bad info is adding any DCT fluid from the trunk area. Yes, there is a fluid fill port on top of the DCT, but trust me, you don't want to remove the airbox assembly on these cars if you don't have to. I removed mine a couple times on my SR, and now that a 2 quart overfill is no longer needed, you just fill them from the DCT side level plug from underneath the car.

tobaccokid

EM Racer - excellent and interesting writeup. Enjoyed your experience description except of course the negatives. Had my own experience with essentially non-existent QC resulting problems with my 2024 Z06. Luckily my dealer was great.

EM Racer

Yes, that is correct, I paid MSRP at the time I ordered and my window sticker shows a price about $2500 more than I paid. I am satisfied.

EM Racer

Yes, I believe I missunderstood about the 7500 mile DCT fluid change. I now believe it is a fluid flush and filter change at 7500 miles. That said, I will have a complete fluid change done at 7500 miles. I will also be doing an engine oil and filter change myself at about 4000 miles, probably sometime next week, and then again by the dealer at 7500 miles.

chevyrules727

It's not really a flush in the traditional sense.

The fluid flush people post about is just moving valves in the DCT to move the fluid through the filter to get out as much contaminants as possible before removing and changing the filter. But in the Corvette Today podcast Harlan and team stated it isn't required. They do it because they can while it is at the dealer, but isn't a hard requirement.

RBK

If you do it early, you still have to do the 7500 mile to keep the warranty. Bet many do not know this.

Michael A

This kind of thing with any company drives me absolutely nuts. You put in a request. They acknowledge your request. Then on the final step, they don't perform the request and never confirm that the request was completed. They pretend like you never put in the request. This is not rocket science. Why can't they just do what is requested?

Then to top it off, they have every service manual created by GM, and they still don't know the car.

Z0HS1CK

Of course i know this. I stated it already in my post.

I just do not like the idea of waiting that long. I'll be doing another out of pocket DCT filters change and a fluid change before my free service comes up.

FL-355

EM Racer - I did a similar trip on my new Z and also had a rattle from the shotgun seat the drove me crazy for two days. Found the fix - on my car it was the seat belt retainer strap between the bolster and headrest. Was not secured. Might be the same thing, worth checking.

vader86

Yeah I had a similar experience with the NCM, as they had closed just about everything for the C8 when I picked up my C7. Why the destination charge is still there for them taking it across the damn street is beyond me. I wanted to see it built in the factory, couldn't, wanted to get build pics, couldn't. Wanted to take the factory tour, couldn't. Wanted to drive on the NCM course, couldn't at the time. You pay a good amount and the Museum people who show you the car's features are great, but now they close off everything so much that its impossible to get your money's worth with any consistency.

And I've driven all over, Louisiana roads are just horrid, there are no good ones. Damn concrete k-thump k-thump k-thump everywhere and its slicker than ****.

chevyrules727

Destination charge is federal law. Nothing can be done about that.

Meant to "make it fair" for the dealers far away from the factory. Everyone pays a flat fee vs buy from a dealer close to where it is built to save money.

z28lt1

Technically it is not a federal law directly. However:

• Dealers pushed hard for manufacturers to "make it fair" as you said above and the cost is the same everywhere and the manufacturers have done so for a very long time.
• By law, you have to advertise that there is a destination fee when advertising, and that becomes really hard to do if the fee is different by dealer especially with online build and price as you can't price the car for a consumer without knowing what dealer they are buying from.

As such every company has the same fee everywhere (some have different fees for Alaska and HI), but the law specifically around equal destination fees is internet myth.

BearZ06

Great write up, thanks for the details and taking the time to share it.