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Walter said:
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95jersey said:

I think you are confusing the purpose of the car. Dave Hill NEVER once thought the car would replace the stable of exotic cars in the rich and famous' garages. He did not build the car for the type of people that say...Ferrari builds cars for. He wanted the car to be affordable and non-exclusive (which is why they are building several thousand of them). I hope they never put a hand stitched leather interior inside. I hope they stay away from DOHC engines as well. These are all things that drive the price of the car up and do nothing (in my opinion) for the performance or value of the car. I mean...would you really buy a $150k Corvette? Dave Hill knows this.

As far as quality...don't confuse percieved build quality with everday reliability. A Ferrari or Porsche's panels may fit more tightly, but I would GUARANTEE that the Z06 will have far greater street reliability than any Ferrari, Lambo or similar performance car. You have to keep in mind that this car will beat many super exotics on road courses (as proven) but still have a $60 oil change that can be performed by a truck mechanic. As far as maintenance, Ferrari is one of the most expensive cars to maintain with annual services in the $10,000 range. How ridiculous is that? Why is this never spoken about on this forum? One could even go as far to say that by relaibility standards, a Lambo is a POS.

So I think reliability will actually be the Z06's STRONGEST characteristic compared to similar performing cars. I guarantee a CGT, 575, F430, Pagani, Lambo will all break down way more often and cost much more to maintain. At least in the US, an alternator for a Z06 is a 10th of the price of an alternator to the nearest performing competitor. Anyone can build an supercar for $250k, try building one for $60k...oh and make 7000 of them a year!

As far as image...you need to get over that.



Previous Corvettes had strange problems.The diff overheats if your spend too much on the highway and the exhaust rusted in some cars.

I don't think that changing oil is not that easy because it has a dry sump lubrification.I would let someone qualified for this change the oil for me.It also has about 8L of synthetic oil(that alone costs more than $60).You have to change it every 15,000km(!!).Inspection is every 30,000km...it's not a big interval for such a reliable car.

Also,do you know how many brake pads a Z06 has?It's probably the car with the most brake pads in the world...

Then,there are the tires.You have to buy the Goodyears that are surely not that cheap.Oh yeah,runflats are faster on a track than conventional tires.So,no more "if it had Michelins...".

There's also the depreciation.The bad plastics and fiber glass body will probably not look too good after some winters and summers.

These are only some of the reasons why the Corvette is so cheap.Many people say "why doesn't GM make it 5000 euros more expensive and give a Porsche-like interior?".These people don't know that making the wipers and AC more silent and effective,making things look smell and feel better,make sure that there aren't aerodynamical noises at 250km/h,make it safe for the driver AND pedestrians,make it drivable for everyone,etc etc, needs so much R&D that at the end it's really expensive.The car also needs more time to be build.

European manufacturers build cars for the absolute worst cases.American manufacturers take short cuts.I don't think GM wondered if anybody can drive a RWD 500hp car on a wet road...European manufacturers do care about that but they also wonder if the temperature remained constantly low in the cabine for 5 hours under the sun and if the drivers @ss(or any other body part) hurts after a 500km trip



Nicely put.