Quote:
Originally Posted by pinski
Here's my Corvette experience:
- Build quality of the C5 is pretty bad. The C6 is an improvement, but the interior of those is worse than a FRS/BRZ. Lots of cheap plastic, poor fitment, poor design.
- The C6 is absurdly quick even in base form. I was only interested in LS3 cars so I can't really speak to the LS2, but I would recommend a 2008+ car to get the newer and more powerful engine.
- As someone mentioned, consumables are very high. I wanted a Grand Sport, which comes with the widebody like the Z06, but in fiberglass instead of carbon fiber. However, it adds wider, sticky rubber and dry sump oiling. Consumables for that car are very high - a set of tires would be well over $1000, even for cheaper brands
- If you're looking at a base model, make sure to find one with the Z51 package - it's worth it.
- Try to also find one with the optional baffled exhaust - it sounds really good when it opens up, but is quiet when you just want to cruise around.
- The shifter in the C6 is not very good compared to our cars and the view out isn't as good either.
- If you get one with an optional glass top, by this point in its life it will usually have a lot of crazing and will look terrible up close. Same goes for the headlights.
- Check closely for any damage - if the car bumped anything, the fiberglass will flex and spiderweb the paint around it, and there's no easy fix (that I know of).
TL;DR - It's fast and fun, quality can be questionable, a few spots show age easily, and consumables are high. I'd hold out for a C7.
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Good advice here. My old man had a C6 Grand Sport (in Jetstream Blue!) for a couple of years, he purchased it used, was flawless, I looked at several Z51 cars before buying something else.
Build quality is bad for a $55k car from 2006, it's reasonable for a $25k car from 2006 though. It's on par with Porsche 911's and Cayman's of similar year and I think it's comparable to an FR-S actually. Brace for one or two squeaks here or there. Later models had more color choices as I recall - that helps. There was also a red leather interior, rare, but man it looked great especially on a white or black car.
If you're going stick shift - you won't notice much difference between an LS2 or LS3 in 99% of situations. It's a damn fast car, numb on steering feel, get the Grand Sport or Z and you've got absurdly good brakes and have any intention on getting onto a big track. Z51 on a base is a must unless you're going to modify heavily - then who cares, but if that's the case, start with a Z06 for the goodies.
Tires are pricey, period. $900-1000 is typical in our experience on a deal for rubber on wheel, more for better models without discounts.
For me the interior was too cramped and I didn't want to slouch anymore, it'd be uncomfortable on longer drives plus the wife doesn't care for em, and the car was simultaneously too much and not enough: tough to enjoy modestly (talk about torque!) and zero steering feel/feedback, the driving experience it did provide (low slung, long nosed, long geared tail happy tire muncher) wasn't what I wanted. Looks great in red, mechanically sound, makes fantastic noise and will scratch a speed itch - when I looked last year I was budgeting $22k-24k for a Z51 model with under 70k miles, lots were marketed around $25k. Base models with 70-100k miles tended to go for $17-20k. LS3 stuff was still in the $30k's and Grand Sport was $38-45k. Z's were all over the place though, I've seen as cheap as $29k and as high as $60k. Unsure what they're all trading at now.