Any C6 Corvette owners/friends out there?

[frslee]

I've been recently thinking about trading my car for a C6 Corvette. It's a totally different car and its characteristics. My thought is not fully decided yet, but I'm slowly researching it and trying to justify if this change would be a good fun car for the next 3-4 years. I'm not saying I'm not having fun with this car. I still love driving fr-s on street and track, I may be thinking to upgrade driving experience?

Has anyone driven the car? Is it feasible to use the car as daily driver? Any thoughts are welcome. If not, any other vehicle recommendation would be great as well. My main focus for now is rwd, manual, fun to drive, good balance... preferably 25k budget.

[tofurun]

Originally Posted by frslee

I've been recently thinking about trading my car for a C6 Corvette. It's a totally different car and its characteristics. My thought is not fully decided yet, but I'm slowly researching it and trying to justify if this change would be a good fun car for the next 3-4 years. I'm not saying I'm not having fun with this car. I still love driving fr-s on street and track, I may be thinking to upgrade driving experience?

Has anyone driven the car? Is it feasible to use the car as daily driver? Any thoughts are welcome. If not, any other vehicle recommendation would be great as well. My main focus for now is rwd, manual, fun to drive, good balance... preferably 25k budget.

My choice was between 10-11 c6 vs the brz. I could get both at the same price. I in the end chose the brz because thats really what i wanted in a car. The c6 is an amazing vehicle... Still own a 07 XLR yeah its not a c6 but we all FAM LOL. you cant go wrong with a newer model vet. It is a lot of power though. Alot less forgiving car than the brz.
I think it would be fine for a daily if you get one with low miles and a clean history. Just remember not alot of space and no backseat. The feasible part... Its a newer car with power from an NA v8. I dont see what there would be to worry about. Gas?? lol even that isnt bad.
Overall i think the c6 is an amazing car and have nothing bad to say. I would love to have one eventually when I am in a position in my life I dont have to worry about car seats for children and have a little more control to not end up like i am at mustang week.

[ka-t_240]

Nothing i can tell you with out seeing the use you are wanting. Vettes are fun, but have their down falls. If you are wanting to do racing, the vettes consumable cost is insane... price out the tires once.

[Jen]

My 2 cents-I own a vette, used it as a daily driver, it's dead at under 100k and I can't explain how much money I put into fixing it. I think I've replaced every part on that car. I love Corvettes, but never again. It's an expensive lawn ornament at my house in my driveway. I bought a new Camaro instead. I wouldn't recommend that either, I'm trading it for a BRZ.

The Camaro has the grace of an ocean liner. The only reason I was able to DD the vette was that I own lots of cars, so if it broke, I drove something else. You can't have it as your main car.

We have a WRX now, I'm in love. Go drive one. There's a reason people are obsessed with them. You can get a new WRX for 26k if you negotiate hard. I bought at Van Bortel Subaru in Victor, NY, ask for Vince. You can also hit up Clayton at Ramsey Subaru in NJ. It's worth the drive. Negotiate over the phone and by email.

[Summerwolf]

Trading to a C6, do it in a heartbeat. If you have never had a powerful car like that definitely trade if you can.


They are extremely reliable, parts are mostly cheaper or on par with the BRZ / FRS market (brake pads, rotors, etc) the LS engine is dirt cheap to upgrade / fix / maintain.


The only downsides are the seats, certain parts in the vehicle can get expensive, and most of the corvette community would rather talk about wax products than drive the vehicle.


Another thing to look in to are C5 Z06's, you can get one with low mileage for your budget and they're faster than many of the C6 options out there, plus the handling.


I would not DD the car, but I also don't DD the BRZ. They CAN be, if you can live with crawling out of the car, and two seats. I would say they're more comfortable than a twin on a long drive.

[pinski]

My dad owns a C5 and I considered the C6 briefly not too long ago. 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.

[FX86]

get a dodge viper srt...raw as it gets=fun

[Teseo]

Camaro

[strat61caster]

Cousin has an automatic C5 for his mid-life crisis, loves it, drives it every chance he can after owning it for a year.

Drive it, if you like it, buy it. Done, fuck what anyone else says.

Consumables should be on par with the 86 EXCEPT the tires, you track, price 'em out, likely >$1k vs. ~$600. Brakes, oils and fluids, filters, etc. should all be on par.

[Summerwolf]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Cousin has an automatic C5 for his mid-life crisis, loves it, drives it every chance he can after owning it for a year.

Drive it, if you like it, buy it. Done, fuck what anyone else says.

Consumables should be on par with the 86 EXCEPT the tires, you track, price 'em out, likely >$1k vs. ~$600. Brakes, oils and fluids, filters, etc. should all be on par.

They are. Consumables are dirt cheap. Common mods are cheaper for the most part. Suspension stuff is cheap, exhaust is cheaper than the 86.... its unreal how much people ask for 86 parts comparatively.

Certain electronics and body parts etc are expensive, but the 86 has certain expensive specialty parts too.

[Mr.ac]

If you don't need a back seat, want more power, do it.
If your mechanically inclined it's not that bad to work on.

[Re_Invention]

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.

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.

[tofurun]

Originally Posted by Summerwolf

The only downsides are the seats, certain parts in the vehicle can get expensive, and most of the corvette community would rather talk about wax products than drive the vehicle.

Hey man... I learned to wax on a corvette platform....

Edit: Forgot to mention Meguiar's G7014J Gold Class Carnauba. Its the bomb dawg.

[ZionsWrath]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Cousin has an automatic C5 for his mid-life crisis, loves it, drives it every chance he can after owning it for a year.

Drive it, if you like it, buy it. Done, fuck what anyone else says.

Consumables should be on par with the 86 EXCEPT the tires, you track, price 'em out, likely >$1k vs. ~$600. Brakes, oils and fluids, filters, etc. should all be on par.

That would be a huge cost to consider. Tires about twice the price and probably wear out twice as fast due to the power difference. Same with brake pads I imagine?

Also would need to figure out a tire trailer or vehicle trailer to bring your track rubber.

These are huge reasons I liked the BRZ. Also I probably would have binned a corvette by now if I bought it in 2012 when I got my BRZ. I never had a v8 or any tack experience at that time.