As someone who is passionate about cars, I like to share a little bit of my candid experience with different cars I have owned and give some real-world insights on what they are like on a day-to-day basis. So, I wanted to share some of my perceptions of owning the new Corvette C8 for 90 days and my experience with it out on the road!
Ordering Process & Wait
To start, actually getting a C8 at MSRP was a very long and tedious process. All-in-all, it took me just shy of 9 months to actually get my hands on one. Before committing to placing a deposit, I jumped back in forth multiple times as to whether I actually wanted to wait it out or just settle on something else. Ultimately, after test driving about a dozen different cars, a kind stranger let me tinker with his Vette in a Golf Galaxy parking lot one afternoon I knew it was worth the wait.
Before I could even place an order, I ended up speaking with a total of 18 different dealerships over a three-week span trying to find one that A. Sold at MSRP B. Didn't have a 50+ person/2-year waiting list and C. Didn't require a $5k non-refundable deposit. I placed a deposit with a dealership about 50 miles east of Nashville, TN in March 2021 and it ended up being one of the best car-buying experiences I've ever had.
After many months of patiently waiting, they called me in early August to let me know I was next on the list for an allocation and would need to confirm that I would be okay with rolling into the '22 model year instead of a '21. This ended up being the best thing that happened as I was very intrigued by the new Hypersonic Grey color and changed at the last minute and ordered it sight-unseen.
I ended up picking my Vette up on October 4th, 2021.
As of today, I have put a total of 4,087 miles on it. During that time, I have taken it on a road trip from Nashville to Gatlinburg, TN, as well as a handful of 3+ hour round-trip weekend golf trips and a bowling tournament. That being said, I did NOT buy this car to be my daily driver and had no intention of putting that many miles on it. I have a Model 3 Performance that I use as a work vehicle as my day job requires me to be on the road 4 days out of the week and I put 28k miles on it last year alone. But, I enjoy driving that damn Vette so much, it's hard for me to justify pulling the Tesla out from the wall unless I have to.
Anyways, here is my experience with my car to date and some things I love and hate:
Things I Love:
Comfortability:
I have to say this has been the biggest surprise to me as the C8 has definitely positioned itself as much more of a grand touring car than its predecessors. I previously had a 2014 C7 and despite being in my late 20s, I have the lower back of someone on the tail-end of their mid-life crisis. While I loved driving my C7, I found it to be pretty uncomfortable for any drive over an hour as the seats weren't very supportive, the suspension was fairly rough, and road noise was pretty bad (not as bad as my Tesla..but that's a different story).
With the C8, the suspension is alarmingly good. As in, I had to triple-check Google to make sure they didn't actually put the air-ride suspension on a Corvette, kind of good. I went with the GT1 seats over the GT2 or competition seats and while they don't look *quite* as good, they are very well-padded while being supportive like a sporty seat should be. The driver's seat is also very roomy for how narrow it is and despite being a very driver-centric design it doesn't feel claustrophobic at all. But, I'm also 6' 175lbs, so I could see it still being a pretty tight fit for someone larger.
Road noise is also very well suppressed and insulated. It's not a Rolls, by any means, but it's obvious that road noise was something taken into consideration when designing the C8. Engine noise is also pretty well insulated from the cabin. Unless you get above 3500 RPM or do some heavy downshifting in manual mode, the only thing you can really hear is a light "tick" when the radio and AC are off. I was expecting a lot more engine noise from a big ole 'Merican pushrod V8 sitting a foot behind your ears.
Handling
Before I go too far into this: I have NOT tracked it..yet..but I have done plenty of "spirited" driving on the open backroads if you catch my drift. :) The first thing I did after I hit my 500 mile break-in period was flip it into track mode and throw it into a few corners. Obviously, the weight distribution of a mid-engine Corvette is going to vary greatly from anything front-engine, but the C8 just feels so much more.. refined than any car I've driven in the past. Honestly, it's one of the easiest sports cars to drive that I've ever owned and in a way, I actually would consider this a disappointment. Personally, I like a sports car that has a little "fight" to it when you push it hard, almost like trying to rope a bull if you will. But this just makes it so easy. It DOES oversteer a bit as many reviews have mentioned, but it's not very noticeable under 99% of driving conditions but that may change once we have our first track day together.
It also does very well in inclement weather. I've driven in hard rain, high winds, and I drove in a snowstorm on Sunday through slushy/lightly snowy roads and I felt completely confident behind the wheel. In my M3, I get a little apprehensive driving in bad weather despite it being AWD dual-motor as it doesn't react as well around corners and bends other cars do when there's any kind of standing water since it's so bottom-heavy and the regen braking has caused me to inadvertently start to hydroplane before.
Driving Modes and Launch Control
Another pleasant surprise for me is the variance and ability to customize driving modes and the effectiveness of launch control. Of the three GM sports cars that I've owned ('12 Camaro SS, '14 C7, '16 ATS-V) my biggest gripe is that there wasn't really a different "feel" or ability to customize driving modes other than Track Mode just shifted differently and opened the exhaust valves in the C7 and ATS-V. With the C8, being able to set up a "my mode" and "Z Mode" has been really nice as I can turn up the settings to make it feel the way I want and it ACTUALLY makes a difference on how the car drives, responds and feels.
The second gripe I've had with anything GM is that their launch control has historically been laughably bad. With the C8, it actually *works* and I love that there is a built-in 0-60 timer on the gauge cluster. Without launch control, I was clocking between 3.3-3.8, and with launch control, I was right at 2.8-3.1 almost every time. In my C7, I only got below 4.5 once with LC.
Styling/Quality
The obvious one here. But really, being able to admire it and person and see the intricacies of the design in person every day, it's really incredible how well they did. One thing I wasn't ready for is the amount of attention this thing gets. Despite enjoying nice cars, am not an attention-seeker and really prefer to kind of hide under the radar. That's why I went with the Hypersonic Grey on black as I *thought* it would be more subtle than red/blue/yellow. It's not. I literally cannot go anywhere in public without someone stopping me to ask about it or take pictures. I am always happy to talk cars with others but the amount of attention It gets is a lot to handle.
Overall quality has also been a big surprise. Corvettes, obviously have been known for being more of your "poor man's supercar" and have a lot of pretty blatant cost-cutting measures (I'm looking at you C6 with your malibu steering wheel!!!). I spent the first 48 hours looking through pretty much every nook and cranny of the car trying to figure out where they cheaped out and cut costs. There are a few very small things, but overall, they killed it. I am curious, though, how well a lot of the leather stitching on the dash will hold up over a 5-10 year timeframe.
Frunk:
I was pleasantly surprised with how deep and useful the frunk actually is. It's about a foot deeper than my Tesla, about the same width, and actually has carpeting, unlike my M3's hard plastic that makes stuff slide around. Trunk space was not my first consideration in buying a Corvette but its a very nice added bonus its an exact fit for a carry-on luggage bag (I'm sure this is purposeful).
Things I Hate:
Dual-Clutch Transmission/Touchy Transmission:
This is honestly kind of a big one and it's something I have some concern about in terms of long-term reliability when it comes to the C8. This has nothing to do with the fact that the C8 does not come in manual. Honestly, I used to be a huge manual purist, but even if this car did come in manual, I probably would have still gone with the auto/DCT as I've owned several DCT cars before and I've come to love them.
Rather, this has to deal with the actual inefficiency and jerkiness of the transmission as a whole. In some of the 20-21 models, there are several known issues with the transmissions and the car's CPU not jiving up and throwing up a "service transmission" code within the first 1,500 miles which in a few cases caused a full transmission replacement.
Supposedly, this was fixed with the 2022 models, but I have not been impressed with their first attempt at a DCT thus far. First, the car will have completely random fits where it will lurch and jerk really hard between downshifts from second to first between 15-17mph in both auto and manual. It will also jerk really bad sometimes and it feels like it lost power to the drivetrain when I lightly touch the pedal shortly after taking it out of park or being stopped for more than 30 seconds. It's almost like the CPU and transmission occasionally miscommunicate with each other. I had the service center look at it at 750 miles when I had my high-wing installed, and again at 2,000 and had the tranny fluid drained and there were no actual issues, it's just how it is. They have a long ways to go compared to Porsche's PDK, to say the least.
Stock Wheels:
Also referred to as the "transport wheels", and for good reason. Even the excruciatingly overpriced trident style wheels are terrible to me. I went with the black 19" by 20" 5-spoke wheels with the hideous machine edge which ruins the look for an extra $995 just because I wanted the all-season tires that come with them. I thought many of the C7 wheels were at least decent, but I really don't even like the new carbon fiber wheels on the upcoming Z06.
Sun Visor:
Petty, I know. But my LORD it is the saddest excuse for a sun visor ever. If you fold it out all the way, which it basically blocks all visibility except for about 2" of space unless you move the seat down all the way and move the steering wheel up. If you could move the piece closer to the windshield it wouldn't be a problem.
Infotainment System: I won't say it's bad, but it's not good, either. Overall, it's responsive and fairly easy to navigate and you can do some customization with it. But, there's a ton of redundant and relatively un-useful features wasting space that you have to scroll through to look through to find what you actually are looking for. It also has Apple/android car play..which apparently a lot of people like and I don't. I have an iPhone as a work phone and a Samsung as a person so I have used both and both systems are very buggy to me. Speakers absolutely bump, though!
Performance:
Okay, I spent a lot of time talking about how I loved the drivability, handling, driving modes, etc. I mean, this car really is every bit of a supercar and I will make that argument every day of the week. But.. more or less, the performance isn't necessarily a negative, per se, but it is very different from what my expectations were. In fact, for most people, this is probably a huge plus. It's fast, handles exceptionally well, it's responsive, but as I mentioned earlier.. it's just so EASY to drive. You can tell it's 495 horsepower, but it's about as manageable as a 3,300-pound car can get with that much power.
Generally, when I think of high-performance cars, there's a certain kind of hardcore level of difficulty that comes along with driving them and knowing how to handle something like that on the road (Think: Dodge Viper, GT500, GTR). For me, this is part of the excitement of owning a car like this. But, the C8 is something I would probably let my 16-year old baby sister cruise around town and not feel terrified about. This isn't necessarily a bad thing...but just very different from what I expected.
Overall, despite some of its flaws, I have been incredibly happy with the new Corvette and I am beyond thankful that I have the opportunity to own one and don't regret buying one!
Edit: Reposted as using the T-word ($TSLA) is not allowed apparently!!
Submitted January 05, 2022 at 08:46AM by Cweev10 https://ift.tt/3ETX5Aw
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