kosmo

Fiats, now talk about pieces of sh its. Much worse than the avg American car.

Suzy991

Both equally bad...
But at least some marques of the Fiat group had a nice design, which cannot be said about most american cars.

Suzy991

Suzy991

No offense BTW

carrerapete

I'll take a souped-up Foxbody instead.

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/fox...eets-724668287

golftime

I had a pretty good sized fleet of cars under me in my job. Every time I needed to purchase cars, my purchasing guys would tell me how good the American cars were and how I could save money by going American. And every time I bought them, after I bought them, I would either get a chance to drive them or sit in them as a passenger, and I would instantly realize what pieces of junk they were. Engines were course and the cars were crude with terrible handling and just a poor driving experience. As mileage added up, transmissions would go, or other problems would develop which made me question the wisdom of the purchase. At the same time, the Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans I bought, while not completely trouble free, would overall hold up better, and more importantly, were just better cars throughout their lifetime, which for us was about 125,000 miles. The Corvette may well be an exception to this rule, but for people who know quality, American cars still don't have it.

ny991

We have a few company cars I buy. I've bought Fords forever. With the price of fuel, and people driving 25-30,000 miles/year, I've switched to Jetta TDI's. Good quality and 45/mpg is hard to beat.

lfish

When I purchased my 2001 E39 540i I took my family to Munich for European delivery. The experience was remarkable, and most impressive was the factory tour of the 3 series assembly plant. The place was spotless and incredibly efficient. Each 100th car was pulled off the line and all seams and dimensions were lasered to ensure they were within tolerance of manufacturing specifications. If not the line was stopped and all cars up to that one were inspected. No glitches were seen during our three hour tour.

Six years later my son and I toured the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, KY while on vacation at Lake Cumberland. The contrast was stunning. The factory was dirty and the morale of the workers seemed low. Each of the finished products we watched undergoing final emissions testing failed and had to be recalibrated. We were truly disappointed to see the obvious differences between the precision and mind set of the German and American factories and workers.

I hope things have changed over the intervening 6 years in Bowling Green. I really want the Corvette to be a desirable sports car in all respects, not just a value proposition or major bang for the buck which still falls short of its German competitors in quality of assembly, interior fit and finish, and durability. I will have the opportunity to spec out my order in September for December delivery of a Stingray convertible, and I want to be excited at the prospect. In the meantime, I can't wait for the reviews and comparison tests which will surely pop up over the next few months!

kosmo

thanks for providing real world experience. Cant say that about others here.

Bill Coleman

Something else I just realized - the JD Power study cited only concerns INITIAL quality.

Here's the latest study of 3 year old cars:
http://autos.jdpower.com/ratings/dependability.htm

Still a few GM vehicles - including the Camaro! But Japanese cars dominate.

I don't think they do anything over 3 years.

BTW my daily driver is a 22 year old Honda Accord. A little rust and a few quirks, but still running strong.

clutchplate

Cars aren't just something you drive, they're something you wear. I had a c6 which was a fun car to drive, but always felt like I had just slipped into a polyester suit when I was in it.

Bill Coleman

Here's some pics. No convertible, just the coupe.

In person it's pretty stunning. My only criticism would be maybe a few too many vents. And the interior was underwhelming. But I wouldn't kick it out of my garage.

Bill Coleman

It was hard to get good pics because the car drew such a crowd.

I think the 2nd one below is my favorite angle.

rijowysock

i ordered a white one, got in on the 2nd consensus...

considering my plans and the price.. you cant beat it.

i plan on using it for extended road trips and selling it after 20k and 6 months..

my build:

arctic white
adrenalin red interior
magnetic susp
performance exhaust
navi
z51
red brakes
black wheels

comes to about 60k.. and i expect after 6 months it will be worth about the same or maybe 5k less due to miles... most dealers have sold their first 6 months allocation so once they hit the streets all will be sold out until about july 2014... so should carry some demand due to unavailability.

i got some discounts and some other perks, so even at 5k loss it's worth every dime imo... reliability really doesn't come into play with only 6 months planned ownership.



as far as interior, light years ahead of the c6... and 100x better than my GTR.. i like the 6 months free of connections and directions... hopefully it's easy to use.

bccars

On pic and vid I don't like the c7. Like it was designed by a 14 year old infatuated by transformers. Especially the rear end is horrible. Lets see what happens when I see it in real life.

Suzy991

+1

Suzy991