The Corvette - Sophistication in Simplicity

[DesmoRob]

Nice write up Kitdy, and well said. Because the corvette is so attainable, it does fall into the hands of many people that give it a bad name, but that is just something we need to look past. As it stands, its a fantastic car for a fantastic price. That said, I choose not to be one of those people that doesn't afford the Ferrari they dream of, and I wont resort to corvette ownership .

[Matra et Alpine]

£47,000 in the UK for a new C6.

£50K gets a Lotus Evora.

Sorry about presenting facts .... but which would it be ?
Perhaps explains why the only Edinburgh Corvette dealer closed 2 months ago
and top selling UK dealer for Lotus Evora is .... in Edinburgh

[Ferrer]

£47,000 in the UK for a new C6.

£50K gets a Lotus Evora.

Sorry about presenting facts .... but which would it be ?
Perhaps explains why the only Edinburgh Corvette dealer closed 2 months ago
and top selling UK dealer for Lotus Evora is .... in Edinburgh

Wow, cheap Corvettes in the UK. Here the Evora is cheaper, by ten grand almost.

I can see the appeal of both, though.

[Rasmus]

In the UK, Evora, hands down. Over here, the C/Z.

New Evora; $73k
New C6; $50k
2nd hand C6Z; less than $40k. Them sum'bitches be droppin' in value like they be crazy!

[henk4]

I wanted to make a comparison here, but the Corvette is no longer available. The Evora is 80k Euro, last price (2009) for the C6 was 90k.

[Matra et Alpine]

In the UK, Evora, hands down. Over here, the C/Z.

Interesting. Why, is the Evora not receiving good write-ups ?
It's a classic piece of Lotus engineering.
Handles and performs like an Exige when you need it, does town and motorways like a uber-saloon.

2nd hand C6Z; less than $40k. Them sum'bitches be droppin' in value like they be crazy!

hmmm, again we need to be careful on different country attitudes to car markets ... BUT that would be taken as a poor reflection on the REAL VALUE of the car.
I was taken aback to see 18 month old Evoras selling for only £2K less then the brand new one.
Now THAT is the kind of resale value I only dream about with an RX-8 ( the other extreme )

[Rasmus]

Well for one, I'm not sure the Evora has reached the US yet. That, and a Lotus i just generally a rare bird around here. I know of only two; one 111s JPS and an orange Exige.

There are many reasons why the Vettes are popular over here.

• Brand recognition -- The archetypal All American sports car.
• Not an import -- many people take pride in buying American.
• Big V8 with that V8 sound -- gotta give them that.
• Customizing/power potential -- for the enthusiasts.
• Price -- affordable for most.
• Maintenance -- services are generally cheap, and there are many places to go to.
• American roads -- big, wide, and not that many hard turns.
• "What's a Lotus?" -- sad but true.

The Vettes are no where near the quality level of typical European sports cars, but they do offer a load of value for money. Any attempt at rationalizing a purchase of a sports car is deemed to be futile, but money talks.. and at the end of the day a Z is ridiculously fast for the money.

Am I calling the car good? No, not really. Just driving it, it's okay, but not spectacular. There are many I'd rather have. However,

[Matra et Alpine]

Corvette's are rare here

Am interested on the second hand prices. 25% is about the norm for an "ordinary" car. Do second hand values in the US tend to all drop about the same or is the C6Z you cite just a "bad example". Do other "performance" cars drop by as much ??

The Evora prices are a little "contrived" as Lotus is efectively building to order based on their sales success and factory capacity. So people will pay to get one NOW rather than wait the 8-10 weeks.

[Rasmus]

Kelly's Blue Book. Everybody dealing with used cars live and die by it.

2006 Z06 with a low 50,000 miles in 'Good' condition: $36,550.

It also depends on demand. A really bad example is the GT500KR. Because dealers had to pre-order the cars, many ended up with quite a few KRs sitting on different lots. Just before Christmas last year, an acquaintance of mine managed to pick up a new KR from a Ford dealer for just under $50k. They went for $100k when business was good.

[Matra et Alpine]

^^^ ahm that's something we dont' see in the UK which I think is a US dealership issue.
When supply is low the dealer can chose to set a price ABOVE the manufacturers sales price, yes ?
Not here. Even when demand high, supply low the dealer sells at "List" -- usually you can get a discount down from the "list" price on normal cars - about £500 in the UK

Of course it means on the really exclusive cars a VERY licrative market.
Mate twice "sold" his Ferrari before he bought it having put down the £20K to order one, by the time the car came round he was offered MORE than he woudl ahve to pay. Earned him more one year than 6 months salary

Kelly's is like the UK Glass's trade "black book" or the man in the street's Parkers

[Ferrer]

Well for one, I'm not sure the Evora has reached the US yet. That, and a Lotus i just generally a rare bird around here. I know of only two; one 111s JPS and an orange Exige.

It has.

First Lotus Evora delivered to an American customer — Autoblog

^^^ ahm that's something we dont' see in the UK which I think is a US dealership issue.
When supply is low the dealer can chose to set a price ABOVE the manufacturers sales price, yes ?
Not here. Even when demand high, supply low the dealer sells at "List" -- usually you can get a discount down from the "list" price on normal cars - about £500 in the UK

That's a strange thing about the US market, I'd never pay list price for any car, yet there it seems normal to even pay more to get it. Also we are used to order cars exactly to our spec and the wait for them to be built, while they expect to drive off the dealer with something the same day they visit.

Another difference is the complete lack of choice inside model lines.

[roosterjuicer]

very nice piece there. 'Bout time someone on this darn website agrees with me on something!

[Badsight]

I think you mean big V8. The 6.2L LS3 in the current 'Vette is rather large for a modern V8 engine, and the LS7 is the largest V8 engine in a production car you can buy I would educatedly guess. Audi hovers around 4L for their V8s, as does Ferrari, the big Northstars are 4.4L, the old Modular V8 was 4.6 and 5.4 (5.4 I'd consider large), and the new 5L Mustang is on the verge of a large V8. A 6.2 is very big, and a 7 is monstrous. I dunno even what I'd consider a Cadillac 472/500, potentially gargantuan?

Even the old various 5.7 litres used in C4 and C5 'Vettes were pretty big for a V8, at least when one considers the rest of the world market and the time they were built.

at 625cc per cylinder , 5.0 is the optimum size . . . . . . . . good rev limit & excellent torque

over 100mm pistons require efficient combustion chambers , & the other way - long stroke - kills you maximum revs

over 650cc per cylinder (5.2 liters & over) & your looking at trade-offs in efficiency/max revs

ferraris new 4.5L would have to be my personal favourite , but a much cheaper purchase would be the new Coyote 5.0 by Ford (& the last gen modular V8 was koeinsegg's choice of development engine , they are not exactly slow or unreliable)

[P4g4nite]

At this point in time a Corvette isn't much less complex than most other sports cars, even compared to a Porsche 911.
A Z06 is considerably more complicated, making use of many advanced construction techniques and materials.

When I think of something simple I find it hard to picture a 190mph supercar botherer with all necessary hard/software that goes along with that.
I'm more likely to think of something like the MX-5 which is cheap, light and simple in a way the Corvette could never, responsibly, be and yet still manages to be one of the most enjoyable cars to drive there is.