SPEAKER 1: What do you do
when you buy a Corvette? You have fun with it. Whoo! So now after three years,
32,000 miles, three windshields, four sets of tires, and
a whole lot of races, we're here to answer one
very simple question-- what's it like to own a Corvette? Now, let's start by stating the
obvious because honestly it's, kind of, hard not to. We love driving this car. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Come to daddy. SPEAKER 1: I mean, we gave
it a top rated award twice. It's a good car or as
our boss once said-- ALISTAIR WEAVER: I
love this car so much. So what's the C8
Corvette like to drive? REESE COUNTS: Cake, man. This thing is easy to drive. ALISTAIR WEAVER: The
steering has got great feel, it's very agile,
and they've managed to combine great handling
with a comfortable ride. JONATHAN ELFALAN:
When you hop into it, you realize from a power
standpoint you're not really wanting more. KURT NIEBUHR: It's
so quick to turn. There's just tons of traction. It just feels very alive. ALISTAIR WEAVER: The
reality is if you've never driven a mid-engine
sports car or even getting into supercar
territory before, then this is a great place to start. REESE COUNTS: As long as
you don't need a backseat, it really is a pretty
practical car and something you can use every day. SPEAKER 1: And it's not
just that the Corvette is great to drive, it's
comfortable too. And look at this interior, it is
held up really well over time. If you've owned a
Corvette in the past, you've probably dealt with
squeaks and rattles and creaks and probably a lot
of glue and plastic that didn't age
too well over time. So far this has not
only been a big uptick in quality but also longevity. Our complaints about
the interior are minor. This square steering wheel
is still really stupid. And these buttons-- there are
47 million of them all in a row, so sometimes it's a little
hard to find the one you want when you're driving. Our favorite feature by far,
the single biggest thing we talk about that's not driving
related is the nose lift. Because if you've owned
a Corvette in the past, you also know that you scrape
on every single driveway but now it's got it
taken care of for you. And it's also GPS-activated. So when you come home, the
car automatically knows and you don't scrape. REESE COUNTS: The nose lift
on the Corvette is awesome. JONATHAN ELFALAN: I
am pretty anal when it comes to scraping body
parts even if it's just the plastic arrow bits
on it, so I use the nose lift every single chance I get. KURT NIEBUHR: So you can
basically geotag a location. So if you have a driveway close
to your house that's steep, you get close, it
lifts itself up. ALISTAIR WEAVER: I'm
not sure I ever quite had enough confidence. I didn't want to take the risk
that I'd wipe the nose off, so I tended to do it manually. But, yeah, I would never
buy a mid-engine supercar without the nose lift system. SPEAKER 1: The Stingray
is somewhat practical. It has less cargo space than
past Corvettes for sure, but this is one of
the only supercars I can think of that you can fit
a full-on golf bag in the back. And it's got a frunk, perfect
for your Amazon returns. And then we have
the tire debacle. We've been through four sets
of tires in about 32,000 miles, but only one of those
sets is due to just regular wear and tear. We've had really bad
luck popping these tires. We've done it three times
as a matter of fact. And then we've had to replace
the windshield-- twice. In total, we spent $1,200
on two replacement wheels, $5,000 in tires, and just
about $2,000 in windshields. And to be fair, neither
of these two things are the car's fault
at all, but it's been quite an expensive process. The good news is that regular
maintenance-- a.k.a. things we didn't do on accident-- has
been a relatively easy process. This car in three
years of ownership has spent about 25 days
at the dealer in total. But keep in mind a lot of
our hard driving and racing has meant that some of the
services were needed sooner. The oil life on the Stingray
was toast at about 4,800 miles and we needed a new transmission
filter at 7,500 miles. Because the transmission
filter neck is really deep down in the engine bay,
the dealer ended up charging us a little bit
extra for parts and labor. All told, an oil change
and a transmission service was about $800. Ouch. In total, we've spent about
$1,300 on regular maintenance. Can we just take a moment-- realize what I'm
sitting in right now. This is a mid-engine supercar
with almost 500 horsepower, 0 to 60 in less
than three seconds made by Chevrolet that competes
against things way more expensive than this. And if you need
any proof of that, we've done drag races, hot
laps, and of course U-drags. The Stingray was a fierce
competitor every time. KURT NIEBUHR: I think
the one experience that sticks in my mind was the
first U-drags against the CT5-V Blackwing. And it was just-- the
Corvette's outpowered obviously, the Cadillac's got a
big supercharger on it-- the thing's stupid fast. But the Corvette basically,
because it has shorter gearing, because it weighs
less, it kept up. It launched harder and it
stayed in front for much longer than I thought it would. JONATHAN ELFALAN: C8 versus M2. I felt bad for the M2. But you juxtapose
it next to the C8, which is a purpose built sports
car-- it's got a mid-engine, it's got rear drive, it
doesn't have any rear seats, so it's not compromised
the way that the M2 is-- just driving the
Corvette after the M2-- you're like why would
anybody look at this M2 even? From a performance
standpoint, it's no contest. The Corvette
launched beautifully. It was perfect every time. It would break into the corner
with so much confidence. It would turn the corner and
then the gearbox was amazing. It just made me appreciate
the Corvette that much more. REESE COUNTS: Corvette versus
Corvette in the U-drags-- we all knew the Stingray
was not going to win, but the Stingray
really held its own and it held its own for a while. And that just shows, despite
the Z06's extra power, how hard it is to
put that power down-- also speaks to
just how damn good the Stingray is on its own. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Like
most sports cars, the Chevy's got a sophisticated
stability control system that has different levels. So if you're feeling
your way into a racetrack for the first time,
leave it all on. Then you can
gradually turn it off as your experience
and confidence grows. REESE COUNTS: You can brake
really late with the Corvettes. They've got really nice
brakes really nice brake feel. And because of the mid-engine
and that responsive steering, you can turn in late and really
get it around the corner. JONATHAN ELFALAN: But then
because of the Corvettes PTM, or Performance
Traction Management, you can pretty much
get on the throttle as aggressively as
you want and you can let the system handle the exit. KURT NIEBUHR: That PTM
system is world class, so that's basically
what I would do is you just use launch
control, get it off the line, slam on the brakes, and then
just lean on the PTM system until the car is
relatively straight. REESE COUNTS: That engine
is really responsive, just like everything
else in that car. So it's easy to get good
rear end feel and power out of the corner on the way back. JONATHAN ELFALAN:
But ultimately, if your objective is
to drive that thing as quickly as possible, the car
does a lot of the work for you. KURT NIEBUHR: And
then just look over to the camera, say something
pithy, and haul ass. SPEAKER 2: There
we go, there we go. Whoo! This car launches hard. SPEAKER 1: So as we say
goodbye to our Stingray, we have one more very important
question left to answer-- will we lose our ass on this? Let's break this all down. We paid $80,660 for the
Vette about four years ago. And we just sold it for
$61,000, which equals $19,660 worth of depreciation. Add in about $9,500 worth of
expenses-- the maintenance, wheels, tires, and windshields--
and the grand total cost to own this car was
just under $30,000. For four years of constant
hard driving and enjoyment, that's not a horrible
price to pay. The hype surrounding
this car started years before it ever hit the road,
so it actually blows my mind a little bit that we're now
at the end of our C8 ownership experience. This car has fulfilled its place
at Edmunds time and time again. We're going to miss it. But I want to hear from you. What do you think about
the Stingray's place in automotive history. Let us in the comments
and thanks for watching. [MUSIC PLAYING]
