OT The price of the Z06 was just released

The base price is $65K with just a few options. A decently equipped Z06 will sell for under $70K. http://forums.corvetteforum.com/atta...entid=47582023

WOW!

very reasonable...

It's a steal. Porsche....are you listening?

Most car companies aren't in the position of charging what the market will bear price like Porsche can. Unfortunately I doubt that the Z06 will compel Porsche to change its pricing philosophy. As long as Porsche enthusiasts are willing to pay a premium for the Porsche marque, Porsche will be more than happy to accomododate them.

not to sound harsh but Z06 pricing is irrelavent to Porsche. a base carrera in the Uk costs the equivilent of $110k fot the last few years - porsche has not seen the need to change anything its like comparing a hyundai to a BMW, yes they may both have 4 wheels, leather interior and do 0 - 60 in 7.5 seconds but they are not in the same class track times to 95% of buyers are not a factor at all. I for one would rather slit my wrists than own a 'domestic' US car to put it in context, I moved here from europe and I am appalled at the difference in quality between domestic 'USA' cars and domestic 'UK' cars

If you're stricly looking for a track car, it'd likely be hard to beat the new Z06 for value. If you throw quality into the equation, I for one can see how Porsches command more money as I've yet to experience a Vette that I'd take over my P-car.

WOW, indeed....

Where does the "quality" factor get impacted by RMS leaks? 65K is an excellent value. When I bought my 02X50, the ZO6 was a close loser. This was based on a somewhat cramped (for me) interior, that was too Generic Cavalier, and performance that was excellent but not exhilarating. The C6 interior is much improved (but still less appealing than Porsche), and the new ZO6 engineering and power seem to be worlds ahead. This time, I'd make the opposite decision. For the price of a tt, one could get a ZO6 plus a one year old 996 etc. AS

not to sound harsh but Z06 pricing is irrelavent to Porsche. a base carrera in the Uk costs the equivilent of $110k fot the last few years - porsche has not seen the need to change anything what's relavent about porsche prices in the Uk to a $65k z06? thank god i live here and not there. I for one would rather slit my wrists than own a 'domestic' US car to put it in context, I moved here from europe and I am appalled at the difference in quality between domestic 'USA' cars and domestic 'UK' cars the last british cars i've had experience with were the land rover discovery and jaguar xjs--considering their cost and reputation--they both were pretty appalling in durability and quality terms, but i wouldn't make blanket statements that all british cars suck.

the XJS finished production in 1991 - not sure a car 14 years out of production is a valid comparison. The discovery is regarded as farm machinery in the UK, from comments from my friends here it seems the 'disco' is a luxury vechicle here - very bizzare. I've driven pretty much every GM/FORD/Chrysler car over the last 3 years - every single one is appalling compared to euro cars made by GM/FORD price in america is key which is why lexus has been a successful luxury brand and the infinite Q45 beats the audi A6, Merc E-class and BMW 5 series in the latest car and driver sports sedan test, and why hyundai is a reasonable brand here and not a joke like in the UK

No matter how good the car could be, it will always wear a chevy badge. I for one will pay more for the Porsche crest...............HANDS DOWN............

It's a matter of positioning, as defined in marketing terms. A corvette will always be a corvette, and aside from enthusiasts who may buy it on "objective" criteria, such as pure performance analysis, people buy cars b/c of market position. Call it stereotyping if you like, but you all have an image of the corvette buyer, the Porsche buyer, the Oldsmobile buyer, the Prius buyer, etc. What you buy, rationalizations aside, is the image of the vehicle. That's why we don't all drive identical Protons from Malaysia.

Thank goodness I drive a Neutron from Malaysia!

Lee, I am always amused by your points of view. Keep em coming......

Quality consists of the aspects that can't always be objectively measured. It's the reason we don't all drive stripped 2 liter turbo sedans from Japan (or whatever meets the performance measurements that are important to you). If the new Z06 is such "an excellent value" in your eyes, go trade your TT for one. Drive it like an enthusiast would for a few years and get back to us on its "quality". Are P-cars or Vettes (or anything else for that matter) flawless? Absolutely not. I sold my old 996 to a Vette owner who couldn't wait to make the switch and is still thrilled he did. But what does he know?

The best thing that ever happened to a British car is when Carroll Shelby put a FORD 427 side oiler in one. Instant transformation from POS to one of, if not the most awesome sports car ever built.

Although the Z06 is a sexy car at a great value, It's no 911. It can't be and never will be. The driving experience of my car makes it the best street going race car on the market. The standard C6 is a brute. My friend has one and sure, it will blow the tires off the rims....But to quote a fellow Rennlister IT"S A CHEVY! plastic fantastic and rattles and poor quality. Even when Porsche f%$s up it's a quality F%$k up like RMS. My 911...I think I'll keep her

WILMINGTON, Delaware (AP) -- General Motors Corp. plans to close plants and eliminate 25,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States by 2008 in an attempt to restore profitability at the world's largest automaker, its chairman said Tuesday as he fended off calls for his resignation. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told shareholders at GM's 97th annual meeting in Delaware that the capacity and job cuts should generate annual savings of roughly $2.5 billion. About one out of six jobs in the United States will be eliminated.

I am considering going the other way and trading my 996 for a C6 Z06. Build quality to me has gone down in the Porsche. RMS for 6 years now and still not addressing the problem, airbag lights that cost $900 to fix, I have had to have my top recalibrated 3 times in the 1 year that I have owned it. My 964 was rock solid, but the 996 has been a bit disappointing to me. People can say whatever they want about the Porsche badge. I have owned over 10 Porsches and have never had the problems of the 996. Just my .02 Maybe I will go back to a 993 turbo, who knows, I am just venting about the problems with my car.

The ONLY way GM competes is on price! Let's face it guys. No one would buy the Z06 if it was priced like a Porsche or Ferrari - that's the reason they priced it the way it is. I think GM would have finally reached the pinnicale if it could actually price the car at $150K AND have people buy them.

Personally, I wouldn't pay 50 cents more for a Porsche badge than a Chevy one. I don't give a $hit about impressing people because I drive a Porsche. What's important to me is the performance. And like it or not, with each generation Chevy gives Porsche a much better run for it's money. The Z06 is now almost identical in length to a Carrera, offers more horsepower, a true dry sump engine (instead of the pseudo-dry sump foisted on us by Porsche cost cutting),and will out run the 997 in a straight line and on a road course. There's one thing that keeps me with Porsche and that's the phenomenal road feel and steering feedback that Porsche offers. Chevy can't match that. But the margin between the two is pretty damn thin, considering the dollar differences.

Apart from adding a few more details relating to durability that I think Porsche still does better, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Really? Try driving a Jaguar!!!!

It's actually a couple of inches shorter than the 997...

I don't want to change the topic but what is "recalibrating the top"? I'm just a curious relatively new owner of a '99 C2 Cab. I've had my top apart a couple of times to see how it works (and find out why the dash light stays on sometimes) and it's an engineering marvel (or Rube Goldberg - depending on how you look at it). BTW - dash light was a sticky microswitch - a little silicone spray and viola!

My buddy has two Vettes. Both very fast with lots of chrome and goodies But, when I feel the plastic surface, listen to it on the road, look at the interior...all I see is a GM's answer to a fast convertible car. There's simply no comparison to my 03 996 What I would really like to see is how many vette owners would buy a vette over a 996, if price wasn't an issue. I know my buddy would rather have two cars for the price of one PCar. I, on the other hand prefer quality and performance over multiples. As I would prefer one great bottle of red wine verses many bottles of table vino.

I wonder how much a Corvette is with the GM "employee discount" promo they have running?

The GM employee discount unfortunately doesn't apply to vettes.

If you could buy a decently equipped 997 for $50K, I doubt that GM would sell many vettes. Maybe some would prefer the styling of the vette over the 997, so there could be a few sales but not many IMO. But back to the real world. For the price of a stripped 997 you will be able to buy a C6 Z06 which based on preliminary reports is a street legal race car. The over 500 lb/ft of torque produced by the Z06's 7 liter engine will be awesome. I use to own an 8 liter vette with around 450 lb/ft of torque, and that car would eat up anything on the road from a roll. Of course unless you were running slicks, it was tough getting all that power to the road from a dead stop. I'm not certain how you are measuring performance, but I wouldn't tangle with a C6 Z06 if you are driving your 996. BTW I'm not sure if you have driven a C6 but its interior is vastly improved over the C5, although it's still not up to the standard of a 996 or 997. Don't get me wrong. I believe that the 996 is a highly refined sports car with outstanding performance, and for those who prefer refinement over brute power, it's hard to beat a 996.

Like it or not, image will trump performance for most luxury goods buyers. Why is it that a Patek Phillippe or Breguet costs 10 times as much as a second tier brand, and 100+ times as much as a Seiko when they all tell excellent time, and many low cost watches have more features? How many Vipers has Chrysler sold since they were introduced? If you bought 2 Corvettes for the price of one Turbo and kept them for 8 years, how much will they be worth as used cars? My guess is that you will lose less money in the TT. The percentage of performance car buyers who will disregard brand status in favor of track and straight line stats is very small. If Corvettes had the exact same steering feel and buiild quality as the 997, it would still not persuade buyers like me to make the switch because a brand's image , like it or not, is attached to its driver.

[QUOTE=fast1]If you could buy a decently equipped 997 for $50K, I doubt that GM would sell many vettes. But back to the real world. For the price of a stripped 997 you will be able to buy a C6 Z06 which based on preliminary reports is a street legal race car. I'm not certain how you are measuring performance, but I wouldn't tangle with a C6 Z06 if you are driving your 996. BTW I'm not sure if you have driven a C6 but its interior is vastly improved over the C5, although it's still not up to the standard of a 996 or 997. Porsche produces 80 or 90K cars a year (Boxster, Cayenne and Carrera) versus what, 1 or 2 million for Chevrolet? It's a lot easier to build a relative handful of $50K cars when you've got another million or so others on which to make a profit. In the real world, people don't do virtually all their driving on racetracks, which tend to be relatively smooth. The last generation Z06 would knock your fillings loose on real roads - let's see what this one does. I won't tangle with a C6 Z06 (or Hyundai) for that matter because I don't care which car is faster. I didn't buy the Porsche to race. With a 428 C.I. V8 the Z06 should be fast ( and congratulations to Chevrolet for bringing back a displacement figure first popularized by Ford). The C6 interior is vastly improved over the C5? That's damning with faint praise. The C5 was roundly derided by enthusiast magazines for the cheap appearance of the interior. I have inspected a C6 close up and have to admit the interior isn't bad - it reminds me strongly of the dash in my Civic Si - but it's not in the same league as the full leather interior on my 996. The C6 I looked at had the same slightly mismatched rear bumper cap color, uneven seams and gaps in body panels that virtually every C5 I ever looked at had. The rear bumper cap fit better than the C5, with less dimpling on the sides, but still there. If Chevrolet could ever build a Corvette that didn't look like a 5 year old slapped it together, they might have something. The fact that they haven't in over 50 years speaks volumes.

Jags are not that competitive compared to a Audi/BMW when it comes to quality, but they are still head and shoulders above the tatty Caddillacs and Lincolns that are nominally competing with them Seriously, I went to the cadillac dealer (in my wifes cars so the sales guy thought i was a dreamer) and i was shown the CTS. I was flabbergasted at the expanse of cheap crap plastic

We must remember the 911's market niche. Middle aged guys with families that need a sports car with 4 seats that have potential to buy the wife a Cayenne. PAG knows they have marque loyalty 2nd to none. Lifetime Porsche number 12 here. As we make more and get older, they have a product that we'll pay for. Enter 4 door sports sedan Panamera in 2008; I'm unofficially number one at my dealer. Piech , sharing positions on both companies Supervisory Boards, needs to make the Phaeton morph able into something that can command target profitability. Add motors from the Cayenne with Porsche moniker and enough R&D from Weissach. Shared platform sculpting will make it so different from the Phaeton and the A8, that few will ever know.

After seeing the pic of the 4D sedan, I'll just hold on to my 03 and buy a that when it hits the street. Just showed that pic to my kid. He said, buy that Dad!!!! by then I'll need the leg room

I only hope my AMG C32 can hold together until then. New tranny compliments of Daimler-Chrysler going in as we speak. Let's just say that service via a Porsche dealer is head and shoulders above the wranglings one must endure at a Chevy or Benz dealer based on prior personal experience. Another factor to consider when buying a new automobile.

Only prob for me is that its supposed to cost >$120k :-(

-that is like saying that you would not date a supermodel PHD with a great personality because her last name is lippschitz

Not exactly on target... the woman you describe is an extreme oddity, highly educated, top of her game model with an unusual name. On the other hand a corvette in the auto world isn't remotely close comparatively to the woman you define.

That is for the Twin Turbo, I believe.

great maybe i can get the 2 litre volkswagen engine derivitive!