While on my recent vacation in Southern California, I decide to make things a little more interesting by renting a fun car for the day from Turo, the peer-to-peer car rental service.
While there are lots of interesting rides to choose from on Turo in the Los Angeles area (I was seriously tempted by one of several 1960’s Mustangs that are available), I decided to go with something a little more modern for my first Turo rental. While you can spend $1000 or more per day to rent an exotic, a C7 Corvette can be yours for around $99 per day, easily making it the Turo bang-for-the-buck value leader (which come to think of it is one of the reasons why people buy Corvettes in the first place).
After going through the relatively simple booking process, the time had come to pick up the Vette. I pulled up to the owner’s house, and there it was. While the owner wasn’t there (I would never actually meet him in person), the key was right where he said it would be (on top of the left rear tire).
As I stepped up to the car I got a little twinge in the pit of my stomach. Is that fear? Intimidation? Surely not. Heck, this isn’t even my first time behind the wheel of a C7, having driven one briefly (along with a Lamborghini Aventador) at an extreme track driving experience a few years ago while a racing instructor rode shotgun. Back then, I was impressed with the Vette in that it offers 80% of the capability of the Lambo (and let’s be honest, 100% of the real word usable capability of the Lambo) at a small fraction of the price. But still, this will be my first time taking the animal out of the zoo, unsupervised, and with only God as my copilot. Am I up to it?
Glass shaking as the car idles
I fumbled a little bit with the awkwardly positioned electric door release, opened the door and sank in. With a push of the start button, the 6.2L LT1 V8 roared to life, the unexpectedly loud bark of the exhaust me catching me a little off guard. The engine then settled into a slow, violent burble. This uneven idle was not unlike starting my 1970 Mark III, with the engine shaking, sputtering, and generally running unevenly. I assumed that it would even out when it warmed up (and it did, somewhat), but there was always enough shaking and rumbling at idle to remind you that the engine was running. I would say that the probability of getting out of a Corvette while accidentally forgetting to turn the engine off is exactly zero.
Very vintage view over front fenders
I slipped the shifter into drive and slowly crept out of the owner’s driveway, being careful not scrape the front end in the rain gullies of storm sewerless Southern California (a maneuver I would have to repeat many times on this trip). As I pull out, the view out the windshield, with the comically large fenders, instantly reminded me of various C3 Corvettes that I have driven and ridden in the past. It is an iconic view that for better or worse is part and parcel with whole Corvette experience. You either get it or you don’t.
After plying a few city streets, I wheel the Corvette on to I-5 in Orange County. As I cruise up the onramp, I finally get to indulge in the raison d’etre of this car: I gently roll the throttle to about three quarters, and seemingly instantly I go from about 25 to about 95. (side note: I don’t think I ever once touched the carpet with the accelerator pedal).
I expected incredible acceleration, and the Corvette did not disappoint. Perhaps the most amazing part is how quickly it pulls at highway speeds. It is as if someone locally altered the physics of the Matrix, and now wind and rolling resistance no longer exist. Even at highway speeds, you can summon vast amounts of speed to point and shoot your way into virtually any traffic opening.
One other thing hit me immediately after I entered the freeway: The noise. As I reach highway speeds, my eardrums are getting assaulted by the racket emanating from the rear tires, located probably no more than 24 inches from my ears. The roar is tremendous, and there is very little in the echo chamber of a hatchback to muffle it. The cacophony is a blend of expansion joints, rain grooves and textured finish in the concrete. Mixed into this is the steady staccato of the exhaust. It is a very visceral experience.
Exciting car, bland looking engine compartment
My rental was equipped with the Bose sound system, but it might as well be an AM radio, as most of the high-end and bass get lost in the maelstrom. Turning up the volume increases the quantity, but alas not the quality of the music. The Corvette does at least have Apple CarPlay, which allows me to make maximum use of Waze.
While the noise is punishing, the ride decidedly is not. As you would expect, the ride is on the firm side (you can feel every Botts’ dot and expansion joint). While it will never be mistaken for a Lexus, the ride is never jarring, certainly nothing like the legendary harsh ride of the C4. I suspect the Z06/Z07 variants of the C7 may not be quite so kind to your backside.
In any case, I don’t plan on staying on I-5 for long. I had no intention of using a car like this just to sit in LA traffic. Instead, I headed straight towards the canyons and dry washes that Southern California is so well known for, where I can more properly experience this car.
Once I hit the canyons, the grin factory opened up for business. The “go-cart-like handling” analogy has been thrown around so much that it has become cliché, but that really is the aptest description. Coming into a sharper-than-expected switchback at a speed probably quadruple the posted 10mph, I simply sharply turned the wheel into the turn. The front end dutifully complied, instantly following the S-bend without so much as even a tire squeal. The only other time I can recall pulling G forces like that was, well, in a go-cart.
Still, it is not all fun and games. The Vette constantly reminds you of how big it is, especially in the width dimension. It always seems like it is using the entire lane. While driving through the canyons of southern California the C7 proved to be more agile than I expected, but I couldn’t help but thinking that a Miata would probably have been a lot more fun.
Much has been made of the supposedly more civilized nature of the C7, and I will give credit where credit is due: My example, despite being 2 years old and having over 31,000 no doubt hard-driven miles at the hands of dozens of renters, exhibited nary a squeak or rattle, even from the removable roof area. Granted, the table-smooth California roads are nothing like the pothole infested roads of Ohio that I am used to, but it is still impressive nonetheless.
One thing that has not changed from the ’70s and ’80s Corvettes I drove and rode in when growing up is the ineffective air conditioning. Set for 70 degrees on automatic, it had to run almost at full blast to keep the car cool on a relatively cool (75 degrees) sunny summer day. The air conditioner’s job wasn’t helped by all the heat pouring into the footwells from the engine and exhaust, something I haven’t experienced in a modern car in decades. Luckily switching the A/C to manually force some of the cold air through the heater outlets on the floor seemed to solve this.
Nor does the eight-speed automatic transmission do this car any favors: It has too many gears to effectively manage with the paddle shifters, so most of the time I just left it in auto, leaving me to feel somewhat uninvolved. The transmission is also was a tad too eager to show off, dropping down three or even four gears with a big lunge and a “harumph” from the engine when really a one or two gear downshift would have sufficed. I’ve read it before, and it’s true: this car really should be driven with the manual transmission.
Which brings me to the crux of my experience with this car: Driving a Corvette is a bit like having a puppy that wants to play with you all the time. While it is amusing at first, it soon gets tiring, and then annoying. Sometimes you just want a little peace and quiet. Indeed, while I had planned on renting the car for eight hours, after five I was exhausted from the constant assault, so I ended up returning it early.
Renting this Corvette sealed any notion that I may have harbored about getting one as my daily driver. But that is not what the Corvette is all about, and using it as a mundane commuter would quite frankly be insulting to the Corvette. No, it is about driving down two-lane roads, going nowhere in particular. Much like Disneyland, it is a fun place to spend the day, even if I wouldn’t want to live there.
Just about everything you said applies to my 2016 Camaro SS experience. As far as size goes, my Camaro feels huge despite having an unusable backseat. The tire road on the thin profile tires is awful except on the best quality roads. But buying a car like this spec’d with an automatic to me would ruin the experience in my opinion but I understand why some get it. I’d love to drive a C7.. I always forget about Turo.
Interesting Vette review, thanks for sharing!
I wanted a Camaro SS, but ended up buying a Mustang GT manual. It is really a good daily driver car. Road noise is not bad at all. Exhaust is just right, IMO, loud enough to know it’s there in normal driving, but not intrusive. You can really hear it when you open it up, though. I think stock Mustang exhausts sound great. Ford works hard to keep that trademark sound. People often ruin them with aftermarket exhaust.
Ford works hard to keep that trademark sound. People often ruin them with aftermarket exhaust.
The trademark Mustang sound was born from aftermarket exhausts. Ford works hard to get that sound within reasonable volume levels
“… Driving a Corvette is a bit like having a puppy that wants to play with you all the time. While it is amusing at first, it soon gets tiring, and then annoying. ”
Tom, you may have helped many [older] CC readers get past the dreaded “I-want-itis” that creeps around the subconscious of more than a few people who grew up with “Route 66” on the B&W TV and the subsequent allure of C2s C3s, etc.
Coincidentally there is a new puppy in our extended family, and the four current canine residents of Debbie’s home (not counting me) all retreated to the couch to get away from the new needle toothed, eternally wanting-to-play, puppy.
When I saw your byline and the photo of the C7 I skipped the news of the day web sites and dove in. And yes, the view of those large sharp rapidly bumping up and down front fenders takes me back to the days of riding in my college friend’s C2. (NY roads are always rougher than CA’s).
And your words near the end are a gift to me: “… a Miata would probably have been a lot more fun.”
Great read, and thank you.
I’ve noticed just how much more Miatas tend to get driven than Corvettes do. Miatas turn up regularly in supermarket parking lots, and the empty-nest retiree who buys the new Vette he’s long dreamed of and sells it years later, at the bottom of the depreciation curve with insanely low mileage has become an archetype.
Thanks for the ride-along. I have never driven a Corvette and do not believe I have ridden in one newer than a C3 (in 1972). Every once in awhile I get the itch to try one, but it always passes. Thanks for this virtual test drive that sates my curiosity once again.
And the 8/9 speed transmission strikes again. I have decided that these do only two things: give much needed flexibility to a peaky engine or maximize fuel economy for typical city/suburban use. The Corvette does not have the first and nobody buys one caring about the second. Everyone here keeps telling me that CAFE is not really affecting American cars (again). Yet here is this Corvette.
Stranger In A Strange Land… excellent Iron Maiden song.
My seat-time experience in a C6 convertible is about the same as yours. Fun and frivolity at first, then reality sets in. Too much power and performance for everyday driving, and unless you live in an isolated area with exceptional roads with no traffic, limited chances to run it as it was intended.
And even owning a Miata, I have it as a second car. I could theoretically use it as a daily driver, but it does not do well in wet weather, you need the top up in either very hot or cold weather, so it negates the reason for my owning it to use during those times.
If the Corvette is your desire, go for it, but I would advise renting one before buying. I am sure that it would put a large dent in the sales if more people rented one first.
You either ARE a Corvette person, or you are not. Apparently, you are not. I love my C5 and would not mind driving it every day. It is fast, comfortable, reliable and even economical.
“You either ARE a Corvette person, or you are not.”
This sums up the Corvette, as well as a host of other vehicle types I can think of, quite well. Each has more attributes than generally credited with and will often surprise those who aren’t that type.
And, yes, I’ve driven a 2014 Corvette a few times. Lots of fun, and it could be driven daily quite easily, but it doesn’t fit my current station in life.
Where I live, the majority of Corvettes are driven by 60+ grey-haired gents who never exceed the speed limit. People say that Buicks are “old persons cars” but the same can be said about Vettes (and Porsche 911s). They’re toys for retired empty nesters.
Very true, these are the toys of retirees with some disposable income to throw at a connection to their past, whether it really existed for them, or not.There are a few in my 55 and over community. One maroon one , an `89 is just a driveway queen that has been for sale for 4 years, and another blue one, about a 2006 is driven by a 77 year plus gentleman who can barely get in or out of it, who uses it almost daily to go to the convenience store to buy his lottery tickets.The car that does for older men what the VW ‘new Bug’ does for middle-aged women.
Thank you for this encouraging review. Now when my Grand Caravan irritates me with lunging transmission and harrumphing engine I can think “Yeah, just like the Corvette” 🙂
At least the Corvette was not built on Mars, and we don’t have to organize an angry mob to kill it at the end of the review. Heinlein was one strange dude himself…
I think the Corvette was the justification for cars like the Reatta and the Allante. Boomers entering their empty nest years at the end of the ’80’s early ’90’s wanted something which looked sportier and fresher than a four door LeSabre or Town Car, but didn’t want all the punishment and day to day discomfort of a sportier car. Hence, the idea of selling relaxed fit, Dockers- style, image conscious cars. We see how that panned out. Apparently boomers wanted back seats, no matter what.
Ive got a car that exhibits stereo cancelling noise already, minus the rocket like acceleration and the V8 rumble, but its 60 years old so that sort of discomfort is expected, I’d hate that in a daily drive, the noise not the performance,
When I was a kid, I had Corvette posters on my bedroom wall. I still love seeing them out and about, no matter what Cx generation. But this review makes clear what I’ve known for a while… in my 40s, even though I can afford one, I have no desire to buy one.
Really enjoyed this article; more please. I like having the viewpoint of someone who isn’t a magazine writer. They become, I think, a bit too focused on cars that push the envelope…because for their audience that’s much more interesting to read about. Ah, to be 25 again!
I’ve never driven a Vette but I (at 60) have learned my lesson about overly track oriented cars. Some years back I got to witness an example of what happens when you don’t do an extended test drive (or at least have Tom to do it for you!). I was driving a BMW 3 Series and a twisty drive (at casual speeds) impressed my friend. He decided to buy one for himself. My car had the standard – not the sports- suspension. However, he didn’t ask me and just assumed that I had it. When his car arrived, he was shocked at how harsh and jarring the ride was, and at that point discovered his misapprehension. He kept the car for less than a year.
For myself, if I get an itch for noise, vibration, and harshness, I have a 71 Alfa convertible…it’s lots of fun for an afternoon drive, but I am glad I don’t have to live that way.
Great review Tom. If there are Corvette people and non-Corvette people, I definitely fall into the former. I have driven every generation of Corvette except for the C7. Although I suspect that may happen soon, as my brother and a good friend are both looking at getting one in the next year. I have a lot of wheel time behind the C5 and C6 generations, and the C7 really is just a further refinement of those cars. I can’t say I have noticed a lot of tire noise in the ones I have driven, but maybe the newer tires are louder.
My dad fits the retired demographic Corvette owner being in his mid-70s. He bought a Corvette when he hung up his motorcycle keys as a replacement fun car. He actually looked at the Miata’s first. While they were toss-able and fun, they were also very small on the inside and had a tiny trunk. He wanted to use the car for spirited driving and grand touring, and felt the Miata was just too small for long distance trips. I convinced him to look at a Vette, but he had preconceived notions based on older rough riding cars. Once he tried one, he was sold. He bought a 2012 Convertible, with the base level suspension, but fully loaded with almost every option.
After 7 years of problem free ownership, he loves the car. It isn’t daily driven, but it sees lot of use 6 months of the year. It is an awesome grand touring car, comfortable, great ride, tons of power and suburb handling and brakes. I personally drove the car for 10 hours straight last summer (and then back a few days later) and it was one of the best long distance cars I have driven. Even at high speeds, it still got fuel mileage that was pretty darn close to our 4-cylinder Outback. I also found it pretty quiet on the highway, and the Bose Sound system was great (Dad loves his music).
FWIW though, I have a few friends that are under 50 that have owned Vettes. One was a big German car fan, who was absolutely blown away by his C6 Vette while he owned it. He is a super aggressive driver and loved the Vette’s power and handling. Unfortunately, his car was completely destroyed in a horrific crash. The car died to save him, he walked away without a scratch.