Seraphus

I have a lot of experience with mustangs, yes they have their shortcommings but ford built the engine and drivetrain tough as nails and that's the only part I care about. The rest of the car can have problems and it won't cost as much as a spring dumping, sychros going out, clutch grinding, or column locking on you in the middle of nowhere. I've had all but the vavle spring problem in my mint condition, low mileage Z06 all in 3 months.

Are mustangs an overall great sports car like the vette? No. But my point wasn't that, my point was that they where built fantastically for what they're designed to do. With forged bottom end and a blower, the 03/04 Cobras have become legendary. I love cars not just one brand of car so I won't be as ignorant as to say that "old mustangs" (our cars are the same year btw) aren't good cars. To top it off, the Corvette is GM's halo car and it has these issues, Ford's halo car is the GT and it's definatley a better car in every catagory.

I'll have a similar response to Grimlock. Maybe we where both just not lucky, I don't know. The only thing I know for sure is that GM cheaped out on our drivetrains, plain and simple fact. For about $500 more they could've avoided most of these really expensive issues, that's also a FACT. I'm not just ripping on corvettes because I don't like them, I did buy one for a reason. When the car is not messed up, there aren't that many cars that can touch it there's no question about that. I'm not doubting the performance or looks of the car, I'm angry at the way it was built in certain places. If you can prove any of my objections invalid then I will be more than happy to take the blame and concede.

CSM Z06

Wish interior had an upgrade.

MawneeC5

it wont make me a sandwich after a romp..........

Blackonblack89

Wish it had auto lights. My 89 SHO has it. Wat the hell chevy!

Everything else is great. Interior is perfect imo. Simple, effective, and easy to clean. no need for extra weight and fancy things.

edit*
oo and i forgot. the cup holder f'en blows. and theres only 1!!!!!

it comes down to the little things and it soo soo minor its funny actually. honestly this car almost makes me smile just as much as my SHO ( and I love my SHO)

Boba Fett

like most - interior sucks / shift throw feels like a truck..
overall a great car however...

soroZ

WOW all the guys comparing the vettes here to mustangs. I'm putting you both on full blast, . How did u spend 4k on such simple things? You can literally replace the whole driveline for less than 3k and the engine for 2k, its easy to have a lemon car when you do your own work. My Z has been reliable only thing that has gone wrong that was GM's problem was a rusted pulley nut which I fixed for free. Everything else that has gone wrong has been my fault due to modification. I have had no issue with the transmission, no issue with starting except a bad aftermarket battery.

I love the car its 1000000% better than any mustang out there, btw the 03/04 cobras use the same t-56 as the c5s, and their drivetrain is far from bulletproof in fact most explode their IRS differentials rather quickly and swap over to solid axles. The only thing that has plagued my vette so far has been the wheel hop which is once again due to my improper shifting not the fault of the car.

danziger

Man, I feel bad for you guys with the problematic C5Zs. That certainly isn't the norm and has got to be frustrating. My cammed Z16 has been trouble-free and I guess my biggest dislike is cheap materials followed by limited tire choices.

The LSx/T56 combo is a proven winner and I haven't any major problems with the three I have owned in various stages of modification. Some of the supporting systems may be iffy, but nothing I would be overly paranoid about.

Grimlock

You sir are a complete jerk.

You tell me how I can get those thing fixed for less. Or you can come to my house and do it. I am disabled. I have to pay people to do 98% of the work on my car. I did all my due diligence prior to buying the car and had bad luck, and/or the shop that did my pre-inspection didn't do one thorough enough.

Explain to me how you can fix all this for less if you couldn't do the labor?-

• New NT05 tires
• alignment and corner balancing
• A/C belt
• serpentine belt
• water pump
• EBCM and new EBCM connector since mine was damaged (and go price a new connector with over 30 pins needing to be soldered in)
• steering lock
• replace every fluid in the car
• bleed brakes
• replace the valve springs.

For you to make assumptions and to call me an idiot is uncalled for. And btw I never mentioned Mustangs, I did mention that my SRT8 was *FAR* less trouble, and that I will get to the point of regretting having sold my perfect SRT8 for this Z06 if it doesn't get sorted out soon. That is how I feel. Does that make me an idiot? The SRT8 is a great car! If you did all the above on my list in the first 2 months of ownership would you be happy?

So once again, how am I an idiot? Does my not being able to do my own labor make me an idiot? Does having the pre-purchase inspection done by one of the top Vette tuners in the country (Synergy Motorsports) and him missing almost much of the issues make me an idiot? Please explain. Or better yet, come down to my house and feel free to do the labor. I will even give you free room and board.

So let me get this straight....because YOU have had less issues, means that anyone else who does have issues an idiot?


That's awesome. My car is bone stock. But evidently, the fact that your car has less issues, and the fact that mine does is because I am an idiot, right?

I didn't want a Mustang either. But my SRT8 was a darn sweet car. It just wasn't enough of a sports car, so I got the Z06. So far I have had bad luck with mine and/or in your opinion I have had all the problems because I am an idiot.

Thanks for the awesome feedback dude! You rock! Hopefully you don't get hit with a karma stick.

Blackonblack89

imo tires, alighment, belts and replacing the fluids shouldnt count against being reliable or adding that money into the cost of fixing it. thats maintnence. not reliabilty problems

but hey i know how u feel. I just bought amsoil atf and diff fluid. and some used r6 scrubs. but thats the price to play.

Grimlock

Totally agree. I expected to do those things. That is why I said in my earlier post that I expected to spend maybe $2K on the car in the first month or two. But I wasn't expecting this other stuff. I am a perfectionist with my cars, so i want to get the car 100% mechanically sound. But I certainly don't like being called an idiot because my car has been more problematic than some other folks cars!

soroZ

My apologizes for the language I will go back and shortly edit the 1st post.
My name calling was uncalled for but to be honest I got my car with the same description as yours, and I have spent roughly 2k on the car and well to be honest besides replacing the battery terminals which were less than $5 all has been toward modification including tires for the car, but to be fair besides the clutch fluid and engine oil I have not flushed the rest of my fluids.

Now I was not aware of your condition, and I would have been more than glad to help you out with the labor 100% free of charge had you been in my area. Personally I don't like letting others touch my car and I do all my own work and learn from it. I just hate it when people get ripped off then try to blame it on the car or others. I hope you enjoy your car and will not have to spend any more money, if you have any trouble feel free to PM me and I will be more than happy to help you out.

stevedun

Yeah. All I really see is the EBCM. The rest is upkeep on any car. Sorry you expected a 2001-04 car to not need tires or fluids. Not sure if your valve springs were bad or a wanted upgrade. Very misleading on your ******* of the C5Z. Very reliable and low maintenance car in my opinion. Mine has 120,000 miles and has been very low maintenance compared to most non- performance cars. Just my honest opinion.

Grimlock

I'm not "*******" the C5Z, just saying that I didn't expect to need to spend this much so soon. My car has 40K miles. As I said before I expected to spend around $2K in maintenance when i got the car (fluids, tires, alignment.) I am replacing the valve springs since people say it is playing Russian Roulette if I don't. So I don't see that as maintenance. I am doing it to fix something that GM should have fixed prior to selling the car. To me a car with 40K miles shouldn't have needed this much, especially having been checked out by a professional prior to purchase. Also, I wish I had know about the valve spring issue prior to purchase, but I guess I read the wrong stuff. I didn't see anything about it on these forums until after I got the car. Otherwise I probably would have just bought the Z16 that cost $2K extra since GM fixed the problem by '04.

And I will say that all my cars in the last 25 years have been high performance. Charger SRT8, Porsches, BMW M-cars, '67 Firebird 400, '69 Roadrunner, etc. And none of them needed as much as quickly. People here always talk about how expensive the Euro cars are, but that was never really my experience. They were usually over-engineered and very durable. I did burn a hole in a valve in my Porsche Turbo, but it was a dedicated race car running big boost and I probably got a bad tank of race fuel. A full top end rebuild was still under $4K on that car.

My guess is I am just unlucky, and that the prior owner of my Z06 wasn't as good about maintaining the car as I would have liked. I am hoping that once this stuff is fixed that the Z06 will indeed be a reliable car. I plan to keep it bone stock to make it even more reliable.

ssbowtie1

The ECBM and valve springs are arguable since they are basically known issues. I bought my 02 z06 around the same time you did but I knew of the issues and plan on replacing the valvesprings myself. The first part I bought was the column lock bypass since I knew it was only a matter of time before that left me stranded. These are all known issues. I do, however understand your frustration because who wants to buy a 22k car and spend 4k in the first few months.

I would not blame the person that inspected your vehicle because the issues you mentioned usually can't be diagnosed, they just randomly go bad without much warning.

I think once you get these issues worked out your vette will be good to go for a long time.

billla

The HVAC and radio look a bit dated, and the seats could be better...but other than that the best car ever.

Grimlock

That's what I am hoping!

silverc5z06htown

Soro's showing his true colors again....what can you expect from a 19 yo kid. Don't be fooled, he's only had his car for a couple months and never drives it, so i wouldn't look too much into his "no problems" that he's touting.

I know you are serious when you think the same trans from a cobra is in a z06 Half your trans is in the front and half is in the back. a cobra has the traditional setup.

Seraphus

My answer to that post would be similar to this, except I'm not including tires and fluids or other regular wear and tear. My problems are purely mechanical. Messed up trans and clutch and column lock problems are what's costing me about $4K to fix since I unfirtunatley can't do my own work in my current situation. I read that he's 19 though so I'll cut him some slack and say he just didn't think it through.

You try working 60 hours a week and starting a company on the side while also planning to propose and marry very soon. Tell me if you'll have time to work on your car through all that.

Add this to my comments too lol.

JimbeauZ06

For all of you who are complaining about the interior, go buy something else with nicer seats and no performance. A Porsche GT3 has much nicer seats, cost twice as much (996 model) and is slower.

I personally am glad the interior is junk because now I don't feel bad about pulling it all out and throwing it away.

A good set of Cobra, Sparco, or Recaro seats make a huge difference. Caravaggio for those of you who value appearance over strict functionality. Junk the stock shifter and upgrade with a Hurst or Ripper with a nice Delrin shift ****.

If you're really bothered by the interior then you really don't understand what this car was designed to do. Go to a track event and watch it embarass cars costing $150k and you'll start to get the picture.

Grimlock

Just because many of us say that the interior is garbage doesn't mean we want another car. That being said I would rather have a 911 GT3 RS any day if I had the money.