Corvette C7 Z06 - designed for cheap assembly but expensive repairs, as illustrated by rear brake duct inlet trim

When +Tadge Juechter set out on the mission to create +General Motors newest flagship, Corvette C7 Z06, he quite frequently advertised his creation as the biggest bang for the buck high performance car ever.  In fact, he had no hesitation to compare the newest flagship not just to "pedestrian" cars like Ferrari F12 or Porsche 911 Turbo but to some truly expensive supercars like McLaren P1 and Porsche 918.  According to Juechter, the flagship would be not just a super performer but also (relatively) cheap to buy.

Apparently, good ole Tadge somehow forgot to mention that the car would not be just cheap to buy but cheaply made as well.  The cheapness of the car is not necessarily an equivalent of bargain buy, instead, the buyer gets exactly what she or he pay for, a cheaply designed and cheaply executed high horsepower version of the base C7 Stingray, using the same semi space frame, same cheaply made exterior parts and supercharged version of the base LT1 engine, right down to the same shitty base car sized plastic radiator.  Yes, there are certain parts on the car, like carbon ceramic brakes and carbon fiber torque tube but these parts are higher priced replacement parts, creating illusion of weight saving attempts and "high tech" applied to the car.

The results of this pathetic attempt are already well known and as with everything else, the buyers get exactly what they paid for, a cheaply made cheap car.   The examples of the cheapness are easy to spot and relate well to the problems this failed attempt demonstrates frequently but... there is one other aspect to the cheapness of the car, servicing this "certified supercar".  The servicing in this case does not involve the mechanical aspects, it is related to the exterior of the car, the same exterior that is prone to road damage, making the already shitty paint literally pelted with gravel, on all leading edges of the car and going right through the shitty paint.

As with previous generations of Corvette, the majority of buyers are true waxers, having coronary just on the thought of road rash on their cars.  The road rash is nothing new to the Corvette owners, the owners of the previous generation of Corvette, those owning the so called wide bodies are intimately familiar with the consequences of GM design that pursued the aerodynamics aspects while completely ignoring the chores of daily driving of these cars.  In addition to the usual front bumper, fenders and hood, the owners of the previous generation wide bodies enjoyed the benefits of not having real fenders behind the wheel openings, instead they bought an automotive version of gravel machine guns, shooting gravel over the entire sides of the car and destroying the rear brake cooling duct intakes.

This time around, the situation is considerably worse, not only the design of the front fenders on the flagship completely ignores the consequences of using wider tires but there is a new aspect to the waxer nightmare, the compound used on the new Michelin tires is considerably stickier on both the Super Sport and Cup2 models of the tires the flagship uses.  As a result, what was bad before, is considerably worse now.  Thus, there is a issue related to the replacement of the rear brake duct intake trim.

The new trim is different than on the previous generation, instead of unpainted plastic trim costing SIX BUCKS a piece, the new trim is finished in that carbon flash paint GM decided to use throughout the new flagship.  The problem with painted trim that gets hammered is that it looks like shit considerably sooner than its unpainted counterpart.

And here is the kicker, the cheaply made flagship was designed for quick (cheap) assembly, not only is the new trim more expensive but in the old fashion way of cheap assembly line design, it is riveted in place instead of using snap in design that the previous widebodies used.

Yes, the new design makes this trim easy to install during the initial assembly (the trim is installed on the rocker panels prior to installing the rocker panels on the car but... like with the previous generation, the rocker panels are glued on in place, making their removal extremely difficult.

None of this was a problem with the previous generation because the duct intakes were located in the quarter panel, not the rocker panel itself.

In the previous design, the intake trim was held in place by snapping it in place to a separate frame that was located at the end of the duct but no such luck this time around.  Not only does the new design require removal of the wheels and liners but instead of releasing the clips, the happy owners is forced to drill out the rivets in a truly confined space and then, rivet the replacement back.  Needless to say, a replacement that previously required about couple of hours, not only doubled in time but has been limited to either highly skilled DIY'ers with correct tools or professionals, charging by the hour.

As usual, a few dollars saved for GM through cheap design and assembly results in more nightmares for the waxer crowd.  AGAIN, NOT JUST A CHEAP CAR BUT CHEAPLY MADE, TOO.