Flawed rear suspension design puts buyers of Corvette C7 Stingray lives in danger

Previous generation of Corvette had a problem with axle nuts coming loose.  As unnerving as it might look, besides a bit of noise, there was no danger to the occupants of the car.  Eventually, +General Motors figured out that instead of being cheap, it was a good idea to use high quality thread lock sealant and took care of Corvette owners, assuming they bothered to remove the rear wheels on their car to find out.

With Corvette C7, in spite of the millions of dollars GM supposedly invested in modernization of the Bowling Green assembly plant and assurances from +Tadge Juechter that Stingray will set new standards in quality and design, apparently nothing has changed and if anything, things got worse.

Here is the problem, ironically enough, very similar to problem Dodge Viper suffers:  upon impact, the upper joint mount fails leading to either immediate or gradual rear suspension collapse.  The situation is very serious and especially dangerous if the upper ball joint mount just fails partially. 

All it takes to happen is an impact like in running over a bump or a pothole.  The problem here is that looks can be deceiving, even if wheel is undamaged, the suspension itself may fail.  Since the part is aluminum, the failure is not consistent but once it is started, it will lead to suspension collapse and depending on the circumstances, a serious injury or even death.

Here is what happens when this takes place, the entire suspension on the affected side collapse, resulting in loss of control and stability.

Again, this happens to Dodge Viper rear suspension, Chrysler never bothered to issue a fix but aftermarket did, a simple (but pretty pricey due to Viper tax) steel support bracket that supports the control arm in the even of ball joint failure-the damage is still there but the suspension still stays in place and car can be fully controlled when coming to full stop.

This may be the problem with the Stingray but it may not be.  The difference here is that Viper has a steel frame while Stingray has all new aluminum frame that uses new welding methods.  Maybe the problem is not with the suspension but rather with the frame attachment points and welds in the frame around that area?  Will  +Tadge Juechter and his team investigate the problem and then disclose the actual cause?  Seeing how GM is operating, this is not a likely outcome.

The car of course is substantially heavier than the predecessor and this type of failure is more likely.  None of this bothers Tadge and +General Motors may be repeating the history of ignition switch since new Corvette is produced in numbers considerably higher than Viper.

Even though this is a single publicized instance, it will happen again and then again and again due to Stingray being mass produced and American roads deteriorating continuously.