The typical argument that is continuously reverberated on corvette forums is that when compared against the total number of cars produced, the known failure numbers make such occurrence statistically insignificant.
When compared to over 37,000 Stingrays produced, a failure of 9-10 cars creates a false sense of security for the buyers who migrate toward corvette forums and continue to reassure each other that with such low percentile, nothing will happen to their cars.
Is this really the case? As usual, there is nothing more misleading and destructive than a false sense of security, based on hope and wishful thinking instead of logically thought out justification.
How does this play out in real life? Here is one example, using corvetteforum.com. With about 100 owners of the cars and 6 having problems with their own cars, what is the actual failure rate? The answer would be in this case SIX PERCENT!!! Now, this is a truly alarming failure rate and certainly a reason for suckers who already bought this dud to be seriously concerned with longevity of their cars.
How about Car and Driver failure rates? Of two cars that Car and Driver used, one for lightning lap test and the other for their long term test, BOTH CARS LOST THEIR ENGINES!!! From the point of statistics, what are the chances for this to happen, considering such a large number of Stingrays has been produced in the first year of production?
As usual, the problem with gullibility and outright idiocy of naïve Corvette buyers and supporters is the truly stupid assumption that the car universe revolves around them exclusively. The reality is that for this to happen, +General Motors would have to be forthcoming about the total number of LT1 engines failures, making it a public information. Of course, as usual, the disclosure of this information would require placing either Mary Barra or +Tadge Juechter in a Great Inquisition style torture device or at least waterboarding them extensively until they "volunteer" the needed information.
The reality of this situation is that unless there will be a body count on this account, the information will never be made available to the general public. This is exactly what continues to happen with the previous generation of Corvette Z06.
Should buyers be concerned with the real failure rates of LT1 engine and Corvette C7 Stingray general lack of reliability? Of course they should be but then again, without stupid and naïve people, where would the entertainment come from? Self inflicted wounds do not warrant sympathy from the general public nor empathy from the owners of past generations of Corvette. Based on the turn of current events, the spectacle should increase the fun factor in a very near future.
i once owned a 1991 corvette z07 with the L98 engine. The car engine was bulletproof. i ran it through over 150 autocross events, and ten track events with no engine problems. The brakes were notorious for overheating and boiling brake fluid,resulting in complete loss of braking power and the Z07 packAGE HAD THE "BIG BRAKES OF THE DAY.Wheel bearings were very expensive and required more frequent replacement than should have been necessary. All that being said, i never had a failure that destroyed or damaged an engine. I was considering a C7, but the purchase price and cost of ownership is getting too much to absorb, especially if the reliability is in question. i don't expect perfection in this world, but for 80 to 100k, i do expect a car that is reliable and that can take high performance driving without having catastrophic failure in ANY major sysyem. i ran the car hard on many 95 degree daya without engine problems. You wouldthink that in 2017 Chevy could at least match 1991 performance and reliability figures.
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