2005 C6? What happend to 2004?

[XtremeVette]

Man I have been planning the saving and selling of my C4 for a year now on the sole purpose that the c5 market will dramatically drop when the C6 is up for sale.....last I knew it was due out for spring 2004? what happenend? anybody know


thanks
jeff

 

[blocker44]

The last I heard was that the C6 will go on sale in the spring of 2004 and will be called a 2005 model.

 

[Tom73]

...last I knew it was due out for spring 2004? what happenend? anybody know

It is to be introduced at some auto show (LA ?) in Jan '04. So spring '04 sounds right. Cannot see it being introduced and still expect to sell any C5's.

tom...

 

[lytemup]

Re: Re: 2005 C6? What happend to 2004?

It is to be introduced at some auto show (LA ?) in Jan '04. So spring '04 sounds right. Cannot see it being introduced and still expect to sell any C5's.

tom...

i would guess the detroit auto show...or at least i hope...

 

[LongTimer]

If GM wraps the performance promised by Motor Trend in this package, they can't show it off in January and sell in the spring, unless they stop C5 production in late summer. Then sell out before year end. "Leftover" C5s may need $6k rebates to move Jan- Apr. unless they announce a price increase on the C6 of $10k (foolish move).

Can't wait to find out! I've been waiting for my 425HP Targa Top way too long!!!

 

[Rick Daniel]

The C6 will be introduced at the Detrot auto show in Jan. of 2004 and on dealers lots by early summer of next year. The high preformance version (Z06)??? will not be out untill the 2007 model year. For more info on the C6

http://www.corvettesbyrickdaniel.com/C6INFO.html

 

[LongTimer]

Rick Daniel is obviously in a good position to know about the release and availablitiy - sounds like good news.

However, the thread he supplies is the R&T information that is some months old. If you look back at very old issues, you will see that Motor Trend has come closer in their future Vette predictions than R&T. I hope they are both wrong about the shape of the headlights they are proposing. MT states the standard engine will be 425HP, with the later-to-be-released Z06 reaching as high as 500HP.

This would be a more appropriate market response to 550HP Vipers and 390HP Mustangs available TODAY.

 

[jonstr]

The C6 will be introduced at the Detrot auto show in Jan. of 2004 and on dealers lots by early summer of next year. The high preformance version (Z06)??? will not be out untill the 2007 model year. For more info on the C6

http://www.corvettesbyrickdaniel.com/C6INFO.html

For what it's worth, I went to the GM Desert Proving Grounds 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday 3/9, and the head of the proving grounds said that the C6 was coming in 2006. I don't know how reliable the source is, but it seems like he should be in the know.

 

[Rick Daniel]

Automobile Magazine: How is the C6 going to improve on the C5?

Dave Hill: It was a real daunting challenge, I gotta' tell you. We said, "How are we going to create the replacement for this thing because we've put everything that we possibly could put into it when it was new in '97, and we've never stopped improving it year after year." And most everybody who's got one is really in love with it. What we're going to do is make it like the C5 except more so. More passionate design, more performance, just as much room on the inside and maybe a little tidier on the outside. And we're going to take care of every last thing that we've heard of that people find that they're not totally satisfied with. We believe that we know that list backwards and forwards and we're going to eliminate everything that is not totally satisfying in the C5.

Automobile Magazine: Does that mean interior?

Dave Hill: We have a lot of concentration on the interior, which when we brought out the C5 we moved the Corvette interior from arguably the worst-in-class human factors and we got it to be the best-in-class human factors for its day when it came out in '97. But the bar is really being raised on interior richness and perfection and we know that's an area where the C6 is gonna have a big step forward: in a classier, more worthy, more perfect, richer, warmer, and more inviting interior. So there is a lot of concentration on the interior, not that we have to fix the space, which is about ideal on the car, but we're gonna try to upgrade the worthiness of the interior and we're quite satisfied with how that's coming along.

 

[ROCKETBLOCK]

Thank you Rick Daniel for the great info on the new C6 Corvette.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Obviously, the C5 needs to go out with a bang. Therefore in order to add excitement to the last of the C5 models, there will be a special limited edition Dark LeMans Blue C5. Hope it has a little more up its sleeve then the dissapointing 50th edition.

 

[LongTimer]

With all of the engineers working on the XLR and C6, my guess is very little will be new in 04.

After the 25th aniversary they carried the new interior over into the next year - just not in siver. I expect to see the interior black pieces (which have been critisized so much) to be replaced with colors that match or slightly contrast the seats - like the 50th. They can do this with no new Engineering - just paint.

They may add a smal integrated spoiler to the rear facia - that would be easy. Let's hope they don't just lay some stripes on it anywhere.

I doubt if any more HP will be available, or they would have included the increase in the 50th spec. ed. Red to pull a few more $$ from the market place. But who knows, maybe they will early release the C6 tiitanium rocker arms and pickup another 10-15 HP.

 

[c5vetter]

the 2004 will be "unveiled" at the C5 bash this week at Bowling Green

 

[blocker44]

Here is the 2004 special edition Z06. It will have a carbon fiber hood and tuned shocks. Same horsepower as 03.

 

[Brett]

Motor Trend mentioned that the "Star Trek by Fischer-Price" look of the C5 interior will be gone.

Good to hear, haha.


Brett

 

[ROCKETBLOCK]

Star Trek??? I like the C5 interior except for the fact it only has one cup holder and the ash tray isn't convenient enough!!!:L

 

[Chris Kennedy]

I enjoyed reading this thread and the links, but I have to admit that it has all confirmed some anxieties I am having on the C-6, style wise. While styling is certainly in the eye of the beholder, it seems that if you don't start with a pretty basic idea of what you want to accomplish, you are not going to come up with anything particularly eye-catching (in other words, you are guaranteed that while no one may say "yuck", no one will also say "wow", either). With respect to the C6 histories I have read, I don't see that anyone associated with the styling has a particularly foreceful overall idea of what they want this car to look like, and the look has been "rethought" many times. Instead, we are hearing PR sounding words such as "evoking" memories of past Corvettes etc. without being retro, etc. As I mentioned earlier, when it comes to how a Corvette should look I don't think most people want to have to analyze the looks to see if it "evokes" anything, they just want to go "wow", the way I can remember doing when my uncle pulled up to our house in his old '64 silver and black convetible. Am I alone in this? Frankly, I almost feel like consulting a "design staff" composed of 8 year-old boys--they'll come up with forceful ideas of what the C6 should look like, and probably some good ones at that.

--Chris Kennedy

 

[XtremeVette]

all I can say is....

we are going to have to wait...but I was in a GM Dealership last week to test drive a C5...and the guy there told me....he saw pictures of the new C6....(iam not sure if this is true or a come-on)....but from everything he described.....its right in line with what I have heard.....

looks very much like the C5 outside...without the pop up lights.....the body has been shaved off a bit....for a bit of a narrower look and the front end...on the bottom is now one large opening....instead of two on the C5.....which frankly I think looks a bit weak...in other words not very mean at all....and as far as the interior....comments were...its unique, user friendly, and not as platicÕy as in the C5...

so I dunno...we gotta wait....I guess

jeff

 

[Chris Kennedy]

Thank you very much. Hmmm.... my gutt feel is that if the C6 stying is, essentially, a mild/medium re-do of the C5 that is not going to cut it, and people will say something like "this sort of thing should've been done as a running change on the C5". From what you say the dealer described it almost sounds like what was done by Acura on the NSX, or Ferrari on the Testarossa, when they made the pop-up lights on those cars fixed, and did mild nips-and-tucks on the styling. Still, I have my fingers crossed.

--Chris Kennedy

 

[LongTimer]

Remember that the C6 and the XLR are stable mates. This does not mean they must have as much in common in appearance as ...say the now defunct Camaro and Firebird. But it does mean that they must have very similar mounting points (where the body meets the chassis). So I'm sure there were some compromises made in design on both design engineer teams (XLR & Vette).