The new 'Vette is a nice car. Certainly, the best thing to come out of Detroit in a LONG time. Good performance, good value, looks better, maybe isn't as cheap looking/plasticky (or literally plastic when it comes to body panels) as various previous versions...). On a pure 'paper/merits' basis, it is a solid choice.
That said......yeah.....I'm not 100% convinced yet it will get past the existing image issues.
As a result of nearly every single Corvette I have seen in the last 15 years, the Corvette buying demographic is firmly and clearly painted in my mind as:
- 50+ years old
- probably balding
- shiny shoes
- barbie doll wife/girlfriend
- Grade 7-ish education
- and I could go on. and on. and on. and on.
In brief: I don't remember the last time I saw one that didn't scream "DB trying to recapture some long distant youth".
(put another way, to borrow from my tumblr blog, on every Corvette I see I expect to find a vanity plate like this:
http://myzmak.tumblr.com/tagged/corvette)
I want to find those people and eliminate them from the gene pool. Think of how much better we'd be as a species.....
Maybe this is changing though.
Maybe a new car will turn that all around.
Maybe people with a modicum of sophistication will buy the Stingray.
Maybe an image can be changed (Audi went from 'who? oh. right. hahahaha' 20 years ago to a legit-ish contender with MB and BMW).
But it isn't there yet, and if I'm gonna drop $70k, I'm not gonna be the one to change that image....(assuming, of course, you believe that I'm not a 50+ balding trophy wife sporting fellow....)
So, no. I'll leave the Stingray to others.
ps - none of which is to say BMW owners don't have their own problems with image, including the horrific use/application of vanity plates......
http://myzmak.tumblr.com/tagged/bmw .....<shudder>
I guess what I am saying is, cars do say something about who we are, and if I'm gonna 'self-identify' in a nice car, I'd rather be an M3 owner (with whatever all that means) than a Corvette owner