About 3 years ago I was forced to sell my red 2000 Camaro SS because it was stick and my left knee was killing me in daily LA traffic. I sold it after seeing the Camaro concept and started driving my Dad's F-150. Holy cow, what a difference, I can't think of a more boring ride. Slow, nobody looks at it and it gets terrible gas mileage (16 on the freeway). Anyway, fast forward to last month, I finally had the money saved up for a Camaro and found a dealer to order a Victory Red 2SS/RS with automatic and polished wheels @ MSRP with no deposit, came out to $37k. They said it would be about 2-3 months so I prepared to wait.
But then I started seeing ads for brand new 2009 Corvettes, some as low as $42k with automatic! I also wasn't hearing much great news from this board. I didn't like how Chevy had decided to give the automatics a detuned LS3, the L99 with only 400 HP and cylinder shutoff crap. I wish they would have just copied the Vettes, give them the full LS3 but a small gear in the rear to keep the mileage good. Some of the L99 Camaros were dynoing as low as 310-315 at the wheels. And it wasn't like the LS1 cars where the Camaros were only 200-300 lbs. heavier than the Vettes. The new Camaro is 3850 lbs, over 600 lbs heavier! The only real benefit I saw in the Camaro was its backseat. However my 6 foot tall friend and I sat in one and the backseat was pretty much useless when he sat in the front seat. There was literally 2-3 inches between the back of the front seat and the rear seat cushion.
To top it off I found out I could only use about $1,000 of my GM Credit Card rebates on the Camaro but I could use the full $2,700 on the Vette. I started looking on the Internet for red 1LT's with automatic and not many other options (to keep it close in price to the Camaro). I almost gave up on the search when I found out they had discontinued Victory Red earlier in the year, I thought it would be tough.
Anyway, I found a red Vette in Pasadena with the only options being an auto and upgraded gray competition wheels for $44,900. I wasn't crazy about the wheels, I thought they looked dull from web pictures and I'm more of a simple 5 spoke, shiny wheel kind of guy. I figured if I really liked the car, I'd change the wheels once it was time to replace the tires. Anyway, I got there and they drove it out of the back. It was super shiny red and had 5 spoke chrome wheels! It was love at first site, red Chevy with chrome wheels, it's like putting Megan Fox in lingerie in front of me, I'm powerless. Apparently there was some mixup in the wheel order but they were selling the car with the $1850 chrome wheels for the $395 gray wheel price. The car was exactly how I would order it from the factory except I would have probably got the 2.73 gear upgrade.
So to wrap up I walked out with a brand new 2009 Corvette with auto and chrome wheels for $42k after my GM rebates (before tax/license)! It stickered for about $52,500 so I think I got a good deal. Low 12's, 30 MPG, great handling, competes with Ferrari California and Porsche 911's for a fraction of the cost, no wonder GM is bankrupt! And it only added $88 more a month for full insurance coverage on me, my Mom and Dad. Not bad considering I'm only 28. Try that with a Porsche or Ferrari!
The Camaro is nice but I wanted to compete with exotics. I'll actually probably still buy a Camaro SS in a couple years to rotate daily driving duties with the Vette cause I don't want to put 30K miles a year on one vehicle anymore. But for now I'm very happy with the Corvette, it gets a lot of stares and I have yet to drive by another Vette without he/she waving. I think I made a great decision!
Here's some pics, sorry for the quality all I had is my iPhone 3GS.
