The *Long* Purchase and Break-in Process

The Long Purchase Process:

I guess you'd have to say this was not exactly an 'impulse buy'.

I first started reading about the C5 in 1996.  The automobile magazines just raved about this car.  Thinking I might be interested I started reading the alt.autos.corvette news group on the Internet.  When the Porsche Boxter and BMW Z3 came out I investigated them, too, but decided that the Corvette was the best car for all around driving (greater comfort and cargo space among other things).

In late 1997 I got serious and started talking to local dealers.  The dealers who had inventory were asking anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 over MSRP for the car.  About 9 months ago I test drove a year-old C5 locally and was very impressed.  I wasn't really interested in that particular car but I had to almost laugh (maybe cry) when the dealer asked $15,000 over MSRP for it.  Needless to say, I never went back to that dealer.  My chance of finding the Corvette I wanted at a price that was acceptable didn't look very good..

In June, 1998, I started calling dealers in other states that I found on the Internet.  One of them was a dealer in Georgia who was a high volume Corvette dealer and, therefore, had a good allocation of them.  They sounded promising so I exchanged email, then telephone calls.  They offered the best combination of price and expected delivery time so I ordered a new 1999 Corvette from them.  They even arranged to have it delivered directly to a local dealer.  I loved it, the greedy local dealer would only get $150 from my dealer for preparing the car.

The process after that was quite frustrating.  I knew that delivery of my car would potentially be delayed because I wanted the magnetic red color, 6-speed (manual) transmission and sport seats - all of which had supply problems.  However, things went worse than I expected.  First GM went on strike for a month, then Chevrolet had problems for another month with suppliers for Magnetic Red parts.  On Sept. 10 I finally got 'Preferenced' which means Chevrolet promised to build my car.  After a long wait I finally got my 'Build Date' for the week of 11/2.  After getting confirmation that my car was built on 11/3 I waited two weeks for my car to be shipped to California by rail.  Finally, on Nov. 19, 1998 my dealer in Georgia called and told me my Corvette had arrived.  Even then it took 5 more days to get my car because of the time to wire money and paperwork back and forth between California and Georgia, a weekend, and incomplete dealer prep.

The funniest part of the process was ordering insurance for my new car.  The following conversation took place between me and the woman who took the details for my insurance:
Sharon:  "What year car is it?"      Me:  "1999"
Sharon:  "What kind of car is it?"      Me:  "A Corvette"
Sharon?  "Mid-life Crisis?"  ;-)

It was a long and frustrating wait but the car is beautiful and great fun to drive.

The Break-in Process:

I wanted to make sure I broke the car in properly so read what I could at my local library. Based on this I did the following:

I initially drove my 1964 MGB around town and the Vette on longer break-in drives following a new car break-in process I got from the alt.autos.corvette newsgroup.

The first 500 miles were driven like an old geezer through the local foothills.  Not much speed but fun curves and scenery.  Although the drives were most enjoyable I had to get used to cars of all types passing me.  Perhaps the worst was appearing not to be able to keep up with a pickup towing a horse trailer.

The next 500 miles were highway speed break-in.  At high speeds this car is as impressive in its drivability as it is around curves.  During one quick run to 90 mph there were no white knuckles like there were when I did the same in my MGB years ago.  Of course, the only reason I drove it this fast was to break-in my higher gears (I can't get into 6th gear until about 70 mph).   ;-)

Five years later I haven't had one problem with the engine or drivetrain. It runs great, I get great gas mileage and it hasn't leaked a drop of oil. It was definitely worth the effort to break in properly.