Picture of the Week - Chevrolet Impala

There are cars I would never consider purchasing. Like this one, it's a Chevrolet Impala. It's huge, it's amazing. I do admire it and I can understand that many people fancy such cars. But it wouldn't fit my garage and neither my driving style. But that's the good thing about the oldtimer car scene, people with a variety of tastes and preferences own very different cars and if they bring them to a meeting you can see almost the whole tradition of car manufacturing. Great!

New Corvette commercial - tradition, engineering and performance

We don't have such commercials, too bad. But I love it, as I actually do admire the car as such.

Yes, your Corvette Z06 can save a lot of fuel!

Fuel consumption of fast and large cars looks often very bad, looking at the ECE measured average consumption. The magazine Auto Motor und Sport in Germany has introduced their own fuel efficiency lap, which every test car has to do. The differences are interesting, also the extremes. While it's obviously possible to drive a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti oder a Covertte Z06 at emission levels 40% lower than anticipated by the ECE measurement cycle, other cars like the Toyota iQ actually use 30% more fuel than measured in the ECE cycle. Obviously fast and heavy cars are penalized, but funny enough also the Dacia seems to look to bad.

Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition - stereoids on a budget

Chevrolet (GM) just announced the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition. It's a limited production run of the popular Z06 with some improvements coming from the ZR1 (braking, cooling, wheels). It's only available in special colors and probably will be sold out quickly. Part of the improvement package though can also be ordered with regular Z06s. Which brings me to the point that I do actually quite like the Corvette. It represents good things such as lots of power for fairly little money (an entry level Corvette can be yours for a bit more than 50k USD), good looks, lightweight body/chassis design, great sounds and impressive performance. This is combined with acceptable fuel economy. Of course neither the interior design nor the build quality are a global benchmark, but hey, it's okay.
The current Corvette brings supercar performance (Z06) at the price of a normal BMW street car, or it is able to compete with the fastest Ferraris and Lamborghinis at half the price (ZR1). And it has more racing pedigree than most of its competitors, having won its class in Le Mans multiple times.
Even from a collector's point of view it's something to be considered. Old Corvettes (C1, C2 split window Stingrays, C3 Stingrays) fetch high prices, and race versions are sought after. So in many years people will look for well maintained C6 Z06 or ZR1 and thanks to the substantial volume produced there should be enough specialists and good parts availability to keep them running.
I have never owned a Corvette, but had it on my list from time to time. Remember what I said about the Audi RS5? It's the wrong compromise. Rather buy an A4 Avant and a Corvette on top. At the end you will have more performance and driving pleasure AND more practicality for your money, just incorporated in two instead of one car.