With any new vehicle, comes an adjustment period. As with most things, after you buy something, you’re in love with it, and it’s the greatest purchase ever. Once the new wears off, you are left with things you love about the new car and somethings that you don’t.
Since we don’t own a C8 Corvette, we can’t honestly critique the car. You need someone that has plenty of time in the seat and with different driving conditions to get a solid evaluation. Tj Hunt, YouTuber, and car enthusiast is a good candidate to give some feedback on the C8 platform. In this video, Hunt states that he has put over 4,000 miles on the Corvette and has taken it to the track. And while he says that it was pretty tough to come up with his top five list, he managed.
Number 5: The interior
When we first saw the interior layout on the C8, we were skeptical of the design. Hunt confirms our thoughts, as he walks us through some challenges with the insides of the C8.
One problem is the buttons. In the video Hunt explains that when you need to activate the seat heaters or some of the other items, the driver must turn their body and physically look to see the switches. This action takes the driver’s eyes off the road, which is dangerous. We are willing to bet that more seat time will help with this problem, but it’s still an obstacle that will take time to overcome.
Cell phones have become an important part of our lives. We check email, make phone calls, listen to music, and even navigate the roads with this purpose-built devices. GM chose to make a place to charge a cell phone, which is cool. However, it’s in a somewhat awkward position. This charger is above the center console area between the driver and passenger seat. The video shows that getting the device in and out of the holder could be a little tricky. We don’t see this dilemma as a big deal, but it would be a problem if you needed to get your phone out while driving.
Number Four: Laggy Gauges
Evidently, when you switch the gauges from the track, sport, and normal mode, the display can be slow to transition. Hunt states that the change can be more delayed at times. In the video, you can see that the gauges seem to respond somewhat promptly as he toggles through them. We’re sure this would upset someone that paid a lot of money for a new car and rightfully so.
Number Three: Tires
The base C8 comes standard with Michelin All-Season, and while the car can still pull 1.04 G’s on the skidpad, a simple question comes up. Why did Chevrolet decide to put an all-season tire on its top of the line sports car? Since the car handles so well, to begin with, maybe they thought most people wouldn’t need them. Whatever the case, it’s obvious in the video that you will need a different set of tires if you intend to track the car. Hunt shows us that his tires were delaminating after just one day at the track and this is with the better Michelin Pilot Sport 4S ZP that come on the Z51 package. However, this is a simple fix.
Number Two: Warning Lights
Evidently, when Hunt hit the track for a session, the tires were not the only thing that had a problem. He states that while the C8 was in track mode, they had several warning lights that were activated, including the service ABS, service traction control, and a “plethora” of others as well. Fortunately, the car never went into limp mode or displayed any problems. Hunt basically ignored these warnings and kept racing. On a 50-mile trek back home, all of the lights turned off, and everything was back to normal with the Z51 packaged C8.
Number One: The Donut Shop
If you have watched any YouTube videos of the C8, then you have a pretty good idea of what the number one problem might be. Getting the C8 to do a real burnout is tough. The car’s weight distribution is so good that even with the front tires locked down when you try to apply power to the rear, the C8 lunges forward. And if you want to do donuts, you can forget about this as Hunt shows us in the video. We’re not sure if the ECU kills the power or if the vehicle goes into neutral. Either way, the C8 does not approve of this type of abuse, and we get it. Chevy wants the car to survive through the factory warranty and needed a safeguard from breaking parts. We would like to see someone doing some big smokey O’s with mountains of tire smoke, and sooner or later, the code will be cracked.
While some of these problems are just that, others do not concern us. Would the above list keep us from buying a C8? Not at all. Would we try and still do a burnout or two? You better believe it!
Let us know what you think about these C8 problems in the comments below.