Re: " The new Viper is exotic and curvy, but the glory days are gone at least by sale
Uhm, BS. It should have been considerably better and lighter. You may want to learn how to distinguish hate from disappointment.
Plain and simple- I would not touch it even if I still had the C5. Too many gizmos and nannies and busy styling worthy of a rice rocket, not to mention ability to run on skinny tires and four cylinders. Values of corvettes do not exist with or without this new **** called C7, I already learned that part from buying a brand new Z06.
Uhh...doesn't it ride on the same tires a the base C6, just with a higher diameter? No to mention MUCH better lateral grip, it matches the Z06 and ZR1 on cup tires while riding on ZP supersports.
Can't call it an abomination till you drive it. It has electric steering, but better steering feel than the C6 (per all the reviews) which says a lot about the current steering in the C6. It's heavier, but with better breaking, acceleration, and grip.
Plus, corvettes are shackled with CAFE requirements because they try to sell a bunch of them. The next Z06 and/or ZR1 will probably not be so effected.
True, it has lots of gizmos, but essentially all of them are currently available on the C6 except for the TFT display which is not a gizmo per se. It's now about as common as an LED or a power cord given that every phone uses it, nearly every new car, etc.
My hope is that they finally last and don't have the same usable life as a carton of milk. Past corvettes are really prone to "fall-apart" (technical GM terminology).
It creates a real quandary for the Corvette buyer - 1. Buy new and suffer massive depreciation over just a few years. 2. Buy used and deal with replacing every component of the car over 5-7 years due to "fall-apart".
The bright side is if you decide to buy one (realizing that it is not an abomination), may be you will only have to buy one car instead of three over the same period!
Plus, it might still be an abomination AND the best corvette to date - they are not mutually exclusive (even though I like Corvettes).