+rep

Now that's a dashboard that I could live with. That, with some nice aftermarket buckets, and a P&M or other steering wheel, would really make the interior a wonderful place to be.

I'm glad I cleared it up. I really want to like the corvette, all models offer awesome performance for the price, but there truly are some things they should address which can take the car to a whole new level. And none of them are really the sports car things, like handling or power, it's all interior and exterior style and materials.

I agree. It absolutely has to do with tradition. I know they don't want to move it, and I don't blame them. Although, I get the feeling that for every enthusiast who buys a 911 and truly loves everything about it, there are a handful of people who buy the Porsche and 911 badges and really don't know much about the car they are on (the "I'm having a mid-life crisis and I want a sports car, so I'll buy a 911 becuase that's what Fred, Bob, Stan, and everyone else I know has done" guys.)

 

GM could certainly improve the interior of the Corvette.. That's been long understood. The seats, and in particular, the steering wheel are a shame. Everyone who buys one knows this. The interior, as pictured above, can be remedied. However, interior tweak/needs aren't exclusive to Corvettes: look how many people change the flaccid non-sport seats out of 911's.

You can't get the same level of performance and an Aston/Ferrari interior for 'Vette money. Most people buying cars have to weigh their wants/needs. It's a trade-off. A base Porsche owner will value the interior and perhaps the badging more than outright performance. No harm there. Re overall performance, it's very hard to be close to a 'Vette for the money.. Especially the Z-derivatives.

As a Corvette (Z06) owner, I find the generalizations about owners unfortunate. Plenty of 'Vette owners can afford to drive whatever they want, but choose to keep a Corvette in the garage for the soundtrack, the relative performance, and to a lesser extent, the heritage. Whenever I drive mine, I am always surprised at how much fun they are to drive.

The new proposed powerplant will suffice and hopefully, someday, GM will at least offer different seat/wheel options. (seat changes are very, very expensive for the MFG due to crash reg. testing).