[ACCIDENT] Renter Destroys YouTuber’s C7 Corvette Z06 Convertible

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[ACCIDENT] Renter Destroys YouTuber's C7 Corvette Z06 Convertible


The odds are apparently in favor of the rental company when they hand over the key fob to one of their supercars to a stranger, or else they wouldn’t be in business very long.

Still, it had to hurt when Adventure Drivers founder Rob Ferretti heard the news that his Admiral Blue C7 Corvette Z06 convertible had been smashed up by a customer in a frontal collision over the Mother’s Day weekend.

Ferretti shares a walk-around of the wounded Z06 in a YouTube video, and while his initial reaction was one of extreme shock, upon closer inspection, he now believes the damage isn’t as bad as it looks.

He says he looks at everything like it’s a Ferrari and believes this level of damage in such a scenario would probably be $120,000. On a Corvette, however, he estimates that number might be around $25,000, though he won’t know an exact amount until his insurance adjuster pays a visit.

Ferretti also doesn’t know the route he’ll be taking with the Z06 once repaired. Before the accident, he says his original plan was to keep renting the Z06 and an orange C8 coupe until his C8 Z06 arrives.

“Well, things didn’t really work out the way I was hoping for,” he says.

Ferretti admits he had an ominous feeling before the accident, saying that he “sorta saw it coming.”

That’s why he warned the young driver multiple times: “It’s a fast car,” “take care,” “the car is good, the car doesn’t crash itself but you want to be careful with it.”

To which the customer replied: “Don’t worry. I don’t drive like that.”

That response designed to be reassuring actually upset Ferretti even more because another well-intentioned customer had told him the same thing before going out and wrecking a Ford GT.

[ACCIDENT] Renter Destroys YouTuber's C7 Corvette Z06 Convertible


That one really got Ferretti’s goat because the guy was the last scheduled renter for the GT and Ferretti was planning on buying it from the company for $100,000.

He told the renter: “I just wanted to let you know, I love this car, it’s a great car, you’re gonna have a great weekend. Just be careful with it because I’m buying it after the rental. You know what he said to me? I’ll never forget: ‘Don’t worry, I don’t drive like that.’ Three hours later, he drove like that, and I never ended up buying the car.”

Back to the Z06. Ferretti says he’s impressed with the quality of the engineering that apparently went into the car, noting that it seems to have responded to the crash the way it was intended to minimize the damage and protect the occupants.

He notes that a support bar seems to have taken the brunt of the impact and just popped loose from a sleeve, and he believes a replacement might be able to just slide back in and be welded in place. “I almost feel like it’s designed to come apart like this,” he says.

Fortunately, the bulk of the damage appears to have been to the front end, with the hood and fenders likely needing to be replaced. The wheels have some scrape marks that need to be repaired, and likewise, there’s some minor scuffing around the wheel well on the passenger rear.

[ACCIDENT] Renter Destroys YouTuber's C7 Corvette Z06 Convertible


On the bright side, the 650 horsepower LT4 engine appears to be running fine, with the video showing Ferretti cranking the car and getting only three warning lights: Hood Open, Service Airbag, and Add Air to Tire. Also, he says there don’t appear to be any leaks from the cooling system housed in the front end, so possibly it could be repaired and not replaced.

Ferretti seems bewildered that only the driver’s airbag deployed in the frontal crash, but we tend to believe that either there was no passenger or the impact wasn’t on that side, hence no need to waste a perfectly good airbag.

After stripping off the damaged parts, Ferretti believes he’ll have a better idea of what the car needs to be repaired and what he’ll end up doing with it. He says he’ll let his viewers know the ultimate response of the insurance adjuster.

“As bad as this looks,” he says, “I think it’s not as damaged as it appears at first glance.”

Unfortunately, the car will show up as being involved in an accident on Carfax, so Ferretti seems almost certain to take a hit on the selling price. Having seen the damage, would you still be willing to buy this Z06 after it’s repaired? Please share your reasons with us, why or why not.


Source:
YouTube via carscoops.com

Related:
[VIDEO] Exotic Rental Company Tracks Down and Recovers Stolen Corvette
[STOLEN] Black C7 Corvette Z06 is Recovered Thanks to OnStar Theft Alert
[PICS] You Can Rent This Cool C5 Corvette ‘El Camino’ in Switzerland

 



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8 COMMENTS

  1. Anyone who rents out cars of that type are asking for it – even $300/day plus $1/mile can’t be profitable – as in what if this renter was the first renter of this car and not the 400th??

  2. Well the driver must have purchased insurance at time of rental ? If rental company was making a claim I hate to see what insurance was on that corvette?

  3. “I know this is your first day at the construction site and that you have zero explosive training, but this is a box of dynamite that I need you to empty and stack each stick on this 10 foot high wall, be careful…” “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

    What could go wrong and who’s really at fault? Certainly, not the young man stacking dynamite…?

  4. Its a shame to see any Corvette wrecked but a Blue Z06 C7 Convertible really hurts. Hopefully it will be repaired and come out as good as before the accident. It sounded like the commentator was trying to convince himself that it’s not as bad as it looks. I hope he is right.

  5. I just got my C7 back on May 1 from a September rear end collision. Rob’s not gonna know the extent of the damage until they “get in there”. C7’s have lots of parts and modules crammed into very tight spaces. Frame damage is a certainty, but the good news is it can be fixed as good as new.

  6. Commented before I watched the video. That’s a busted frame rail on the drivers side. Both front quarters, hood, grille, front fascia, headlights (the head lights are 4k alone) rear quarters, air bag (never a good sign) and who knows what they’ll find once they start to take it apart. Depends on what the insurance company will spend, but that’s 35-40k in parts, paint and labor.

  7. I beleve this car is something you work up to. I’m seeing lots of young guys and girls drive these new Vettes. They don’t have the experience. To me its like putting the “cart before the horse”. If you work up to a car like this I think you would have a lot more respect for it’s speed and value. Also if you don’t buy it yourself you don’t have the respect for it either. I saw a you tube video of how a young girl, added tiedowns to the ass end of a new vette so that she could smoke the tires. Totally no respect for such a car! I guess stupid is as stupid does.

  8. There are not many Vette’s from the 50’s and 60’s that we’re not in some kind of wreck so I see no reason not to trust the repair. The real difference is that when you buy a classic you have to know the car to be sure wether it was hit or not today car fax will. Tell you

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