[VIDEO] 2020 Corvette Owner Offers a 10,000 Mile Review of His Daily Driver

Other than the test drivers employed by General Motors, there probably aren’t too many people who have driven the new mid-engine Corvette more than YouTuber Zac LP.

In his latest post, Zac gives the first 10,000 mile review of the 2020 Corvette, or actually the first 12,000 mile review since he’s running a little behind.

“It has been,” he stresses, “the best 12,000 miles in a vehicle in my life!”

His new Sebring Orange coupe “exceeds expectations I had for it,” he says, “and it was pretty high before I purchased this car.”

Zac wasted no time going on a road trip, covering 3,500 miles in a road trip that took him from Bowling Green to New Jersey, down to Louisiana, back to Tennessee, and then home to North Carolina.

He’s since been using it as his daily driver and offers a lot of insight for anyone who has aspirations of owning a mid-engine Corvette.

“To have this car, to be able to have put 12,000 miles on this car since March 16, to be able to daily drive it, it’s just been an awesome experience, one that I’ve been enjoying. It’s honestly been a freaking joy having this car.”

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but even the negatives Zac offers aren’t really major stuff.

He issues a warning about the area that picks up the most road gunk, rock chips, etc., and that would be the back of the rocker panel below the air intake “hockey stick” on the sides.

Interestingly, Zac says he hasn’t Xpel’d or ceramic coated it, and so far he has just one small rock chip on the front, which is encouraging for other owners who might be on the fence about PPF’ing their car.

However, if you do plan to Xpel your Stingray, he recommends definitely doing that area.

He also strongly suggests checking the 2LT box so that you get blind spot monitoring and rearview mirror camera.

“That is probably one of my favorite features of the car is the safety features of this thing,” Zac says. “They come in clutch every day” because the car does have blind spots.

He also compliments the clarity of the rearview mirror camera in the rain, pointing out that a buddy has a 2019 Camaro SS and in the rain “he can’t see out of his rearview camera, but me, I have not had a problem. It’s very clear. The only problem with it is at night the glares are very bad. Usually, you can just adjust the mirror and get that glare away, but sometimes it’s just there in your face and it’s very annoying. Got to take the bad with the good, I guess.”

The only mechanical problem he’s had with his car, he says, has been having the dual-clutch transmission reprogrammed at about 5,000 miles.

“This transmission learns how you drive and it adjusts to your driving when you’re in auto mode,” he explains. “That way it can try to mimic you.”

In his early time with the car, Zac says he was driving in a very aggressive way “so when I would put it in manual, my 1-4 shifts were very aggressive so I didn’t like that so I took it back to the dealer. They reprogrammed it, and everything’s good now. That’s the only problem I’ve had, and that’s not really even a problem – it’s just something I did to myself.”

Since then, Zac says he’s been a “little bit more conservative” with his driving, “but we still have a lot of fun with this car.

Zac says he hasn’t had any problem with the hood flying up or a too-long screw chipping his door paint, as reported on some forums.

He emphasizes the handling of the new Stingray, saying “it just handles so freaking phenomenal.”

“I can remember when this car was first starting to come out, all the Mustangs, the Camaros, the Challengers, the fanboys were always talking about the understeer, the oversteer of the car, and how everybody would be putting (their C8s) in ditches and all that stuff,” Zac says.

He says the handling has actually been “phenomenal,” pointing out that he’s driven his car in mountains, beaches, backcountry roads, “just about every terrain you can drive this car, in the rain, everything, and it’s just … I mean it’s phenomenal.”

Zac touches on one area that has been slammed by some in the forums, that is the wheel selection, but he says he loves his black wheels and says they go very well with the car.

He also repeats a common theme, that the mid-engine Corvette looks so much better in person.

“That’s 100 percent true,” he says. “This is not a photogenic car in my opinion. You have angles where it just looks so good, but there’s a lot of angles where it just doesn’t pick up good in pictures and you’re not gonna get that till you see the car in person. You have got to see this car in person to really appreciate it, in my opinion.”

One other inconvenience with the car, in Zac’s estimation, is washing it, especially the rear window and the plastic panel over the engine. “I literally have to put a step stool on the side of my car, get in my trunk and wash that window,” he says. “If I had to say an inconvenience, that’s just … a mid-engine sports car. You need that ventilation to get that heat out.”

Two underrated areas of the C8 are the launch capabilities and the 14-speaker Bose stereo system.

“Guys, you’re in the driver’s seat, you’re in control, you know it’s coming, you know what to expect,” he says, “but when you’re in that passenger seat and someone launches this car, it’s literally a gut feeling of going down that first drop on a roller coaster.”

Meanwhile, he says the Bose sound system is “freaking amazing,” pointing out that he can only put it about halfway volume, compared to “all the way” in his wife’s Mustang GT.

Zac also praises the comfort and adjustability of the car’s seats, says the “Great Wall of China” row of climate control buttons is “honestly muscle memory,” and loves the MyMode that allows him to crank up the car in Track Mode.

He has the optional Front End Lift, but says he hasn’t really found it necessary. He hadn’t scraped the bottom of the car until three days ago when he excitedly hurried up a ramp to meet some friends. He has only used the lift one time so far, hitting the button going up a steep driveway, but believes the car would have been fine without it.

“Unless you live in a hilly area, you don’t need Front End Lift,” he says. “I’m glad I have it. If you can afford it, go for it if you want that extra sense of security.”

In conclusion, Zac says he loves his new Corvette, rating it 10 out of 10. “I am so impressed with this car,” he says. “I freaking love it. I would love a Z06; that would be the only way I think I would get rid of this car, or some financial complications, losing my job, etc., etc., sickness, stuff like that.”

But, he says, “you cannot beat this car, for the price point. This is it. This is a phenomenal car. I love it. Any experience with this car, you will say the same thing. It’s awesome … it’s awesome.”

Source:
Zac LP / YouTube

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