2020 Corvette Named Car of the Year by Popular Mechanics

Livable.
Comfortable.
Mostly pleasant.
Quiet.
A good balance.
Pleasantly terrifying.
Thrilling.

Those are a few of the ways Popular Mechanics describes the 2020 Corvette Stingray, the new mid-engine monster from Chevrolet so good it’s just become that magazine’s Car of the Year.

“So much of what makes Ferraris, McLarens, and Lamborghinis the stuff of phone wallpaper fantasy is present” in the new Corvette, Popular Mechanics writes.

Things like a 0 to 60 time of 2.8 seconds “with a pleasantly terrifying exhaust sound.”

With the seats so far forward, the Corvette gives you “that tip-of-the-cruise-missile feeling.”

Even after a week-long test drive, Popular Mechanics says the car never lost its novelty, noting that “it is thrilling to hold the keys to this thing.”

Unlike so many other supercars, the new Corvette is still a practical vehicle, with PM calling it “livable. Actually comfortable.”

With two trunks that hold 13 cubic feet of stuff, the Stingray can fit two week’s worth of groceries for three people.

Even a four-hour trip in heavy traffic and rain was “mostly pleasant,” the magazine reports, with sound dampening materials that “kept the cockpit quiet at highway speeds.”

Even the “strange center bar with the air conditioning controls made sense within just a few miles of our first drive,” PM admitted.

It wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows, though, as the magazine did point out a few minor nitpicks with the car.

The overall comfort means that the Corvette “loses some of the vibration that helps you feel feedback from the road, even in its most aggressive drive setting. And as our colleagues at Car and Driver have pointed out, the steering feel doesn’t quite have the precision you get from six figures.”

But with a base price under $60,000, the Corvette more than delivers its money’s worth to owners.

PM says the $100,000 718 Cayman and Spider are “slightly more engaging (though slower) driving experiences” thanks to their six-speed manual transmission over the Corvette’s new dual-clutch automatic.

“But for those of us who like a little utility in a two-seater,” PM says, “the Corvette is a good balance.”

Ironically, the gasoline-powered Corvette breaks a three-year-long streak of electric vehicles earning the Car of the Year award. We wouldn’t be surprised, though, when the rumored E-Ray electric hybrid version of the Corvette debuts in a couple of years or so, if that car doesn’t restore order to the PM universe and win this award again.

Source:
Popular Mechanics

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