The Carolina Camaro Club and Hendrick Motosports sponsored a car show at the Hendrick Motorsports Complex on Saturday. I had no idea until about 8:30 a.m. when my Dad called to let me know the Shriners were providing the concession stand for the show. I thought about it for a few minutes and decided it would be nice to drive over to Hendricks and suprise my Dad since he hasn’t seen the car after paint yet. Fortunately I didn’t have much to do and Hendricks was only about 15 miles away.

I threw on some clothes went out to the garage and wiped the dust off the car. I remembered that I still haven’t put the chrome ignition shield back on yet so I gathered it up and got it installed. I’ve never entered a car show before so naturally I was a little excited to get over there. So within about 45 minutes of getting ready I was on my way.

The Carolina Camaro Club hosts car shows quite regulary but the Christmas time show is a special one. The club is awesome about working with Charity programs such as the Shriners Hospitals for burned and cripled children. What originally started as a Camaro show quickly turned into a big size car show for all. The entry fee was either $10 donation to the charity cause or a new toy that would be collected and taken to the Shriners hospital.

When I arrived there were already over 200 cars checked in. In fact, I was #216. I had called Dad and told him to pay my entry fee when I was about 5 minutes away. He wasn’t sure I was coming so that was a little susprise. Once in the gate I was directed to the top lot of the Hendrick Motorsports Complex. Man, were there some nice cars here. Next thing, I learned was at the car shows you just park, set up and wait. The bigger the show the longer you wait. Fortunately it was a nice fall day and the weather was great.

My Dad and my Father-n-law also came out. They were both very pleased with the outcome of the paint job and the overall car. We all had a good time, chatting and walking around looking at al the cars.

The judging and awards started a little later than expected due to the large turn out of cars. I was really curious to see how the judging worked and to see what was said about my car. I feel pretty good about it now especially after receiving complements on the car all day long. Little did I know I would win my first car show trophy for Best of Class. A totally unexpected award and I am very appreciative.

Hendrick Motorsports donated some really unique trophies to be given out to all of the Best of Class Winners. These were made from clutch disc that were used in one of the Hendrick stable of NASCAR race drivers that includes Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson who just won his first Nextel Championship. The cool thing about these trophies, is they are totally unique. Not just some plaque of tin trophy you can buy anywhere. A big thanks to Rick Hendrick for providing these.

I did take quite a few photos of some of the other cars in the show and they are loaded on the gallery. Please take time to check them out. Hope you enjoy.

That’s all for now.

JF

Saturday was a special day for me. I had the pleasure of taking my 8 year old nephew to the car show. He spent the whole day with me. However, I’m pretty sure after about 3 hours, he was a little bored. The rain didn’t help matters. He was a good sport about it and we really enjoyed the day together.

I gave Will a good idea before we went to the car show and suggested that we make a field trip out of it. This meant that he would be able to take pictures of cars. More importantly I wanted Will to take notes about each car that he had his picture made with. Will did a great job and came home with a lot of notes. The cool part about it was that he actually learned a little bit about each car. I’m sure he will have lots to talk about when he goes to school on Monday.

Will even managed to find a car smaller than him.

Thanks Will!

John

Walking into a Chevrolet dealership and asking to test drive a brand new 2008 Corvette Coupe will most likely NOT get you rolling down the road. Unless you are rolling down the road in the same car you drove into the lot with.

We stopped by Parks Chevrolet on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, the dealership was actually open. We briefly looked at the 2008 Corvette and tried to explian to the sales guy and sales manager that were indeed serious about the car and wanted to test drive it. We sorta figured we would get the “No” answer and be asked to make and offer or something to prove that we were serious.

The sales guy comes back and gives us the same story that most any dealer should give on the new Corvettes. “We usually don’t allow test drives of the new Corvettes, without an offer, and most people want to buy them with ZERO miles.” OK, we sorta figured that. So we informed the dealer that we just finished test driving a new 2008 Infiniti G37 and wanted to rule it out. Well this perhaps got their attention a little. The dealer runs over and checked with his sales manager working that day. When he came back, he informed us that he was going out to the lot to grab a used one to let us test drive it. I’m sitting there thinking , cool, maybe it will be a 2007 and at least some what comparible. NOOOOOTT……The guy comes back with a 2004 Corvette.

Once, he pulled up to the door, I asked what year, and he told us. I spoke up and said this deal needs to end right here. Exactly how is someone supposed to drive a 2004 Corvette and compare it against a new 2008 Corvette. Sure it’s a Corvette but any car has changes from year to year. I thought for a moment and figured, it couldn’t hurt to at least let them take my wife for a ride. She agreed and went for a spin. When they came back we told the dealer that there was no way we wanted to buy a 2008 Corvette without at least test driving it. Back to the “make us an offer story they went”.

Monday morning comes along and banging on the internet for 2008 Corvette Coupes. Eventually I stumbled on to the Chevrolet web site and found a build your car page. I plugged in the options we wanted, what we were willing to pay as a down payment and at the end was presented prices and better yet a way to submit my request for quotes to over 10 different local Chevrolet dealerships. The ironic thing was that Parks Chevrolet in Huntersville was the first dealer listed. I proceded to post my details to each of the dealerships. It seemed like 10 minutes later, the general sales manager of Parks Chevrolet was calling me about the request. I filled him in on Sunday and he seemed to know a little about it. He wanted to know why we put 50,000 as a down payment when the car wasn’t actually that much in price. Without going to deep in to conversation, I basically told him we were interested in buying a new 2008 Corvette LT2 Coupe and wanted to make sure that each dealer took us seriously. Obviously he wanted us to come back up and talk.

It didn’t take much longer for other dealers to start calling. After talking to a few, I asked one sales guy, “What would it take for us to drive the car, especially if we were going to drive 45 minutes.” The dealer replied, just show up and I’ll let you take two rides. Obviously, it seems this dealer was willing to take us seriously.

The next phone call was back to Parks Chevrolet in Huntersville. I asked for the general sales manager and explained to him what transpired on Sunday. To his defense, he reiterated their general policy about test driving the new Corvette. I replied that we understood and at the same time informed him that several other local Chevrolet dealerships had invited us to come and drive with no stipulations. The next response was “What time can you be here? Call me at least 30 minutes ahead of time and we will back the car out of the showroom and have it ready for a test drive.” Fair enuff! We drove up to Parks Chevrolet, Huntersville on Monday after work, talked to the general sales manager and each of us went out for a quick test drive.

One general rule of thumb on buying cars from dealers is to not show them your excitement or emotions during or after your test drive. Let me tell you now, this rule can not apply to a 2008 Corvette Coupe with 436 horsepower under the hood. Holy cow!!! It will get your blood moving in a matter of seconds.

After the ride, we pretty much said we wanted to go home and discuss it. I give the sales manager credit, He seemed very laid back, plugged us for some information but pretty much laid off from the sales pressure mentality. Many of the dealership will do their best to not let you leave the lot. That’s their job and their game.

Discussions went good and we started pricing the car on Tuesday morning. I called Parks… and tried working out a deal on the showroom 2008 Corvette. the interior wasn’t exactly what we wanted. The car came with only the glass top option. Unfortunately, I also noticed a pretty good size scratch in the driver side door. The dealer insisted they would do their best to take care of the scratch and proceed to give us the best out the door price on the Corvette.

At this point we had two options. 1. Work out a good deal on this car and take a chance on the scratch coming back and live with black interior and a glass top. 2. Special order the 2008 Corvette with Grey / Titanium 2 tone interior, split 5 spoke wheel painted carbon grey and the two top package option.

The out the door price on that showroom Corvette came back at 48,300 and change. Not bad for starters and for a car that was part of existing inventory. We thought about it for a bit and just couldn’t agree on the black interior, the scratch and the glass top only options. Later that day we decided to special order the car, take our chances on the UAW strike, and wait 6-8 weeks on the exact car that we wanted.

Back to the pricing table we went. This time we explained the options and I made sure the sales manager knew that I would take his price and then call 5 other Chevrolet dealers and have them price out the car as well. The quote came back from Parks Chevrolet, Huntersville at 51,200 and change. We immideately started calling other Chevrolet Dealerships, banging on the internet pricing sites and exploring options.

Tomorrow I will post quoted prices on the same 2008 Corvette Coupe LT2 specs. More importantly, you will see why it is so important to make dealerships work against each other and how the phone and the internet can help you do it without ever leaving home.

Meanwhile, we are waiting patiently today to get confirmation that our order allocation is in place. Wish us luck.

JF

Over the past week I have been thinking very hard about keeping or selling my 1977 Corvette that has been in my family for nearly 30 years. Let me tell you, it’s not exactly an easy decision to make.

Why you may ask? Why would you even think about selling a “classic”? A few reasons that I came up with is:

1. It’s hard to enjoy: Try driving something out in public that is a restored classic car. It’s nerve racking to say the least. There are some pretty idiotic drivers out there that could give a rats ass less what you might be driving. Even on Sunday mornings when people are on their way to Church. Heaven forbid, someone miss the first prayer of the morning service.

2. Never exactly confident about the mechanical condition: Yes, the car is sound and restored well. However, I’m always worried that something will break and cause me to have to sit on the side of the road or pay some part time wrecker service to tow my car in to a shop.

3. It is still taking up garage space: Sure I could build another garage, buy another house, or pay for storage. Does this solve the issue? I suppose but it is kinda like putting a bandaid on a deep gash.

4. I’ve always wanted a new Corvette: Enuff Said!

5. The new 2008 Corvette LT2 are pretty sweet and affordable too.

This past week we went to a Chevrolet dealership in our area to look at the 2008 Corvettes. We were actually more interested in the new 2008 Infiniti G37S coupes. However after test driving the Infiniti we were least than impressed. When we left the Infinit dealership, my wife suggested we at least stop next door to see the Corvette. Little to my suprise she loved what she saw sitting on the showroom floor. Heck, I didn’t even think she liked the new Corvettes.

The 2008 Corvette LT2 that Parks Chevrolet in Huntersville had was Machine Silver (almost the exact color of my 77 Corvette). The silver and black tint on this car made it stand out in a crowd.  We were not granted the opportunity to test drive the Corvette and that is most likely the norm. to any Joe Blow walking in off the street.

What really impressed us was the sticker price of the 2008 LT2 Corvette. The price was just over 49,000 with one added option. Seems like the new models in 2007 were a bit higher when we looked last year. We pondered for a bit and considered the possibility of buying the 2008 Corvette. I’ve always stated the only way that I would sell my 77 Corvette was if I could buy a new one. Apparently my Wife hasn’t forgot that either.

Long story short, it actually makes alot of since. Sell two cars that are fully paid for, get garage space, less insurance bills, less license tags and more importantly a car we can enjoy and use.

Stay tuned tomorrow and find out how we go about test driving the 2008 Corvette. Then we will share with you how we took 5 different dealerships to wage a little cut throat pricing war to get the best “Out the Door” price on the 2008 Corvette.

JF

Well, the day is finally here. After an unexpected week of last minute detail exterior parts and an extra week of personal vacation I am leaving in 15 minutes to pick up the car from the body shop.

The unexpected parts cost me about $600 in change. I wasn’t really budgeting for this so thank goodness there was some extra cash laying around. I ended up buying door handle replacement gasket seals, light lenses for all the exterior lights, grille light lenses, and four extra rally wheel rings.

So anyway, today is the day. You better believe I’m taking a fine tooth comb and a digital camera for final inspection. Check back later today and I will try to get new pictures uploaded.

Better yet, wish me luck. Sorta have my fingers crossed right now.

JF.