2005 Chevrolet Corvette Preview

The American Dream -- On Wheels

An American icon gets pruned, pumped up and polished.

From The Driver's Seat

Like a growing number of cars, the Corvette has a new-fangled keyless ignition. As long as you have the key fob in your presence, the car starts when your foot is on the brake pedal and the ignition switch, located to the right of the steering wheel, is pressed. Press the magic button and the engine immediately burbles to life with a sexy rumble -- one in which Chevy engineers got the exhaust volume and tone just right.

The benefits of the keyless ignition technology is that the car is harder to steal (think insurance) and whoever is carrying the key fob can enter the car without pressing a button on a remote control. But, Chevrolet might have pushed the envelope a bit too far with its power-operated inside release button for the doors.

The Corvette also automatically lowers the door window a tad when the door is opened and closes this gap when the door is closed. This feature is finding its way onto some other luxury cars and is also standard on the new $20,000 Ford Mustang. Hey, magic windows make a good impression on a first date.

GM has received a lot of well-deserved criticism for the shabbiness of its car interiors. Fortunately, the 2005 Corvette's cockpit no longer looks like it was designed for the now-defunct Chevrolet Camaro. The fit and finish of materials and quality of construction rate above average. There is still room for improvement, but this car is for driving enthusiasts, not people who want to nitpick over whether some switches are shared with other GM models or whether the coin tray has the right ambiance.

The instrument panel center stack is surrounded by handsome aluminum trim. Key gauges in front of the driver are organized in circular shapes and have a black background, set off with clear white numerals and red needles. Gauges are set at different depths, adding to the attractiveness of the instrument package. The Preferred Equipment Group includes a heads-up display in which the speed indicator and a few other key metrics are projected onto the bottom of the windshield. In a car like the Corvette, it is great to know how fast you're going without glancing down at the dashboard speedometer.

The digital readout for the HVAC controls sits above the center stack readout for the sound system. Both have black text against a white background, though it would have been nice if the numerals on these indicators were a bit larger. The Corvette isn't the smoothest riding car by a long shot, but its six-way power bucket seats help compensate for this limitation.

Corvette's Z51 performance package -- a $1,500 option that came with the tester -- adds larger cross-drilled brake rotors, sportier tires and a more aggressive suspension. This is a point-and-shoot automobile: just point the front wheels wherever you want to go and the rest of the car will follow. Prospective buyers should test drive Corvettes with the two other suspension options, as drivers might find that the standard suspension doesn't give up much in handling capability, delivers a smoother ride and lowers the sticker price. The third suspension option, magnetic selective ride control ($1,700), uses electric currents to automatically change the viscosity of the fluid in the car's struts depending on road conditions. With this suspension, a driver can choose between a more comfortable ride and sportier handling.

Removing the top roof panel is a snap, and with a little maneuvering the piece can be stored in the hatch area, a space GM claims can hold two golf bags. When the panel is stowed in the back there isn't room for much of anything else -- especially a golf bag. With the top removed and the windows rolled up, the topless cabin seemed a bit quieter during in-town driving. One possible explanation is that road noise coming from the low-slung undercarriage can escape through the open roof instead of reverberating through the interior.

A tire pressure monitoring system is standard and is a useful feature to have with the Corvette's expensive, low-profile tires. The 'Vette's brakes are very powerful and capable of quickly returning the car to safer speed levels. The tires are larger in the rear (P285/35 ZR19 versus P245/40 ZR18 on the front) and the run-flat (no spare) Goodyear Eagle F1 SCs are designed more for grip than for long wear.

On the Environmental Protection Agency test, the Corvette scores 18 miles per gallon in city driving and 26 on the highway. Those are excellent numbers for a high-performance V-8. Of course, actual gas mileage will depend on the way that the car is driven.