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2008 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible - Quality

Quality is one of the areas where Corvettes have, unfortunately, often lagged their competitors. Chevrolet has stepped up its game, and Corvettes have fewer mechanical problems than they once did according to the companies that track that sort of thing. But we’re more interested in the subjective side of quality.

On that front, the new interior treatment goes a long way toward making the Corvette a world-class place to inhabit. The leather is soft and supple, the seams are straight (for the most part, we did find one minor wobble), and the two-tone treatment looks really good. Unfortunately, much of the remaining exposed plastic isn’t very nice to the touch, feeling hard and unyielding to the fingertips. The glovebox door especially felt cheap.

The rest of the materials are largely on the better end of the scale. Most of the remaining plastics were high enough quality to merit placement in a $70,000 car, and the rest of the switchgear felt worthy of the car’s price tag. Rather than a traditional handle, the Corvette uses buttons to open the doors; they’re a little gimmicky at first, but they work well enough and after a short time we decided we liked them after all.

Assembly quality in our test Corvette was remarkably improved over earlier versions. Panel gaps were tight and straight inside, and even the gap between the doors and dash was admirably small. Outside it was much the same, but the composite panels tend to expand and shrink in heat and cold, so exterior gaps were larger than we prefer, although they were straight.