Daily Driver - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

Dime · 02-11-2011

I'm finally gonna get myself a C4 this summer. If I can I'd like to get a ZR-1, and just wanted to know what veteran z owners think of using a ZR-1 as a daily driver (and I mean every single day). Reliabilty, over life and longevity or the car, etc.

sammy · 02-11-2011

between my 2 car i have put on 175 thousand miles on them and use 1 of the 2 of them every day. i have only been stranded once when the tranny in the black car blew up . if you take care of her she will be a very dependable little gal .jmho

sammy · 02-11-2011

ps thats been since 2004

tomtom72 · 02-12-2011

When my DD quit working a few yrs back I had to use my Z everyday, except for the snow months here in NYS. I do not use a car to get to work either. So my use was purely to do personal chores and then go play.

The only issues I had were that the roads take a beating up here in the winter and it takes most of the spring to get them fixed. The car probably doesn't suffer from bad roads as much as the driver does. It was an uncomfortable ride over true broken pavement, and painful for the owner to feel the car take the potholes....it creaked & groaned & rattled & generally was not a pleasant experience. I always felt as though my Z was questioning my treatment of her. One other bad side effect of using her everyday was that it almost stopped being special to drive her. I think partly due to the bad roads and the fact that in 04 she cost me 25K..the mental trauma of abusing a 25k car was too much cognitive dissonance for me to handle. After two years I bought another DD, and me and my Z are much happier.

She never let me down as a DD. It's JMHO that unless the roads are smooth you will have accelerated suspension wear and that can become expensive. Oh, one other thing. You will never forget the sound of the asphalt patch pebbles hitting your rockers or mud flaps in my case at 30 mph.....ever...for hundreds of yards at a clip! However, at today's prices maybe I would feel differently? Hard for me to say for sure because vettes were always special to me and a ZR-1 well it's unique among special cars. JMHO.

Tom

Aurora40 · 02-12-2011

I've never been concerned about using mine as a daily driver, though I didn't drive it every single day. But in nice weather I always drove it to work. The old-tech headlights, slow wipers, rain rolling in the door when you open it, etc meant it wasn't all that fun to drive in bad weather, so I didn't. But then driving other cars in rain isn't all that fun either, but they are better at it.

Bottom line, I didn't have any concerns about driving it every day, I just didn't choose to.

xlr8nflorida · 02-12-2011

I would not hesitate to drive one daily. It's very reliable. If you drive daily though, I'd buy yourself a fairly low mileage one say 35,000 miles, one that has had everything gone through. In most cases it will be 20-25k mile car that just depreciates as you put miles on but even if you rack up the mileage, you will still get 10k to mid teens especially if taken care of. It won't exactly be the chepest daily driver for sure, tires etc but it will be fun.

For me personally, I have a different approach. Driving the zr-1 is a treat to me. Driving a corvette daily bores me quickly. When I do take my z out, it gets fully cleaned and put away with a cover. It has probably only been washed 3 times in 10 years and it looks like it came from the factory.

I purchased my c5 corvette with 11,000 miles on it, it had never seen rain. I drive that sucker daily in all types of weather. I drive my 93 corvette when I'm taking a real Long trip or my daily driver has been all washed up and it's messy out.

There is no right or wrong answer, everybody is different. Some will say if you don't drive the wheels off, you are wasting money and losing out on fun.

Driving the z minimally keeps it special to me. Driving my c5 daily is boring and it's not anything special. When a car gets all used up and looks rough, I don't feel the same way about it either.

Durability and longevity is not an issue, lt-5 motor go 200,000 miles no problem. Tranny is tough too.

Good luck

Kb7tif · 02-12-2011

Daily driver I dont know, to me the car is too special for that. For me its an event to drive the Zr-1. Daily driving here would be rough Speed-bumps, traffic, elements, Royal Pain. I tend to destroy my daily drivers here. Beat on them regularly. So i would say in my case NO.
Thank goodness some people feel that way or we would have all daily high mile drivers left.

GOLDCYLON · 02-12-2011

Mines a daily driver. Lifes to short to drive anything else. I bought it for that reason. GC

todesengel · 02-12-2011

I put 8,000 miles on mine in a 3 month period, driving it all over the country. It didn't work well for me due to space limitations (luggage for two week trips, tools, laptops, printers, etc) but she never gave me a mechanical issue, got great fuel mileage, and even handled the rain with little issue. Not nearly the time some have driven, but it was a lot of miles in a very short time.

sammy · 02-12-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by GOLDCYLON

Mines a daily driver. Lifes to short to drive anything else. I bought it for that reason. GC

darrel , i am with you, thats why i ended up with2 so i hopefully would never be without a z under my foot . but as other have said we each have our own reasons for owning this ,to me most special vet EVER BUILT

02-11-2011	#1
Dime Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Vicksburg, MS Posts: 135	Daily Driver I'm finally gonna get myself a C4 this summer. If I can I'd like to get a ZR-1, and just wanted to know what veteran z owners think of using a ZR-1 as a daily driver (and I mean every single day). Reliabilty, over life and longevity or the car, etc.

02-11-2011	#2
sammy Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: back in lone pine Posts: 591	Re: Daily Driver between my 2 car i have put on 175 thousand miles on them and use 1 of the 2 of them every day. i have only been stranded once when the tranny in the black car blew up . if you take care of her she will be a very dependable little gal .jmho

02-11-2011	#3
sammy Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: back in lone pine Posts: 591	Re: Daily Driver ps thats been since 2004

02-12-2011	#4
tomtom72 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Jacksonville, FL USA Posts: 4,645	Re: Daily Driver When my DD quit working a few yrs back I had to use my Z everyday, except for the snow months here in NYS. I do not use a car to get to work either. So my use was purely to do personal chores and then go play. The only issues I had were that the roads take a beating up here in the winter and it takes most of the spring to get them fixed. The car probably doesn't suffer from bad roads as much as the driver does. It was an uncomfortable ride over true broken pavement, and painful for the owner to feel the car take the potholes....it creaked & groaned & rattled & generally was not a pleasant experience. I always felt as though my Z was questioning my treatment of her. One other bad side effect of using her everyday was that it almost stopped being special to drive her. I think partly due to the bad roads and the fact that in 04 she cost me 25K..the mental trauma of abusing a 25k car was too much cognitive dissonance for me to handle. After two years I bought another DD, and me and my Z are much happier. She never let me down as a DD. It's JMHO that unless the roads are smooth you will have accelerated suspension wear and that can become expensive. Oh, one other thing. You will never forget the sound of the asphalt patch pebbles hitting your rockers or mud flaps in my case at 30 mph.....ever...for hundreds of yards at a clip! However, at today's prices maybe I would feel differently? Hard for me to say for sure because vettes were always special to me and a ZR-1 well it's unique among special cars. JMHO. Tom __________________ 1990 ZR-1, Black/grey, #2233, stock. ZR-1 Net Reg Founding Member #316 & NCM member

02-12-2011	#5
Aurora40 Join Date: May 2005 Location: Leesburg, VA Posts: 2,713	Re: Daily Driver I've never been concerned about using mine as a daily driver, though I didn't drive it every single day. But in nice weather I always drove it to work. The old-tech headlights, slow wipers, rain rolling in the door when you open it, etc meant it wasn't all that fun to drive in bad weather, so I didn't. But then driving other cars in rain isn't all that fun either, but they are better at it. Bottom line, I didn't have any concerns about driving it every day, I just didn't choose to. __________________ Bob Saveland Former owner of #2517 [IMG]http://a.random-image.net/aurora40/vette.jpg[/img]

02-12-2011	#6
xlr8nflorida Join Date: May 2008 Location: USA Posts: 1,096	Re: Daily Driver I would not hesitate to drive one daily. It's very reliable. If you drive daily though, I'd buy yourself a fairly low mileage one say 35,000 miles, one that has had everything gone through. In most cases it will be 20-25k mile car that just depreciates as you put miles on but even if you rack up the mileage, you will still get 10k to mid teens especially if taken care of. It won't exactly be the chepest daily driver for sure, tires etc but it will be fun. For me personally, I have a different approach. Driving the zr-1 is a treat to me. Driving a corvette daily bores me quickly. When I do take my z out, it gets fully cleaned and put away with a cover. It has probably only been washed 3 times in 10 years and it looks like it came from the factory. I purchased my c5 corvette with 11,000 miles on it, it had never seen rain. I drive that sucker daily in all types of weather. I drive my 93 corvette when I'm taking a real Long trip or my daily driver has been all washed up and it's messy out. There is no right or wrong answer, everybody is different. Some will say if you don't drive the wheels off, you are wasting money and losing out on fun. Driving the z minimally keeps it special to me. Driving my c5 daily is boring and it's not anything special. When a car gets all used up and looks rough, I don't feel the same way about it either. Durability and longevity is not an issue, lt-5 motor go 200,000 miles no problem. Tranny is tough too. Good luck Last edited by xlr8nflorida; 02-12-2011 at 01:37 PM.

02-12-2011	#7
Kb7tif Join Date: May 2009 Location: S Nevada Posts: 352	Re: Daily Driver Daily driver I dont know, to me the car is too special for that. For me its an event to drive the Zr-1. Daily driving here would be rough Speed-bumps, traffic, elements, Royal Pain. I tend to destroy my daily drivers here. Beat on them regularly. So i would say in my case NO. Thank goodness some people feel that way or we would have all daily high mile drivers left. __________________ 1995 Convertible Supercharged Auto 1974 454 550hp (avatar car) On the blocks- -Scharger install ! 1992-Zr-1 Sold. Watson Headers Ported Plenum, Housings Random tech cats Fidanza Flywheel Chipped, Relocated Mat Woods 165 stat Borlas, Straights 1996 Lt4 Sold 1994 Lt1 Sold 2004 Z06 Sold AKA** Illenema

02-12-2011	#8
GOLDCYLON Join Date: May 2007 Location: Peoria, AZ Posts: 9,155	Re: Daily Driver Mines a daily driver. Lifes to short to drive anything else. I bought it for that reason. GC __________________ GOLDCYLON - 91 ZR-1 #2014 GOLDCYLON - 90 ZR-1 #2794, 4L60e (Formerly Schrade's) GOLDCYLON - 11 CTS-V Arizona State Director 91 WHITE/BLACK #2014. 380 P&P&PCed,Ported Heads, Jeal Long tubes, Corsa Exhaust/FIKSE FM-5s /LED TLs, LED Headlights, Front Wilwood 6 piston narrowlite calipers and rear Wilwood caliper street shop mod,CNCed Coolant Pipes,TPI Cvr,Filter cover,Stainless Bolts, DRM/DOM PROM /ZFDOC mod build #102,DRLs,BMAD with stainless Debris Screen,Coplan Air Blaster, Pioneer APP Radio 4,Brey-Krause HB,Sub Bar,Fire extinguisher seat mount,DRM Coilovers,LEDs everywhere,Compass mirror (orange),V1 DIC hidden display, Homelink sun visor, Carbon Fiber top x3 and APSIS Carbon Fiber interior, APSIS CF Steering Wheel/NAPA Leather, Banski trailing arms, Guldstrand front suspension,urethane bushings from Prothane (total suspension) ZFDoc drive shaft safety loop, raptor shift light (orange),AO engineering louver front plate, Console seat cushion, 96CE seats with black custom Sheepskins, ss billet catch can,Viper remote entry/alarm,Cragar Rear Louvers,LED side louver lights, Dewitts Radiator with SPAL fans and a Woods 160 T-Stat 90 RED/BLACK #2794. 4L60e Automatic Stage V by RPM Transmission, TCI Dedicated TCM, OBX Stainless Headers, Corsa Exhaust, SAN Secondaries and Haibeck PROM, Exotic Muscle Coil overs, LED Interior Lights, LED Tail Lights, LED Headlights, 94 Sport seats with black custom Sheepskins , Cragar rear louvers, GS Front calipers, Banski Trailing arms, APSIS Carbon Fiber steering wheel, Front and Rear Baer Eradispeeds, DRLs, Guldstrand front suspension,urethane bushings from Prothane (total suspension), Dewitt's Raditor with Dual SPAL fans and a Haibeck 170 T-Stat 11 RED/GREY CTS-V

02-12-2011	#9
todesengel Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: O'Fallon, Mo Posts: 738	Re: Daily Driver I put 8,000 miles on mine in a 3 month period, driving it all over the country. It didn't work well for me due to space limitations (luggage for two week trips, tools, laptops, printers, etc) but she never gave me a mechanical issue, got great fuel mileage, and even handled the rain with little issue. Not nearly the time some have driven, but it was a lot of miles in a very short time.