Although the Corvette's pricing starts well north of the luxury frontier, it's no luxury cruiser. Just getting in and out requires some contortions. The car is low, but making things worse is a very high door sill that you have to climb over before snaking your feet and legs past the steering wheel and down into the footwell.
Once inside there are more problems. Numerous secondary control functions are poorly located and inconvenient to use. The instrumentation, though flashy, is odd. Supplemental gauges are arranged so that the gauge needles operate in opposition to the value being indicated. For example, as temperature increases, the needle on the temperature gauge moves downward. It makes deciphering the information needlessly confusing.
The seating position is generally acceptable, even for tall people, as the footwells extend far forward. Once you figure out the awkward seat controls and get everything adjusted, the driving position can be made comfortable for just about anyone, with the reaches to the steering wheel, shift lever and pedals obviously configured for high-performance driving.
Outward vision to the front is good, and vision to the sides is adequate. But vision to the rear corners is somewhat limited, something that's true of many sports cars.
In the coupe there's a fair amount of cargo space behind the seats, reached by opening the rear hatch-like window. The convertible, however, offers only minimal capacity for luggage, so pack lightly.
The fit, finish and apparent quality of materials on a Corvette is only average. Gaps and seams aren't handled particularly well. Much of the plastic looks just a little too much like plastic, and on the whole it lacks the kind of tight, solid, rattle-free feel consumers have come to expect in a modern car, especially one costing this much.
This Corvette body has been in production for more than 10 years, and in that time the quality has improved dramatically. But it still doesn't have the secure, all-in-one-piece feel that characterizes other high performance sports cars such as the Porsche 968, Toyota Supra, Nissan 300ZX and Acura NSX.
The Corvette's levels of acceleration, cornering, braking and top speed are simply beyond the realm of most drivers' experiences. And it takes a highly skilled driver, in a test track environment, to search the limits of its capabilities. For most of us, an occasional (if brief) romp on the gas pedal, or an enthusiastic fling around a freeway cloverleaf, will be about the most that can be experienced on a public road. With a car like the Corvette, stand on the gas for just a few seconds and you're going very, very fast.
On the test track, the Corvette holds its own with the world's best. Even for those long familiar with this car's capabilities, its ability to accelerate, go around corners and stop is awe-inspiring.
This kind of all-out capability has little relevance for daily driving, but it does promise a huge reserve that the skillful and aware driver can use to help avoid many emergencies. Even at normal, legal speeds, superior cornering gives a car the ability to steer around potential danger, and better braking might make the difference in a potentially dangerous situation.
With all this high-performance capability, the Corvette's ride is surprisingly comfortable, particularly on smooth roads and highways. People accustomed to family sedans might find the ride quality slightly harsh, but it's actually quite good in the context of the car's performance level. Only on rough surfaces, such as poorly maintained city streets, does the ride start becoming objectionable. The current Corvette has come a long way in this regard.
There's an optional ride and handling package for serious off-road use only (such as autocross and other competitive driving). We recommend it only for those who will use the Corvette in competition, as its ride is just too harsh for normal street use.