Great review! I’m a Corvette guy and absolutely adore my 2004 Z06! Mines bone stock and pristine. I love the interior and honestly don’t understand the hate for it. Stock seats feel great.
Completely agree with you. The interior styling is all business just as the car was designed to be.. The seats are actually very comfortable as well. People try to compare the c5 interior to luxury sports cars which is not what the z06 was trying to be.
YESSSSS!!!!!! Thank you for this review, Zack! Maybe it's just me, but the C5 is my favorite generation of Corvette. The Z06 is just the coolest. Love that trunk space! Makes "Boomer mode" (golf clubs in trunk) much easier.
It's weird that everyone dings the Corvette for being dated, but never does the same for a Mk IV Supra, FD RX-7, Acura NSX, etc when they are also very much of the same style. The seatbelt didn't even occur to me until you said something, but now that you mention it it's actually kind of nicer, the newer style is just a cost cutting measure as it only has one retractor instead of two. The seats are too squishy for sure, but the styling is supposed to be a throwback to older Corvettes to keep with the lineage. I'm not a fan personally either, but I get it, but it's also dead simple to swap in sport seats and the seatbelt reminder doesn't even chime when disconnected as it's wired in a way that if it's disconnected, it just always thinks the seatbelt is buckled. The shift knob is terrible for sure. I don't know that it's dated so much as it's just an ugly shift knob and is too chunky for how close the shifter goes to the dash, so I'm replacing mine as soon as it comes in the mail. My specific knob also has a gigantic problem in that it's just loose and the shift pattern cap keeps popping out and it's just this floppy piece of crap that makes every shift difficult because it keeps flopping around. God I can't wait to swap out that stupid shift knob.
Six speed manual transmission...pretty rare for a lot of cars within the corvette's price range in 2004. Yes, a number of cars also had a six speed manual, but they were probably more expensive than the C5 corvette when new.
Picked up a C5 Z06 a few months ago. Gotta say, I'm impressed all the way around. Once I swapped out the stock seats for some Corbeau's, I'm honestly at a loss to find any complaints. Love it love it love it.
Man it’s hard to pick the better looking car between the C6 or C5… C6 is a little more rounded but the C5 had the pop up headlights which gives it a modern retro look
2023: Chevrolet does not support this car in any way. It's a shame. I've been to Naperville several times. Cool. I bought a 2004 Z06 Commemorative New. Great Car. It has done over 172 MPH. I still have it. Great Looking Wheels. It's a real V8, Not some little V6 or 4 cylinder. American V8 all the way! Shame on Chevrolet for not supporting this car in any way! Replace that horrible stereo with a good one, AND those Bose Speakers actually sound GREAT! Thank You
Yes. Great review. Subbed up. Buying one vetty vetty soon. Gettn more and more stoked b/c i havent driven one. Its just confirming its the right move for me.
The cars are dated of course, they are 17-20 years old. The exterior still has a badass look today but other than that the whole car is dated. You have to be into early 2000s cars to dig it, otherwise you're better off getting a newer car. I LOVE the stock shift knob and the pop-ups.
"cheat to win" is an old saying in your household? If I were your parents I think I would consider sharing that to be an insult to your family. I hope that just got oversimplified in the edit.
Growing up, the saying was "If you're not cheating, you're not trying". I know it was a joke at my home, so pretty sure it would be anywhere, including Zack's. If you were Zack's parents, then you should apologize for assuming it wasn't a joke and then thank Zack for being such a great kid.
So a Z06 is like a huge buff passive aggressive aussie, semi-fake punching you in the shoulder over and over going "nah you're alright mate, you're alright, I mean I could take you down with one punch but you're alright!"
