OK - so yesterday afternoon I had a doctor's appointment and took the afternoon off - my girl got off work at 3 and cancelled on another commitment and we hit the road. While I was picking her up at her office, heh, a top-down Redline SSR went thru her parking lot (anyone here? this is at the medical park basically on the corner of Rolling and Braddock in Spgfd/Burke, VA - I waved a thumbs up from the sidewalk but you didn't see me)
Anyways - Koons Chevy in Tyson's Corner, not the greatest place to buy a car as their salespeople are pretty vulturey, but they had 2 05s on the lot, both the same - Aqua Blur with chrome wheels and everything else. The sales guy I'd dealt with before and he was nice enough - let us take the truck for a half hour or so...
So I took it back thru the twisties to Wolf Trap, where I proceeded to toss it around the parking lot with great zeal. No donuts or anything, but I whipped it around a tad on the aggro side...
My girl loves the exhaust note and the sound of gunning it and letting it idle back down popping and spitting, and that's about it - everything else she could take or leave. (You want to trade in your Vette for that?)
As for my take, well, I'm disappointed that I didn't fall totally in love with it all over again. The ride is smooth, the engine is powerful and the looks are good, plus putting the top down is everything it ever was. But, there's something about it that didn't grab me this time around, and I can't put my finger on it.
Last time I bought an SSR i was coming from a C5 Corvette - the SSR was a stellar improvement in driving comfort, to me. This time I'd be supplanting a C6 - much tougher switch to make, IMHO. The SSR feels so way up in the air and has considerable body roll, which I know is normal for a truck, but takes away a lot of the hot-rod feel. The whole time I was trying to make my seat lower.
Gawd I'm just not sure anymore. I see C6s all the time, really miss the total unique feeling I got with an SSR that I saw another of once every few months at best. And every time I see any sort of classic or hotrod I think of the SSR fondly. But then I hop back into my C6 and wonder if anything feels as slick to drive. It's not that I want to get rid of the C6, it's just that I started missing the SSR, and can't afford two cars...
*sigh* man, why couldn't it just have been a slam-dunk like I thought it was going to be?
Note: The one I drove had the driveshaft tink upon acceleration - only once that I can remember, but it was loud and prominent.
Also - I could have sworn they lightened up the steering on the 05s - this one was as heavy to steer as my 04 - I'd much rather a lighter steering feel, myself.
Anyways - Koons Chevy in Tyson's Corner, not the greatest place to buy a car as their salespeople are pretty vulturey, but they had 2 05s on the lot, both the same - Aqua Blur with chrome wheels and everything else. The sales guy I'd dealt with before and he was nice enough - let us take the truck for a half hour or so...
So I took it back thru the twisties to Wolf Trap, where I proceeded to toss it around the parking lot with great zeal. No donuts or anything, but I whipped it around a tad on the aggro side...
My girl loves the exhaust note and the sound of gunning it and letting it idle back down popping and spitting, and that's about it - everything else she could take or leave. (You want to trade in your Vette for that?)
As for my take, well, I'm disappointed that I didn't fall totally in love with it all over again. The ride is smooth, the engine is powerful and the looks are good, plus putting the top down is everything it ever was. But, there's something about it that didn't grab me this time around, and I can't put my finger on it.
Last time I bought an SSR i was coming from a C5 Corvette - the SSR was a stellar improvement in driving comfort, to me. This time I'd be supplanting a C6 - much tougher switch to make, IMHO. The SSR feels so way up in the air and has considerable body roll, which I know is normal for a truck, but takes away a lot of the hot-rod feel. The whole time I was trying to make my seat lower.
Gawd I'm just not sure anymore. I see C6s all the time, really miss the total unique feeling I got with an SSR that I saw another of once every few months at best. And every time I see any sort of classic or hotrod I think of the SSR fondly. But then I hop back into my C6 and wonder if anything feels as slick to drive. It's not that I want to get rid of the C6, it's just that I started missing the SSR, and can't afford two cars...
*sigh* man, why couldn't it just have been a slam-dunk like I thought it was going to be?
Note: The one I drove had the driveshaft tink upon acceleration - only once that I can remember, but it was loud and prominent.
Also - I could have sworn they lightened up the steering on the 05s - this one was as heavy to steer as my 04 - I'd much rather a lighter steering feel, myself.
