Chevrolet Corvette

Which Chevrolet Corvette years should you avoid?

Going by 5,048 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Chevrolet Corvette years to avoid are 2008, 1999, 2005, 1998 and 2006.

• 2008541 complaints, 5.2× a typical Corvette year, most often about the fuel and propulsion system.
• 1999308 complaints, 2.9× a typical Corvette year, most often about the steering; and 2.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (3 fires, 14 crashes, 1 death).
• 2005533 complaints, 5.1× a typical Corvette year, most often about the electrical system.
• 1998399 complaints, 3.8× a typical Corvette year, most often about the steering.
• 2006365 complaints, 3.5× a typical Corvette year, most often about the body and frame.

4 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2020, 2018 and 2012 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2025. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →