Faults:

Driver's leather seat cover was peeling and replaced under warranty.

Passenger front window trim was peeling and replaced under warranty.

Entertainment unit had issues with rebooting and was updated under warranty.

General Comments:

It's a quick car, but not fast. As fast or faster than much of its competition (Charger/Challenger, Mustang, Camaro, Stinger, etc.), but not as fast as a Corvette. However, it had four doors, more interior trim than any other direct competitor, and had been super comfortable for 4 cross-country road trips.

It has a big, 6.2L V8 with 415 HP/415 torque, along with magnetic suspension, electric steering rack, Heads Up Display (HUD), and a dual-mode exhaust. I keep it in Performance mode (tightest steering, loudest exhaust, and firmest suspension) but my wife prefers Touring mode (quiet, soft, and easy to drive). The electric steering rack also has a feature I never use outside of showing it off to friends: self parking. With the press of a button, the car will search for a space next to the car that it can fit in, and automatically steer the vehicle into the spot.

It's rarity is one of the most fun aspects, as I frequently get questioned as to what type of car it is. So few were produced (~12,000) and a complete lack of advertising or promotion by Chevrolet means the car is worth almost as much as I paid for it, even three years later.

It does eat a lot of gas (with 95% of my driving done within 5 miles of home, I average 13.919 MPG), but I bought it for Smiles Per Gallon, not Miles Per Gallon. This car will be in my stable for decades.

Faults:

Not many are the fault of Chevy.

Actually not reliable: The one thing that has happened 2x now is the center touch screen has been unresponsive. All I know is that both times it happened, the navigation was also on. Is there a connection...???

Bad design 1: Comes with summer tires. Do not (repeat) do not attempt to drive in more than a few flurries. If you do, expect it to handle like a 9 month old on ice skates (congrats to all you northerners who's 9 month old did fine on skates. That's both way cool and completely abnormal).

Bad design 2: Stupid name. Come on Chevy!

General Comments:

Finally got the car I have wanted for ~10 years now. It is so nice to have a car I love. I wanted to get the older sibling of the SS in 2009: the Pontiac G8 GXP. I even got the "Go-ahead" from my wife, but I was too cheap to spend $35k on a car. I am glad I waited though the depreciation on the G8 GXP is phenomenal; they took 8 years to start losing value. I do not expect my SS to be so good.

The SS has 4 options in '16 and '17; full-size spare, sun roof, 1 paint color and a no-charge manual tranny (I wanted that). Otherwise they are all the same and fully loaded. That said, it has content I would expect to get in "fully-loaded". Two big misses 1) missing Homelink buttons and 2) the cross-car cup holders in the front make for uncomfortable manual tranny shifting. Other little misses are:

> Sun visors have no extension feature, just up/down and rotate to door side.

> There is only 1 trip odometer.

> Missing storage cubbies in front.

> Missing "power" to the rear passengers (as the battery is in the trunk, I added a smallish DC to AC converter to the back of the back seat and get power to the kids devices... until the battery hits 15V output and the converter faults out). Anyone know how to add a filter to keep the input voltage between 12V and 15V?

> Door drink holders only allow for capped drinks.

> Can't open the trunk lid with the engine on without setting the parking brake. This is a royal pain and kind of stupid. I want to override the feature.

> They forgot the heated steering wheel.

The creature comfort choices on the car seem to be more for ones interested in driving and not much more. Thus it is very easy to drive long distances. I get the sticker gas mileage numbers (~22 MPG at 60 without wind). I even took the kids (4 other them, 7-14 years old) on a 4 hour trip and only got a bit of chirp from the center sitter after ~3 hours. When I took 3 of them on a different trip, I had no complaints at all. That includes the 14 year old in the back!

Special shout out to the stereo system. I did not realize how sweet the "base" sound system is. Very impressive. I love my music, so this was a welcome surprise. I've had upgraded stereos on my other primary vehicles (Monsoon, and Harmon Kardon) and they were good, but this Bose system is great!

The SS drives like no other car I have owned or drove. I thought the Subby Legacy GT was a car on rails. The SS is better yet, is on rails and super fast and turns in so smoothly, it does not feel as sharp as it is. Power is over the top. I enjoy having a car that is a true sleeper. I let a 2001(?) Kia Sephia pass me in a 55 the other day and smiled (I was going 65 and thinking I was plenty fast enough, she wanted to go 70. OK...) The tranny is a bit chunky. I have never driven a car with an automatic as my main car. (Started driving in 1990s.) The clutch must be on a cam; easy to hold, but springs to the engine fast. I had to get used to that and it took months. The tranny is not silky smooth. It feels "athletic" not "luxurious". Brakes are perfect forward. They have always squealed a bit in reverse.

I need to get all-season tires on different rims and I think it will be as good as it can be for me (for now)...