I agree. 720S was a step forward for McLaren, C7 ZR1, compared to C7 Z06 felt a bit underwhelming

Ik this is a troll account, but I wish more people would realize that McLaren's aren't as unreliable as everyone makes them out to be. Alex Choi made countless stories about his car having issues, yet if you had orgies inside it, and then proceeded to do burnouts bouncing it off the redline and do launch control at every stop light while also adding a flame tune to it, you'd have issues no matter what car it is. The vast majority of McLaren issues come from owners simply leaving the car stationary for too long. There's a local 765LT owner I've talked to countless times who nearly dailies the car, and because of that he's had literally no issues.

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Performance wise, I 100% agree 720s is the better car in every way possible. Insane to me that we're coming up on it being 10 years old, doesn't look dated at all. However, I think when it comes to the fun factor, the C7 ZR1 with the desired 7-speed manual I'd say takes the cake. There's nothing quite like it anymore, and if anything I feel the fact that it can't put down the power adds to the fun factor. I would never get one with the automatic, but there's a reason ZR1 manuals are climbing so drastically.

I have lots of experience with Corvettes, but zero experience with McLarens. Are they really that bad? I greatly value reliability.

The internet tends to blow things out of the water a bit, so I wouldn't say they're terribly unreliable, in fact, given I am absolutely not a McLaren owner lol, take it all with a grain of salt, but with the amount of money that goes into one car, it's surprising to see that anything of that sort happening whatsoever these days. It proves human error is a major component and if anything a detriment, even if the appeal toward it exists.

Owners of McLarens often talk about them as high-strung, true enthusiast cars, but they come with the price of a true enthusiast car, on a supercar level. I also greatly value reliability but also build quality finish. If the car turns year after year without insane maintenance, and the car looks flush and doesn't rattle, it's a significant factor to how much I will like a car, because I hate so much, problems or concerning sounds from cars, just as much as I like looks, sound, theatre and performance combined. In this case I am opting for the Corvette because there's less significant chances of errors. Both cars are cool, but I always think about reliability. The C7 isn't going to be that cheap either, but it'll in all likeliness be better than the McLaren.

Bottoming out a car's suspension makes me squirm lmao. Rattles drive me absolutely nuts when I start to hear them, I will literally split my attention from the road somewhat to find the damn noise source by pressing or touching parts of the car until it stops. I appreciate a car that doesn't behave like it's trying to fall apart. 😂

Yep, Corvettes don't rattle anymore. The C4 Corvette was notorious for rattles and squeaks. I really don't like the C7 Corvettes' styling very much though, it looks too much like a Camaro.

I had lots of problems with lack of clearance and avoiding bottoming out with the C5 Corvette, MR2 Spyder, and the C6 Corvette. I can be careful when necessary. I am guessing that the McLaren 720S is very low as well.

"Anymore" is a stretch. Every car can have rattles, some more than others lol. Every single car ever made, even today can leave a factory with something that's loose or comes loose with a bit of driving. Handmade just increases the odds.

Precise manufacturing from a line greatly helps the QC. Still non-zero chance though, and the reasons are various. On the other hand, squeaks and creaks however is more often a material issue. Thin enough or not braced enough, exposed to enough sunlight, you'll get that.

And yeah the 720S is pretty low. Lol.

I just made a comment below on this exact topic, but yeah McLaren is not as unreliable as people are led to believe online. The internet is one of those places where once something is believed and spread by a few, it becomes the norm everywhere. A perfect example of this is the Maserati Granturismo. For the longest time I myself believed just like everybody else that it was a beautiful car with the reliability of a 2000's BMW M car (aka a complete piece of junk) but recently I've been looking through scouring owners forums, and in all honesty if you purchase a Granturismo from between 2013-2019 (post MC-shift) it's actually an incredibly reliable car, the only issue is that the valve cover gasket may leak around the 70k mile mark, other than that it's a completely stout engine and transmission. Yet due to the internet, everyone is led to believe you won't make it a mile past your house without having a check engine light.

Certain Maseratis can be mechanically quite good if you buy late enough. In around I think the early 2010s? (the GranTurismo dropped just a little before then) Maserati finally pivoted toward using much more robust powertrain hardware, and no longer were you at a requirement to spend every (This is hardly exaggerated btw) every couple years, a new clutch on your Quattroporte for a 5-figure sum since you had daily driven it. The improvements since then, mechanically, dramatically better overall. Fit and finish and aesthetic design however, even today from the brand still you can find issues (especially Ghiblis lmao), be it in cabin or exterior, or even (and especially) software. This has been a recurring theme for decades of Italian Automotive especially in places with harsher than Italian climates. This is not me hating the cars, but seeing chrome pieces or A-pillar plastics fall off while driving, paint fade, or buttons of the interior not work anymore, it's so often I generalise this point because it's almost rarer not to find this stuff lol. I actually quite like the Gran Turismo and the sounds it makes btw, but this is highlighting that more meticulous care is needed on that part, which isn't impacting on the mechanical side itself. It's still a significant part of the ownership experience however. If the buttons on my Alfa aircon suddenly stop working on a hot day (real thing) I'm going to be quite ticked off lol, and debating whether I'd want to deal with that again, given the hot climate I live in.

You are certainly right in that I should be stressing the point more that things are indeed blown up a lot online. For this I can say you are absolutely right and I should have emphasized it more. However, the fact that even in such a restrictive number, you can find multiple QC issues on a rare 6 figure car - to me, where the owner finds their way into taking ownership of such an expensive car, with these issues failing to be noticed by quality checks prior to a car's delivery, it's simply not a good look. Owners talking about their McLarens decorate these cars as "true enthusiast supercars", which I think is a good thing, but also encompasses the point that, like a proper enthusiast car, comes with fixing things that arise over time, since it is a high-strung, high-performance vehicle. The latter part of that is fine to me, but the QC part I just can't really tolerate it. I might indeed be being a bit harsh, but when you pay that kind of money, it's really surprising to me this happens at all, given the type of money a company portfolio like McLaren or similar play with.

The limited incidents might be blown up out of proportion but the basis for my reasoning does still stay grounded in fact: hand-made cars are still prone to more quality-based issues which stem from human error or inconsistencies. A six-figure supercar should not have rubbing panels with destroyed paint, or loose subframes from improperly torqued bolts when taking delivery - no six-figure car should have this imo. I might be highlighting the McLaren here but this isn't something unique to McLaren, at all. There are definitely other car makers out there with QC issues alike; McLaren is just the flavour topic of the day. If you gave me a comparable example of another car that also has had deliverable QC issues, I probably wouldn't take that car either. A rattle in a cabin or a software update is pretty normal these days, I could forgive that, but examples like above that lead to things like damaged paint, I would immediately want nothing to do with it haha, and I don't think that's a unique feeling in that situation.

For my own personal comfort in car ownership, I simply do not like the idea of owning a car that has a higher chance of turning up that way. I can't help myself lol. When I buy a car I meticulously peer over every possible facet of it, and I study it in the first couple weeks to identify noises that I would be able to recognise are issues, because I already researched them prior to buying so I know what to expect. I even read the contract completely as well as the T&C's man 😂. I'm sorry if it feels almost unfair that, like I really drove this point home about it, but I really, REALLY cannot stand when a car has a problem, especially when it either makes a terrible noise, creates a cheap feeling, or creates an element of compromised safety. I'm just too risk adverse. I simply wouldn't pick it when the mass manufactured option is there with far greater consistency by removing more human error. I don't think the McLaren is any less of a cool car, I think it's the more awesome of the two here, but I just would not pick it for myself in this scenario. Give me two other supercars with similar manufacturing and I would likely pick the same way. I don't hate McLarens, I just hate unreliability, and I'm actively adverse to unreliability.

Yeah, your point on Maserati is exactly what I was framing my response as, I should've been more clear. During Maserati's resurgence with the 5th gen Quattroporte, that car was infamously an absolutely amazing car dynamically, but a horrendous car to own as putting an automated manual inside of a daily driver luxury sedan is not the best option for anyones bank account. However as Maserati improved their cars later moving to the ZF 6-speed gearbox, most of the cars became surprisingly robust - yet due to the reputation of the earlier cars everyone still saw them as unreliable vehicles. When it comes to the interior quality of these cars, the older Maserati's also had interior squeaks as you mentioned and electrical gremlins, however on the later cars most of this was addressed, except for the infamous sticky buttons which pretty much affected every single car using plastic switches during that era. It's a shame that even a wonderful 458 will leave your fingers with black tar after just messing with the climate controls.

On McLaren, the QC I 100% agree is not up to par for the price that you're paying. It's not uncommon to see the alcantara on the seats actually coming off revealing the foam underneath after just a few thousand miles. Or other weird electrical issues involving the windows not working, or the A/C temp being stuck - especially on early models. However again as the internet tends to be, these things are vastly overblown and most issues owners face with McLarens tend to be due to the fact that they aren't using them. It's a well known fact in the owners club that in order to avoid issues you must drive the car at least a few times a week to keep everything in check.

Yeah. Absolutely agree on all points. Both the Mazzers and the McLarens are very pretty and exciting anyway. Well worth it if you love it.