camaross427

HI, i'm new to the forums here and i need your opinon.
I'm thinking about a c4, more specifically a Deep purple metallic 1996, auto with targa top

it looks identical to this
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4s-...allic-lt1.html


but with a whiteish/gray interior.
85,000 miles, $8,500, great condition, completely stock, and i know the guy so i know it's legit.

Anyway, i should explain i'm 16, and have been a car guy all my life, especially chevy camaro's and corvette's. And well i get my license soon, and i'm looking at cars..also, i know my way around a car, i work at a garage so i generally know what i'm doing with a good amount of repairs, so maintenance should be no problem.

Before you say, wait a new driver should not have a corvette..i will be driving my parents truck for the most part so no worries their, i will pay for the car, and get it full time most likely when i graduate hs next year.

My mom seems to think it's a rolling death trap, from what i know it's a pretty safe car as long as you don't do anything stupid, and pretty well made.
But since i do not own one, i want an opinion from people who do..

so have any of you been in a crash with your c4? how did it hold up? or anyone who has not been in one, would you feel safe in your c4 if you did? How safe do you think it is compared to say your average family sedan.

thanks, i hope to buy the c4 and be a permanent member on the forum.

RollaMo-LT4

The '96 is a very safe car, if driven correctly.
It has ABS brakes, traction control, along with driver and passenger airbags.

With that said, the car has way more power than most 16 year old kids would know how to handle.

But if you drive it in a normal fashion, and leave traction control ON it should be just as safe as any other car.

But there is always going to be that "itch" to floor it and see what it will do.
When you do this, be very careful. The car will get away from you before you know it.
Traction control will help keep it under control, but it's not idiot proof.

Notice I said "when you do this", because we all know you won't be able to resist.

Not sure I would want my 16 year old son to have one.
But every kids maturity level is different.

nassau66427

IIRC new '84s came with a $10,000 life insurance policy provided you were wearing your seatbelt at the time. I forget how long the policy was good for. That says a lot about what GM thought about the safety of the C4 platform.

shakedown067

I feel VERY safe in my C4. They are FAR from a rolling death trap. They are well built as far as safety is concerned. I've seen some just completely demolished and the driver and passenger survived. Maybe not walked away, but lived to drive another day. Everything from hard T-bones to head-on collisions. I would recommend an advanced driving school to really know how to put the power down in emergency recommendations. An autocross school would even be really helpful. There are certainly more than a few C4 owners here that are under 20, hopefully they'll chime in as well. Good luck.

camaross427

all right, thanks so far guys for the opinions.
Like i said, i won't be driving it right away, i will have about 2 years of driving under my belt before i actually get to drive it full time. I know that' still relatively new, but i should be able to handle it ok by then.

Ya i will probably have that itch though, how could anyone resist? but i wouldn't be stupid about it, gotta be the right time and the right place

Nowhere Man

wait two years to buy a car. it will be worth less and a C5 might be in your price range. also have you got a quote from your insurance. it may be a 14 year old car but they call it a high risk for a under 25 male. so you will pay. and if you leave a car sit for two years without driving it. it will cost you a lot more to make it road worthy again.

camaross427

I already checked into insurance, it's not that bad surprisingly

i currently have a 1955 packard patrician, or my parents have, as a fun car..my mom want's something newer as a fun car=96 vette, so it won't sit for 2 years.
Plus i would get to drive it, just not all the time nor long distances..

and i don't like the c5's as much as i like this car, i think this car is a lot more original looking, especially in the purple color. I know the c5 is a better performing car technically speaking, but i prefer this c4.

91yellowfellow

I like the fact that a 16 year old kid who has never driven on his own is telling us i wont floor it i wont do anything stupid... DUDE trust me you will and if you dont wreck it you will atleast get a ticket and your insurance will be going way up., I dont know how or why your parents would let there insurance go up that much with a 16 year old driver and a corvette. dont tell me at 16 your friends wont be like floor it and you will be like no way i cant do that i am a mature driver.

RollaMo-LT4

Yep, we've all been there.

I posted above about the car being safe.
But there hundreds if not thousands of examples out there of "Too much car, not enough driver".

camaross427

first off i'll be 18-19 when i'm driving it, and i can't say i won't, but i can say i trust my self, and my friends enough not to floor it in a stupid place
and i said i checked into the insurance, and the fact that it's a corvette did not effect the insurance at all surprisingly, it would have been nearly if not the same on just about any other car

Nowhere Man

that's why my first car a 81 monte SS clone that my dad and I built he would only let me have a 305 and not let me drop in a 350. it had enough to get the car to steep out and spin on wet roads only. I drove that car from when I was 19 until I bought my 94 at 23. I learned a whole lot about driving a RWD V8 without all the fancy gizmos my 94 has.

kimmer

npbassman

Welcome to the forums, Camaross427. C4s are safe and as you said, as long as the driver doesn't do anything stupid everything should be fine.

That said, I'll agree with Rollamo-LT4 in that I'm not sure if I'd want my 16 year old to drive a C4 so early in his driving career because it's just too tempting to not do something stupid. Trust me, I think about all of the stuff that I did with my little 305 tpi trans am back when I was 17 and I'm pretty sure certain scenarios would have been a lot uglier if I had an LT1 vette to romp around in (don't ask ). At least in a vette you can only have one friend egging you on so that's a plus.

Anyway, if you get the car my suggestion is to start karting so you can scratch the itch to race in a controlled environment. Those things feel like you're going 80 in them.

Good luck!

Mike

blakngold4life

That really depends on the person, I bought mine at 19 and still haven't taken it above 90, which happened to be at a corvette event with my dad right behind so i had to get out of his way. I drive more cautiously in the vette than i do in my daily car. To the OP, a 96 should be pretty safe, it does have airbags, i dont know if it has a passenger one but i know there is one on the drivers side which the earlier cars didnt have. If you are going to wait two years to drive it then wait two years to buy it, or find something non running to fix up in the next few years. I know i would be very disappointed if I bought one and couldnt drive it for a while. My car was supposed to be a project that wouldnt be on the road till after college, but i drive it every day of the summer now. good luck

camaross427

Lol, i won't ask

I've been wanting to get into karting or someking of organized motorsport, there's a raceway not too far from where i live, buy an old beater someday and do a enduro race

camaross427

Thanks for the response, i agree with you on that. and i do believe the 96 has a passenger side airbag but i'm not completely sure.

That would be a good idea, but like i said above, it's replacing another car, plus they only made 320 that year in that color, from what i can tell at least, so what are the chances of finding it again, plus buying it from someone i know?

jrzvette

That's a tank! Anything smaller than an 18 wheeler will bounce off it.

camaross427

lol i know , i love it, plus the trunk is big enough to hide at least 50 bodies, and the hood ornament is like a big knife lol, the ultimate mafia car. I love it and would hate to sell it, but my mom want's something newer, which is how i arrived at this c4

Pwnage1337

I bought mine two weeks before my 17th birthday. It is hard to control the urge when you see an open stretch of highway, but I manage to keep myself from doing it.

I got a speeding ticket in it, for going 80 in a 65. That has made me pay more attention to the speedometer, because it is practically a sin to drive these things under 60 mph, and very easy to forget how fast you are going. It seems like you are going slower at 60 miles in an hour in the vette, than in my other car.

Edit: I do however feel safer in this than my other car, even though it doesn't have airbags because of the cars superior handling/braking abilities. Let's say a deer jumps out in the middle of the road, the vette will stop way faster than the buick.

Sweet 90

Well it seems to me you have thought this out very well. You seem to be an articulate and well grounded young man. That being said, it would be a cold day in Hell before I would have let my son at 16 or 18 own a Vette, but that's just me. If your parents do allow you to buy it, I would tell them to put you on a very short leash and I mean short. Deep down, I hope you prove me wrong, and yes when I was 16 I would have sold my soul for a Vette

Jim
ps I hope you let your parents read this thread