kinetek

Hello Gentlemen,

My name is Alex and I recently moved to US from Ukraine. Corvettes have been in my mind since my childhood but it was really hard to afford a corvette in my native country (50 grand for used C6 and 100+ for new one, average salary in my county is 200$/month so you can imagine how much time one must save to afford a vette We have nothing older than C6 due to taxation too).

Now I'm in CT and options here are incredibleIt seems like I can buy any car ever produced in the world. I'm now driving a jetta (whoever invented this vehicle must be shot) because I had to buy smth. quickly as soon as I arrive not to spend fortune on rentals, as now I'm more or less settled I started thinking about making my dream come true, but just like any dream there are some limitations in reality. In Ukraine I had acura tsx 2006 2.4 and it was a really nice vehicle from handling and reliability point of view, I'm now selling that car and will have 10k$ in my pocket soon, now here comes my question:

Should I buy C4? Should I buy C5? Should I sell my jetta? Jetta is a piece of crap, but it has 60000 miles on it now and I've already driven 6000 in three month on it and spent 100$ (80$ for oils/filters and 20$ for right mirror turn signal), so it's pretty alive now and I know it will get me from point a to point b.

I've been around this forum for a while and it seems for 10$k I can buy both C4 and C5, I'm not looking for any tuned cars. Some C4 even cost more than C5.

I can do some work on my own and definitely not going to pay 150$ for spark plugs change like people do in other topics. I normally changed oil/filters/bulbs/did minor repairs on my cars on my own, but I hardly doubt I will be able to repair transmission on my own, I don't have a garage in my current condo too. Since this is my first job and my wife is not yet employed I have only 2500$ left in my pocket monthly after paying all my bills + food (i.e. I can spend 2500$ wherever I want, but I'd rather not spend it for new transmission/optispark of my car).

So what do you say? Should I go for C4? Should I go for C5? Should I save more and buy a better C5? Should I sell Jetta and use C5 (as if I sell Jetta C5 will definitely be in my budge) as my dailydriver? (winters are rough here in CT and rains are often guests too).

Cheers.

Hopefully I will soon become an owner of a vette.

antfarmer2

Get either vette and keep the piece of crap for a winter beater

1993C4LT1

Get a 6spd, 92-96 C4. All 6spd 96 C4's will have the LT4(330 HP), others will have LT1(300 HP)
Should be able to find a very nice one for 10k. I'd keep the Jetta as backup

kinetek

Are you advising me as C4 owners or as C4/C5 owners? What happens if I post this topic in C5 general discussion?

antfarmer2

It does not matter get what you like drive both only you will know.

Koufax

Don't plan on driving the Vette in ice and snow. Keep the Jetta and buy the Vette you love. I bought a C5, don't know as much about the C4, but I can say that the C5 is a remarkably reliable car, it's just not built for ice and snow.

kinetek

ok.

For instance, I was looking at http://newhaven.craigslist.org/cto/5050020111.html

It looks nice, low miles, everything works fine, two owners, new tires/breaks, but exhaust is all rust. The car was kept in the garage for last year or so, does it mean I will have to change the exhaust? Also, I heard reliability issues with C4 (like optispark), it definitely looks like older car too, even though it drives pretty well.

jimmers

Buy whichever car you prefer. No one can tell you what to get, its all personal preference. Drive both and decide. Buying a sports car on a limited budget might not be the greatest idea either. Just my .02.

kinetek

Do you think 2.5k of free money per month (till my wife finds a job when we'll multiply this amount) is that limited for a vette?

kimmer

Myself I would invest the 2.5k a month that you have extra and wait until you have $ saved up to get yourself a nice vette. Most C4 owners have their cars as a hobby as you move up to c5 & c6 those are usually daily drivers.

kinetek

how much do you think nice C5 should cost? I've seen a couple on forum for 10k. If nice C5 costs 15, then I will have to save for 2 more months and it will be September already (considering that I buy a car as soon as I have money in the pocket, not spend months looking for a perfect match), hence I will only have a couple of months to enjoy a vette and then I will have to start driving that crap again... I enjoyed every mile driving my acura, I called that car a japanese genious...I call jetta a german piece of sh$t.Maybe I should go for C4 now and drive it this year? Then sell, save and buy C5? How's the resale value? Will I be able to sell C4 quick? interior+exterior I love C5 more, C4 is obviously an older car, but I have no problem driving it at all, I just don't want to buy smth. I don't like. If there is a huge gap between C4 and C5 I will wait.

Whiteonrice

See if you can find somebody locally who has some Corvette experience and can spot a car with problems you might not see. Don't be in a hurry look at a lot of cars and drive as many as you can. You will quickly grow tired of a car that costs you a lot of money to own or can't drive and enjoy. In September the prices will start to go down so you can get a better deal.

fast.asleep

Lloyd Smale

my first was a 92 c4 bought it when there was no c5. When I bought this second 92 last year I didn't put much thought into it. I saw a 92 with 50k on it for 9k and thought wow that's a steal. In the big picture it was. Ive sunk probably 3k into it getting it back to snuff. Not things it had to have but things I needed it to have to feel confident with it. Im not well into what I could have bought a c5 for and like anything newer there a bit more refined, a bit faster and a bit more reliable. Personally I think I made a mistake. Now if I decide to sell ive got a c4 that's tough to get rid of unless you give it away. Don't get me wrong. I like the car and it will probably be years before I get another. Money just isn't there like it was before retirement. But if I had to do it all again it definitely would have been a c5

WW7

If I had 2.5K extra a month, I would save up until I had enough for a decent C6..If your looking at C5s that cost $10,000 ,they are usually high mile or beater cars ...The prices for early C6s are down to where the C5s were a few years ago..You can get them for mid $20s with 50-60 thousand miles...That would be my choice.......WW

Bandit's C4

Like most of us who have lusted for a Corvette since we were a small child... we must be realistic.

The last year for the C4 is turning 20 next year. ANY CAR that that old that was not meticulously maintained... will have its own collection of gremlins.

The sad truth is IF you chose poorly.... it will be an expensive lesson

enventr

I totally agree. I would also keep the Jetta as the vettes are not that great in snow. Make the Jetta the DD.

FASTAZU

I've driven both as DD. In the long run the C5 was the best I put 165k miles on it over 10 years with just normal maint. It had more room easier to get in and out of I viewed it as just a car after a while.

I'm retired now and use one of my C4's again but I don't drive near as many miles. I enjoy the drive much more as I'm never in a hurry. To me the C4 feels more like a sports car.

pologreen1

Wait until you are established then worry about a toy car. Your wife has no job and you recently moved here, and sounds like you are new to having spare money laying around.. Stuff happens as the say. Save for 2 years and buy what you want. or waste 2 months of so called extra income on a c4 now and drive it for a couple years while saving.

CurveLover

If you look hard enough, you can own a pretty sweet C4 from $4k to $7k much sooner and be driving the heck out of it having fun NOW for the rest of the summer, fall, and part of the winter until it snows.

Come on. You know you want to! And then you can save up for that c5-c6 purchase in the long term. As uncertain as life itself is, why wait?