Dcollins3208

Was driving around with my pops in Saginaw, Tx and saw a black z sitting in a small car sales lot. Stopped to take a look, only had 34000 miles, had a roll cage, and was in amazing shape aside from needing a polish. Had a small lope to it and I saw it had some aftermarket heads. Got the vin and went home and did some research, dug pretty deep and actually found the previous owner here on the forum. Turns out it had a 427 dropped into it, built trans, 3.73 rear end. The dealer thought it was stock aside from the FAST intake haha... Needless to say, we bought it for $15,000... No problems with it and it's an absolute monster

Mike Beck

Let them drop, I'll buy another convertible in a year or two!

jackthelad

Actually the depreciation has not been bad at all. I paid I think around $42/43k for a fully loaded (for it's day) '98 coupe, delivered in Fall '97. Base at the time was $38k IIRC. Say its worth $12/13k today. That's an average of $1,700 or so a year depreciation - try even leasing a regular car for that. Only major expense has been sets of tires, and last time around, new wheels - my choice. Buying a new sedan or SUV every few years like many people do would have lost me a lot more over 17-18 years I suspect - besides being nowhere near as much fun.

It's a car that was originally used for commuting to work every day, now for pleasure (got an early retirement deal), so it's more than earned its keep.

racebum

bottom line right there

jackthelad

You got yourself a deal there, that's for sure.

motomanvette

I just bought a 99'convertible for $7,500. Just being in the right place at the right time for me. The car came in on trade for a new 15' Z06 at a large Vette dealership. The car has 108k miles, had a bunch of scratches
but was a one owner car that had never been hit or painted. I was lucky enough to have 4 near-new wagon wheels hanging around to replace the scratched magnesium wheels on the car. It went thru the service shop and needed just one major repair, a new oil pan gasket. ($650). I had to give them two new front tires, ($315) to get the car fully inspected with a new sticker and a 20-day plate. Another $250 to fix the driver-side seat and I'll have a nice Vette daily-beater to go with my 2014 Stingray. The prices for nice C5s are all over the map so the guides are not really much use. This is my 5th C5 and I love them...Best-looking Vette to date. Nice to be back with the C5 crowd again!

1Willy1

Its weird because here in Canada, at least in Ontario, the used C5's have been going up in price.

This year its rare to find one for under 20k, 1-2 years ago it was easy to find one in the low teens.

The good news is I think the C5's are pretty close to bottoming out, so its not going to get much worse.

Most of the C3 and C4 vettes seem to have bottomed out around the 10k-15K mark.

I wouldn't be surprised if the C5's hold out at 15k-20k due to obvious reasons.

TheDEfan

On NADA


Rough
Trade-In

Average
Trade-In

Clean
Trade-In

Clean
Retail

Base Price $7,625 $9,300 $10,700 $14,050
Mileage (48,000) $4,375 $4,375 $4,375 $4,375
Total Base Price $12,000 $13,675 $15,075 $18,425
Options: (add)
Price with Options $12,000 $13,675 $15,075 $18,425

KBB was 14225.00 So somewhere in the middle would be 16,300.00 Plus my MODS

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...red-coupe.html

Chicago1

It's a mass produced car that's getting old with some of them being 20 years old here soon with 2 generations ahead of it..What did you think these things would be worth?

5thgenvette

well a lot of people seem to think they're made of gold
there are countless sub 60k mile c5's in my area that have been sitting for months at 15k firm on CL and they are most likely staying for a long time, granted I live in Florida

racebum

that would be cheap for a z06

dbgoodwin

I don't think people understand that the only thing the c5 is good for is to drive, and to look at. My car is worth way more to me than anyone would ever be willing to give me for it.

jackthelad

Not so much on the mods. Been perusing C6 prices for a while now - unmodified cars seem to sell for pretty much the same price as modded examples, sometimes less, and as a seller you would have to find someone that wants your mods. I can only assume buyers think that modified cars have had a harder life that "showroom" spec cars, and are therefore somewhat wary.

racebum

all depends on condition. the reason this is so often lies with how many modded cars are beat on. sure you get a few nice parts but you also get a engine with more leakdown, a drivetrain that's been under more stress and god knows what else

MotoJB

That impression sucks for me I guess (if/when I sell my C5Z) because although highly modded, mine is FAR from beat on. Babied really.

Guess I had better keep it.

Choreo

Kind of like having your name tattooed on your current wife - pretty much yours at that point unless you can restore her to stock condition for the next owner.

73Corvette

Nice metaphor... good point

MotoJB

LOL, yep...except I know I can always sell my car and make some money.

If my wife leaves me however, I ain't getting any money out of her... ...she'll be taking all of the money with her.

roadbike56

Honestly, I'm disappointed with the continued depreciation of the C5. With the economy recovering, I expected values to pretty much level off instead of continuing to decline like they have. I didn't expect any C5s to be selling in the same range as the C4s, in the under $10K range. I guess I expected the C5 to hold its value like both our C3s did. Still, I really like the C5. It's a great performance car and provides the fun I expected.
I still look back when I park it to admire how good it looks.

racebum

why would you mod a car and not race it?

that question is what's on everyone's mind when they look

cars are plenty fast stock for grocery getting