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The one negative thing is I couldn't imagine getting in and out of the car if I was older, it sits very low compared to any other car I have ever owned, so enjoy it while your still young!!
But this is one way to stay in shape as we get older! This is the reason to have a Corvette in your 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's! Get in and out of the Corvette throughout the day, do it carefully, and it's like doing squats and deep knee bends! I'm dead serious.
The older we get the more important it is that WE KEEP MOVING!!!
My 99 was my DD for a decade ;^) put 75k on her. Now my 03 has replaced her but will also be my DD. No leaks from rain and since I live in Oregon, there is lots of rain. I admit I don't drive my Vettes in snow, ice, or if I have more than one passenger. And even after three lower back operations, I have no issues getting in or out at 66. Love the seats!
Bought mine back in '97 as a DD. And it was until I negotiated an early out. To and from work every day unless there was snow. Had a big silver "shade" to put in the windshield during the heat of the summer, parked outside all day. Garaged at night though.
Still gets used year round when I want to go anywhere, though "we" tend to use her car when "we" need to go anywhere.
Have a friend with a Shelby Cobra and a Ferrari 488GTB. They both get driven weekly. Cars are designed and built to be driven. It keeps them in good mechanical shape. And it puts a wide smile on your face!
Life is too short not to drive ones Vette daily. Like others have said it is a pure pleasure that leads to ones disdain for driving other cars. When it comes to me doing the driving, I prefer my 04 M6 vert above most all others, except for maybe the 2013 427 vert that I'm sniffing around for now. When I find it it will be a DD as well.
My '02 C5 is a garage queen (~7,700 mi.) - bought new in '01 and garaged/covered ever since except for the mod sessions and occasional weekend drive. It was intended as my dd but decided it was a great weekend distraction/toy instead. I tried it again in '08 when I bought a 6900-mile '02 C5 from a guy in Texas. That didn't happen either as the wife claimed it as hers on the drive home to Indiana from Texas.
My C7, OTOH, is my dd and is parked outside at work (garaged at home), uncovered, 12 months out of the year (live and work in SoCal). I clean and maintain it meticulously so most think it's also a garage queen.
When I started dd'ing the C7, I realized all the fun I was missing not doing it all these years. I spend a couple hours a day commuting and it's made that much more enjoyable - and bearable- by driving a Vette to work. I say do it - you're not getting any younger and dd'ing a C5 - any Vette, really - will enrich your day.
Garage Queen
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Your C5 is super clean and id bet as close to flawless as a person could find, but from my perspective you've taken a pretty big loss financially, with no real gain or benefit.
The car depreciates every year, and you haven't gotten much fun and enjoyment out of it to justify the loss.
I would much rather take the loss by racking up higher miles then selling it rather then just letting it depreciate in the garage
Great to see your enjoying the C7 though, that's the way to go , stunning ride man
And yes to the OP, C5's make great daily drivers, I drive my supercharged Z every day unless its raining, I sometimes even use it as a work vehicle.
I'll resist the temptation to ask you why on earth you're not going to retire to a nicer climate for goodness sake! Alright...I guess I couldn't resist.
My daughters live in Dayton and I will never move away from them. Now if they move, all bets are off!
in Aug 2015 I bought a 2000 corvette with 96K miles on it. I was hoping for the car to be my DD. but honestly, it was not that reliable, mine was in the shop probably 1/2 the time I owned it. I did drive it on cold days in December here in IA (and believe me I got some funny comments on that!!!!!). I didn't drive it in Jan and most of Feb of 2016, we had super cold days and had most of our snow that time. So it sat inside. At the end of Feb when I got it out for the first time, coming home from errands, a deer ran up out of the ditch and cracked the right fender, destroyed the right headlamp, and front fender. cost $6100 to fix (which INS paid for-my repair shop said if the hood or windshield had been damaged, they would have totaled the car), the car also was in the shop for a month & a 1/2 waiting for parts. When I got it back, drove it for another month and then decided to sell it. It was a very fun car to drive, crazy fast, looks cool. but man, all the warning lights that went off with mine just drove me crazy. and all the times i had to have it towed was a bummer.....
we just bought a new car for my wife (well a 2014 CRV), the car i'm driving will be paid off in a year...i might do some looking at options when that time comes....
Buy one now with some miles on it (70-125K). Drive it and don't worry about it. When you retire, sell it and buy a garage queen.
That's exactly my plan. Get a C5 now, then when I retire get a C6. The C6s are still out of my price range right now, but by then, I should be able to sell the C5 and get a C6. It would still be a dd during the summer, but at least then it'll be garaged at night, and I can leave it garaged on rainy days...
Your C5 is super clean and id bet as close to flawless as a person could find, but from my perspective you've taken a pretty big loss financially, with no real gain or benefit.
Bought mine new in '97. All options. about $43-44k as I recall. Now worth maybe $11-12k. So, say I've "lost" about $32k over 19 years - or about $1,700 per year. I have no issue with that at all.
Your C5 is super clean and id bet as close to flawless as a person could find, but from my perspective you've taken a pretty big loss financially, with no real gain or benefit.
The car depreciates every year, and you haven't gotten much fun and enjoyment out of it to justify the loss.
I would much rather take the loss by racking up higher miles then selling it rather then just letting it depreciate in the garage
Great to see your enjoying the C7 though, that's the way to go , stunning ride man
And yes to the OP, C5's make great daily drivers, I drive my supercharged Z every day unless its raining, I sometimes even use it as a work vehicle.
As I said - it's been my toy and distraction. I HAVE gotten a lot of enjoyment out of my C5 as it's been a constant source of play for me that distracted me from the more serious parts of life. Plus I had one other C5 in between that we bought for my wife and sold a couple of years ago when she could no longer drive it. I drove that one and modded it as well.
I have sunk a lot more than the initial cost into it and it has given me uncounted hours of learning, wrenching fun and joy from sharing it with friends that I would never had gotten if I had not bought it. I have never bought a modern car as an investment - that would be foolish. I bought it as a toy and a source of fun and learning and it has delivered in spades. I consider it a bargain when I reflect on the friends it has brought into my life even if I had not driven a single mile in it.
Here's the current condition of my C5 - it has been an extremely fun project that is making this my retirement fun car.
Have a friend with a Shelby Cobra and a Ferrari 488GTB. They both get driven weekly. Cars are designed and built to be driven. It keeps them in good mechanical shape. And it puts a wide smile on your face!
I'd do the same. If I could buy a rare original Cobra I'd drive it regularly or not buy it. Add Ferrari or any other make, model, rarity... ain't saving it for someone else.
Really depends on your expectations. I have owned 10 new Corvettes in my life - most of which I only kept 3-4 years (and the paint and interior were showing signs of wear). Except for the C5 (which has been my DD and garaged every night for 16 years so far), all the others were owned when I had an apartment.
The main reason my C5 still looks like new is due mainly to having a garage for the first time in my life the past 16 years (and detailing it daily). I also try to avoid driving it if the weather is bad (especially with the West Texas winds)
I personally would never own a Corvette again without a garage - it really takes a toll - not to mention the additional stress level associated with vandalism.
Nice cars. They look like they're ready for Pebble Beach Concours.
My 2000 Z51 MN6 is a daily driver. I bought a low mileage, unmodified car for that purpose. I've put about 20k miles on it so far, and it's been very reliable. I've had to spend money on shocks, belts, a brake job etc. but nothing unusual for any used car. It's been in the Southwest its entire life. All the electronics work great and the drive train is bulletproof. I wouldn't hesitate to drive it cross country.
I like having a car that I can drive and not worry about too much. A C5 is a nice car but it's not a Ferrari or anything. So I don't mind parking it in on campus or a grocery store lot etc. I don't worry about vandalism. I don't have a garage, only a carport. It keeps the sun off the paint. But I can never keep it clean for more than a few days before a layer of dust builds up.
Unless you need a backseat, I don't know why you shouldn't daily drive a Corvette.
I love my toys and do my best to take good care of them, but these cars are meant to be driven and C5's are not expensive cars. You are considering retirement soon so I'm guessing you are somewhere in your 60's. I don't mean to be a doomsayer but none of us know how much time we have left, but in your 60's the candle is definitely getting short. If you have the capacity to get your C5 now, well get on with it, jump in the deep end of the pool and start having fun while there is still time. When I got divorced many years ago I lost my garage, along with my house, and found myself in an apartment for a while. I was driving my Porsche 911 and was forced to leave it outside. Bought a good all weather locking car cover and got on with life! Do what you have to do to enjoy life, don't wait. Take care and best wishes, and by the way, I'm 66 so I've got a short candle too!
'01 Z06 I grabbed in Aug 2009 with 30k and it's been driven almost everyday 50miles/day since; I say almost because I got stationed in Korea for a year and it sat that entire time. On top of that we used to live in a gated apartment complex with no garage for 2.5yrs so it saw everything to include two heart attack inducing hail storms that thankfully left zero damage.
She now has a whopping 110,180 miles on her and I'm fairly certain the harmonic balancer is going out and I've repaired my EBCM, but other than those items it's been a simple upkeep maintenance vehicle.
Love every minute, and I still do the look back when walking away.
My 04 daily driver all year round in south east Michigan, no garage but nice carport. Over 100,000 miles, better then 3,000 drag racing, auto crossing, and mostly HPDE track day miles. The trick to keeping it looking nice.......don't slow down *laughs* at speed it doesn't show the freckles.
Taken a few weeks ago at M1 Concourse Champion Motor Speedway
How many of you use your C5 as a daily driver? ....Because my job is located in IL, and my home is in Dayton, OH, I live in an apartment during the week where I don't have a garage. The C5 would become my daily driver during the summer, and would be stored in my garage in OH during the winter (I refuse to expose a Corvette to salted roads). Therefore, the Vette would be exposed to the weather all the time during the summer. This is not my idea of how a Corvette should be cared for. I believe a Vette should always be garaged except for nice days when it comes out to be driven. ...Do any of you use yours as daily drivers and if so 1) does doing so seem to be taking a toll on the vehicle and 2) what extra measures do you take, if any, to keep the car nice? Do any of you recommend that I not do this at all?
My C5 was a DD (and only car) for about 12 years. It was only garage kept for about 3 of those 12. Granted, there ar lots of trees on my lot, so its shaded when parked there, but leaves and such do tend to clog the udders.
It sits in the sun all day in the parking lot at work.
I do have one of the UV-100 windshield things. Semi-regular was and wax, your choice of leather treatment and you are good to go.
116k miles, yea, theres a small hole worn in the seat from the corner of my wallet, but the dash isnt cracked and the interior (black) has not faded.
Nor has the paint.
Weather is temperate enough snow doesnt last, adn if the snow is deep enough to catch the under bumper air dam, this place is shut down for a few days, adn the City generally uses sand, not salt/chems.
My '14 has never seen the inside of a garage and shares the driveway with the C5.
I daily'd mine for exactly one year. The car was great to drive every day in southern Mississippi, but when I moved to San Diego everything changed. The traffic here is miserable, and driving the 6 speed with a B&M ripper shifter became a chore. The roads out here are garbage as well, and I would bottom out on everything. I also hated parking it on the street, which is unavoidable in the city.
Instead of steadily ruining my car, I bought a cheap daily and drive the Vette only a few times a week now.
10-18-2016, 01:33 PM
