Hi, newbie here... I just purchased my first Vette. My dad has owned two, a 74 and a 58. I purchased a 75, red/red, t-top, auto, air, pw, non-original 350 and non original transmission with OD. On a scale of 1-10, I would say the car is a solid seven. My question to the forum is this, I paid 5500 for the car. Dad has told me numerous times over the past week that I paid about 2000 too much, but I see this year model selling on ebay for an average of 7000 - 8000.... some of the really nice ones may go as high as 19000. I also checked the NADA value and I am atleast 2100 below the lowest listed NADA and 7000 below the avg NADA. With his insistance that I am already in too deep with the car, I am concerned about how much I should spend on the car to strive to make it a 9 or 10. I don't have any immediate plans to sell the Vette. I just plan on spending the next few years tweaking everything out. This includes pulling and detailing the engine and engine compartment.... as well as a new paint job. This will all be done by myself and my dad, as he is a talented mechanic and body man. (I just pretend to be) We just differ on the value of the car, as he tells me using the NADA as a guide will get you burnt. He tried to prove it to me by showing me his black book, but the latest it went back was a 1989 model vette which showed a rough book of about 2300. I think that is comparing Apples and Oranges. In my mind, I feel like I got a fair deal and I hope to see this cars value increase over the next 10 or 15 years. Do you guys think I am in too deep? What are your gut feelings about the 75 model C3s projected values in the next 10 years? What have they done over the last 5 years? I was born in 1966, and I remember growing up lusting over the C3 vettes. Right now it is my second muscle car. I also own a 1965 Fastback, all original, been in my family since 1966, Mustang.

Thanks,
BLVette75

 

It all depends on the overall condition...can you show us some pics? Without seeing it...that price is not bad at all. I know people who paid a lot more and others a lot less when it is a mess. If it is a solid car...then that is a fair price. Does not make much difference now...it is done. Tell Dad that he is right to move him off the subject and then pull out the tools and enjoy. These machines are a lot of fun to work on and drive..but be ready to spend a lot more than you paid for it on paint, mods, repairs.... Enjoy

 

Hard to say without pics.

 

Dads are like that. My dad had no respect for my vette, let alone my decision to buy it. If it is mechanically sound, not missing any hard to find parts, and no frame damage/rot, you did fine..75's are nice driving vettes...enjoy....

 

Well me and my dad are alike we can look at something and no matter what condition it is, it can be fixed so as long as you like it then it was worth it.Depending on how the body is it seems like a fair price.

 

I think the price you paid for it is within the ball park range. If he says you paid about $2000 too much for it, then where are all those $3000 dollar vettes? I havent seen a vette in the $3000 dollar range for a 74-77 vintage at all. Well I have, but you would need a tow truck to get it home. Most of the time the vettes that were in the $5000 dollar range were in pretty bad shape. They needed paint and a full interior.

So your price seems pretty good. As for paying too much? Did you happen to see any in the price range he was talking about? It may sound good on paper, but then you would be waiting a long time, and looking in a lot of places to find one that matched that price. And of course then he couuld always tell you..." what did you buy that piece of crap for? You will spend more than its worth to fix it up!"

kdf

 

Hi, Thanks for all the input. I do have a few pics saved on my desktop but am not sure how to post them???

BLVette75

 

Photobucket gives you 25 MB of space for free:

http://photobucket.com/

Then you can link to your pictures from the forum.

 

I uploaded three photos on the Corvette forum. I hope I did it correctly. The last message I saw was pics were pending approval. I wonder if they will automatically show up when I post from now on.... I notice many people have links in the left margine that read "My Photos"

Thanks for the advice, if this does not work I will give Photobucket a try.

BLVette75

 

photobucket is great and works well for me .....

as for what you paid, we paid $7k for ours (77 L-48 w/94000 miles) so if you are in for $2k too much, I don't want to hear it
they are worth what you are willing to pay

and here's a pic thru photobucket with the new tires (make that $7,498.00 )
[IMG][/IMG]

 

Heres the problem, even if you did pay 2 grand too much your car still would have gone for 5500.
A guy at work put his up for sale and sold it the same day, 3 buyers turned up but the first met his price.

Kid going to college. Seems to be the general demise of a Vette.

He may be thinking of how much your going to spend on it

 

Did you get a basket case or barely driveable car? If not, you didn't pay too much.

 

Thats totally right!

Gee wizz...$5500 for a pretty good condition running corvette..if it is as you describe I think you did pretty good with the price.

what sort of other cars can you get for $5500 these days? A pretty run down early c4? (I like c4's too but they don't have the look of c3's!).

Looking forward to seeing some pics

 

Welcome to the C3 dark side

 

Just saw your pics and it looks to me like you got a dang good deal. That said, I always believe that you pay what something is worth to you and no one else. So forget what your Dad says and enjoy the car. Beside, he'll have plenty to complain about when you start forking over the money to "tweek" it.

 

I'd like to see some pics too, but sounds like a good deal to me. I paid $9000 for my 75 L-48 with about 70k miles. It had new interior, new paint, original engine and tranny (restored), and restored just about everything else. If it's any more valuable than yours (and it could very well not be), it aint by much.

Plus, I just got back from driving around in the sunshine for an hour. Put a price on THAT.

 

Welcome to the insanity!

I paid just a little bit more (6K) for both my 75 and my 84. Both were in pretty good shape and the 84 needed nothing except for tires. The 75 needs a bit more work but is driveable as is and hasn't given me any major issues in the few years I've had it. I think $5500 was a good deal if the car is basically solid and has no frame/birdcage issues. As has been said, they are basically worth what you are willing to pay. Besides this, the initial cost bears little resemblence to what you will end up having in it when your "finished", as if that ever really happens!

So all that said, lots of luck w/the new money pit!

 

welcome.... you will enjoy it here, as for the price of your vette,it's all relative! if you like something, then what's money have to do with it? i have a '79 that i doubt that i will never sell,plus a '58 i've had for over 30 yrs..... be happy..... thx, jim...

 

Thanks again everyone for the warm welcome. I have been looking through the pics eveyone post of their Vettes. All very nice. I look forward to going broke getting mine in shape.

BLVette75