When dealing with 68-72 C3's, what would be considered a low mileage car? I hear that term used and people have asked me if mine is low mileage or not. Is there a rule of thumb, ie anything under 50,000 miles?

Glenn in San Diego

My '77 still only has 68K original miles, and I consider that low. Maybe someone else won't...but it really only matters what I think to me.

30K or less...

I always wonder about this low mileage thing. How does people know it is original mile unless they own since it's new ?

I used the history papers. I had records of when oil changes and random maintenance was done, and no mileage ever exceeded that's on the speedo. If even one of the receipts had a higher mileage I would know it's either not the original speedo or it has rolled over.

For a 37 year old car, I consider my 54k low mileage!

My 81 has 77,400 miles. My 71 has 110,800 miles. 110,000 divided by 36 years =3,055 miles a year. National average is around 15,000 a year on a vehicle so I would call my 71 "low mileage" in that respect

How would a 62 with 35,000 and a 68 with 28,000 be considered?

Trailer Queens?

Nope,

Go look at "My Corvette Photos" and view part of the reasons

Either that or he spent alot of time in reverse!!

I think low mileage cars are great, but it usually just means that someone wasn't having fun with their Vette, and if that's the case then it's just keeping dust off the garage floor.

Mine hit 70k last summer which works out to about 2,300 a year. A lot less than the 15k average. I'd call that low.

One '71 is at 39,592 and the other '71 is 60,013.

I think the Blue book says sumptin like
less than 8 thousand a year
Then there is also in boat speak 25 hours year.
Which brings up, can to little hours be more bad than good?

I just switched the title over to my name on my 69 I just purchased, today. When the guy I bought it from got it it showed 31,xxx on the title. It now shows 61,xxx on my new title. I think that is fairly low for a 69 model, although I see lots of them with less miles.


greg

I think mileage on title won't do much unless he is the 1st and only owner.
C3 has only 5 digits on odometer, doesn't it ? so that you never know how many times it wrapped around.

I personally don't care much about mileage, as I have no way to know for sure, unless I know all the previous owner.

Agree with the history/documentation comments above - and even that can be suspect. It was so easy to disconnect the speedo cable and get "free miles" in these cars. My '82 is showing less than 29K miles, I bought her with 22K miles. She turns 25 in 12 days; that’s an average of 1,160 miles a year. I’d call that low mileage. However, the minute I had her re-titled in AL the mileage on the title read "exempt".

I have copies of every title exchange back to the first owner. I also have a carfax and a print out from the state of OH DMV - all three sources track date for date with the mileage so I’m 99.99% confident that the mileage is accurate.

Another point - don't know where I heard this from but I tucked it away in the brain housing group for later reference - Father Time can do as much damage to a car as Uncle Mileage. We all know mileage is the benchmark but an ultra low mileage car can suffer from dry rot of the gaskets, seals, etc, sludge build up and the list goes on. Last time I was at the NCM I saw a C3 on display (I think it is a '74) with very low miles AND still had all of the original fluids including oil. If that's your thing...

This is fun...
My 78 Sa: 131,000 miles...
the 69 coupe: 95,000 miles...
No doubt these vettes are DRIVEN...

my 82 has 135,000 on it.
a lot, sure, but only about 5500 per year.

i believe a good chunk of that came over the last few years, if my 'stories' are correct.
maybe a little high in terms of c-3 miles, but if they are well cared for miles (will i ever really know? ) does it really matter?


fwiw.......i'm from the school that to little miles can hurt.
jmho.