I hate to say it, but he's right. I have done an 800 mile trip in my '95 Z28 (and I got 30 mpg). I can drive my '74 Vette for 30 minutes, use a quarter tank of gas, and be ready to sell it. IMO, the Vette is nothing more than a pretty face.

 

...when I was 16 in 1977, I could NOT afford a Corvette, so I got into Chevelles. Had 12 of them in all til I could afford to get into Corvettes...now I can't afford Chevelle's or Camaro's.

...the "one" Chevelle "keeper" I had and let go was a true and original '67 SS 396/375hp L-78 Chevelle. One of only 612 L-78 Chevelles built in 1967. Car would be a $100K car easy if I would have kept her...

 

That was my point exactlly. when i was 18 i could buy 67,68 camaros or 70-72 chevelles all day for 2-4000 vettes 68-80`s were still closer to 10g`s now the camaros and chevelles are around 15-40g`s depending on options and condition but i can find 68-80 vettes for under 15 in pretty good shape so im into vettes now but was always into the cam/chevelles when i was younger.
I dont think it will last alot longer tho? the insane money people are throwing on camaros and chevelles is a money makin market at the moment and when these guys find a better scam or racket i think the old muscle car market will crash accept for the true rare stuff like hemi cudas Ls6 chevelles etc..
The younger generation comming up are into the tuner cars and are willing to dump tons on them and there way more avalible so when they get a little older 10-15 years they wont want anything to do with vettes or muscle cars. Thats when im gonna buy a barn full and hoard them!! LOL

 

I believe the market is softening across the board right now. Maybe its that time of year? Maybe the economy sucks? Maybe people are scared of losing there houses and have to sell there cars fast? Maybe the guys w/ the big bucks are buying up the fore-closed upon houses for pennys on the dollar, instead of trying to flip a muscle car for profit? I don't know why, but for the past 4-5 months I have seen MANY C3 bumper vettes (some right here on the forum) go for WAY less than what they were bringing a year or two ago. I have also seen many small block chevelles and camaros come way down in price from what they were bringing just last year. Oldsmobile and Buick prices are dropping even faster. IMHO, I think prices are going to drop a LOT LOWER before they turn around again. Anybody else remember the LAST muscle car market crash? The good stuff (Hemi's, SS Chevelles, GTO's, GTX's, Z-28's, Boss Mustangs, ect) took a 30%-40% hit, the less desirable cars, took an even bigger loss. But what the hell do I know, I'm just a grease monkey.

 

I drove around today in my 77 and it gave me a headache from getting in and out, there not made for a 6' 2" person!
Be my aspirin, buy this car and get rid of my headache!!!!!!

 

This is one of the reason's that purchased my vette. I was really looking for Mopar of some kind, but I couldn't even get an average Dodge Dart, for the price of the '79. I only had a certain amount of money to spend, and I easily got the best exitment for the money. I think that these cars are the best buy, compared to other Muscle cars.

I think the pricing has totally do with supply and demand. Corvettes were/are made over 50+ years. Because they were kind of expensive to begin with, they were generally well cared for and garage kept. This is a good reciepe to have many more survive, then any other car.

Most Muscle cars were thrashed, raced, and crashed to point where not that many are left. Even the ones that weren't abused, rusted away. Even the non SS Chevelles and 6 cylinder Cameros and Mustangs were beat on.

I also think it's good for c3's, and all Corvettes for that matter, that the c6's are doing well. It keeps the Corvette name going strong.

 

For starters, I like the prices of the vettes... It gives us the oppertunity to buy as many as our checkbook will afford. I believe that this is best because corvette owners know that a corvette is more than just a muscle car. It's almost a life style. By keeping the prices of the vettes down, the people who truely appreciate the car can really enjoy more than one.

A Corvette is still the top dog when it comes to performance and handling. The only thing that the Corvette is not that top dog is the market. It might be some of the rich and arrogant C5 and C6 owners (not all are that but some) that turn other people away. I, however, think they aren't the top dog in the market because there aren't that many at local car shows. No one knows for sure of what there is more of, but I think there are more camaros and chevelles than vettes. The excuse of their being less metal cars due to rust and such, I think, is an irrelevant excuse. Corvettes burn to the ground, get into wrecks, and many get parted out. The metal cars do as well, but you also have to consider that for every corvette there was like 5 or more camaros produced. The vette was and has always been a limited production vehicle. Back to my point, for every vette (C3) I see at a local car show, I see 15- 20 67-69 Camaros.

 

I think you see less vettes at local car shows is because they have their own corvette only shows. I don't think you could have a Chevelle or Camero show, but I imagine you could have a Mustang show.

I know that the Chevelles and Cameros were built in much higher numbers, but I think they had much greater attrition through the years.

I looked on ebay an currently there are...

1,017 Corvettes
211 chevelles
470 cameros
1,456 Mustangs
31 70-74 Barracudas
42 Challangers

Now this doesn't say how many are left, but it does indicate how many are available. Now they still make Stangs and Vettes, so some of the listings may be new cars, but that is just adding to the Supply side...

 

Im trying to sell my vette at $7500 and there isn't anything out there worth a hoot to replace it with at that kind of money.
I'll have to pay more than double to get a base 67 camaro in primer!
What am I talking about , I can't even get someone to buy my car because they are all buying 72 novas!!!!!!!!

 

I'm a new C3 owner but I've been buying, restoring, and selling mostly Mopar musclecars for over 22 years now.
The Mopar and Ford guys always argued the Corvettes and Cobras are sports cars not musclecars and aren't in the same price catagory, I really didn't care.
I've seen prices on Mopars go through the roof then level off a few times now. It seems certain cars are made popular by movies and TV shows IE: Nash Bridge's 71 'Cuda and the General Lee, (two cars most true Mopar guys can't stand because soo many original cars were destroyed in filming). I've seen a lot of GM restoration guys jump on the Mopar price craze. They thought they could take a regular B or E body Mopar, drop a, (junk out of the box), crate Hemi engine in it, paint it plum crazy or lime green and try to sell it for 50k and up. They usually ended up with a perfumed pig of a car that ran and drove terrible and was hard to sell.
I think a lot of the pricing depends on the individual car, not the market. I don't think these high profile TV and E-bay auctions are a true gauge as to what some of these cars are REALLY selling for. I picked up some supposedly high dollar, highly documented Mopars for a fraction of what they supposedly are worth by just being at the right place at the right time. Yes the days of buying any musclecar for $1000 bucks are gone but a car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, if the seller really needs to sell it. With gas prices getting higher and higher and then economy getting worse many people are dumping their toys.
Also, the later model C3's really can't be compared in price and value to the older C3's of the late 60's and very early 70's. This is also the same in the Mopar and Ford musclecar world. A 1973 Dodge Charger is a hard car to sell for over 5 grand. A Little Red Express Dodge truck, (supposedly the fastest US production vehicle in 1978) rarely brings over 8 or 9 grand in mint condition. The musclecar values drop sharply after 1971 as it seems the Corvettes do also.

Again I'm new to the Corvette scene.
I always loved the chrome bumper C3's and remember countless street races against them in my Mopars back in the day.
I recently picked up a supposedly original 350/350hp 1969 coupe in a trade deal only to later discover nothing on the car was original. I initially thought my Corvette ignorance got me majorly burned in the deal only to end up doing some research here, dropping the fuel tank and discovering per the tank sticker my clunker C3 was actually an original L71 big block car. Kinda ironic as during my younger street racing days the only car that really welded my 1969 Sixpack SuperBee's doors shut was a 1969 427 tri power Corvette
Everybody enjoy their cars

 

Economics doesn't work like this. If the seller deems his car is work 30K and the buyer believes the worth is 25K, then no deal is made. It's pure and simple supply and demand. A truly more effective method to increase the value of your Corvette is to encourage other owners to crush or wreck their Corvette, thus decreasing supply and increasing price.

 

I'm sorry, but this makes no sense to me. Do mean to tell me that if all the '84 Corvette owners decided to "stick together" and "demand what they are worth" (according to... you?) then the market for $4000 Corvettes would suddenly rise?

The concept of thousands of unrelated owners deciding to try to manipulate a market upward (a soft market- a market of a segment of cars that are not selling for high prices) by holding out for a "worth" determined by the owners that is not supported in reality... well, it's far-fetched.

 

You see the steel cars everywhere. You can't hardly find a C3 at the cruises anymore so does that make them worth more ? I would think so if you are using the argument that it is supply and demand. There are very few out there and you guys sure seem to want them !!

 

You have to be smarter than that ! You have to have a product that someone wants before you can demand anything and since you claim that you are vettebuyer , you should know that C4's are junk and have no value at all.

 

I figured I would put in my 2 cents here. Corvettes were always owned by people who appreciated what they had. You hardly ever seen someone buy a new Vette then beat the crap out of it like they did with muscle cars. The owners were usually more responsible and older.
Don't think of the cost of selling, you buy a Corvette becuase you love the style and performance. No car is really an investment as you will never get back the money you put into it. I also think the value of older muscle cars will eventually fall, the demand wont be there in a few years, the young people want Toyotas and Hondas now, when they are in thier 40's and fifties, they wont even look at an old American car. We will become a dying breed so just enjoy what you have and know you have a car that is unique and will always be a proud marque.

 

I have a 69 Camaro that I bought 15 years ago and restored. I imagine I could sell it for 10 times what I paid for it if I were so inclined. Having completed it, I looked around for another project and I can hardly believe what piece of crap Camaros and Novas fetch these days. I was looking at C2's and wound up running into the same wall. Then I started looking at early C3's and found the bargain I was looking for - a 71 coupe.

The Vette rides and handles so much better than the Camaro it's not even funny. Both cars garner the same amount of attention at car show and gas stations, not that it matters to me, but it is somewhat surprising in the sense that people gush all over the Vette, but the values are so much lower for the Vette.

I think more people that want to get into the hobby will start buying these up, and that will reduce supply, and hopefully prices will rise.

I didn't buy either car as an investment, I bought them to drive and enjoy. I think the Vette will start appreciating quicker over the next 10 years.

 

That comparison is totally inaccurate... You cant compare 3 good years of the camaro and and about 6 good years of the chevelle with 50 plus years with the vettes...

That is part of the problem, I think... No one hardly ever sees a C3 at a car show. Then people see a car that the like (at a car show) and the emotions get all flared up for that camaro or chevelle that they saw at a show and thats all they put their mind on that they want. Who knows people probably still hold a grude against them since they were a "rich mans" car. The other possibility is that people want a car they can customize.. IMHO you have to be careful how you customize a vette because it seems as if it doesn't take customization to well... Parts also seem to be cheaper for the chevelles and camaros as well. For the most part, I don't care what the market says my car is worth. I know what it is worth to me and I'll enjoy my vette while the other dreamers are missing out trying to save up for a camaro.

 

Vette's ARE still king of the hill... They made the C-3s for so long though that some are just not as desireable as others. From 68 to 82 they made cars that look alike to alot of people. But saying your 74 or 80 corvette should be worth more than a 68 chevelle with a big block just because its a vette, well that's as crazy as saying it's worth more than a 68 vette with a big block. That said, there really isn't a bad year vette out there. That 74 vette is going to look pretty darn good next to a 74 mustang II, and a 78 vette is going to look much better and pull better money than a 78 anything. "Holding out" for the big bucks isn't going to make vette prices go crazy... it just makes the owner look that way.

 

here is an example I bought this 71 chevelle for 4500 3 yrs ago with the addition of wheels and a new drive train did not touch body or interior was freshly done have about 10g into the car total was appraised by my classic insurance for 16,900 and have been offered very close to that to sell it.




bought this 68 vette convertible last spring for 12,500 fresh paint, 454 with factory L88 aluminum heads dual quad set up,4 speed ,interior needs a lil attention. is there much i could do to jump the value to 20 g to make the same profit of the chevelle? i doubt it.
I never buy cars to make a buck but right now if you wanted to chevelles,camaros,novas are where its at period.
not to mention I feel the average joe wanting a nice toy is going to spend around 10-15 g at the most and is going to put a second morgage on the house to do it so he wants to know if he needs to he can sell quick to recover his cash!!

 

Seeing how the cheapest convertible 68 I found on collectorcarrader.com is 21,900 I'd say you'd have to do very little to make it a 20K car.... What am I saying... you should sell the car for 13K because thats the most you'll ever get and then you can buy 2 more chevelles!