How will I find an Expert or someone with Corvette experience. To take a good look at the car. I may look at cars in Fla, Ohio, NC or Pa. I just can't take it to the local gas station...

 

If you are really nice to the guys on the board, most of us would be willing to give your potential purchase a cursory overview.

If it passes our muster you may want to consider driving or flying out to see it yourself.


Bill

 

You can contact local Corvette clubs, NCRS chapters or people on this forum. maybe local mechanics. One way is to advertise in the geographic regions section of this forum, for help.

As I mentioned before, do you see the error in "planning on buying within a month?" Patience, grasshopper, is the best advice.

I'll go against the grain and see nothing wrong with dealers. The key in buying a good car for the right price is knowledge about the CAR, and the MARKET. After you learn what to look for in a car and what issues affects the value within the market, you can determine whether a car is properly priced for YOUR needs.

Its the car and the price, not who's selling it. It's very possible a dealer might be overpriced. He has a lot more overhead than Joe down the street... but he often has a lot more to lose, possibly legally- that some private party who gets to say "i didn't know any better." Rarely will you hear a dealer say some clueless, open ended statement like... I "believe" the numbers match. (if he does, run). Never ever put yourself in the vulnerable position of having to depend on info provided by a dealer or private seller. Know how to verify and inspect for yourself, or bring someone who can.

What Im getting at is there's good and bad dealers and good and bad private sellers. Arm yourself with knowledge and confidence and a helpful second set of eyes and it wont matter where you buy it. This is always a buyer's responsibility.

 

This is good advice. If you find a car you like somewhere, post up a thread asking someone local to look at it. Most board members are happy to help out, especially for a dinner for 2 as consideration!

There may be good cars locally as well, check Craigslist and Autotrader. And still bring someone from the forum along if you can. The best cars I've seen are here on the forums though, but it was much easier/cheaper buy mine locally than to fly across the US and have it shipped.

 

My experience is that a dealer is always more expensive than a private party.

Dealers have lots of overhead and a need to move cars. Whereas a private party thinks he has a gold mine on 4 wheels and will always be higher than the market, but cash usually talks louder to him than to a dealer.

You need to know what you are buying and how much it is REALLY worth before starting to buy any "classic" car no matter who you buy it from otherwise you will surely be disappointed after taking it home and finding all it's imperfections or "mis-stated facts".