I got approached by a guy in my neighborhood earlier today... at first he asked if my husband was home ... but then he pointed to my '81 and said he had one like that he wanted to sell.

I saw this car a few days ago and was thinking about talking to the owner. Not to buy, but just check the car out. Anyway, I walked over to his house and took a look. I didn't make it very far before I determined his negotiable $2500 price was way more than I was willing to spend. Didn't pop the hood but I would not be at all surprised to learn it was an LG4 car. To say it was in rough shape would be an understatement. Many visible repairs to the fiberglass, cracked windshield and the interior had been spray painted black. If that's what I could see in a 90 second walk around, how bad can all the mechanicals be? You can pretty much bet absolutely everything needs to be gone through.

I was told the car runs, but really, who cares at that point? My car has a 350hp roller 355 and Richmond 5 speed and if I had to sell it tomorrow I would be hopeful to get anything over $3000. I mean, this thing is pretty much barely a rolling basket case. I can't imagine anybody who knows anything about C3s even giving him $2k for that thing. I don't even think it would be worth $1500 to me.

Or am I just that far out of the loop at this point?

 

clean ,low mile cars are doing good .theres a few guys out there that don't know what a vette is worth or how much to fix one ,,,,,but they know that they want one because its a corvette .sad for them they find out the hard way.

 

I can see a clean, low mile car pulling nice money. But a beat up basket case '80 isn't worth much more than any other car from 1980. There's a lot to be desired there. I suppose if the body were in good condition I would be more inclined to entertain his price. But that thing needs a crap ton of body work. Every panel has bondo or patch on it somewhere.

 

I had a hard time getting 7k for a clean 75 plane jane coupe. Few 74 and newer cars will sell above 10k. Now when talking 3k or lower, they are usually in need of 20k to make them worth 10k.

 

The value of a 1980 Corvette has been holding fairly steady for the last 25 years or so. Worn out cars are worth less than nice ones but dollars/condition has been holding steady all these years. in the early 90's you could buy a nice, clean, low mileage example off a used car lot for $11,000. How far off are we today? No adjustment for inflation considered.

 

Including the price $13K i paid for my 80 Vette, after the complete 4 year Body off rebuild, i am into this car for $35K. I currently have it for sale for $28K. I have one serious buyer. If it doesnt sell, i will drive it till the day i die, its a brand new car with 350 Hp and 400 tq. its a blast to drive.

 

From what I have seen, C3 prices of any ilk have not been going up.

 

Not that it really matters, but after years of thinking about it I'm finally going to put my '81 up for sale. I only manage to drive it a couple hundred miles a year, if that, and it's just not worth it anymore.

Mine is almost completely stock, crane cam when engine was rebuilt in the late 90's, a heavy duty clutch and a combination of new + dyed interior parts changing it from camel to black. Mechanically, aside from leaks due to not being driven enough, it's like new. Cosmetically the interior is decent, definitely not perfect. I'd put it up against any other non-restored '81, but I do have a few things I'm going to take care of before tossing on the for sale sign. The exterior and fiberglass is in great shape. The paint is a bit old and chipped here and there, but zero damage, no cracking or spiderweb in the fiberglass.

Off the top of my head the problems I can think of are:
*battery/charge light - New battery, checked alternator voltage. It's been on for a year, but I have had zero issues. Car starts up every time, battery seems as good as new. Just the light stays on.
*A/C doesn't work - it's never worked. I bought the car in '94 with non-functional AC. With very rare exception, I only drive the car with the T-tops off. Getting the AC fixed just never really crossed my mind.
*power antenna doesn't work. I recently pulled this out and when I get a chance I will take it apart and see if I can fix it.
*door handles - Ya, it's an '81, I need to fix where the door handles attach to the door.
*minor cracks in the dash
*power locks - passenger side doesn't lock unless you help push it. Again, the T-tops are always off so locking isn't really an issue. I'll probably take the door panel off and see if a bit of silicone lube will fix it.
*speedometer is off by about 5 mph and bounces a bit from time to time (seems to be smoothing out as I've been driving it).

On the plus side it's a 4-spd and very close to stock (I still have the stock radio in a box somewhere). I forget the exact mileage, but I believe it's between 115k and 120k miles.

I'm having a hard time coming up with a price, but I think I'm going to ask $11k. If you guys think that's way out of line let me know. Trying to find similar cars here in Oregon is almost impossible and looking at the national level the prices are all over the place. Even then, those are just asking prices.

 

They have really jumped in price in FL. People are asking $5k-7k in FL for non running ones and getting that price. Gone are the days of finding ones in Miami for $1,500.

 

Asking prices have definitely gone up. You just don' see much in the way of C3s for under 5 grand, no matter how much a basket case rust bucket they are.

What those cars actually sell for, I have no idea.

 

Talk about a plain jane '75 coupe ... I sold my white plain jane last year for $11.5 after it being f/s only for a week or two, and the buyer almost didn't buy it because he wanted something he could "play with". He was a bit disappointed the car didn't need anything. So it's a matter of what someone is willing to spend. That's my take on it, anyway.