When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The recent Corvettes at Carlisle issue of Old Car Weekly had a reprint of corvette pricing taken from their sister magazine, Old Cars Pricing Guide. I thought some of you might like to see their take on current vette pricing so I scanned the page and have made it available at:
The pricing there looks to be accurate; early C3's $6-28K, later C3's $4-20K. What was not shown was how they determined the condition rating. I would assume that a #1 rating was a complete full body off restoration, or a low milage factory mint car. These could be and probably are trailer queens. I also assume a rating of #4 is something that needs considerable work. Pieces may be missing/non-functional and interior has severe wear. Most vettes with proud owners will more than likely have values between ratings #2 and #3. That may come as a surprise to some but not to others. Someone posted about a week wanting to know the value of his 81 and a number of $10-15 was thrown out. Based on this article, that was pretty much on the money. The value of the car is not 100% related with how much you spend on it. There are many items that you may be lucky to get back 1/4 of what you paid for it. If you never plan on selling your car, then it's resale value is only important for insurance reasons. A proud vette owner does not buy some over-priced replacement part because he/she wants to raise it's value, but becuase the car needs the part. Most of us are not in the businsess to make money off our beloved car, it's because we enjoy our car.
Thanks for posting- I've been looking for something like this lately. Unfortunately I can't read enough detail to figure it out.
Try right clicking on it and then "view image as" for a larger view. Depending on the browsers settings, it may be displaying the pic in a smaller format. FWIW.
Geez....1974-1982...get one free with a box of Captain Crunch!!
Dep
Yep, so true. And to think the title of the article was "Corvette maintains reputation as a solid investment". Guess that author never tried to restore a rubber bumper C3, huh?
The pricing there looks to be accurate; early C3's $6-28K, later C3's $4-20K. What was not shown was how they determined the condition rating. I would assume that a #1 rating was a complete full body off restoration, or a low milage factory mint car. These could be and probably are trailer queens. I also assume a rating of #4 is something that needs considerable work. Pieces may be missing/non-functional and interior has severe wear. Most vettes with proud owners will more than likely have values between ratings #2 and #3. That may come as a surprise to some but not to others. Someone posted about a week wanting to know the value of his 81 and a number of $10-15 was thrown out. Based on this article, that was pretty much on the money. The value of the car is not 100% related with how much you spend on it. There are many items that you may be lucky to get back 1/4 of what you paid for it. If you never plan on selling your car, then it's resale value is only important for insurance reasons. A proud vette owner does not buy some over-priced replacement part because he/she wants to raise it's value, but becuase the car needs the part. Most of us are not in the businsess to make money off our beloved car, it's because we enjoy our car.
Your assumptions about the condition ratings are pretty much on target. And yes, at least I do this because it is a hobby not as an investment. I have had many hobbies in the past where the goal was to have fun, not can I make money on it. Why should this one be any different? If I want an investment, I'll certainly look elsewhere as I probably could make more in a 2% yield plain old bank account than in a C3 Corvette.
C3 Vettes would probably be good investments IF it was in high demand and all original. The L88 and tri-power cars and the stock 1970 LT-1s come to mind. If you want to invest in Vettes for profit, you definitely go with the 1967 and EARLIER versions. The prices of the C2 take your breath (and in some cases a nice house) away.
I pretty much demolished my '72 Vette as far as resale goes. I stripped off most of the dead weight (radio, heater, AC, etc) and am still removing stuff. The numbers matching engine and trans (454/Turbo 400) will go to a buddy of mine in favor of a conversion to an M44 Muncie and big block, race-only crate engine.
That's my choice and I really don't give two squirts about what people think about it. Modding the rubber bumper and later Vettes really isn't all that horrible, as they aren't worth a bazillion dollars to start off with.
I'm kinda suprised that more people don't drop big blocks in them, but it appears they are more interested in keeping them as street-driven grocery getters. Their choice too
Based on this chart, my '71 coupe is worth about 3.5 times what I paid for it. If I had put that money in a financial investment with a modest return for those 33 years, it would have been worth much more than that. However, I would not have had years of fun driving the car, and I would never have met some great people who became lifelong friends.
I'm glad the prices are what they are, and they will only go up probably, but as many have said very few cars are particularly good investments. In any event, I have no intentions of selling my car.