gentlemen i would really like to buy a 1994,5,or 6 c4 ,either blue, yellow, or red.however,after reading this forums entries over the last few weeks ,i have come to the conclusion that for reliability i would be better off with a yugo.you folks might enjoy repairing something every evening and weekend,i ,however, would rather be driving. seriously, are these things one problem after the next? my wife already has a 66 coupe i am afraid to drive more than five miles from home.if i buy a c4 i would want to feel comfortable driving it a couple hundred miles [ say from toledo to chillicothe,o.].do you load the back with spare parts and tools every time you travel any distance?really would i be making a mistake buying a c4 and expecting reliability? thanks for any thoughts you might have.

 

I think they're pretty reliable, most of the people who run into problems on here are into modding as a hobby. I don't mod, I don't have any problems. Good luck.

 

They are really no less reliable than other cars their age. The reason you see so many "problems" posted here is because most people would rather fix it themselves than pay a dealership $80/hr to do what they themselves are able to do if pointed in the right direction.
To get the most reliable car don't buy one that the owner has done any electrical modifications to, such as an aftermarket alarm, wiring up "special" add on components. The average joe shadetree mechanic doesn't do electrical work very well (in my exp) and likes to cut corners, ie; using wire nuts, just twisting wires together and wrapping in tape, using crimp on butt splices and not even crimping them right., jsut to name a few.

 

I work on mine mostly because I want to, not because I have to. I just got back from Charlotte, 130 mile round trip. A few weeks ago I took it to Maryland, nearly a thousand, there and back and usually drive it to Ohio and back at least a couple of times a year. 108K now and I've put 27K on it in the little over two years I've had it. I've got a friend w/ a '94 that has over 260K on the stock bottom end, reliable enough for you?

 

The C4 is no different than any other car on reliability. If you regularly check fluids and tire inflation, just fuel her up and go.

My '88 regularly sees the 1/4 mile, goes on "spirited" twistie cruizes and makes the 450mile trip between SE NY and Richfield, OH with no problems (in fact she made that trip last Christmas).

 

i mean no offense, but this is incorrect. or i should say, would be true if that same "hobbiest" screwed up on the install of the performance upgrade(s).

for instance, the previous tuner (now fired forever) provided me a completely invalid and therefore negilgent reclaibration on my ecm chip and caused me a boatload of very expensive problems that required the engine to be ripped out & rebuilt a second time. it wasn't the performance parts, it was the "tuner" who caused th problem. that person goes by the name of "ski_dwn_it" on this forum, his real name is jesse azzato.

with my new tune from pcmforless.com, i now have a new lease on life, there are no problems and it runs like a wild beast on steroids. this is what a sports/muscle car should do.

there are plenty of folks without modifications that have problems every day.

 

Any car is only as good as the guy who maintains it. If you neglect it, it will eventually breakdown. If you take care of it, it will last.

Quite a few of us here are constantly beating the crap out of our cars and have never had any major problems.

The key is diagnosing the problem and taking care of it before it goes bad beyond where you can't drive it.

Most things will give you signs long before they break, you have to know how to look for those signs and then do something about it.

 

There are an awful lot of C4 members here. You read about so many problems because that is what prompts the thread in the first place. Most are the common quirks that rear their ugly head (due to lack of maintenance and age in general), and if you watch, most of the common threads are repeats of ones you saw last week. Then we get ahold of them and try to make the car "perfect" Even Yugo's have problems.
However, most guys have well over 100k on the clock, sounds reliable enough to me.

 

relax, you are making a smart decision and if you do your home work right then you shouldn't have any major problems. i have a 93 and i am 3rd owner, the vette has 125000 on the speedo and i really don't have any problems that will keep me within 5 miles of my house. i have a few trips planned and the furthest is cleveland ohio, this should be 2000 miles +. i have a few small issues as in all the seals around top, doors and hatch needs to be replaced and my intake leaks a few drops of oil, but this is not going to stop me from driving and i don't worry about breaking down.

 

My DD is my '89 with 150,000 miles on the clock. Every thing the car came with and a few things from the different Corvette shops works. But I made them what they are and made the car look like it does. New seats, new carpet, black outs like no one else's, loud pipes but I have never had to replace anything in or on the motor but an alternator. What better could you want? Oh, I forgot, had to replace the water pump, radiator, the whole A/C unit, power steering pump, brake booster, ECM, radio, fan belt, u-joints, wheel bearings, and the list goes on......God I luv that car.

 

DAMN!

 

casper your last sentence appears to be the rule from what i have read the last few weeks,except you left out the"opti" which everyone else seems to have replaced. big cypress

 

I think they are fairly reliable. I'm the fourth owner of mine and I drove it from GA to VA without so much as a hiccup! Recently I drove to the Blue Ridge and again the only potential problem I had was nearly scraping the side of the mountain wall when a Ford F-350 with a horse trailer was coming down the mountain came over the double yellow line and moved to get out of its way.

 

i am the third owner of mine and it is my daily driver. to and from work everyday plus anywhere else i need to go. i have owned it for two years now and have had very little trouble with mine for its age and mileage. 127,000 on the clock now just shop around and find one that has been well maintained, you will know when you find the right one

 

no real reliability issues except when i got gas with water in it, but that is not the cars fault

 

My 96 is the first used car I have bought that did not need any work done after the purchase. When buying a used car I always set money aside for needed repairs; with this car I haven't had to have anything done in over a year of ownership. Don't be afraid of a c4 if it has been properly maintained.

 

L98's don't have the "opti."

 

Mine has been very reliable however, it has only 70K on the clock. Check any enthusiast website for any model and most of the threads will be about problems. This is because starting a thread about how nothing is wrong with your car is pretty useless.

Right now nothing is wrong with my car. However, I plan on fixing it until someting breaks.

Mike

 

Let me assure you that you can purchase a late model C4 (I cannot speak from personal experience on earlier years) and have no reliability problems if you do your homework.

When I purchased my 95 back in March my son & I drove it 1000 miles home with no problem what-so-ever. Since then I drive the car every day. It's my daily driver and I put 250-400 miles on it every week and I fully expect to put 200K miles on it.

Last Wed I drove it from work to a track and put 40 laps around a 2.3 mile road course, drove it home and then drove it to work the next day.

If you find one that has been well taken care of...and you take care of it yourself, it will be as reliable as any car.

Go to the Maxima forum (we also have an 03 Maxima SE) and you will hear about all sorts of problems as well...becasue as stated before the forum is where folks go to get their questions answered about issues that you run into.

Go to the GMC forum and read about Yukons and it will be the same thing.... I put 130,000 miles of mountain driving my 95 Yukon prior to selling it to get my Vette and had no problem...but if you read the forum youd think that there isn't a single one that can drive around the block with out the engine or tranny craping out.

The MOST important thing is to take your time and find the right car.

And if you're old enough then you know that Mr. Peabody always knows what he's talking about

 

HOW MANY FORUM MEMBERS DO WE HAVE? 60,000 THOUSAND OR MORE NOW!?

if you look at the tech/general sections all day and maybe half a dozon posts might pop up about something regarding a fix. thats maybe 6 people a day and having 60,000 people on a forum isn't bad complaining of a problem.

my 84 has 133,000 on it and i don't need to knock on wood for luck,i've NEVER had a problem besides i ran out of gas because the gauge is off by 2 little bars! thats all. no break downs or fried harnesses or starting problems. i raced this car 5 times and every time i went to the track to do so its 2 hours away minimum for whatever track i race at. to go hours away ,then race,then drive home,i got to say thats pretty reliable for a 84' with its mileage. these cars where built to last for a LONG time.