Hey Guys! So I've been thinking of selling my '94 (LT1) to get a C5 with fewer miles. There's nothing wrong with my car, just me I guess My family describes it as an addiction, but I like to think of my passion for corvettes as a hobby

It's black with 67k and looks great. I've waxed the car too many times to admit, so the paint has a nice reflection. The only thing that has ever NEEDED to be replaced was the opti-spark distributor (still has 1 year warranty left) and the battery (which also has a warranty)
For fun I put chrome Z06 Mototrsport Rims (plus 1) with Kuhmo Exsta-ASX tires on about 2mos. ago (has warranty on rims and tires for several more years) I've also added ss cross-drilled/slotted rotors, Bosch brake pads all the way around (twice, afterall they have a lifetime warranty), NGK Iridium Spark Plugs, tinted the rear window (4%), stripped and painted calipers red, and added chrome lettering in rear as well as license plate holder. That's about it, other than the real little stuff like changing some light bulbs and door sensors.
The oil has always been changed from 2500-3k The car has NEVER been raced or beat
My uncle has told me a million times that he'll never forgive me if I sell it without giving him the first chance to buy it. I don't want to ask for too much, but I was thinking of between $20k-$21k.
Any thoughts?

Also, other than staying away from '97, any other recommendations. I'm not in a rush to buy, however if I could do this in the next month or so that would be great since I'm moving to Florida in a month or so. I've started searching on-line and I'll be checking some local sales. If you have any recommendations on where to buy please let me know. I would prefer to buy in the Midwest, however I'm willing to fly out and look at a good one in any state and then take it for a road trip on the way back home Thank You

 

$20K for a 94? You'll never get that much.......unless it's a ZR1. Try asking for $14-16K.

As for the C5, get the newest one you can afford.

 

you can buy a c5 for that much

 

What you did sounds nice, but most would look at that as minor maintenance and upgrades. Your expectations are a bit high I think. I paid $12500.00 for a 1995 (granted it had a 100K miles but otherwise is in great condition). I'd say you are looking at between $15K to $17K.

 

I know that $20k for a C4 on the forum is pretty high, but I've been looking at ads for them off CF to compare, and some are just horrible. I don't want to rip my uncle off when selling it, but the way I look at it, I bought the car 13mos ago w/ 57k for $15k from a guy my parents know. He babied the car, but never really did anything to it. Bewteen parts and labor I've put another $8k in the car and added 10k miles. The car is in perfect working condion and was just inspected.

After buying the car I was offered $20k by 2 different people, but there was no way I was planning to sell. I really wanted to keep it and then buy another vette and keep doing that so I'd have my own collection of all generations one day. Since I'll be moving soon and investing a lot of money in racing, I don't see keeping a vette on the side to be practical, especially since I'll be moving a few times in the next couple years.

Yes I know those are all really minor things I've done, but those are the things that are a pain in the butt for a new car owner.

 

There is no way Id give you 20+k for it. But if you can get it from someone, by all means do it... And as far as the stuff that you did to the car, dont expect someone to pay you for it. I can buy a C5 with 10k worth of goodies on it for 22k right now. Just cause you replaced it dosent mean they will pay you more money. JMHO...

 

With all due respect (wadr), not to offend you but a car's value has absolutely nothing to do with what you paid for it--even if it was yesterday. And it almost has nothing to do with what you put into/on it, either. The caveat is that there are some valuable add-ons or modifications, but only to the right buyer. Believe it or not, there are buyers who could care less if the engine was done by Lingenfelter.

It all has to do with market values and people's perceptions at the time you are selling it. Anyone, on any web ad or paper ad, or walking down the street can say I've got a car for sale for X dollars. That may not be what it sells for. Example: do you think the brand new and big SUVs got cheaper because they lost content or racked up the miles while sitting on the dealer's lot? Nope. It happened because of other reasons, reasons that have nothing to do with what the dealers could get for them six months ago--the same, brand new SUVs.

I hope you get your asking price, but if you're fixed on a number you may have to wait for the right buyer to come along.

 

If you can get $20K, sell it to one of the two people and let your uncle surf this site and save a pile of money. win-win sounds like a real nice car but "what everybody else said"

 

The previous replys all have good information but you need thick skin (and a sense of humor) to ask what your "baby" might be worth. After several months of research and looking I just bought an all original '94 coupe with 62K miles, new tires from a private party through word of mouth. It looked perfect but needed a complete brake job which I was able to use to knock $1K off the price which was just over $10K. I would recommend using Ebay, Autotrader, NADA, your local paper, and this forum to figure out a good starting sale price. I have seen them up for sale at some of the Vette specific dealerships for close to $20K but that's out of my price range for a C4. Not to be in a hurry is good advice, but then again when you find that perfect C5 good judgement sometimes goes out the window....

 

I recently sold my LT-4 Collector Edition with 50K miles. The car was in very good condition. The hard part about pricing these things is understanding what the market will truly bring vs. the emotional mark up. Yes, they are vettes, but the market is not strong for C4s, particularly C4s that aren't collectable (ZR-1, Grand Sport). I had my car priced where you mentioned and the interested people I got wanted to low ball me. I took a touch off realizing I probably had some emotion in the price. Within 18 days of changing my price, the car was gone and cash in the bank. Maybe I went too low.

What you paid and what you have in it have very little to no impact on what the market value is today. Mods never bring dollar for dollar and maintanence/updates only bring the car higher into the market range, never above it. I think the insights offered on the value of a very clean, mid-mile, 94 are pretty close. Anyone paying $20K for a vette is not buying any C4 unless it is a GS or ZR-1 (or has been modded to a very specific specialty). As mentioned, you can buy a C5 for that money, or even a decent early C3.

Remember too, that what you see as advertised prices in the Auto Traders is almost never the sale price. I've seen cars in those magazines for nearly a year with prices that are just too high. There is nothing wrong with starting high and hoping that you find that guy who just loves tha car and will pay for it (I did exactly that), but when it's time to move it and you want the C5, be realistic in what the market is really doing.

 

You should've sold it when you got those offers. The reality is that any updgrades and mods you do to a car will not yield any returns when you try to sell, unless you find a buyer that is looking for a car with those EXACT same mods -- which will be pretty unilikely. I've been researching C4 prices over the last several months as I was in the market and think I have a pretty good feel for what they go for, and $20K is WAY over the going rate for a 1994. You can get early model ZR-1's with low mileage for under $20K.

 

I moved over to a C5 Z06 and suggest to try for the Z06. I sold my 95 LT1 auto coupe for $18,500 which everyone here said I would never get for it ( 22k miles). Then again it was in extreme condition. It looked so nice the first buyer did not even want to test drive it (also the bank was closing and I think he did not want to come back the next day because he might lose it). I bought a 02 Z06 with 6k miles ($34k)and it is just plan awesome. I will never use its potential on the street. Its handling limits and speed is too high. I also have a black 88 Z51 with 32k miles that I am selling ( $16k though may go down to $15) and while it is a beautiful handling car it is not in the Z06 league which really surprised me as it a 1 g latreral accel. car. (the 88 and 89 Z51 cars basically have the Challenge car suspension and I believe they are the best handling of the C4 cars. It handled better than my 85 Z51 and the just sold 95 with the 30mm bars and Z51 shocks. I think if your mileage was lower you would get closer to what you want.
FYI the 95 was sold last month and the 85 Z51 4+3 I sold last year went for $12,000- it had 58k miles. By the way I like the way the 4+3
shifts more than the 6 speed. The 6 speed is a little tricky when down shifting from 5 to 4.

 

Another data point....I bought my 1996 Collector Edition Corvette with 43xxx miles bone stock and in good to excellent condition for $17000.....and think I might have paid a little too much. I will throw in my two cents and say your car is worth around $13000-$15000. However, as many have said....your car is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. You might get lucky and find a buyer that has to have your car and is willing to let go of more cash than another guy....or girl I should say.

Good luck!

 

There is a lot of very good advice here. You can't pay much attention to advertised prices...what you want to know is actual selling prices. When it comes to C4's every year was better than the last. Everyone would agree the 95 was better than the 94 and the 96 was better than the 95. Throughout the C4 run there were some relatively low production special versions which were more desireable to buy and own thus commanding higher selling prices now. The competition in the price range you are selling against is important to know. For the 20 to 21K you mentioned I could buy a ZR-1, or a 96 LT-4 convertible with comparable mileage, or any 1996 Collector Edition or an early C5 and maybe even a 98 convertible. Your car would need to have something special about it like 10-20K miles to pull it up in that range. I would check to see if either of those two good offers are still available. It is likely you will never see numbers like that for a 94 with 67K miles anywhere else. The fellow that mentioned selling his 95 got a very high price for a 95 because it had 22K miles. There is no group anywhere that is more mileage conscious than Corvette buyers. There is a world of difference between 22K miles and 67K miles when you are the seller trying to sell a car. Try to sell a Corvette with 100K and see what happens.

Regards, Greg

 

I used to sell real estate and found that I had better luck selling my listings when I looked at what my actual competition was. Search all the on line sellers like auto trader, corvette trader and this forum. Take a legal pad and compare LT1s that are close to your mileage and condition. Match your price to the cars that are similar to yours or even go a bit lower for a faster sale. Also offer a kicker in the deal. An example is to state that you will deliver the car anywhere in the continental US.
I agree on the Z06. They are pretty good buys right now.
Spring is a better time to sell too.

 

This topic is depressing.
Truth is; when you modify your car, even if you think it is better and it cost you lots of money, it can actually be worth less. Now it needs to appeal to those who like painted brakes and that style of rims.
You may find you can get more money out of puting the stock rims back on and selling the new ones seperately.
Just my opinion.

 

I also agree with most of the above posts. 8 Large is a lot to spend on basically tires & rims, brakes, spark plugs, and a little tint, you can probably best recover some of that by selling it separately. Either way, about $15k is what it would bring here. Good luck, it will sell faster in about 3 months, too.

 

Thanks for all the feedback . What I think I'll do is have him read a this thread and search for used vettes; that way he could never feel he payed too much. If he finds another then that's great, but if he still wants mine then he can have it. I won't lower the price because either I'll easily sell it by calling people I know, or I'll keep it. It's not worth it to me to jump through too many hoops since I love this car and know everything about it and its past. Just kind of think it will be fun to get another.
(Oh yeah, the reason I wouldn't sell it before when I was offered $20k was because I seriously planned on never selling it, and in about 2 more years buying a C5 and storing the C4 while having it brought-up thorugh the stages so I could race it for fun on the side, but that would mean ~ $15-$25k in work + years of storage (and shipping for everytime I move) So I figure If I want my own race car for fun in the future I'd be best getting one then, rather than tieing-up money now.

Now do you see why my family thinks I'm