That all has to do with your shopping and negotiating skills. I dont get emotional til the sale is over, so I go into everything saying, I really dont need this. I sit, I wait, I shop, I negotiate. To the point my buddies call me cheap. So be it. I paid $3500 for my 98 Z28 when all the rest were selling for $5000 and up. I built a monster by waiting for great deals on parts. I had $9000 in the car total including purchase price. If you add up the parts in the car, it looked like I had $30000 in it. It looked and ran like I had $30000 in it and I sold it for $8500 and had a blast building, racing, showing and just owning that car for 4 years.

I sold it to start saving for a C5 or C6 vert, but with all this conversation about people not liking them, maybe I will just build a bada$$ C4 vert LOL

 

I have the 86 and just had to have a C5. I bought one 3 years ago for $25,000. a pewter 2001 with 22,000 miles on it. 6 speed, with HUD. It is a very nice cruiser. When we go on long trips, the C4 stays home and pouts.
I know it pouts because when I get home, it has spit out tranny fluid, and takes 3 tries to get it started, and the air conditioning is warmer....
After a couple minutes, it is placated enough to carry me to work where it acts like it should. no fluid leaks, starts immediately, and the air conditioning works perfectly and is really cold.
I made it happy and put C5 brakes and C5 thinspokes on it so it can keep up a good face with the C5 when its parked next to the C5 in the garage at night.
It can only brag to the C5 that it has consumed months of my lifetime repairing it and making it better than other C4s of it's age. It shows the C5 it's new paint and 96 seats every time I open the door to get in, and boasts of a tan cause it gets in the sun almost every day.
The C5 is still a pale pewter from being in the shade so much.
The C5 purrs at the C4 whenever I start it up and back out of the garage, whereas the C4 growls at the C5 as if trying to tell it who reigns in that garage.
When the C5 comes home and sits in the garage, the temp in the garage goes up a couple degrees, and when the C4 goes into it's spot in the garage, the garage goes up about 11-15 degrees.
The C4 has almost 150,000 miles, and the C5 still has about 43,000 miles.
The 96 collector edition seats in the 86 support you and feel like an easy chair, while the C5 seats make you feel like you are sitting on the top of a car and can slide off.
Yes there are differences, but two personalities as well.

 

Very nice write up!! LOL

 

I love my C4 and can't really imagine selling it. It was my first Vette, and I shopped for 6 months to find the car I wanted. 1996 Competition Yellow 6 spd coupe w/black interior. 50k miles very clean. That was 8 years ago and I still LOVE the car. It has broken a few times, but never left me stranded. Everything that I have replaced on the car over the years, is better than factory.

I will probably buy another Vette some day. The body style of the C5 never appealled to me. I am warming up to the C6 and used car prices are coming to a range I'm comfortable with. I'll shop for a C6 soon, but I'm keeping my C4. It's worth so much more than 7-8k to me.

 

Good luck getting 150,000 miles on your C5.

 

Thats the only way I justified buying my 95 vette knowing in 5 or so years it will still be worth what I paid for it.
Thats why my 02 P/U and 06 tahoe is in the driveway and the old vette gets the garage,the old vette will be worth more that the other 2 in 5 years.

 

I really like our 08. The blower helps for the fun factor lol. But I'll never get rid of the GrandSport! I Thought about selling the Lightning but have grown attached to it as well. It's fun in it's own way (picking on stock vettes lol)
But I have been thinking of selling the 08 and getting a new GS and putting the blower on it.

We have had a 95 coupe, 03 Coupe and 02 Zo6. Both fun in their own ways, and all were modified.

 

Why? I came close to getting a C5 - a 2001 - but there was this 96 C4 next to it and the price was right.
What are the issues with the C5 that make it unreliable? What are the good years of the C5? And what about the C6?

 

actually if you talk to the guys over at lead foot performance (tempe, az) one of the dudes that works at the shop picked up a c5 with seriously high miles.

I've seen severl examples, just like any other car certain items wear out (rubber suspension components, belts, hoses, etc), which should be taken care of in due time, but the engine's are bullet proof (so long as regular maintanence is done). I don't see any reason to fear a well taken care of high mileage vette'. Especially if it's a hardcore enthusiast that's apart of the CF community.

 

He is right. My Z28 LS1 6 speed had 130k on it when I got it, and was a very nice stock car. I know not a C5 but same drivetrain. Ran perfect, shifted perfect, no rear end noise. When we pulled the engine apart it still had crosshatch marks and according to the people we bought it from, it had never been apart and no major work on any major part. There was good records though.

 

We bought a new '03 convertible as a driver and have never had a moment's trouble (except for the factory repair on the steering column). It's quick, comfortable, reliable. Excellent for trips and driving around. Like the C4 and C6, it's just a used car rather than a collector car but to call it a bad car is just wrong. The old cars (53-82) are for shows, the C5 is terrific for daily driving.

Out of the 16 I've had, the only Corvettes I've lost money on were the C4s, but not because they were bad cars, there's just no value there. We'll lose money on the C5 too, but there's no reason to part with it yet.

My '68 was the worst Corvette I even owned, but I don't want to get that crowd started.

 

that may be opening up a can of rusted and cracked frame like worms..at least thats what happens to the poor C3's here in OH that are neglected. there's one here in town sitting in a field that i feel awful for and want to rescue..its a TOTAL restoration project..i'll see about snagging a pic tomorrow and posting it up.