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.
My experience purchasing my first Corvette - Plus tips for purchasing
I'm writing about my experience with my first Corvette that I purchased in 2015 to hopefully help those who are looking to purchase a C4 in the near future. This will mostly be hopeful to those looking for one in the 1992-1996 range. I have noticed a lot of C4 value threads floating around. It's my personal opinion that they are at a fair price and I believe my experience demonstrates the true cost of these cars even if they are perceived to be priced low.
After months of searching I finally ended up purchasing a 1996 Collector Edition with the LT4. As a bonus it ended up having the Z51 package. I wasn't looking for a Collector Edition but it is a very nice appearance package. At the time I didn't notice much of a price difference CE/non CE cars. Most of the value seems to be in the fact that is has an LT4. This car was higher mileage at about 75k. C4 Corvettes with a little higher mileage have a few advantages that I could find. Generally, the opti-spark has already been replaced along with plugs/wires and hopefully a lot of the rubber hoses in the engine bay. Mine had all of this done. The previous owner had meticulous repair records for the car all the way down to receipts for the battery which was just recently replaced. Ideally this is what you want. The newest C4 is over 20 years old and you do not want to be guessing at the maintenance history when you have an issue, because you will have one, as I will get into soon. I was feeling pretty good about this car as the records for repairs with parts and labor totaled $4,622.62 from 2011. This is a really good indicator of why prices are lower. Cost of ownership. I spent an additional $998.88 in parts alone since 2015. I did all the work myself and I figure it would have been at least another $2,000 in labor if I paid a garage. There also would be an upcharge for the parts and I'm not including diagnosis of the problems in my rough estimate.
Here are some of the mistakes I made when purchasing this C4. I really didn't know enough about them. I felt I knew a lot about these cars by lurking these forums and reading anything I could find about C4s. The unfortunate reality is unless you've already owned one you will miss things. I will detail what I've learned after purchasing my C4. This list is not totally comprehensive and I would recommend reading others as well!
1. Check the tires. Not just for uneven tread wear and tread depth but check the date. This is one I never even though of. Sometimes these cars do not get driven a lot. In my case I am the third owner of the car. The first owner drove it a lot and the second did not. Turns out my tires were manufactured before 2000 with 8/32 tread depth! http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11
2. ***A really common problem that is easy to overlook on these cars is a leaking intake gasket. The bolts loosen up over time and start leaking down the sides of the engine. If you look underneath the car it might just look dirty so make sure to check with your finger. The oil will be down the sides of the engine, all over the oil pan, and on the bellhousing for the transmission (if it has the 6 speed). This one is pretty labor intensive so look out for it. The owner may not even know about it if they do not do their own work because it can be incredibly slow (as it was in my case). I didn't notice it until I went to change the oil later that year.
3. Make sure the car is not running when you get there. The idea here is to get an idea if the car has fuel pressure issues. Try to talk to the owner and ask questions as you look at the car. Try to look at as much as you can before priming the fuel pump or test driving. Open the hood and look in the engine, and look underneath for evidence of oil as detailed above. I would say to try to get a good 20-30 minutes before trying to start the car. It should fire up very quickly and not stumble. This is something I missed. The time between it being started to move it the driveway and my test drive was too short.
4. If the fuel injectors are original just assume you will need to spend up to $400 to replace them. Mine starting throwing at P0300 less then a year later. Age seems to be more of a factor at this point than anything else.
5. If it's a coupe the rear weather stripping always tears at the sharp corner. It may not be fair to give the seller a hard time about this because it's just inherently a poor design and this weather stripping is expensive. It doesn't hurt seem to hurt anything but it's annoying when you are doing a full wash with water because the water sits in there and is hard to get out. I have just dealt with the original weather stripping.
6. If there are no records on fluid replacement assume none of them have been done and assume you will need to do them. This includes coolant, transmission fluid, clutch fluid, and differential fluid.
7. The automatic antenna may or may not work. I did not find this a big deal because I don't care about the radio. I wired a switch into mine and leave it off so the antenna does not come up. I consider this an easy and acceptable cheap fix.
8. If it's a ZF 6-speed make sure the shifts are smooth. If it's higher mileage and there is no history with clutch hydraulics just assume you will need to replace the clutch master/slave cylinder.
9. Check suspension components closely. This car is riddled with old rubber that is cracking and going bad. There is a lot of it that will eventually need replacing. See a pattern here? This is why prices are low. The market does a very good job at telling you what it may cost you to own something.
10. Drive the car for at least 15-20 minutes and check the temperature. You will need to press the 'Guage' button until the temp shows on the display. The analog gauge is useless. It should not go above 230F. After driving you can get it to the max temperature range by leaving it idling in the driveway after driving for a few minutes. If it's a ZF 6-speed you definitely want to do this. If the flywheel is going bad you will get what sounds like rocks being thrown around in the transmission. The flywheel is whole can of worms that you can spend countless hours just reading about on this forum.
11. Check the driver door alignment. You should not get wind noise while driving. You can check the middle body line that goes through the side of the car make sure it lines up. Compare it with the passenger side door. The passenger side door will likely be good with the drivers door possibly being bad because it gets the most use. My door still sealed but was getting towards being out of alignment bad that the next year the door shut switch stops functioning correctly and I get wind noise.
12. Make sure all the electronics work. Roll the windows up and down. Turn the radio on and off. Check the heat and the air conditioning. If it has climate control make sure it works. Flip the headlights. Check the power seats. After driving the car take the keys out close the door and start walking away. It should beep the horn and lock. When you walk back up it should automatically unlock.
My intention is not to scare anyone away from purchasing a Corvette. I am just trying to paint the most accurate picture that I can including the cost of ownership. Now for some of the fun stuff, the reason most of us have a Corvette. A couple other things I did not realize until I purchased this car you are in a club. This caught me off guard. People in Corvettes generally wave to you but I also get people not in Corvettes that wave. Most any Corvette will break necks. I also noticed I get nicer treatment on the road. People will wave me on at 4 way stops or will let me out of a parking lot. Way more courtesy than I would ever get in my POS daily driver. It's nicer to just go places. We find ourselves just driving places because want to drive around in the Corvette. It's fun to take the top off and drive around on a nice day. Just driving for the sake of driving. This is what the car is really all about.
At a car show. (My toy car has an open hood just like my real car has an open hood) Winter picture after replacing the rims with the OE wheels. 315 in the rear and 275 in the front. The first picture hides the poor condition the original rims were in. The paint was bubbling and flaking. Yeah I bought used rims. Before/after I cleaned up the curb rash near the valve sten. Shows how the Corvette lettering pops after I repainted the calipers.
Sounds like you had a plan. You must take the emotion out of the purchase of a 20 plus year old car, especially a vette. Never know what the previous owner has done to or treated the car. I read some really silly changes people here try to make without thinking through all of the ramifications. By the way, Dad's car is nice!
Sounds like you had a plan. You must take the emotion out of the purchase of a 20 plus year old car, especially a vette. Never know what the previous owner has done to or treated the car. I read some really silly changes people here try to make without thinking through all of the ramifications. By the way, Dad's car is nice!
It is hard to take the emotion out. The car is very well done and there isn't much reason to change anything. The only mod I've done is swapping the resonator with an x-pipe. I kept the calipers black because I thought it was the right aesthetic choice, even if red is the cool thing to do.
The stingray is nice. Completely different animal. And it is an animal with 500+ hp. I wouldn't give up my cargo space and weekend trips though.
You've got a very thorough guide here. Probably more thorough than the average C4 seller will put up with.
I get where you're coming from with the "hssume this or that needs replaced", but most buyers simply won't deal with that sort of stuff. If I am selling a car, there are no injector issues, and you say "well it looks like you haven't replaced the injectors so that's 500 bucks, and you don't have documentation for the fluids or opti and so that's 2000" most sellers will just tell you to pound sand. Unless you're paying at the very tippy top of the spectrum for the car (like 15 or more), it's a used car and like you said it's old. It's gonna be imperfect. Trying to haggle based off stuff like that is wasting both parties time.
You've got a very thorough guide here. Probably more thorough than the average C4 seller will put up with.
I get where you're coming from with the "hssume this or that needs replaced", but most buyers simply won't deal with that sort of stuff. If I am selling a car, there are no injector issues, and you say "well it looks like you haven't replaced the injectors so that's 500 bucks, and you don't have documentation for the fluids or opti and so that's 2000" most sellers will just tell you to pound sand. Unless you're paying at the very tippy top of the spectrum for the car (like 15 or more), it's a used car and like you said it's old. It's gonna be imperfect. Trying to haggle based off stuff like that is wasting both parties time.
You're right. I didn't mean for the buyer to ding the seller for all the items. Like I said I am trying to paint an accurate picture for what the true cost of the car can be, not just the asking price. Honestly, the only thing I would have brought up, if I had the knowledge to find it, was the intake gasket leak. Maybe half the items in my list were costs incurred by issues that came up after I purchased the car even though it was well cared for. I think people can use their best judgement here. If someone is looking for a C4 but is not OK with potentially having this many issues and and not wanting to pay fair market value then maybe a C4 isn't for them.
Very nice write up but may I ask why you went with the staggered rim set-up for the Z51 package? My Z51 has equal rim sizes both front and rear which allows for rotating the tires. A nice plus. Mine is an auto transmission with LT1 if that makes a difference in how they were originally sold.
Very nice write up but may I ask why you went with the staggered rim set-up for the Z51 package? My Z51 has equal rim sizes both front and rear which allows for rotating the tires. A nice plus. Mine is an auto transmission with LT1 if that makes a difference in how they were originally sold.
I believe in '96 the Z51 package was the same for both transmissions. Beefier shocks, and quicker steering, 9.5" rims w/275 tires. The larger brakes were standard by this year.
For me the staggered rims was a looks/preference thing. I really love the aggressive look with the wide tires in the rear completely filling wheel well (and then some!) I think it's worth the trade off and I have only put 5k miles on it since 2015. Not sure what the treadwear is like on these tires but I could end up tossing them because of age.
3. Make sure the car is not running when you get there. The idea here is to get an idea if the car has fuel pressure issues. Try to talk to the owner and ask questions as you look at the car. Try to look at as much as you can before priming the fuel pump or test driving. Open the hood and look in the engine, and look underneath for evidence of oil as detailed above. I would say to try to get a good 20-30 minutes before trying to start the car. It should fire up very quickly and not stumble. This is something I missed. The time between it being started to move it the driveway and my test drive was too short.
4. If the fuel injectors are original just assume you will need to spend up to $400 to replace them. Mine starting throwing at P0300 less then a year later. Age seems to be more of a factor at this point than anything else.
Not sure I understand. If you hook up a fuel pressure gauge, you can see if it has been on recently. Zero out the pressure and turn it on. Pressure should spike up. Lets take a ride and do a WOT run and see if the pressure holds. I would pull out the FPR hose and seal it for leaks to simulate WOT to make sure we remove variables.
I think they are about $200 for a reman set. If they are Multec injectors, fuel contains ethanol which will eat up the coils since they are fuel cooled. I would go with Bosch 3 reman. Every 3 or 4 years when I send the Bosch 3 injectors out for cleaning and testing there is always a increase in flow because of the varnish build up.
If you have a scanner I would definitely bring it. 96 was the only year to have ODBII which makes it much easier. I'm not sure what this looks like on previous years and most people probably don't a scanner that is capable. The seller might be wary of letting someone pull plugs to do a compression test. I know I would be, but if you have the tools it doesn't hurt to ask.
If you have a fuel pressure gauge then you do not need to do what I outlined in step 3. This car will run on really low fuel pressure as I found out, as low as 20 psi. At this low of a pressure it doesn't prime well from 0psi and the car will stumble or maybe even stall on a cold start. I ended up diagnosing this as the fuel pump, which I think most any garage would have. Turned out to be someone lazily eliminated the fuel pulsator and just slapped some tube on there with no clamps, so the fuel was just dumping back into the tank. I was in there and had already purchased the fuel pump so it has a new pump with some tight hose clamps.
If you have a scanner I would definitely bring it. 96 was the only year to have ODBII which makes it much easier. I'm not sure what this looks like on previous years and most people probably don't a scanner that is capable. The seller might be wary of letting someone pull plugs to do a compression test. I know I would be, but if you have the tools it doesn't hurt to ask.
If you have a fuel pressure gauge then you do not need to do what I outlined in step 3. This car will run on really low fuel pressure as I found out, as low as 20 psi. At this low of a pressure it doesn't prime well from 0psi and the car will stumble or maybe even stall on a cold start. I ended up diagnosing this as the fuel pump, which I think most any garage would have. Turned out to be someone lazily eliminated the fuel pulsator and just slapped some tube on there with no clamps, so the fuel was just dumping back into the tank. I was in there and had already purchased the fuel pump so it has a new pump with some tight hose clamps.
If I can't do a compression test, I'm walking unless your price is so stupid cheap that it is priced as a non-running car.
And you wonder why I bring my test tools to a purchase. As I said, no test, I walk or buy it as non-working.
If I can't do a compression test, I'm walking unless your price is so stupid cheap that it is priced as a non-running car.
And you wonder why I bring my test tools to a purchase. As I said, no test, I walk or buy it as non-working.
I'm not wondering anything. If you have the tools and the knowledge it makes perfect sense to me. I'm not telling anyone not to do a compression test. My write up is what I believe to be generally helpful for most people.
I'm not wondering anything. If you have the tools and the knowledge it makes perfect sense to me. I'm not telling anyone not to do a compression test. My write up is what I believe to be generally helpful for most people.
Oh, you'll be surprised how the sellers react when I say I want to hook up scanners and do tests. Most of them get shocked that I want to go that far before I make the purchase. I had someone tell me their car was perfect. Never used oil and ran like a champ. 2 black plugs and 6 normal was good enough to walk.
An alternative is to bring it for a PDI to a neutral mechanic. I make the appointments checking if they have been there before.
I had a few people refuse to subject the car to testing so I walked. If I want the car bad enough, I will be willing to pay for it PENDING a good mechanical report from a qualified mechanic if they don't trust me.
I agree with your suggestions but I would also add that if you refuse to allow me to test or have a mechanic test, be more than willing to walk. I like the cars I am about to buy. I am NOT in love with the car.
After driving the car take the keys out close the door and start walking away. It should beep the horn and lock. When you walk back up it should automatically unlock.
This depends on what mode the Passive Keyless Entry (PKE) is in. Auto mode locks/unlocks the car as you walk away or near the car. Manual mode unlocks the car using the button. The Operators Manual describes this and how to put it into either mode in detail.
This depends on what mode the Passive Keyless Entry (PKE) is in. Auto mode locks/unlocks the car as you walk away or near the car. Manual mode unlocks the car using the button. The Operators Manual describes this and how to put it into either mode in detail.
Thanks I will have update with this info once I figure out how it works. I'm not crazy about this feature so I will may switch it on mine. It's one of those features that sounds cool but in practice maybe not so much.
It's actually pretty cool, you just need to understand how to use it. It can be easily toggled between modes. I stopped using mine because the fob broke, but I would put it in Passive mode when I was out and about, and then when the car was home I would put it in manual mode so it wasn't constantly locking and unlocking. I think you just have to press and hold the door lock button for a few seconds while in the car with the doors closed to change modes. I don't remember exactly how to do it, but it was not a hassle to constantly change modes. It's fully explained in the manual.
Thanks I will have update with this info once I figure out how it works. I'm not crazy about this feature so I will may switch it on mine. It's one of those features that sounds cool but in practice maybe not so much.
I absolutely wish I had that. The wife keeps getting paranoid that we didn't lock the door. If I had that, I could leave a set of keys in the car so it won't lock but if left outside, I don't have to have the wife ask if I locked the door.
02-12-2017, 10:43 AM
My experience purchasing my first Corvette - Plus tips for purchasing
