After checking the C4 for sale section. The values of these cars has dropped. After seeing what some C4 sellers are willing to take for a pristine C4. It is disappointing to say the least.

 

Yes, A slide for all but a buyers market.

 

Economy is quite slow, no doubt. But it is a good opportunity to pick up a car for cheap or something else you might need/want. If you're not in a hurry to sell just wait it out, something will happen - either the economy will improve or get way worse in which case we'll have other things to worry about

 

I think the bigger issue is just that people don't have cash, and these cars are basically impossible to finance.

 

A car, like anything else, is only worth how much someone else is willing to pay for it.

 

Its interesting how car desirability and values have changed over time. I bought my first car in 1985, a Monte Carlo SS, a great car that I loved but nothing special. What I would have done to buy a 1985 corvette at almost twice the price I could not afford. I sold it for about 1/4 the purchase price when I bought my 1995 Corvette Convertible for 3X+ the SS Cost, which I still have today. No regrets. Looking at the market now, a typical Monte Carlo SS in similar condition is selling for 2-3x the value of my 1995, not to mention what a similar year Buick Grand National is worth nowadays.

 

Can I ask... why is it disappointing?

I was able to get a running 84 Corvette for $4k. It's been a nice project. Cars go up and down depending on what people are into. The Pontiac Fiero, which was mostly an economy car in it's first couple of years... they're selling for insane prices on eBay right now. The cheapest one on there right now is $9k, and it's a 4 cyl. There's some lower mileage V6 ones selling for upwards of $30k that aren't even that special. I used to get these cars for $250 bucks from an auto auction all day long in the late 90s and early 2000s. Now there's huge demand for them.

Corvettes have the unfortunate condition where everyone thinks they're going to be super rare, so people buy them new, sit on them for decades... sometimes never even driving them, then the owner dies or they realize it hasn't appreciated and they blow it out on eBay. There are at least a dozen 84 Corvettes (for example) on eBay right now with less than 60k miles right now. The good news is... they'll mostly always be around for when you need / want to buy one.

 

Well, lets not forget that these were mass produced cars. Over 200,000 C4's were built, so there are many to go around. And as much as we all love them, they're still battling with a bit of stepchild thinking among Corvette enthusiasts. As a result, I don't think they'll never get into any significant value with very few exceptions. Sure...there are outliers...the occasional 1-owner ZR-1 with 2000 original miles on it. But you can still get a decent ZR-1 for the low to mid-$30K range. When the first ones came out, I went to a local Chevy dealer and there were two in the showroom. Both marked up $30,000 and both sold to the same person. He was going to "store them in Arizona for investment purposes." Alrighty then.

I have the one I always wanted...1996 CE. Would be nice if it were worth $75K, but I'm just as happy even though it isn't.

 

the zr-1 guys on here are an easily butt-hurt group

ill go onto their site, and post that the c4 zr-1 is the better car vs. todays zr-1’s

and i’ll get comments from them like ‘get lost troll’

so i assume a lot of them are salty bc they bought the car for investment purposes and it didnt pan out

 

Well, it really wasn't my intention to insult anyone, although it might have come out that way I owned a '94 ZR-1 myself and I bought it for the sheer pleasure of driving the car. I never really thought about values. That said, and with very few exceptions, the words "value" and "car" rarely go together.

 

You're statement posits that all ZR-1 owners "on here" care what others say about them or their cars. You're wrong. As usual.

I also owned a ZR-1 from summer 2019 to summer 2023. I seldom talked about it on here because I had noticed that ZR-1 owners tended to be thought of 'differently'. I have never bought or owned a car because I wanted to be seen in it or known to own it. I bought my ZR-1 solely for the ownership experience. I'm an avid C4 enthusiast, I know a little bit about the 13 model years, and I wanted to experience owning and driving a C4 ZR-1. I never thought about investment, or much else because I didn't have any trouble with it. I enjoyed driving it, I took my 24,xxx car and put another 25,xxx on it during the 4 years I owned it. I also experienced wide open SoCal freeways during the summer of 2020 (Covid Hoax) and took advantage of the numerous very low risk occasions to blast it into triple digits every time I took it out. I enjoyed my ZR-1 by myself. I didn't feel the urge to tout that I owned one or cared if others knew I owned one. And I still don't care. If another attractive C4 ZR-1 deal became available, I'd like to own another one. They are unique, not all that prolific, bitchin cars. Unless you've owned one, you don't really know what the driving experience that they deliver is.

 

Yep, it takes cash to buy a C-4 in good condition are in not so good condition so if ya got cash say $4-$10,000, be a good down payment on something newer .. With the old C-4 not having a good Rep. and having to pay cash not easy to sell one if ya got a C-4 and that is in good shape stop worrying about selling it drive it .

 

I for one don't get " butt-hurt " so don't group me in your comments, and could care less about the prices. I never buy car a car as an investment!! I have had 5 ZR-1's so far and drivin the wheels off everyone of them. Sold them when the miles got high and bought another to drive. have paid a high of $32k for a 91 with 8k miles and a low of $5k for a 68K mile barn find 90.

Enjoy your C4's and drive on..

 

That's it, man.

They're just toys. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I've had a hunkering for a sorted or mostly sorted C3 for a long time. So I'm in the exploratory phase of that at the moment.

I learned a lot about ''learning'' before buying an old Corvette since owning a C4 and I'm certainly putting that into practice this time around.