This x100. I'm going to turn 40 this year and it's by no means a mid life crisis that spurred the Corvette purchase. I've wanted one since I had a hot wheels of one when I was a kid. I could have financially afforded one a long time ago but it didn't make sense for my lifestyle. Now with work going primary remote I won't need a daily driver that gets amazing fuel mileage. I'll be driving my Toyota Tundra and my Corvette and loving every minute. I don't care what anyone else says.

 

I bought my first Vette at 27 and it was 4 years old at the time. Granted I was living at home and had very little responsibility. I made decent money too. Surprisingly I never got any Daddy's money comments. I did feel like a fish out of water at Vette meets though but that hasn't changed in 10 years. I'm still not the typical "Vette guy".

Not at 37 I have my FRC and haven't gotten any mid life crisis comments either.

 

Great (reading) thread. How many of the posters are still around? Do you have the same Vette or what are you driving now?

 

Since I was 15 always wanted a vette. Things happened in my life so could not get one till 42. Everybody I know or meet always refers to it as a mid life crisis buy. It's kind of getting old especially when I've grow up with some for 40 years. They know I've wanted this forever but still refer to it as my mid life crisis. I don't golf but all my buddies do since I wanted the vette. Never went golfing and hear every year about new clubs, more playing time, trips down south every year. To each there own but I was finally able to get what I wanted and couldn't be happier. Those dudes already bought a vette with their golf money, but that's not a mid life crisis lol

 

Im 51 and have a C5. It aint nowhere near my midlife crisis......but that ones coming!!!! In a few years I will either have a C7 Z06 or a Ferrari 360. Haven't decided which yet.

THEN people can call it a midlife crisis!!!!

 

Like most guys, I’ve been in love with cars since before I can remember. This is my first real sports car and I’m 41. I love cars and I finally made it happen. Trust me, if I coulda bought a Ferrari or a GT3 RS I probably wouldn’t have a C5. It’s not always a crisis, some people just have to wait awhile before they can make it happen.

 

i was 55 when i got my first corvette 84 crossfire red auto ,wife was one told me to go get one but her sister went ape **** nuts.

 

I mean I kinda get the stereotype when you are dropping 80k+ on a very impractical car that you are never going to use to it's full potential but a good low mileage C5 Z06 costs less than a certified used Camry. Yeah you still have to be middle aged (or be dedicated to the point of personal ruin, or a trustfund kid) to have the money to do track days and have two cars and a garage these days but I'm failing to see where the crisis comes in? It's like the adult equivalent of "oh it's just a phase" and so what if it is, ya know? You learned some ****, had an experience, if it's not right sell the car in a few years and buy the Camry or w/e.

I had a ton of fun motorcycling for like 2 years, it made mundane trips into little adventures, I only gave it up because the drivers around here are out to murder you, when I did I ate about 1K on the bike (mostly because I let it sit for another couple of years). Well worth it though, spend a weekend in a high end hotel, buy a designer suit or get two years of adventures I won't ever forget? Not a hard choice. Was it 'a phase'? Yeah I guess, I sold the bike in the end but I didn't regret any of it. If anything the Vette is an attempt to get some of that back sans the deathwish + a lil comfort. Also if you own a 20 year old car chances are you are wrenching on it and then it becomes a hobby and how can you begrudge someone for having a hobby?

Anyway usually people just want to see burnouts but if a stranger wants to get all judgemental, that's the response "It cost me less than that SUV of yours, I just have better taste than you." Or you just embrace it to throw em off "Yeah this is my third or fourth midlife crisis, I might have another one soon." Or go witty and pivot to taking the **** out of some Euro car "Does this look like a Porsche to you?"

 

Mid-life crisis in reverse for me. Always been a car guy and hotrodder at heart. In my 20's I was driving a 1971 Road Runner to work and back. It finally needed an engine and one thing led to another. And another. After breaking the car in half during a particularly hard launch (cross frame broke in half - k-frame twisted and cracked), the car ended up with a full cage to hold it together. No carpet, no sound deadener, no back seat, no radio, no heat, no AC, and no power brakes because the motor didn't make enough vacuum at idle to support the power brake booster. It got 5 mpg on the highway and I drove it like that to work and back for 13 years. Loved that car. Loved the way the headlights would brighten and dim with the cam lope. Used to set off all the car alarms on my street leaving for work in the morning. And that was just idling past them. Bought a 1987 Buick Grand National and started driving that to work. Also started modifying it after two weeks. One thing led to another and the car ended up with a completely revamped rear suspension, motor strapped to the frame rails, plastic front clip including plastic front bumper, larger turbo, larger intercooler, adjustable wastegate, twin fuel pumps, 23 pounds of boost, and an Art Carr transmission with a 9" torque converter. Drove that car for 14 years to work and back and raced it every weekend. What a money pit. But at least this one had heat and AC. But it wasn't very streetable any more. Trying to daily drive a car with a 9" converter isn't very practical. It sold the day I advertised it and I bought a two year old C5 convertible with 9,000 miles on the clock. I swore that my days of modifying cars were done and, with the exception of exhaust and wheels, I have been true to that. Getting too old to be lying under a car every weekend. My Corvette is, by far, the slowest car I've had out of my last three cars, but I like the refinement of it. Now retired, it gets me back and forth to the golf course in style and still manages to turn heads. So, yeah, I bought a Corvette to slow down, but I love it.

 

And it still rings true. The subject is timeless.

(BTW, my "midlife crisis convertible" was the Mitsubitchy Eclipse Spider I bought when I turned 50. My Vette is a Senior Celebration.)

 

Just say "I have so much money, I hardly know what to do with it", then smile and leave

 

Most people are idiot zombies and only repeat things they have heard, no matter how passe, played out, and just wrong.

Corvette = "Midlife crisis"
Big Truck = "Compensating for something"
Mini Van = "Soccer Mom"

I have a job that requires SOME PowerPoints. In the critiques, half the people put "Death By Powerpoint". It definitely IS NOT death by PowerPoint (extremely long, boring PPs) but that is just what some people respond with when presented with a PowerPoint. It is an automatic word association response.

 

double post oops

 

Tell them your C8 is fun to drive. And if they own a SUV tell them you find SUV's boring!

 

I always laugh when people try to make fun of my cars. I tell them I didn't realize how much jealousy they had and they should seek some therapy for their issues.

I've been driving sports cars since I was 16. This is simply another one.

And as the above said, I don't want a boring car. I tend to like cars with character.

 

Me too... Now that I'm an old guy, people don't say or infer.. It's no longer cute thing to say when you're the Ole guy!.. Damn! Shows To Go Yeah... Another old person thing... Wish people would say that to me like back in the old days... That'd have me feeling younger and it might make it easier to get in and out of that little bitty thing!... Emagin being watched by chicky-babes when you're extracting yourself from your C5 Vert Vette parked next to a car full of em chickys.... They say NOTHING as you grunt climbing out. 😂 Cracks me up! 😢🙁

 

So I bought a Corvette.......What's the "crisis" ??

 

Response, based on the commentors age, "Your daughter/sister/girlfriend/wife/mother likes it!"

 

True, but it still rocks!

 

I bought my first Vette at 27, too. A 1969 427/390/4spd. Cost me $4,600, only because it was 1981. I loved it, buy I sold it a bit over 1 year later.... for $5,200.00. Man, I thought I made out on that deal!! FF 40 years, and Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah!!