petermj

Is blue book a good indicator of what the car may be worth? Or is blue book out of touch with reality due to recent recession?

srs244

there are so many different "blue" books it's ridiculous. any dealer still u sing a physical book is using the one that suits his particular need best. it used to be that the most reliable "blue" book (it was really yellow, lol) was the NADA (national automobile dealers assoc) because it gave you several different pricing ranges. of course it never took geographical considerations into effect, so you could get a less than accurate approximate price. virtually every finance company used to use it as a guide for loan and loan value.

today, there are several very reliable on line services (including kelly blue book www.kbb.com) that will factor in all considerations. of course economic conditions in today's market have to be considered. in the end it almost always comes down to whatever the buyer is really willing to pay for the car involved and how desperate the seller is to sell it. there is always an *** for every seat. sometimes it just takes a lot longer to find it, lol!

madmatt9471

In the real world - mileage, wear and tear and options!

Now in our world, it has to do with mods and the car itself, what a person wants. I know for myself that my 1998 will never be worth what is has on it to others but to me it's priceless.

For instance if I were to buy a Vette SuperCharged it would have to be from someone I knew that had it and I knew its value. But if I had to choose I'd pick one stock or close to it and do mods myself!

IMHO!

Thanks,Matt

renegad44

A meeting of price, between seller and buyer, is the bottom line. I've seen some guys literally throw the "blue-book" out the window, and say, "lets talk business here."

petermj

These are very good observations. I have been watching a few cars on my local California craigslist and it seems that supercharged cars are pretty hard to sell, I guess people are afraid of heavy duty mods and their possible consequences. I see my local dealers asking pretty high prices for vettes and these things just sit on their lots too. It seems to me that low mileage unmolested examples may be worth hanging on to... I was asking this BTW because I start seeing C6 that can be cheaper than C5 and was not sure what was up with this... I know I'm a sucker for the pop up lites but I guess not the only one...

petermj

I guess this all depends on how bad someone has to sell their car. I would imagine this would not be best time to sell, if someone really must sell at all. Just for kicks, I ran mine through KBB and it came up at LOL 35k retail. I can only imagine a dealer growing really old trying to get even near this price...

CCA Corvette Parts

The seller and the buyer.

Not that I would ever sell my first Vette, but I'm pretty sure no-one would pay the 20K over book that I would want.

Infact, I'm pretty sure it has more part $$$ in it than it's worth Blue Book...

Peace
Chip

Dominic Toretto

Auctions.

-Alex

BigSexy181971

Regular every day people will not base any car off auction pricing as a guide to buying or selling a car.

I like to cruise the car sales ads in your particular 200+ mile area and get a good feel for what is out there. You know something comparable to what you want or have, then base the final pricing off the condition of the car.

81c3

Year, mileage, maintenance record, body style, modded or un- modded and color are all big factors in what one will pay for a car and what one will ask as well.

AU N EGL

and Corvette 4 sale web sites:

http://www.racingjunk.com/category/1153/Corvettes.html

97C5owner

Perfectly stated Matt

petermj

I seriously doubt you will find a good price indicator at auctions, not even Barrett Jackson
It would take a lot of guts to buy an undocumented vette off a typical dealer auction. Unless you shop for a parts car.

hotwheels57

What determines value of C5 vette?

Property of any type is worth (value) what the seller is willing to sell it for and/or the buyer is willing to pay for it...

Dominic Toretto

Regular everyday people attend auctions so I am not sure what you are talking about.

I mean if you guys really want to scrutinize my answer, there are SEVERAL different types of "value." Market value, personal value, adjusted value, retail value, wholesale value, emotional value etc etc. So basically it just depends on what exact condition you are asking the question and what group you are posing the question. Since we are on a C5 forum, more people are going to disagree with me because they have too much emotional value to think their cars are worth $14 to $18k.

-Alex

urfubar

Alex and I always agree...Plus we have the best color of vette available!

C5Wolfe

Condition of car for me! I would and have paid more for a "97" than I would for a "clapped out" 04. The 97 was my first c-5 and was show condition, super chevy winner etc...I, of course, drove the hell out of it and racked up 40,000 miles in 2 years! I did keep it in pristine condition however and got most of my money back. C-5 Vettes are not a good investment but are a great car to enjoy. Better to start out with a good one as parts and repairs are not for the faint of heart!
Dave

KenShores

One indicator I took was, what would my insurance company pay out if totaled. Kind of negative, but maybe an important indicator. After that, what are you willing to pay for what you see?

petermj

great point regarding insurance. Insurance companies have a habit of setting a total loss value based on the value of comparable vehicle. If you have a very low mileage car in the see of more abused and higher miles, what is really comparable then?

LT1driver

I have to disagree that yellow best color....I favor electron blue of course beauty always in the eye of the beholder when selling best price is highest, when buying best price is lowest you can get for what you are looking for