My wife and I followed up on a new Craigslist ad today. Listed by a used car dealer was a 2001 hardtop with 70500 miles for $15995. A dark blue metalic over a tan interior.

That sort of car in my area of Southern New England will usually be listed for several thousand higher.

I called and arranged to see the car later in the day and drove 25 miles to check it out. From say 20-25 feet away I thought I had found a winner. From closer up I was unsure if it was just suffering from a lot of recent wax dust residue or a LOT of tiny chips in the finish. Then I see several long fairly deep scars in random locations around the body...like on side mirrors, on the roof, and a couple on fenders...also peculiar smudges that were strangely ground into the paint...I carefully tried to cause some of this stuff to at least move with light finger contact ...no such luck at all...it was flawed right into the clear coat and paint to the point of showing white. Imagine a dark blue paint with a zillion white specks!! I raise the hood and looked carefully into all the crevices and sand was plugged into many of them, plus scattered around many of the more open collection points...it was also dusty but that alone was not of much concern, but that much sand tells me this car must has seen sanded roads at some point. That would account for the million white mini-chip on the nose and hood as well.

My wife has the keen nose in our family, she says.."smoker" after sitting inside a few minutes on a seat that looked decent until she also noticed a pencil jab hole or cigarette burn in one of the puffed up padded segments.

The salesman says he see vettes that way pretty often and it was normal. I wasn't buying that story...the price was closer to real or perhaps over priced ...what do you all feel...what does the average vette really appear like...spotless jewels, chipped up road warriors, or somewhere in the middle?

Your experiences would be interesting to this Corvette shopper.

Thanks Guys

Bob

 

If you have a "funny" feeling about buying a car..... walk away.

There are plenty of well cared for C5's out there.

toque

 

i looked at 5 or so cars before i ended up with the one i have now... i looked all over texas and i guess the owners were just proud of the car because every one said it was perfect and had nothing wrong with it, blah, blah, blah... some of them i drove about 4 hours to look at so it was a huge disappointment... i ended up going to kansas to pick up the z06 i bought... i got it for a couple thousand less than the ones in my area were wanting, it had less miles, and it was in MUCH better shape than any of the other ones i looked at... you just have to set your standards on what you are looking for and your price range and just keep looking... there are still some nice c5's out there to be had but they are getting harder to come by so you might have to look for awhile before you find the one you want

 

Buyer beware!








1

 

When I was buying, I looked at a number of them and most did not give me a warm fuzzy. Many were worn and not well kept. The one that I finally bought I knew immediate this one was special and was the right vette for me. Don't rush it, wait until you find the one you really want.

 

I would definitely walk, too many other nice cars out there....
Sound like this one has had a hard life, you mentioned a number of tell-tales..

Good Luck on your search

 

Don't bargain hunt when shopping for a Corvette. This is a purchase that should provide much pleasure for a long time to come but if you are not careful it can turn into a nightmare. When I bought my Corvette I looked at overall condition and evidence that the vehicle was well maintained and that's what I bought. Enjoy shopping and best of luck in finding what you really want!

 

Sounds way over priced to me.

 

Honestly with that mileage...not that good of a deal even if it were in better condition.

 

Plenty of garage queens out there. If you ever have doubts about a car, trust your instincts and walk away.

 

The majority of C5's you'll find are in really good condition. This sounds like a pile of crap. I'd offer $100 and walk away.

 

My dad bought a 99' Convertible low mileage, mint, for $16,600...

Wait for something better... with lower mileage...

 

Just be patient, look at lots of cars, and when you find the one, you will know. I looked at several Vettes in my price range, even an 01 Z06 with 80k miles, but they just didn't make me want to part with my money. Two months after my search began, I found a '98 with 120k miles on craigslist 300 miles away, went to look at it and within minutes I knew I had found "the one". The paint was perfect, non smoker (it p1sses me off when I see burn marks in these cars), super clean, and a full detailed service history on the car. (it had a couple minor problems that I felt I was competent enough to fix and I had them taken care of the first couple weeks for not much $$)I feel like I got a steal.

It's out there. Just be patient and don't compromise on what you really want.

 

I've looked at five or six c5's in the past few weeks, and almost all of them were in very good cosmetic condition. I only found one that wasn't in very good condition cosmetically , and it still doesn't seem to be in as bad of shape as this one seems to be in.

 

I love my C5, I bought it about 5 years ago, but I wish I wasn't so f**ked up when I took delivery on the car. If I were to buy one now(clean of course) I would look at the interior very closely, the front tire wear and weather stripping.
Car dealers are like dudes in bars, they will say anything for a sale.

 

There is absolutely no reason to take a chance on a car with any hint of a flawed past. There are plenty of fair priced cars out there.
The secret is to know what you want in detail (color,mileage range, model etc.), research price ranges ,settle on a price range you can afford and be patient. Search the web, it's out there somewhere.

 

I would never buy a car from a smoker even if he never smoked in the car.

 

Hard to imagine why anyone would think they could find a "bargain" C5 Corvette. These are very desireable cars and no one gives them away. Anyone who wants to give one away can go to carmax or a chevy dealer and get a "giveaway" price.

There are Corvettes in crappy condition, and they are priced accordingly. Many are in excellent condition are price accordingly.

If you do your homework in your area you will get an idea of what you need to pay for the type of Vette you want to buy.

As always, you goal should be to get the best vette for the amount of money you want to spend. Lots of times that will mean trading down in years to move up in quality.

 

This is the kind of hint that lets you know you have found the right car and that is when the husband is selling his wifes vette and he tells you she doesn't give a damn about the money that all she wants is to make sure whoever buys it promises to take care of it.So I bought it and I am taking care of it.So the moral of this story is to pay attention to what is being said and pick out the truth the best you can.I was lucky

 

Good luck with your search -- enjoy!