racebum

i've seen a few. when you see a c5 sell for $7000 you can basically assume it has over 200k miles or is a beater. they aren't common but do pop up every now and then

Silverback51

Mine is a daily driver here in Washington state. That means is see's a lot of rain pretty much year around. So it gets dirty at times, but it still cleans up real nice when we get a few nice days.

Arnie Chamberlain

I don't know if mine is a beater or not.

Its a garage queen, usually only comes out on nice rain-free days (I hate washing cars), but since we have had no rain for 8 weeks here in southern Wisconsin, I am driving it a lot! I won't take it places where I am concerned about parking it, instead take my F250. Every single thing works on it, no rattles, interior is really nice, no rips/stains/damage. I get a ton of complements on it, no one believes its 10 years old and 107k miles.

But the paint is starting to look the part. Some small stone chips, scratches, etc. I bought it cheap with a bad trans, fixed that, and have been modifying it pretty heavily since.

I guess its a nice daily driver. I look at C6s and wouldnt mind having one, probably next year. Would be nice to have a nice car that still has mint paint on it, as that really drives me nuts.

Shyler's Vette

I get the "must be nice" thing alot as well. I am only 25 but I work in the oilfield and make a good living. I bought the car a few months ago and it is not a beater at all. Looks great. I end up not washing it as much as I want because of my work schedule but when it is clean it looks great. I have been having issues lately with alingment of the belt but it should be cleared up fairly soon. I love the attention I get especially when people think that it is mommy and daddy money that bought me the car.

orangeclaw

I'm 23 and use my C5Z as a DD for now, and it gets its regular car wash and detail atleast once a week. I still get the "how the hell do you afford this?" look when i drive on base. Got soo much crap when i first rolled up to my new work center in it. everyone thinking i spent copious amounts of money on it. I just tell them what I payed for it, and i throw in that it gets 30MPG highway, and everyone kinda shuts up. haha. As for beaters.. not to many here, I do know a girl around my age with a vert thats not in the BEST shape, but if she kept it washed it would be nice

Brackneyc

I am clearly doing something wrong. I just did 1000 miles in 4 days, 90% highway and got 26 mpg using CC most of the time set at 68mph. How the hell are guys getting 30 (and some claiming even higher) mpg?

GJ on the mpg.

racebum

fuel is one part of mpg. if you can get refined crude without ethanol you will get at least 1-2mpg more than the blended gas

Brackneyc

I run Shell 93 octane. I did notice 1.5 mpg increase over 89, but that may have been a coincidence since I dd slightly more in-town driving right after that fill up.

PhysicsDude55

I'm in almost an identical situation as you. I get a lot of looks, and I bet half of the people I see think mommy and daddy bought me a corvette.

I worked my butt off to afford this car, and I sacrifice A LOT for my job, and have no wife and kids.

I'm also surprised that everyone thinks its a "new" car. 90% of people can't distinguish c5's from c6's, and just have in their mind that c3's are "old corvettes", they don't know what to think of c4's, and c5-c6 are "new corvettes".

I was surprised when I went corvette shopping how pristine these 10+ year old cars were. Every once in awhile you'll see one which hasn't been taken care of well, but I have seen a lot of corvettes with 160K+ miles which still look really good!

Mine is a garage queen and not my daily driver. I worked as a car detailer in college so needless to say mine stays pristine! Its my pride and joy!

Now I do see a lot of beater c4's around town, but I see a lot of nice ones too.

m6 c5

I actually do better without CC and get around 28-29 average on a trip traveling 75-80 mph. I do have a 6 speed so that helps.

CheezMoe

Why let them git yer goat??! I just smile and nod.... "why yes it is! You have no idea what your missing! Have a great day!"

orangeclaw

i drove from cali to texas and got about 29.4MPG going 70-75.. it went down quite a bit after i got into texas and was tired and started doing 80-90 the rest of the way. still got 26 though. I have an intake, full catless exhaust and a tune. that might have something to do with it.

racebum

that's probably timing doing this. the engine is less efficient on lower octane. take the ethanol out and it's even better still mpg wise

Tom/99

Try to trade a C5 in, the dealer sees them as nothing but beaters.

lockmart

Yeah I would never trade a car in. I've inquired as well in the past, but I've always been able to sell it outright for thousands more and in no time flat. I'll probably not even bother inquirying in the future.

racebum

depends on the car and the dealer. some of the guys in the c6 section are getting fair trade in when they move up. like 22k for a 65k mile 2005 car. that's about what you would get private.

it's been my experience that dealers will try and rape you on stuff over 10 years old and especially over 100k/mi. newer cars they seem to be more fair with

orangeclaw

until they try to sell it.. there is a dealer down the street selling a 03 Z with 45k miles, IDK what mods besides borla stingers. but they want $30k for it!

daddoe

Hell, I've seen some C6's around here that look like beater cars. Age is a small part of the equation.

orangeclaw

yup! I just clay bared and rewaxed mine, and besides the DD scratches it looks almost new i cant stop looking at it! and get the jealous looks and i love it haha

racebum

we were talking about this in another thread. dealers that actually think they will make 10k on a used car of this price bracket. you know that dealer gave 20 tops for a car like that. it would sell fairly quick at 22.5k, but, for some reason they want to look for the sucker. i really REALLY don't get it because cars they don't sell usually go right back to dealer auctions where another dealer will buy it for about what the first one paid. sometimes less if they wait long enough