kybilt

QFT, but every day that goes by, there's more of one and less of the other. The CL and back-row-of-the-car-lot trash gets factored into the average value of them all, and the average value goes down as a result.
Hey I still carry stated value insurance on mine that reflects the value of a 9/10 car. (it may not be, but still...)

racebum

i remember looking at many last year. lot of junk in need of a good deal of work and imo not worth the effort. you can fix a leaking water pump or an ecbm.

wiggly door hinges, torn seats, cracking seals, leaking oil from the diff, trans and rear main, sure you can fix all that but is it really worth the thousands to do so and god only knows what else when you get in there?

i looked for around 6 months, didn't get the color i was after but i did get my 2nd color, nice condition, records, all stock, elderly owned and at a good deal

i came across odo rollbacks, hidden damage, de modded cars that were supposedly "driven by the wife" all manner of dishonesty and schemes really

so, if someone wants a z06 for 12k, they may find one, but it's probably going to cost them more than a nicer one by the time they are done with it

baxsom

im pleasantly surprised with the value of mine.
2000 Z51. I bought it with 30K miles a few years ago for 14K. New tires and clutch is all I have done to it for maintenance, (cam heads and FAST wasnt really necessary)

and the trade in value is still more than I paid.

o2bnkc

To bad the c4's aren't very attractive.

tcrote5516

Eye is in the beholder. I for one still love the C4 style (outside, the interior not so much ) They will bring in the money some day, it happens to all generations of historic origins. Hell even the late 70's Mustangs are starting to show a comeback and 99 out of 100 people will tell you they were the ugliest hunks of steel ever put on wheels. The C4's have a timestamped look from the 80's/early 90's that will come back some day.

540i 6spd

Ugly and slow. The Mustang II king cobra was the best of the worst.

LPE385

Your correct and many people make good points. Like many have said
Nice cars still bring good money

The C5 hits a target price for a lot of people $20,000 give or take $4,000 buys you a lot of fun.

As for book values which a lot of people talk about they are nothing more then BALLPARKS and nothing more. Please read carefully go to NADA 02 Conv 25,000 miles (they didn't give me any options) it gives you a price of $22,850 then put in 50,000 miles it gives you a price of $21,125. Now we all know anyone would pay $1,725 difference for HALF the miles, given both cars are equal Not to mention we all know most of the 50,000 mile car is going to have more cosmetic issues then the 25,000 mile car.

Point is these INTERNET base book values can't calculate low miles or LOWER miles correctly People put too much faith into a "book value". When your looking at buying a 10 year, 12 year old Corvette there is SOOOOOOO much more that goes into the value of that car. There are cars at the auction whole selling for NADA retail That's because they know how hard it is to find nice C5's. I do understand you have to have a starting point and they are good for that but its off on the overall value to some degree.

Many good points made but people think NADA is the bible and its not calculating values correctly for low miles.

racebum

aren't that many low mile cars for sale which is why the books often aren't that accurate and people gripe about selling back of book

auctions are one place a guy can look but the majority of c5's are 60-140k mile cars right now,

MotoJB

Agreed...IMO C4's look like they were made for the comeback season of Knightrider. I never liked them, even when they were brand new.

I don't ever see them making a comeback, but I've been known to be wrong! If they do, it'll only mean my C5 goes up in value then. LOL

bikeriderga

Has not affected the C5 prices much in the Atlanta area. Nice low mileage C5s (especially Verts and Z06) are holding pretty close to where they were last year.

The C6s are definitely taking a hit. The only C6s that seem to be holding up well are the Z06 and Grand Sports. I expect the C6 Z06 to take a hit when the new C7 Z06 is released as well. That could have some effect on the C5 Zs as well.

Generally right now, there is such a price difference between a C5 and C7, that it does not affect the C5 too much. C4s are worth next to nothing, and C3 values are holding their values pretty well too. In fact the new Stringrays may actually help the C3 Stringrays value due to the sharing of designations.

I love the C3 looks myself. Along with the C5, I think the C3s were the prettiest body style of the Vette years. Unfortnately, other than the 68-71, the C3s were performance pigs. If I could take a C3 and put it on a C5 Z06 or C6 Z06/Grand Sport frame with the more modern handling and drive train along with upgraded interior mods, that would be the ultimate car, IMHO.

LPE385

Either way the "internet books" are off on price. You don't have to have a ton of cars to know there's more then a $1,700 price difference between 25,000 miles and 50,000 miles. Hell 60,000 miles is only $400 cheaper then 50,000 miles. The point is people are not aware of this "glitch" in the way the internet book values things. It goes right back to a 10 to 12 year old car needs further examination then just relying solely on a book value. There are enough low mile C5's going through the auction to get the idea.

If a dealer had to buy a car "in the book" and couldn't go out of book for inventory on low mile cars that dealer would have very, very few cars on their lot.

The other comical thing is between Edmunds, Nada, KBB etc there can be a $5,000-$7,000 sway. Everyone wants to use KBB for selling and Edmunds/NADA for buying.

racebum

nada is the only one with a basis as their clean trade number is based on manheim mmr

books are just a rough idea, not the last work like some will say

other issue is age is more important than mileage to a degree with the value of the modern car

a 2010 with 100k miles is going to be worth more than a 2000 with 15k miles

QCVette

It seems like the C5's are holding their value pretty well since the C7 came out.

I bought one about 5 years ago (for what I thought was a pretty good price) and currently it looks like it would sell for the same money. I think it is pretty good to have a car for 5 years with no depreciation.

The C4's are pretty low priced now. You can easily get a pretty nice late C4 for under $10k. As for ugly and slow, I like the styling and the late C4's (LT1-LT4) frequently run low to mid 13's which keeps up with many modern cars and only a few tenths behind the C5's.

I like all the corvette generations, and I look at it as a great opportunity and bang for the buck to get some of the great deals out there. I expect the C6's will come down quite a bit as more C7's are delivered. That should make some C6's a good bang for the buck also.