Greetings all. After waiting a great number of years (since HS) I am finally able to buy my dream car. 2004 C5

But as a new guy to the Corvette block, I am looking for some advice from that vast storehouse of knowledge out there.CarFax was supplied and no issues.
So here it goes.
1. What are some of the most important things I need to look at?
2. What is a good price for a 2004 C5 with 41500 miles?
3. Original tires are not on it and there is no spare, is this common?
4. Can this year be retro fitted with a GPS and rear cam system, if so, any suggestions?

Anyway, that's it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Great looking ride and congrats...

Go to the top"stickys" and start looking at the one titled
One of the best threads for noobys.

 

I have an 01 in a similar color. mine had almost 50,000 on the clock when purchased. negotiations began at 19000, and ended with my purchase at 16,000. if it checks all your boxes, and passes the test drive inspection. i say pony up. i love my car, and yes a new system with backup cam is easily installed if you got the cash. the forum here will help with problems for sure but a good corvette mechanic is a friend indeed. Happy Hunting and Good Luck!

 

Congrats! First and foremost - these cars do not come with a spare. I would look into the age of your tires. You mentioned that they are not original, which is good but if they're older - I would consider swapping them out. Good luck and enjoy!

 

The C5 did not come with a spare tire; they were fitted with run flats from the factory (except the Z06). Some owners replaced the run flats with regular tires when the time came so see what you have fitted now. As for backup camera/GPS systems, they can in fact be added. Your radio bezel can be modified into a double din setup to accept up-to-date head units with modern features (GPS/cameras/satellite radio etc.). For the low mileage '04 you're looking at, I'd think $16-17K would be a good ballpark price.

 

I was a similar situation- I've wanted a Corvette since I was 12. 28 years later I finally bought my first one.
First- you have some reading to do. YOu want to know everything about these cars you can and make the best decision possible. As mentioned these are a good start from the top of the page: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ion-files.html

Also one ot address common problems and things to look for: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...must-read.html

Good news though- these cars are reliable and as Matt Farrah said (paraphrasing) pretty much anything that goes wrong with these cars has already been figured out. Want to see what I mean? Check this out: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...l-in-here.html

That should address your first question pretty well.

Prices- I see the one you are looking at is at a dealer. THere are a lot of C5s out there. I looked EVERYWHERE to get a perspective. Autotrader, cars.com, etc. The for sale section of this site was the best. Not only can you get a detailed description form the owner but if they've been around for a while you can research the owner. Also, you'll probably get all kinds of additional stuff a dealer would never give you- sometimes because they can't since the prior owners info is on the stuff. I bought mine from a forum member. Fantastic guy. I got all of the shop manuals, maintenance records, etc.

Don't be afraid to drive. You may not be willing to fly or drive 6hrs like I did....in February....across Pennsylvania... but make sure your search is at least a couple/few hours away.

Tires- no spare in a C5. If they are old- replace them.....or burn them up autocrossing like I am

A/V stuff- You have tremendous options here. As soon as we left the previous owner's house in NJ the first thing my wife said was "this stereo has to go." ALso, not even an AUX jack.

I've done a handful of car stereo stuff in my day and most of it was in trucks. The C5 was the easiest, and most straightforward car I've ever done interior work on.
-If you want to get into full blown installs you can.
-I went moderate. All the bose stuff is gone. Touchscreen, Apple carplay, USB, AUX, etc.
-If you want simple you can even get adapter equipment to use all of the existing bose stuff and just replace the head unit or even just add an AUX jack to the existing stereo.
TONS of options!

NAV subsection to the above: I'm sure you'll get many opinions here but here's mine- You have a cell phone. Why pay for NAV in the head unit that will need updated, become obsolete, etc? Any unit with Apple carplay and/or android auto will use your phone to run NAV. THe one I bought even has it's own GPS receiver to help take the load off the phone's internal GPS but the phone runs the NAV app. I have iPhones (work) so I'm stuck with apple maps unfortunately but it works well enough. (I wish I could use Waze but no dice.)

Something in this category you will hear over and over- Dennis at DD Mods. Not only will he ask you questions about what YOU want but will help every step of the way if you want to do it yourself. I bought all of my stuff form him as did a lot of forum members before me.

Good luck and make sure to read the posts above first. Then ask away for clarification.

One more thing- The C5 has a unique feature to pull any fault codes right from the dash. It's easy to do so learn how to do it so you can do it when you go to look at a car. I'm sure it would baffle the sales guy at the dealer too. He would have no idea what you are doing

 

Everyone has pretty much answered what you've inquired about but I'll just add don't settle on the very first car you look at just to tick that gotta have childhood dream car box. The C5 market is currently absolutely flooded with very good cars with it very much being a buyers' market and the situation likely isn't going to change anytime soon. I waited well over two years looking at cars before I finally settled (that gave me a chance to save up for it) and I pretty much got the car I was looking for.

I would also agree with above that from the picture it looks like you're looking at retail. Unless a dealer is offering a car that is everything that you're looking for in a C5 I'd try the private market if you're able. As we've discussed at lengths in recent threads, the retail market is a bit higher than private market at the moment and you can get some really good deals on cars.