What year should I get
Pro
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 583
Likes: 66
From: Fayetteville North Carolina
St. Jude Donor '17-'18
Get the lowest miles and the newest model year that you can afford. Just like any used car it is a roll of the dice too what you will get. You will hear about the sticky at the top of the page that you should read. In my opinion I don't know how anyone can read those and still want to buy a C5. In my case i bought my car new in 98 and those things did not exist. You will also hear that the early cars 97 to 00 should be avoid like the plague. They have their problems then again all used cars do. But not all those models have those problems. My 98 has been a great car from the get go. So I'm sure you will know when you have found the right.
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 3,830
Likes: 394
From: Rocky Mountains
In reality, the individual car you're looking at is the most important thing. For example, I'd take a mint 30k mi one owner '99 over some random 120k mi '04 from a used car lot. The 04's and late 03's have a new fuel tank design that was known to leak. It can cost 2k to fix. Also the fuel filter is inside the tank, so it's not easy to change like the older cars. The early 03's are especially good because a lot of options became standard equipment that year, and they still have the old fuel tank design. The 2000 cam has the most lift of any LS1 C5 (.500/.500) but it's still got the old style intake manifold. The 01-04 have the LS6 intake which increases torque. The 00 and 01s are known to use oil. And some of the electronics modules on the pre-01 cars have been discontinued. But older C5s can still be good, reliable cars. The highest mileage C5 known to exist with 750k+ miles is a 2000. But theoretically, I think an 02 or early 03 was the most bug free C5.
