I'd echo Tsumi's post in if all you want is a RWD manual car, get a Miata. Especially this being your first car. Don't listen to what the idiots that have never driver a Miata tell you they think they know about them or use that 20+ year old hair dresser joke. There's a reason Mazda continues to make the Miata in mostly the same formula as the original NA chassis. It's a pure driver's car and is more of a "sports car" than what most sports cars claim to be.

 

 

As a legitimate first car? No...

-Insurance will be high and most likely price you out of ownership (even the most responsible male put behind the wheel will want to "play" in a car like a C5)
-At that sales price be expected to do a decent amount of maintenance depending on the cars history and if it was abused or not.
-Corvette tax IS real and unless you have been working your whole life with no bills (school loans/rent etc) to be able to fund a Corvette it may be difficult.
-Simple things like clutch work are much more involved. Since a clutch is a wear item and you looking at +100,000 mi cars this is something to consider. Or you can pay a mechanic to do it.
-Find a Civic/Crown Vic/Town Car/Mustang etc....something where parts are CHEAP and plentiful to get you used to car maintenance and costs. It will teach you brake jobs/oil changes/tune ups before getting into a C5.

I'm 32 and owned the following in following order
1986 Buick Delta 88 (first car bought from my Dad for $1)
1993 Chevrolet Lumina 4 door (it got neon lights and stereo equipment....not proud of it)
1993 Ford Thunderbird V6 (wheels/tires and exhaust work plus more stereo equipment)
1995 Lincoln Mark 8 (converted that from air bag to coil springs, exhaust work)
2004 Mustang GT (first manual car....THAT was an interesting drive home with my Dad after buying it LOL)
2004 Pontiac GTO (suspension/exhaust work and fixing many problem areas of that platform)
1999 Mustang Cobra (intention was to autocross/road race...never happened and sold it)
1995 Camaro Z28 (FULL suspension/motor work/exhaust work and autocrossed it for 3 years)
2004 Z06 (current car and bought 2 months ago.

My point is, as time went on I learned things along the way on Do's and Don't of car ownership. The C5 can be a costly experience as your first go-around.

 

If 12K is your budget and you want a Corvette, you might want to look at a C4.

Can you get a C5 for 12K? Yes. Will it need some work (which could cost you an additional 10K)? Probably.

You could land a very low mileage well maintained C4 for that price, but not a C5.

 

If a C4 is being mentioned, skip it and go to a Fbody.

 

I disagree. C5 prices have dropped considerably. I was thinking of selling my '01 convertible. It's in excellent condition with 80K miles and needs nothing. The current market value is between $12K and $14K, He should be able to find a nice C5 for that.

 

If you buy a car with that kind of mileage (140k) you better have a mechanic check it out first, that is the absolute best advice I can give you. However, you'd be surprised how many low mileage C5's are out there, in the northern states a lot of them are not driven in the winter, so there are more low mileage C5's out there than you would think. I think it's worth the extra money to pay more for one that has low miles and has been taken care of, myself. If you do go high mileage, try to find a one-owner car where the owner cared enough about the car to save receipts for upgrades and repairs, run a Carfax on it and have a mechanic look at.

I think they are easy to work on, the car has a modular design where many parts are "plug and play", however they were a very advanced car for it's day and you would be wise to study up on the electronics involved. But it is a sports car, which means things are packed in pretty tight, so there are a lot of challenges. As far as being cheap in the future, if the price of new Vettes keeps going into the stratosphere like they've been doing, the only way post-C4 Vette prices are going is up, IMO.

 

Whelp since I bought my first Corvette a few months ago and was looking for similar qualities as you ($12,000 price point, low miles, maintenance, insurance etc), I will chip in with my experiences.
I looked for a few weeks for the cleanest, newest and lowest mileage corvette that I could find for around 12k, thinking that I could get out of maintenance and repair bills for a while that way.
I eventually found a 2004 black on black m6 couple with 51k miles, no accidents and a clean title for 13,500. I went to look at it and it was pretty nice in person, but did have evidence of a light impact in the front bumper.
The paint was cracked and coming off in a small section around the front licence plate cover and the tires needed to be replaced. I took it for a test drive and it was a blast, but I did notice that the horn and front turn signals
did not work. I used all this as leverage to talk him down to $12,000 cash and thought I was coming out ahead with a low mileage garage queen, that needed minimal work..... lol Nope!

I drove it home and noticed that the handling seemed to wander around a bit and it also seemed to run a little hot when in traffic (around 230F).
Later on I noticed that the belts seemed to chirp a bit, especially when cold. I did my best to research on here and most said belt chirping is normal and "LS engines were built to run hot", so I brushed my concerned to the
side bought new tires (Toyo Proxes T1 Sport 265/40r17 front 295/35R18 rear) and an alignment for about a grand all together. The car handled much much better and actually put the power down to the ground. Fast forward
a few weeks and I start losing coolant and grow more concerned about running temperatures (car seems to always be around 230 to 235F), so I start looking for the source.

First to fail was the coolant expansion tank, so I replace the tank and cap and top the fluid off. A few days go buy and I am still leaking (Looks like its coming from the upper radiator hose) and running hot, so I replace the upper hose
and thermostat. A few more days go by and I am still leaking and running hot. This time I research some more and it seems the radiator end tanks fail after about 10 years (plastic dry rot and cracking just like the expansion tank).
I thought about going with fancy all aluminum radiator and expansion tank, but it seems as though the Chinese stuff is cheaper, but full of problems and the good stuff doesn't have problems, but is way too expensive, so I just get oem,
figuring if it lasts 14 years, its good enough to buy again.

I get around to replacing radiator and finally figure out why it seems to be running hot... The radiator and AC condenser are full of what looks to be about 14 years of leaves and road debris. Apparently this car is a bottom feeder and
literally scoops stuff off the ground and tosses it into the radiator/condenser, so periodic cleaning is necessary. I clean the debris off of the condenser, mount the new radiator and flush the coolant several times with distilled water before
finishing with a final mixture of 30% dexcool and 70% distilled water (its okay I live in Florida). The car runs much cooler and AC blows much colder at this point.

I get a few days off from worrying about the old girl breaking again and then the belts start progressively chirping and squealing louder. One day there is a loud bang, then no more squeaking and then my AC gets hot. ****. I pull over and
pop the hood. Yup, no AC belt. Luckily, the AC belt only serves the AC and the important stuff has it's own belt. So I do some research, think about what to do and pray that its just a tensioner or idler and not the compressor. I test it out and
everything is spinning free except the AC idler puller. So I decided to replace both belts, both idlers and both tensioners, just to be safe. That was about 300 bucks. It still chirps a bit on cold mornings lol.

I really want to do some fun stuff, like long tube headers, intake, tuning, c6z shocks, carbon fiber and window tint, but at the rate that I am going, I think all my money needs to be in a reserve fund for maintenance/repairs, since I am already
like $1500 in, in like 2 or 3 months...

 

 

Can you get one of those for $12K?

 

Yeah, but not easily.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/BRZ/175874/...p2045573.m1684

Might want to check your harmonic balancer

 

Yep i read that too. I have eyeballed it while idling and it appears to be pretty steady. Do I need to check it more closely?

 

Too bad they don't make it in a convertible. I would be a buyer.

 

Premium gas. Ethanol is fine. but mine seems to run a little better on pure gas. To avoid gas gauge issues, use top tier gasoline. I use Shell. Looks like you got a good deal.

 

I used cheap gas when I first bought mine and then the gas gauge problems started. I tried Techron to fix it for 6 months with no results. Gave up on it. Tried one tank of Shell V-Power premium and the gas gauge started working and I have not had a problem with it since. GM recommends premium gas for the C5. Makes sense, since it is a high performance car. It gets the most performance from higher octane gas.

 

Most bikes have no means of detecting/adjusting for different fuel grades. No knock sensor and no ethanol content sensor. Hell, most bikes don't even have o2 sensors and if they do, they are only used during light load steady throttle...