In Southern California, my nearby used car dealership has a clean C5 listed at $6,500.00, plus tax/license.
Haven't driven or checked under the hood as he was replacing the windowshield.

At 200k, too many miles?
​​If so, what is the cutoff for miles?
*Oh, I'm not the mechanic, unfortunately, so I'd be taking it to the shop.) Thanks!

 

mechanically should be just fine if it has been half way maintained. Electronically these cars are dumpster fires if they haven't been kept up with. Test the power seats, ac, all the gauges etc. IMO if you are going to lose your butt on a C5 it is in electronics not mechanical stuff

 

This really belongs in the C5 General section. Moving it there.

 

Lol yeah, bought mine a few weeks ago and both windows needed new regulators, passenger lock won't unlock, now the drivers side won't unlock (hoping I can just clean the contacts for these tomorrow cause I don't want to buy two refurb DCMs)... Everything else works though *knocks on wood* (well haven't actually tried the cruise control yet...kinda scared to know )

As for the 200,000 mile C5... You didn't give a year or a drive type, for that price w/ that mileage I'm guessing 90's and auto. The LS engines are pretty bullet proof if maintained. Either way the transmission would be my biggest mechanical concern on a car with that many miles. Generally the 2000 and later C5s are better buy from a parts availability/reliability stand point and are newer and therefore worth a bit more. A good C5 roller with a clean title is probably worth close to 5 grand so it seems like an okay deal if there are no major issues and it shifts good. Be sure to check the usual C5 stuff, torque tube scrapping, harmonic balancer, etc.

Vettes are fairly simple cars to work on but when you are dealing with 20+ year old GM cars stupid stuff is gonna break and you should probably be a little mechanically inclined/willing to wrench a bit if you are going to take one on (even more so if you intend to tracking it). I saved $300+ doing the windows myself, I'm going to replace the radio head unit myself whenever the bose dongle arrives, I'm ordering new plugs to do myself. Got a jack and some stands/chucks for Christmas so I can swap to summer tires, do my own oil/brakes and later replace my headers/mid-pipe, radiator, etc.

 

Yeah if you're not doing at least some of your own work, a cheap C5 is not for you.

I say that as someone who bought one with 261,000 miles on it two years ago... but I've done everything on it myself (thankfully, it hasn't needed much).

 

No way, too many miles for any car. Spend a few more grand and get one with less than half the miles
Gaps in front end dont look right to me cant help but wonder if its had a fender bender or two.
Not that its a big deal just looks funky

 

I would get a thorough pre purchase inspection. Make sure all the electronics are working. These cars last a long time if they're well cared for. That's a cheap price. Honestly the newest C5 is 16 years old at this point, so they're all pretty old. If everything checks out with this one, I'd go for it. Just be aware that (like ANY old car) it will need some work in the future. Read the sticky posts, and make sure that any of the known major issues on the car have already been taken care of (which they likely have if the car has 200K on it).

 

It’s a used car with 200,000 miles. Like everyone said, the LS is solid but the electric systems wear out along with all the plastic pieces throughout the car. I have 265,000 on mine and wouldn’t think about giving it up. I love it. Just be sure to set enough money aside to fix those systems that need to be taken care of and the drive it.

 

Congrats Road Runner, with 260,000 plus miles on the C5. Job well done!... You've substantially fortified a belief the C5, when maintained properly and not overly abused by youngsters thrashing them, will continue to give good head... So to speak.

 

If everything checks out, $6,500 is a steal even with 200K miles

 

If the PPI checks out then maybe if it were a private party sale. You know that dealer is going to tack on at least another grand worth of BS charges so the out the door price is going to be too high.

I'd look for a lower mile car from a private party even if you have to pay a bit extra. May save you money in the long run.

 

Too true but then you stand up and start walking away and they come to their senses because it's a 200K mile soft top Vette and it's January.

 

I would avoid stepping into a high milage complicated car , such as a C5, on a modest budget. Also, be aware that some critical parts for early C5's are no longer available, and were one year only designs, you want a car assembled after the design mostly finalized with the 01 model year.

These things were designed to be high line cars, and incorporate a lot of new , at the time, technologies , which are not cheap to keep on the road. The car ages and becomes less valuable, but the service costs continue to be high line, they don't follow the value of the car downward. Precisely why you can buy a heck of a used rolls Royce for cheap, compared to what other used cars offer, because nobody wants to spend that kind of money keeping an old car on the road.

a common failure for an old C5 is the harmonic balancer, they age and fail, same as with every car. however with a corvette, a garage will ask about a thousand bucks plus for the repair, because it requires dropping the steering mechanism, unless you can find a mechanic with very small hands, and who doesn't always work off of the standard labor time tables.

With a car of that milage, I would expect the torque tube to have been serviced, if not documented , walk away. the repair, as with the clutch, requires dropping the rear running gear, which is about 8.5 to 10 hours of labor, and cost about a thousand bucks, before parts. Neglected or deferred maintenance is the one thing you should consider as dynamite with a lit fuse, on a c5 or later corvette. while it is just a chevy, it is also a high line chevy, with high line costs. It is not interchangeable with an old mid line or economy Toyota in costs to keep it on the road.

While the engine might still have a reasonable service life left, being required to meet smog federal requirements for five years from sale, everything else on the car is also 200, 0000 miles old, and doesn't need to meet any particular required service spec, so will need to be repaired or replaced in the near future, if it hasn't happened already. for instance, I am expecting to replace my wheel bearings pretty soon, since my car has over 120, 000 miles.

Also be aware that these cars are best serviced at a corvette spec;lty shop, if you just drop one off anywhere, chances are they will screw it up if the repair is the least bit complicate.. At least that is true in the Los Angeles area, where there are no shortages of cars or repair services.

To even sell a modern corvette, a dealer needs to send two guys in for factory dedicated corvette repair training, an indication these cars are not easy to work on effectively. This dedicated service training was in play when the C5's were new. Back when people dropped the car off at the local gas station for repairs, ease of repair was the reason people bought a corvette instead of a nice jag xke, for similar money, and those days are long gone.

Of course, every deal is unique. I bought my imperfect used C5 for cheap, and quickly exceeded the common sense standard of 20% set aside in the purchase budget for repairs, but the car was a platform I intended to support for a long time, so any costs will be mitigated over many years of ownership, and the car was never expected to be a really practical way to spend money anyway , although that would be nice.

these cars can be good value for the money, but probably need a little more than the usual diligence in securing a good car. Many just get beaten up as the cars decline in value, while the repair costs stay the same as new. It is still at heart a yank tank, and will withstand a lot of abuse , as cars for the American market need to do. You just don't want to be on the financial wrong end of an abused complicated design.

 

A dealer quoted me 1000. But I got an independent shop to do it for around 600.

OP: 6500 seems pretty cheap for a decent looking and driving C5 so long as it doesn't need any immediate big ticket items. Do a thorough PPI, or at least have someone check it out that knows C5 Corvettes. Even if it's ok now, you should start a rainy day fund for the car, because things will come up.