absolutely!

 

The Joy of Driving these Exceptional American Sportscars is my “ROI”



Even better when I was sitting at a Light in town

-Looking Up- ….At a guy in a 911 GTS 3 Carrera

And two girls walking down the sidewalk stopped…

and one called out “Nice Vette!” As I pulled away…


Save The Wave

USA-1

 

Unless you have a 'collector grade' car these car probably are going to be pretty stable for a long while other than tracking inflation. That's the nice bit is you can probably own one for 5 years and sell it for close to what you paid. The whole recent changes are just covid prices ending. Everything is down. Unless you're cashing out that's not a huge problem as the next car you're buying probably is down too.

 

Not Corvettes are tracking inflation as a way they increase value. Only a chosen few models with limited options have been worth a ton of money.

As it is the C5 will see more demand vs the C4 and late C3 cars because it is a better car. The C6 and 7 are still on their way down in value. Some say it was covid that pushed prices but much was due to the difficulty of getting a C8. Most later model buyers are not the car people they are Corvette buyers but many are the buy the latest models and go to the club meetings.

I still see a move that the tuner crowd will move more and more to the C5. It is prime for them as it is the perfect foundation to build a car on or track car on. Over time the 01-04 cars will be sucked up and used up.

But the real driver is condition. Even on a C2 my buddy got a barn find 65 for only $13k. It drives great but looks like it has sat in a barn for 40 years, which it did. He would like to restore it but it needs so much he would have more in it vs buying a restored one. It is a small block 4 speed nothing special. So he just drives it for fun and may sell it to someone for more than he paid and let them eat the restoration cost. So every gen has cheap models out there.

As long as you did not pay some silly price over $30k recently on a base car I expect you will not lose anything if you care for the car. The term tanking is a bit dramatic.

So many think a cars value should be going up at 20 years. Hell I paid nothing for SS and GTO models that were 25 years old in the 80's. These were good cars and prices were bottomed out. It was nother 10-15 years before they started to climb and another 25 before they were seeing higher values. It takes 40-50 years to determine the winners and losers in the car value lottery.

I see guys that paid big on 78 Pace cars and early ZR1 car now finding that the values there are like most others and it will be after they are gone before they are worth close to what they hoped.

Drive the damn thing and enjoy it.

 

Base cars have dropped a bit but Z06 and FRC cars sales seem to remain strong in my area. Maybe even slightly up
There will always be a place for a basic RWD drivers sports car. I don’t think even many owners of C5’s realize how special they are in a drivers sense. A 20+ year old car that with a few easy upgrades can run with modern super cars at a fraction of the cost. It may not create a collector market like a C1 or C2 but it will keep them from dropping. Corvette owners tend to be more of an investment type mentality. I mean there is a thread about the cars value with or without tint. I’d probably get a time out of banned if I typed out my thoughts on that.
The value is the platform’s capacity for performance. As the boomers hang up their NB’s for the retirement home more and more of these cars will see some serious mileage finally . It may be in the mountains. autocross or the track but they will see it. They will also get totaled and numbers get fewer and value will remain. Some cars much older are just hitting their stride for resale.
3rd Gen Iroc Z , Late 80s Mustangs, Datsun Z cars to name a few. The only thing that’s kept the C5 from a huge spike is you all don’t drive them. All those others were driven hard while the C5’s were garage kept and smothered with Maguire's

 

A car is worth as much as someone is willing to pay. I wanted a Black & Red C5 MN6 Coupe, I paid $23k in November '23, and was happy.

 

A measure of C5 value is condition and taste. There’s cars that are “mint” that will fetch a good price, yet a car enthusiast may prefer a tastefully modded car that looks original-ish, but has an easy to drive power advantage. A rough idling, heavy clutched, wide bodied, gauge encrusted, lowered example is cool for a romp, but also has a narrow market. And yet, from one category’ to the next may only swing $10k, or so.

A purest or flipper may think differently, but for many/most of us I say do your thing and don’t sweat the margin.

 

Some folks, (me) always guesses wrong which marquee gonna get me rich apon purchase!... Image buying a new GT40 a few years ago... Recall it was a bit more than one hundred fifty thousand bucks brand new.... Now image you did the Bentley thing, same price, a bit different .... Tanking in a Corvette was less illusive considering I did the affordable C5... I tank a few dallars, yes and smile doing it with the "old front mounted" GM designed plastic pachyderm. The C5 Corvette

 

Please I turned down a Dino in 1985 for $15,000 in prime shape, they are $450,000 now. I skipped it because I was going to need to be a daily driver. I was still in school. Same gor the Pantera for the same price. I figured the salt would just eat them.

If I only had the money for a beater

 

Please Let me know where I can find a 30,000 mile

…Or Less

Z06

Any Year

Any Color

That has TANKED since Covid….

I’ll take Two Please!

 

‘Not seen any that were deals that were not well used.

There was one in KY last year that fit that but I suspect it was damaged in some way as it did not sell for six months. Flood?

Been watching the Car Wizard and it is amazing how many top dollar imports are not worth anything. He just had a Jag on that needed a supercharger. It looked good but needed $10k just for the repairs. He had a Benz V12 roadster just like that with a biodegradable wire harness that was falling a part. It need more work than it was worth.

We are doing fine. As for cars worth more as parts that is pretty common today. Even many Ferrari and Duesenberg cars are like that.

 

I just don't understand the fear of the value decreasing of a mass produced vehicle? There were almost a quarter million of these produced, get over yourselves.

 

To the op remember the book value is just for reference. People will usually pay market value and your car is likely worth 18-20 on the current market. Also if you think c5’s got hammered, check out c6’s!!! WOWWW their nada book values are literally HALF of actual market value. IMO nada is REALLY fumbling the football on ALL c6 corvettes.

Like it’s BAD BAD. A 15k mile loaded c6Z06 books for about 20k lmfao hilarious. I have no clue how or why they’re so far off from actual market value but imo c5 and c7 values are doing pretty good.

 

I bought my C5Z in '18 for $22k. Market value probably got into mid 30's. I suspect it's mid to high 20's now It's all good, it's a 20yr old mass produced sports car Just enjoy it and don't worry too much about it.

 

On line NADA Kelly Blue Book KBB price evaluator is real time by zip code area and sales price.

 

Go on nada and price out a few different c6 setups and tell me they aren’t at half what the actual cars are selling for. I’m telling you something is very wrong with ALL c6 nada book values.

I’ve wrote them an email but never heard anything back. I’d love to see a low mile c6z06 for 15-20k like nada suggests lol. Never gonna happen.

 

May be I am doing something wrong just priced out a 2010 C6 Z06. NADA shows 30000 miles 2LT $36000-$40000. Seem over all about right.

 

👍 exactly

 

You know that most of these sell cash and the new owners may or may not claim what they really paid due to taxes. Also NADA seems to only “accurate” when it’s for insurance claims.

 

OOPS!

I meant to use Kelly Blue Book…