With used car prices being high, are C5s selling for more now?

 

Dealer lots are fll of inventory. New car prices are down and rebates/discounts are up. That affects used car prices. Discounts available below MSRP on new Corvettes. With few exceptions I do not observe C5 prices going up. I recently bought a 2002 garage queen vert for $15k.

 

I believe the slowdown in the economy is beginning to depress all car prices. We're seeing record levels of credit card debt again, auto loan defaults are up, and many people are cutting back just to keep food on the table. That's not a scenario in which a non-collectible model like the C5 (a quarter of a million produced) will rise in price.

 

Compared to when? Pre covid they are still up. However they look relatively flat to declining right now.

 

some are listed high, others way low on cargurus!!

 

Condition, mileage, body style, color, year and where you live make a difference.

My car this year is up 2K over what I paid.

If a car is higher miles, rough, a color that is not popular, coupe, you can see lower values.

‘’Torch red convertibles, or Z06. 2002-2004 in good condition and lower miles below 40k are holding well. Gray coupes with 90K miles even in good shape can be down. Earlier cars tend to be less fair or not.

Everything was up but the best cars are still going up but the less than perfect are in slight decline.

Prices can vary around the country.

Note too this a stock car. If modified. Condition, mods and documentation of the mods matter. I had a Supercharged car here. last year it was close to $30K but was down to $22k before I saw it sold or went to auction. It was a nice car but people tended to avoid it for a year at the higher prices.

I bought a Torch Red Convertible. Since then I have only found one as good and at a similar price since then. Most have gone up. Even at the higher prices they sell fast in most areas.

 

There’s a guy down the street from me with a 1997 Torch Red automatic coupe with 35k miles on it in his front yard and he’s asking $19,900. Looks to be original and unmodified with the exception of an axle back exhaust. Chicagoland area.

 

‘If it was a convertible you could add $3k to 5k. A Z06 even more.

 

JMO but prices are still higher than what normally would be expected but they do seem to be coming down a bit. There are still cars listed that are priced way more than I would pay for a C5 but if the seller can get that price, good for him.

 

Agree. I know I overpaid for mine last September, but it was in near-new condition inside and out with very low miles. I overpaid to get a car my wife would not see as "used and worn out". Now she's driven it on a couple of our road trips, taken on some twisties, and life is good.

Thank goodness I married a real driver.

 

A lot of C5 vettes here in Illinois are a little overpriced

 

Nothing is over priced or under price. The market sets the prices and regions will vary.

Since before Covid the low mile clean C5 cars have seen a consistent increase. They have hit that age and many of the clean examples are now changing hands

To be honest the C5 is still a bargain as if you shop around $22K buys you little in collector cars or hot rods anymore. The C5 was cheap for a long time but since it is a good car the prices for it are going up while C4 cars sit stagnate.

Many want to deny the C5 is increasing as they want it to remain a bargain. Well it will with the cars in need. The beat up cars and high mile cars will still be lower but best examples will go up.

I saw the same thing on the Fiero’s. They were cheap for a long time. We had many put away waiting on collector values that never came. But today the good clean low mile GT and V6 cars can be $15k or more. Still a good buy under $20K.

Look in the day and age where a good paint job can run what we used to pay for an entire clean car nothing is cheap and a good clean car even like an old Nova can bring $30k.

I turned down a 02 Convertible like I have now with a manual and 17k miles. I can’t touch that for less than $24k or more unless you are in an area were their is really low demand.

The key to the C5 over the last C3 and C4 is it really is a better car and it shares much with the C6 and 7. These triplets will hang together in value.

You may see the cars in need drop a bit but the hood cars will continue to increase. Even at a higher price many of these will be of more value vs cars needing work as by the time you paint it and replace the needed parts you may spend as much and still have a high mile car.

 

I just did a search within 100 miles of me and prices still seem high. Clean lower milage 01-04 cars are 22-27K. 97-00 cars with moderate miles are the ones I can find in the 17-20K range. Nothing is under 17K unless it's extremely high miles or has an unclean title or something. For mid 20's you can get decent C6 so I honestly don't know why anyone would even buy a C5 around here unless they really liked popup headlights a whole lot. JMO.

 

We picked up a C6 for my buddy last summer 50K miles. Clean car. $24K coupe in Yellow. Manual.

The early C6 years are dropping but but only the Grand Sports and Z06 are holding stable as is the ZR1. Most buyer guides also say to stay away from the early years due to expensive issues, We had to deal with electrical issues.

I would not trade my C5 convert for anything less than a Grand Sport convert. I just don’t like the C6 styling inside snd out.

 

There are many factors that play into a price, but ultimately, almost anything is worth what someone is willing to pay.

 

on other corvette forums, facebook, instgram, etc. many that have c7 or c8's or both, who held onto or went back to a c5 for the pop-ups + round tail lights!!

i've got more room in my '04 c5 than my 2014 z51 3lt but i do like the bulletproof a6 + all the bells/whistles!!

the fact that you don't understand this concept means nothing to me + i'd imagine other folks as well!!

 

on other corvette forums, facebook, instgram, etc. many that have c7 or c8's or both, who held onto or went back to a c5 for the pop-ups + round tail lights!!

i've got more room in my '04 c5 than my 2014 z51 3lt but i do like the bulletproof a6 + all the bells/whistles!!

the fact that you don't understand/know this concept means nothing to me + i'd imagine other folks as well!!

 

The ones you see when you 'run a quick search' are the ones that sit on the market forever because they are overpriced. Realistically prices ones sell quickly so you don't see them unless you're really actively looking.

 

There are some very interesting ideas I see here. Mine is a 98 coupe A4 with 21K miles, garage kept and maintained meticulously. A couple of appearance mods and over axl exhaust. I use Mobil 1 and skipped it’s yearly change 1x last year for the first time because it had lesss than a few hundred miles.

The cruise control doesn’t work, the only problem. I have never used it or tried to fix it. I think there may be someplace here that I may be able to do a DYI which I can hopefully find. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks and really want to go on a road trip and need it to work. My right knee had a replacement gone wrong.
I agree, I think that any item is worth as much as what anybody is willing to pay for it.