DesertRunner

Greetings to all,
(I know this is a long post but I remember many of the questions I had when set out to purchase a vette. I am just hoping to help anyone with my info/experience)

I wanted to say hi and thanks to all the forum members. This forum has an amazing amount of information that is shared by the best Corvette enthusiasts around. I have learned a great deal here and wanted to give back some info on my buying experience. I am a 63yo retiree living in the southwest. I have owned 14 cars/trucks an 17 motorcycles. Highest performance car was a 1967 Firebird 400 four speed and motorcycle was a 2001 Yamaha FZ1 (10 sec street bike) to give you an idea of my baseline.

As I said my 2006 3LT, F55 is the my first Corvette purchase although I have driven a 1970 LT1 four speed back in the day. Like some other prospective buyers I was looking for a C6, around 20K$ in price. Intended use for this car would be some daily driving and long distance road trips with my wife. Not looking to do track days or any type of racing, I figured that the base engine and suspension would suit just fine. I wanted my wife to enjoy driving the Vette and be onboard with the purchase so an automatic transmission was a must . After further research I also saw that the 3LT package with power heated seats, Nav, F55 suspension and heads up display would fit our needs as a comfortable grand touring car. And I only wanted a white car with the cashmere interior. I also wanted a 100% stock vette with no mods. Beyond that I really wanted to keep my purchase in the southwest because the dry climate is really kind to vehicles here.

First let me say I like the car and so does my wife. After reading what I wrote below you might not think so but overall it is a fun comfortable sports car in great condition.

I started looking in early May of this year (2020) and completed purchase on June 30th. So how did it go, what did I learn? Actually the most difficult item on my checklist was wanting a white car with the tan interior. White is maybe the lowest selling Corvette color and combined with the tan interior really limited availability. Even nationwide searches sometimes showed zero available in that color combination. At the end of June I located a white 2006 vette with tan interior for sale at a very large Buick dealership in the Phoenix area. I called and they said they had just taken the car in trade. The car had under 58,000 miles and in the video they sent me it looked perfect. Due to covid I haggled price on the phone. The dealership said that I could have the car for $22,900 out the door. Just an FYI, I got monroney label for the vette and it stickered for approx $58K when new.


Dealership also said that after their vehicle inspection that they would do a brake job before I picked it up. I flew out the next day purchased the car and drove home. I paid the dealership in cash and was in and out in about 2hours. Probably one of the easier customers they encounter.

My first big warning. Don't trust or assume a factory GM dealership will actually do a much of an inspection. This was disappointing because if I had purchased a car from a private seller I would have taken it to GM dealership for a vehicle inspection. The car looks nearly new and because of that I don't think it was well inspected. When they first drove the car up for me to take delivery I noticed a loose multi-pin connector from the wiring harness hanging down under the passenger side. I asked the dealer to please take the car and hook that connector back up thinking small item no worries. Then on the drive home I stopped at a rest area and discovered that the key FOB had a low battery when I got the FOB not detected message. MANY THANKS TO THIS FORUM as I had already read about how to get into the car and how to use the FOB slot in the glovebox. 3 hours from home, 8 o'clock at night in an interstate rest area and I was back on the road in minutes. You folks saved me some PITA that evening. About an hour later I got a "service TPMS sensor" message on the dic. Then it says 0psi performance reduced. Luckily that cleared on its own but you guessed it I had a failing tpms sensor in the left rear. I stopped for gas and while cleaning the windshield I noticed that the wiper blade rubbers were badly split. Would have gouged the windshield for sure if I had tried to use them before replacement. All these items are fairly minor until the first time the gas tank went below half full. Suddenly I have alarms and lights on the dashboard, the gas gauge needle is in freefall to empty and I'm thinking I must have a major full leak. I pull into a gas station and upon finding no fuel leak I fill up and it only takes about 9 gallons. Fuel gauge needle is now back on full but falls to zero the next time I drive below 1/2 tank. So yeah, I'm fairly sure that my car has the fuel sender issue. I've been running Techron with Shell V-Power to try and clean it up.

So naturally I call the dealer up. Salesman suddenly is not answering my calls. I then call the sales manager. He was one of three people to send me a letter welcoming me to their "family" and letting me know to please call him if I ever needed anything. I give him the rundown and his first words are "you know I haven't worked here very long". Oh good I thought my confidence in them falling by the minute. He assures me that he will make sure the salesman contacts me. And that's when they put on their other hat. Now the salesman tells me you know cars can break at any time and the car has no warranty. I said that I understood that but these items were issues on my drive home from the dealership. Then he even says the gm car that he drives exhibited the same gas gauge issue and it was the sender in the tank but that would be too much money for them to foot the bill. He does tell me that he went to bat for me and got the dealership to send me a TPMS sensor for free. He even tells me that they will pay for the shipping. Oh that made everything okay....

But what about the car. Despite the above the car is solid and appears to have been well cared for. Even though carfax listed 6 prior owners the car looks and drives like new. I doubt this car has ever spent much time parked outside. How does it drive? Steering and suspension are nice and tight although I confess that I can't feel any real difference between sport and touring mode. Engine power is more than enough for my daily driver. I do like to put my foot in it from time to time and this car is fast. It would easily have smoked my '67 Firebird 400 or the '70 LT1 Vette I drove. I like the six speed automatic. It shifts clean and smart and always seems to be in the right gear. The seats are comfortable and I like the HUD more than I thought I would. The turn by turn directions on the HUD from the NAV unit is great. And like many have already said this car gets excellent gas mileage(over 30mpg) on the freeway. Even my overall mpg at about 25mpg is very close to my 3.0 liter V6 Ford ranger.

Thanks to the readers for making it through this long post and thanks again to the informative people on this forum.

Topduarte

Wow. very sorry about your experience.

Fine05

Enjoy your car! You and your wife are going to have a blast in it.

QuickSilver20

Congrats on the car. And honestly some of those issues may not have been hidden by thr dealership. I feel sometimes people try and hide these issues even trading the car in and the dealership will do a general inspection and put it on the lot without driving it although they should have noticed the wiper blades.

I had a similar issues with a 370z I bought used at a large dealership years ago. Literally 10 miles after driving it off the lot I get a CEL light. It took the dealership 7 times to fix the issue which turned out to be An 02 sensor. But it turned out to be an absolute pain going back and forth with them.

jimijam

Hi. Nice car. I like white.

SixAddict

Congrats on your Vette.

99% of the stealerships in Phoenix SUCK, stay far far away from now on...

cheetah45

DesertRunner:
The F55 Mag Ride shows up in the extremes of rough roads and twisty roads. Find the roughest road in your area and try both settings at speed. Once you get a feel for the car and it’s capabilies, Find your twistiest road and try both settings at speed and you should feel the difference.

DesertRunner

Thanks Quicksilver20, I told the dealership that I wasn't accusing them of trying to hide anything. I was also thinking that the folks who traded it in might not have mentioned the fuel gauge issue. I did ask if they would work with me regarding the fuel gauge issue like your dealer did. I even offered to pay for parts. They said no.

DesertRunner

Thanks Cheetah45, I will try driving as you suggest and see if I can get a better understanding the F55 suspension.

jakmarlin

Alas, that is the all too typical dealership experience. I think you lucked out if that is all that's wrong with the car. First, never, never, never buy a car sight unseen. Too, easy to hide things even with good pictures.
On to the gas gauge issue. You may have a bad fuel pump. Your car has two. One in each of the two gas tanks. Our cars have a port/starboard gas tank(s) set up for weight balance, and because GM engineers had no other way to do it. If you need one, do both. The tanks have to be pulled to reach the sending units. Also replace all internal hoses and fittings. I think the job is about a $1000. Someone correct me if you know otherwise.

Good luck with a beautiful car!

FatsWaller

Enjoy your nice ride. I'll only make one comment about the fuel sending unit, and that's who trades in a car with more than a 1/4 tank of gas? My guess also is that the used car manager probably drove it around a bit as well. They probably knew about the sender problem and masked it by filling it up before you got there. The Techron might work. It did in another GM car that I owned.

4SUMERZ

Congrats on the purchase. Nice looking C6
Hopefully the Techron will do the trick and fix itself.
I also have a 2006 A6, purchased in 2009 as my early retirement gift. Loaded with all the goodies, but no selective suspension, but with the Z51 performance package.
I thought that my wife might drive it, but she is scared of the power, and is scared of putting a dent in it.
We bought this car as a road trip vehicle, and to date, we have put over 80k miles of long distance road trips all over the US and Canada.
It is a very comfy car for driving, sometimes 10 hours or more daily without having any discomforts.
It now has Approx 110k miles on the clock, and I've had very little issues with the car.
I ditched the GY F1 Supercar tires after 3 months of driving. They were terrible tires in all aspects.
I decided on non runflats, and have had no issues on any of the road trips, even picked up a nail and screw in 2 tires on some of those trips, but
I plugged the tires myself at the hotel parking lot.

It has been a blast to drive.

Best of Luck and enjoy

Scuba Ghost

Congratulations on the new ride. Once you get the repairs completed you will really enjoy your Vette.

nplenzick

Six speed auto in a 2006? Here in Arizona if you buy from any dealership you can bring the car back for a full refund within seven days.

4SUMERZ

Yes, 6 speed auto with paddle shifters, introduced in 2006. 2005 was the last year for the 4 speed auto in the C6 platform.

plodder

Thanks for the write up and advice. Congrats on your new toy. I just bought my 2nd Vette in August, a 2008 with 3LT & F55. (My first was a 65 convertible with 327/365hp that I traded a Yamaha 500 & $1,200 for in 1976) Didn't really know about the head's up display, power seats & all the trinkets when I bought it, but sure enjoying them now. The 2008 is certainly much more enjoyable to drive, particularly for long road trips. But I would trade it for my old 65 if the current owner were fool enough to do so!

LSgoBRRR

I think you overpaid just a bit for an '06 but that's dealers for you but are right about white being rare along with the various blues and the deep red and it was probably worth it if you've been hunting them. Black, Torch Red, Silver and Yellow everywhere... Also so many people with white cars seem to have chosen red leather, which to me is visually jarring and a bit tacky (especially on the door sills... at least you can replace the seats). They also didn't even make any white C5Zs for 02-04.

I'm actually in a similar situation, where I'm being tempted by white and light blue vettes even though there are red and black ones that might be better deals or choices.

DesertRunner

Thanks jakmarlin, I appreciate what you say about not buying sight unseen. I only agreed on "top" price with the dealership. I told them that my purchase was still contingent upon my test drive, I flew out and took the car for a test drive. With the exception of the loose wiring connector none of the other issues were apparent until many miles down the road. I did miss the wiper blades. Should have looked closer.

DesertRunner

Thanks LSgoBRRR, You are right about the price. I saw several very nice looking, low miles, LS2 vettes for $19K - $20K. Even saw a few nice looking early LS3 vettes for the same price I paid. Trouble was none of those cars were white with the cashmere interior. I'm okay with the white color but my wife really likes white with the tan interior. I wanted her to feel like it was her car too. She originally wanted to buy a Prius. To bridge that gap I had to be flexible