Help, need advice on 74 454 car!
 

I just bought a 65, and the same guy has a 74 454, white, with 33,000 original miles on it..it's a cherry, drive home unit. My friend who helped me bring my 65 home, has gotten corvette fever, and is dying to get this car. I've searched all the archives the lousy search function finds me, searched all the online classifieds I can come up with for a reasonable price to offer this guy for the car and have found ranges from $13K-$30K. Arggggh!! That's a very wide gap....This car is ALL stock, original owner, and the only thing we saw that was added was the old cylinder key button on the fender for the burglar alarm that was sooo popular back in those days. So what would be a decent offer to bring to the seller? What would be considered a "steal"? The owner is no dummy, and is quite well to do, so he doesn't need to sell it, but my buddy has fallen in love with it, so we need to be reasonable in what we present him so he doesn't laugh us out of his yard. Thanks for your knowledgable help!

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

That security system was standard equipment on all Vettes during those years (had been optional but made standard equipment in 72). Had been on the rear panel prior to 74, moved to side in 74 till 77 and during the 77 production year moved to drivers door lock.

Price, You did not say if it was a coupe or convertible. Will assume a coupe. My guess would be in the $15,000 - $18,000 range. If it is a convertible, add $5,000 to $8,000.

tom...


[Modified by Tom73, 9:06 AM 12/20/2001]

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (Tom73)
 

I gott agree with Tom his numbers seem right on...And I have a 74 and I also have the key alarm STOCK

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

A "steal" would be between 12-13k, I picked my 73 up for 11.5K and doesn't sound as good as the 74 your looking at, mine was a 48k car, very nice but not cherry, but I thought I pretty much stole it at that price.

:cheers:
Pat Kunz

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (Alwyn678)
 

Thanks very much for the help. That is a much smaller range, and I'll pass it on to my friend and let him figure out what he wants to do from there. I'd buy it myself if I had room to park it..:)

Have any of you folks heard that this is one of the "sleepers" in terms of long term appreciation in the C3 body style?

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

Oops, forgot to mention that it is a coupe, with an auto trans. I'm sure it has air as well. Don't know about all the other options though.

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

my guess is up to 16,000 would be good if cherry car, anything less is good :D

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

If it's a big block car you won't hurt yourself any, it can only go up if kept original. I think the 73-74 454's are probbaly one of the better buys right now as far as bang for the buck, seen a lot of new ones on here lately.

:cheers:
Pat Kunz

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

A nice '74 454 coupe is a neat car. If you take the ratio of '74 coupe to convertible, and coupe to 454, I come up with some neat numbers(theoretical). Remember, only 3494 1974 Corvettes even had the "final" bigblock, so it breaks down to like this(remember, theoretical numbers, but probably fairly accurate in estimates). 594 '74 454 convertibles, 2900 454 coupes. You can even break that number down farther with the options the car has too. I once looked at a "neat, rare" '74 454 convertible, 82,000mi, very nice for $10,500!!! It was 454/automatic, Silver/Black Leather, no A/C and manual windows(which I like!!!). I broke it down to theoretically one of only "14" 1974 roadsters made this way. For $10,500 I do still regret not buying it!!! A price of 13K-16k is a good buy. A '73 454 coupe Elkart Green, recently sold for $16,900 and it was a pretty "high Award car"!!!!
http://www.corvetteforum.net/c3/anth...1974bowtie.jpg

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (Paul Borowski)
 

OK,
I've passed on the info to my friend. He still thinks he wants the car, BUT his wife is not totally happy about the price, or the car. (they were thinking around $7500 as it's a smog car still in california). Plus it might stretch their budget a bit more than they can feel comfortable with. So in a worse case situation, lets say they have to give the $16K, would it be very hard for them to resell it without losing money at that price? Or could they even maybe squeeze like $17-18K out of it, and make the guy look like a wizard to his doubting wife? I hate to be in the middle of things like this!

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

Big blocks are the King in the resale market. They should be able to get any price back if they can hold the car for a couple of years. It is only going one way in value, UP! When I bought mine a couple of years ago I felt I overpaid by about $2000 but it was what I wanted. It is now valued at about $3000 over what I paid.

tom...

Re: Help, need advice on 74 454 car! (BobG)
 

BobG, One thing too you got to remember what another factor is on price and that is the state of the economy. Just because he(your friend) say gets a good deal at 16K, has it for a little while, tries to resell it does'nt mean he'll get 16K back. With the now "sagging" economy, it is a major "buyer's" market. Just look at any Chevy/Corvette Buyer's Guide, Hemming's, AutoTrader,etc and just look at the pages and pages and pages of cars for sale. And it's not just Corvettes either, this includes Muscle Cars, Specialty Cars, other Sports Cars all too which can be "sales" competition for Corvettes. Best thing to do is try to get the best deal possible up front. The cheaper the car is bought for initially, the more he'll make when he sells it providing he does'nt HAVE TO or NEED TO put alot of money into it. Actually, your best deals are the "fully restored" cars that someone else put a ton of money into!!! A very original car, though not "freshly restored" can be super nice and all, but in time too, it will need some kind of attention(to read, repairs, money, parts!!!) :yesnod: