The C3 Corvette Is a Perfect First Car
 

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No, we haven't lost our minds. A C3 Corvette would make a great first car.

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For young drivers insurance on a Corvette will kill you and you better hope their parents can show them how to fix things because it will take lots of work to keep a C3 running. In my opinion not a good first car.

Can you imagine a kid dealing with the ongoing mechanical issues even a good C3 would challenge them with? These kids need a safe space if you ask them to pick up a lug wrench, let alone use one.

My second car was a 340 Duster. I was 19 and never threw so many wrenches.....

Yep, and strippers make a GREAT first wife.....but generally Id caution you to go with a less expensive and less maintenance intensive spouse....

Kids today, for the most part, if it doesn't have a touch screen, they wouldn't have a clue. Unless they are rich and can afford to have someone else do the maintenance, I can't see it being anything but a disaster.

Of course there are exceptions to the norm, but I think that would be a pretty small exception.

Mike

Parallel lives man...parallel lives.

My first car was a Slant Six Duster, in less than a year I craved more power. I got a '70 Duster 340 with my first mod being a 1971 340 grill. :woohoo:

Yes we did!! My first car was a 75 Duster, slant 6. A guy up the street kept roaring past our house in this green 75 Duster that he planted a high compression 340 in. I drove to his house a few months later and got the car for $500! It was a mess but would blow the hair off your head! I sold it and bought a 71 340 4 speed, red and black. As you know, with the cheese grader grille! This all happened in 85/86. I have been a car guy since!! That 71 was wicked man, 3:90 gears and I had the 340 machined and built after blowing up the 340 that was in it. Those were the days!

Just what a typical teenager/20 year old needs who has a mountain of debt from college loans, a 35 to 40 year old car with all that's inherently wrong with a car that old.
A mid or later model C3 is a great toy or first Corvette for someone with means. They're not too expensive, relatively easy to work on, most parts are not too hard to find and they're increasing in value. But car that old is not good for those with limited means.

I'd agree, but only with a few caveats:

The C3 Corvette Is a Perfect First Car*
*For someone with a garage, free time, disposable "hobby" money, and an alternate mode of transportation (bike, public transportation, reliable friends, whatever).

I had a GMC S-15 as a first car, with few of those things. I worked on it in parking lots, with the constant fear that I'd be stranded if I screwed anything up. I didn't get a garage for many more years, after having swapped the engine and transmission of a Corvair in a gravel driveway, twice.

I learned a lot, but it was far from an ideal situation.

It would be a great first car if you have the support structure there to do the car justice, learning as you go, with a place to store it, and a place to leave it up on jackstands as simple projects spiral out of control.

I have been in the insurance industry for over 35 years. I can't even count the number of claims I've seen involving the death of a teenager. Claims on the totaled auto and the life benefits some states provide under PIP coverage.
My supervisor begged his brother not to buy his niece a Z28 for her 17th birthday. But, "she's a great student, makes straight A's, has never given us any trouble and deserves it". She died less than 3 months later when her car slid off a curve in the road. She wasn't even going that fast but it was raining and she hydroplaned. The off duty cop behind her said she appeared to have corrected her line halfway through the curve over-steered her correction and slid off the road. The Z28 had much tighter steering and handling than the Cutlass she learned to drive in.
Her problem and the problem of any new driver is they are inexperienced drivers. A Corvette and vehicles like them should not be in the hands of an inexperienced driver regardless of age.
jmho but based on life experience.

My first car was a 68 Chevelle, then a 68 Riviera with no windshield defroster I drove that all winter in Wisconsin till I put a rod through the pan in the spring, then I bought a 69 Chevelle swapped the 307 for a 350 in my dads garage, I had never done an engine swap before. I proceeded to drive that car to California and back 6400 miles. Sold it and got a 68 Camaro which I still have.
Kids do dumb things as did I and I think it was a good character builder for me, I learned problem solving and independence.
It led me to owning and restoring my first Corvette.

Bad idea for a first car.

Well.... I read the article. I see the authors tongue firmly planted in the cheek.

Well I think it is a great first car, for the right enthusiastic owner. Sure, not for everyone.

This subject came up recently.
The only real issues I would have with the C3 as a first car is the all around bad visibility with a coupe. Very poor rear visibility up to 1977 then a little better with the bubble windows. Very poor visibility over the front fenders and the high angled dash. Not the greatest for a driver with little experience. And then the nose is not visible down the hood. I think its something like 3 feet of nose that can't be seen from the drivers seat.

Of course the mechanical issues are something to think about but if the driver comes for a family of people that like to play with cars its not so bad. But for someone on a budget, the prices to fix a C3 might be higher. And C3's are just old cars needing work. Unless you spend a lot for a great one. And that's bad because a new driver will probably bust it up while learning to drive and gaining experience behind the wheel. I don't really see the upside.

Also crashing a fender is no fun no matter what car but with the Vette? I don't mind fixing fibreglass but for a first timer it may be harder than banging out a dent or just repairing or replacing a metal fender or fixing a rear quarter.

The recent thread was pretty funny. There were members telling the new driver things like "Great choice, live the dream, blah blah blah". Are they going to go over his house to help him fix the car when it craps out? Maybe help with the fibreglass work when he misjudges a parking spot and whacks the car next to him because he couldn't see over the fender or down the nose?

I was 24 when I first bought my first 69. It took me while to get used to the shape. I was lucky to only have wrecked a few trim rings on curbs.

It was a different era, my youth, my abilities, my cars. I started early, garbage picking bike parts to put together a bicycle. To stereotype todays youth as unable to fix a car is unfair. If you shop carefully, finding a deal on a clean later model C3 can be found for the same money as a civic. Some pretty shit hot tuners today are barely out of high school.
For a first car, it was never about having a cream puff. Any car insurance is awfully high. U think visibility in a corvette is bad? Drive a late model Camaro. Corvette is better, certainly not safer! Lots of upsides, plenty of downsides. But a C3 for a first car? I say sure, why not?

A C3 would make a great first Vette, but probably not a good first car.
May not be easy finding a kid that would want a C3 as their first car these days,
as not high tech enough.

Insurance on any car will kill them.

So that can't happen to a young driver in a newer car. And how many years of driving is enough experience to drive car like a 190 hp vette. And how do you get that experience. What car should you work your way up to it.


My first car was a 67 SS Chevelle with a 396 4 speed. I bought it at 17 and have lived to tell about it.


Get the car, respect the car, work on it and enjoy it.