Buying a new Corvette 17 years after the fact
07-15-2016, 08:20 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Buying a new Corvette 17 years after the fact
I'm going to use this thread to document my ownership experience with this car. So I'm going to start with this that I wrote about purchasing the car in the first place.
What was new car smell like 17 years ago? I had plenty of time to ponder this on my 8 hour drive to Branson, Missouri, where I was headed in the last peeking rays of sunlight I would see for the remainder of the weekend. Branson, a town full of stereotypes, I thought, of the very kind of people that I would now be associating with. Straw hats with black bands, tall white diabetic socks strapped firmly to feet with sandals, khaki Tommy Bahama shorts, and a one-size-too big Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirt with a print more obnoxious than the smell of arthritis cream. This would be my life now, and as I compared that thought with some of my other vehicular considerations before circling back to my original childhood dream, it didn't sound too bad.
My wife and I were just settling into our new (preowned!) Lexus GS350 F sport during this drive. In fact we had just bought it that morning in Ohio, and immediately after our cardboard 45 day plate was attached behind a cheesy plastic surround, we were on our way. Like a storm front going the wrong direction, we were barreling west with the determination only the promise of a Corvette waiting for us three states away could muster. Our ventilated seats were on full blast, not because it was too hot in the car, just because we could. We never had a car with features like these. Two hours into the trip and I'm still finding buttons on the side of the seat, and realizing where I thought I was comfortable, I was totally wrong. My lumbar should be just so, the extending leg rest about one second’s worth of a button's push back from full. The Lexus was really something special for us. Comfortable, quiet, ambiguous, were we old now? No. We had F Sport badges. We were sporty, and the thin walled tires didn’t hesitate to remind you when attempting to navigate a bump on the highway meant for larger, softer cars. My determination set to full, we continued on, 85mph, with the blind spot monitors constantly reminding me of the other motorists I was putting in the rearview.
We’ve had countless cars over the years: Acura TL Type-S, Tahoe, Suburban, Silverado, WRX, Civic Si, Acura Integra, Pontiac G8, Pontiac G8, Pontiac G8 (that’s not a typo!), in fact, we currently own five cars, and three boats. We’ve had a lot of vehicles, and the most recently removed was a 2004 Pontiac GTO, which I must admit although long coveted, was atrocious. I’m sure at one point it made a wonderful GT car, but it was not 11 years and 60,000 miles after its release. Trim dismantled itself while sitting dormant in the garage, the radiator sometimes decided to vent only a small portion of coolant onto the floor, and those are just the things it would do when I wasn’t driving it. Still, wide summer tires, stiffer springs, and an obnoxious exhaust can make almost anything fun to drive. This car I thought, was close enough for me. It had two doors (like a Corvette!), it had an LS1 (like a Corvette!) and maybe after I figured out how to shave off 8-900 pounds, it might feel like a sports car. After a couple years of ownership, with more money spent on maintenance than mods, I let the car go to someone I knew would care for it, and set my sights on what would be next.
That answer was obvious to me, at first. Corvette was the obvious answer, I had always wanted one, and I was lucky enough to be able to afford that childhood dream. I had to weigh my options though. I was a child 20 years ago. Was the Corvette still what I wanted? So I started the search, looking for what I could compare. M3? I couldn’t afford the out of warranty maintenance, and wasn’t it just a fancier GTO at the end of the day? No, I needed a sports car. Not just 2 doors, I needed a car with 2 seats. Miata? All the glowing reviews in the world wouldn’t convince me I wanted a 160hp convertible for a third vehicle, unless it was something old and unreliable, but I wasn’t ready for British ownership either. I needed something with power too. Two seats, and power. My list was narrowing as I weighed my wants. I could buy a new Mustang, they’re great cars, the Coyote a great engine, and they’re a bargain with base GTs selling at 26 thousand. Too much of a compromise, I decided. I could drive a Mustang year round, it would be too comfortable, too quiet. Everything kept coming back Corvette. They are possibly the best performance bargain, the aftermarket is huge, OEM parts are plentiful and affordable. The Corvette has never necessarily been the best at anything much other than an unbeatable price point for performance, and I was OK with that. I didn’t need fancy. I needed something fun and connected, so I settled my aim on the C5 Corvette.
Finding this particular C5, a 1999 Fixed Roof Coupe (FRC) finished in Artic White, with 7100 miles, was more of an accident than a deliberate choice. Two days earlier I was set to be in Tennessee, taking delivery of a low mile Electron Blue z06. As that day came and went, and I heard nothing from the seller, I went looking again. I knew the targa topped C5 was not for me, and I knew finding the best example of the fixed roof was more important than whether or not it was the hopped up factory version, since as most gearheads have come to terms with, it probably won’t stay stock for long. I had sent a few offers out, probably insulting to some of the owners, before coming across this particular car on eBay. I showed it to my wife, who liked the idea of buying what was essentially a new car, 17 years after the fact. So I decided to try an offer I figured would be too low to be accepted, and I found myself suddenly scrambling to find a way to make it from Indiana to Southwest Missouri and back before the weekend closed. After a nights stop in St. Louis, we headed out early in the rain, which would continue until the next day.
Pulling into the small specialty dealership where the car was being sold was a relief, but my heart was pounding. I drove eight hours to buy a car I had not even seen in person. I drove eight hours to buy a car whose generation I had never even sat in. As we walked into the front office I could see the car through the doorway leading to the garage. It was in a light that could only be provided by excessive overhead fluorescents, and as I walked across, the doorway provided a slow panning reveal fit for a third try at a successful Top Gear reboot. The bright white paint sparkled as I moved around it, and I thought this must have been what it was like in a GM showroom seventeen years ago. Keys were put into my hand and I opened the door, eagerly anticipating the new car smell I was promised was still present, and it was. I’m convinced the smell has not changed in the last twenty years. Hard, big drops of rain were smashing the tin roof above the shop as I put the key straight ahead into the ignition. For a brief second I paused, and wondered what a new Corvette would start like. The clutch was pushed, the key was turned, and the car almost shook to life in a kind of diluted anger only engine technology pioneered forty years earlier could provide. As the cold high idle smoothed, likewise my heartrate, I stepped back out and with the hood now open I could see what buyers saw almost twenty years ago. Paint markings signaling a completed process, coated terminals, even the factory applied grease to quiet the hood latches was there. My wife and I fell down on either side into the still-supple black leather seats, and sat for a moment while the car warmed, before venturing out into the downpour on the test drive.
Unrefined, cheap, noisy, and other negative descriptors that dismissed the platform were washed away as I turned the wipers on and headed out onto an empty stretch. Winding out the LS1 was smooth, linear, and just loud enough to remind me it was a sports car. I felt as close to the ground as I was. Everything looked as new, and it drove like it too. The steering was tight and connected, but not heavy. The brakes, even on this base model, were more than adequate to slow the car quickly from speed. Acceleration was brisk, which almost surprised me at first, since I had been eyeing z06s with their fifty extra horsepower, before remembering that even as a base model, it was still a Corvette. As I checked systems via the dashboard diagnostics, and fiddled with switches to ensure operation, I decided I was more than satisfied with this example. The Goodyear F1 tires that were notoriously hard 17 years ago had only gotten worse, and the rain covering the road was not helping my confidence, so we turned around, deciding if I was to wreck the car driving down the highway, we would at least have the title first.
After the money and paperwork had exchanged hands, we were back out in the rain headed east up I44. My wife’s LED driving lights were shining behind me, and I was convinced they were providing more light than the yellow low beams coming out of my (much cooler) pop-up headlights. A quick stop at a passing town, and a set of wipers to replace the seventeen year old ones on the car had us back on our way. Cautiously avoiding standing water in the road, out of fear of the questionable tires deciding they had lived long enough and wanting to take out everything they were attached to in the process of ending it all, I could finally settle down to take in what I had just done. I gripped the square shift ****, moving my hand around and trying different grips, unable to find one that would make it seem like they designed it for a human person. I pushed the few available buttons that were available on the cassette deck until the scan found a local country station. Flipping through the DIC I found more information than I imagined a base model in 1999 would offer. TPMS, oil and transmission temps, I clicked a few more times and landed on fuel economy. 31.7, 31.5, it fell a few more times until it settled around a later confirmed 30.5 miles per gallon. There was miles of soft rubbery plastic. In fact, other than the seats, the carpet, and the parts of the steering wheel I wrapped my hands around, the interior was covered in it. I thought about it, the entire car was covered in it. I’m convinced GM was paying overtime to the interior engineers from the Oldsmobile Bravada to throw something together that included just enough to fill the “Interior” space on the window sticker.
The frame, drivetrain, and suspension, I began to convince myself, were the only things that GM deemed worthy, or even necessary, of being made out of metal. And as the miles climbed, I started to understand why. Plastic panels save weight, and the C5 is light, at around 3000lbs. All the stiffness built into the frame translates excellently through the aluminum suspension components providing feedback without needing to travel through unnecessary niceties like sound deadening between you and the tunnel separating you from the passenger side of the car. What good is a radio when the exhaust note is superior? This was a sports car, and it was never meant to compete other factory modified entry level offerings. What many consider to be outdated but proven and efficient engine technology kept reliability high and costs low. GM trying to make this car more upscale would have only resulted in it becoming less than what it was.
After a relatively uneventful eight hour drive home, save for a few scary skips over some highway puddles, I was finally able to drive the car in dry weather the next day, doubling down on the enjoyment I could feel coming through even in the rain. The hard old F1 tires kept the car’s limits low on the backroads between home and work, but I knew I had found what I was looking for. Over the last week, I have put over 900 miles on the car without issue, and as updated maintenance items and 21st century tires arrive at my doorstep, the attention I pay to the plastic surrounding me, and the enjoyment I find from driving it, will continue to move towards opposite ends of their respective spectrums. It is certainly not the right car for everyone, but I have finally found the right car for me.
What was new car smell like 17 years ago? I had plenty of time to ponder this on my 8 hour drive to Branson, Missouri, where I was headed in the last peeking rays of sunlight I would see for the remainder of the weekend. Branson, a town full of stereotypes, I thought, of the very kind of people that I would now be associating with. Straw hats with black bands, tall white diabetic socks strapped firmly to feet with sandals, khaki Tommy Bahama shorts, and a one-size-too big Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirt with a print more obnoxious than the smell of arthritis cream. This would be my life now, and as I compared that thought with some of my other vehicular considerations before circling back to my original childhood dream, it didn't sound too bad.
My wife and I were just settling into our new (preowned!) Lexus GS350 F sport during this drive. In fact we had just bought it that morning in Ohio, and immediately after our cardboard 45 day plate was attached behind a cheesy plastic surround, we were on our way. Like a storm front going the wrong direction, we were barreling west with the determination only the promise of a Corvette waiting for us three states away could muster. Our ventilated seats were on full blast, not because it was too hot in the car, just because we could. We never had a car with features like these. Two hours into the trip and I'm still finding buttons on the side of the seat, and realizing where I thought I was comfortable, I was totally wrong. My lumbar should be just so, the extending leg rest about one second’s worth of a button's push back from full. The Lexus was really something special for us. Comfortable, quiet, ambiguous, were we old now? No. We had F Sport badges. We were sporty, and the thin walled tires didn’t hesitate to remind you when attempting to navigate a bump on the highway meant for larger, softer cars. My determination set to full, we continued on, 85mph, with the blind spot monitors constantly reminding me of the other motorists I was putting in the rearview.
We’ve had countless cars over the years: Acura TL Type-S, Tahoe, Suburban, Silverado, WRX, Civic Si, Acura Integra, Pontiac G8, Pontiac G8, Pontiac G8 (that’s not a typo!), in fact, we currently own five cars, and three boats. We’ve had a lot of vehicles, and the most recently removed was a 2004 Pontiac GTO, which I must admit although long coveted, was atrocious. I’m sure at one point it made a wonderful GT car, but it was not 11 years and 60,000 miles after its release. Trim dismantled itself while sitting dormant in the garage, the radiator sometimes decided to vent only a small portion of coolant onto the floor, and those are just the things it would do when I wasn’t driving it. Still, wide summer tires, stiffer springs, and an obnoxious exhaust can make almost anything fun to drive. This car I thought, was close enough for me. It had two doors (like a Corvette!), it had an LS1 (like a Corvette!) and maybe after I figured out how to shave off 8-900 pounds, it might feel like a sports car. After a couple years of ownership, with more money spent on maintenance than mods, I let the car go to someone I knew would care for it, and set my sights on what would be next.
That answer was obvious to me, at first. Corvette was the obvious answer, I had always wanted one, and I was lucky enough to be able to afford that childhood dream. I had to weigh my options though. I was a child 20 years ago. Was the Corvette still what I wanted? So I started the search, looking for what I could compare. M3? I couldn’t afford the out of warranty maintenance, and wasn’t it just a fancier GTO at the end of the day? No, I needed a sports car. Not just 2 doors, I needed a car with 2 seats. Miata? All the glowing reviews in the world wouldn’t convince me I wanted a 160hp convertible for a third vehicle, unless it was something old and unreliable, but I wasn’t ready for British ownership either. I needed something with power too. Two seats, and power. My list was narrowing as I weighed my wants. I could buy a new Mustang, they’re great cars, the Coyote a great engine, and they’re a bargain with base GTs selling at 26 thousand. Too much of a compromise, I decided. I could drive a Mustang year round, it would be too comfortable, too quiet. Everything kept coming back Corvette. They are possibly the best performance bargain, the aftermarket is huge, OEM parts are plentiful and affordable. The Corvette has never necessarily been the best at anything much other than an unbeatable price point for performance, and I was OK with that. I didn’t need fancy. I needed something fun and connected, so I settled my aim on the C5 Corvette.
Finding this particular C5, a 1999 Fixed Roof Coupe (FRC) finished in Artic White, with 7100 miles, was more of an accident than a deliberate choice. Two days earlier I was set to be in Tennessee, taking delivery of a low mile Electron Blue z06. As that day came and went, and I heard nothing from the seller, I went looking again. I knew the targa topped C5 was not for me, and I knew finding the best example of the fixed roof was more important than whether or not it was the hopped up factory version, since as most gearheads have come to terms with, it probably won’t stay stock for long. I had sent a few offers out, probably insulting to some of the owners, before coming across this particular car on eBay. I showed it to my wife, who liked the idea of buying what was essentially a new car, 17 years after the fact. So I decided to try an offer I figured would be too low to be accepted, and I found myself suddenly scrambling to find a way to make it from Indiana to Southwest Missouri and back before the weekend closed. After a nights stop in St. Louis, we headed out early in the rain, which would continue until the next day.
Pulling into the small specialty dealership where the car was being sold was a relief, but my heart was pounding. I drove eight hours to buy a car I had not even seen in person. I drove eight hours to buy a car whose generation I had never even sat in. As we walked into the front office I could see the car through the doorway leading to the garage. It was in a light that could only be provided by excessive overhead fluorescents, and as I walked across, the doorway provided a slow panning reveal fit for a third try at a successful Top Gear reboot. The bright white paint sparkled as I moved around it, and I thought this must have been what it was like in a GM showroom seventeen years ago. Keys were put into my hand and I opened the door, eagerly anticipating the new car smell I was promised was still present, and it was. I’m convinced the smell has not changed in the last twenty years. Hard, big drops of rain were smashing the tin roof above the shop as I put the key straight ahead into the ignition. For a brief second I paused, and wondered what a new Corvette would start like. The clutch was pushed, the key was turned, and the car almost shook to life in a kind of diluted anger only engine technology pioneered forty years earlier could provide. As the cold high idle smoothed, likewise my heartrate, I stepped back out and with the hood now open I could see what buyers saw almost twenty years ago. Paint markings signaling a completed process, coated terminals, even the factory applied grease to quiet the hood latches was there. My wife and I fell down on either side into the still-supple black leather seats, and sat for a moment while the car warmed, before venturing out into the downpour on the test drive.
Unrefined, cheap, noisy, and other negative descriptors that dismissed the platform were washed away as I turned the wipers on and headed out onto an empty stretch. Winding out the LS1 was smooth, linear, and just loud enough to remind me it was a sports car. I felt as close to the ground as I was. Everything looked as new, and it drove like it too. The steering was tight and connected, but not heavy. The brakes, even on this base model, were more than adequate to slow the car quickly from speed. Acceleration was brisk, which almost surprised me at first, since I had been eyeing z06s with their fifty extra horsepower, before remembering that even as a base model, it was still a Corvette. As I checked systems via the dashboard diagnostics, and fiddled with switches to ensure operation, I decided I was more than satisfied with this example. The Goodyear F1 tires that were notoriously hard 17 years ago had only gotten worse, and the rain covering the road was not helping my confidence, so we turned around, deciding if I was to wreck the car driving down the highway, we would at least have the title first.
After the money and paperwork had exchanged hands, we were back out in the rain headed east up I44. My wife’s LED driving lights were shining behind me, and I was convinced they were providing more light than the yellow low beams coming out of my (much cooler) pop-up headlights. A quick stop at a passing town, and a set of wipers to replace the seventeen year old ones on the car had us back on our way. Cautiously avoiding standing water in the road, out of fear of the questionable tires deciding they had lived long enough and wanting to take out everything they were attached to in the process of ending it all, I could finally settle down to take in what I had just done. I gripped the square shift ****, moving my hand around and trying different grips, unable to find one that would make it seem like they designed it for a human person. I pushed the few available buttons that were available on the cassette deck until the scan found a local country station. Flipping through the DIC I found more information than I imagined a base model in 1999 would offer. TPMS, oil and transmission temps, I clicked a few more times and landed on fuel economy. 31.7, 31.5, it fell a few more times until it settled around a later confirmed 30.5 miles per gallon. There was miles of soft rubbery plastic. In fact, other than the seats, the carpet, and the parts of the steering wheel I wrapped my hands around, the interior was covered in it. I thought about it, the entire car was covered in it. I’m convinced GM was paying overtime to the interior engineers from the Oldsmobile Bravada to throw something together that included just enough to fill the “Interior” space on the window sticker.
The frame, drivetrain, and suspension, I began to convince myself, were the only things that GM deemed worthy, or even necessary, of being made out of metal. And as the miles climbed, I started to understand why. Plastic panels save weight, and the C5 is light, at around 3000lbs. All the stiffness built into the frame translates excellently through the aluminum suspension components providing feedback without needing to travel through unnecessary niceties like sound deadening between you and the tunnel separating you from the passenger side of the car. What good is a radio when the exhaust note is superior? This was a sports car, and it was never meant to compete other factory modified entry level offerings. What many consider to be outdated but proven and efficient engine technology kept reliability high and costs low. GM trying to make this car more upscale would have only resulted in it becoming less than what it was.
After a relatively uneventful eight hour drive home, save for a few scary skips over some highway puddles, I was finally able to drive the car in dry weather the next day, doubling down on the enjoyment I could feel coming through even in the rain. The hard old F1 tires kept the car’s limits low on the backroads between home and work, but I knew I had found what I was looking for. Over the last week, I have put over 900 miles on the car without issue, and as updated maintenance items and 21st century tires arrive at my doorstep, the attention I pay to the plastic surrounding me, and the enjoyment I find from driving it, will continue to move towards opposite ends of their respective spectrums. It is certainly not the right car for everyone, but I have finally found the right car for me.
Last edited by work_truck; 07-15-2016 at 09:59 AM.
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07-15-2016, 08:21 AM
#2
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Leaving the dealer:
mileage after getting home:
Drying the carpet after finding the nest under the wiper cowl:
Buttoned back up and finally made enough room in the garage:
New delrin **** installed:
285/35/18 Michelin PSS:
Wheels (four new z06 rears from houseofwheels.com thanks Bob!) are supposed to be here next Wednesday, then it will be time to go through belts/hoses/fluids etc
(also don't mind the porch in the middle of being refinished)
mileage after getting home:
Drying the carpet after finding the nest under the wiper cowl:
Buttoned back up and finally made enough room in the garage:
New delrin **** installed:
285/35/18 Michelin PSS:
Wheels (four new z06 rears from houseofwheels.com thanks Bob!) are supposed to be here next Wednesday, then it will be time to go through belts/hoses/fluids etc
(also don't mind the porch in the middle of being refinished)
Last edited by work_truck; 07-15-2016 at 08:48 AM.
The following users liked this post:
IMXCITD (07-15-2016)
07-15-2016, 09:20 AM
#5
Melting Slicks
Are you planning on running the same size wheel & tire at all 4 corners? If so, you may very well experience Active Handling problems. Otherwise, congrats on a great find! 
07-15-2016, 09:22 AM
#6
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
We will see next week
07-15-2016, 09:31 AM
#8
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,318
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2022 Corvette of the Year Finalist -- Modified
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Great write up. I felt like I was there along for whole experience. As a side note.... If you are not in a journalist related field you should be.
Last edited by I’m Z one; 07-15-2016 at 09:32 AM.
07-15-2016, 09:37 AM
#10
I hope you both enjoy the car! Congrats!
07-15-2016, 09:41 AM
#11
Safety Car
Thanks for sharing. Any more photos of the stryker blue G8 in the background of one of the C5 shots?
07-15-2016, 09:42 AM
#12
Le Mans Master
Ggggreat story... Now, just so you enthusiasm and honeymoon don't come to a screeching halt... order an LMC5 module and install it. Then on your next trip to Cracker Barrel you won't have to suffer the humiliation of having your dream car towed to the home town Chevy dealer, so they can tell you they can't help you...
Have fun bro 
Have fun bro
07-15-2016, 09:48 AM
#13
Pro
Your choice of words drug me in.................you should be a writer if you are not already. Congrats on the car, enjoy. Thanks for the story!
07-15-2016, 09:52 AM
#14
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Ggggreat story... Now, just so you enthusiasm and honeymoon don't come to a screeching halt... order an LMC5 module and install it. Then on your next trip to Cracker Barrel you won't have to suffer the humiliation of having your dream car towed to the home town Chevy dealer, so they can tell you they can't help you... Have fun bro
Have fun bro
07-15-2016, 10:05 AM
#15
Administrator
Member Since: Mar 2001
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Congrats on finding a beautiful, low mileage FRC. Enjoyed reading the story too.
07-15-2016, 10:16 AM
#16
Drifting
Fantastic writing, even nicer Arctic White FRC.
Good to see you are modernizing it, driving it, and enjoying it rather than letting it sit in a bubble.
Good to see you are modernizing it, driving it, and enjoying it rather than letting it sit in a bubble.
07-15-2016, 01:03 PM
#18
Team Owner
Member Since: Sep 2002
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I enjoyed reading your thread, so well written. Congrats on a great find. White FRC's are hard to come by, especially unmolested and in that condtion and with only 7,100 miles. I'm glad that you found the right car for you. That's exaclty how I feel about my '99 Coupe. Your Corvette should look great with the OEM 18" Z06 rims at all four corners but something about the stock OEM '99 rims on the FRC body looks right as well. My wife had a Pewter FRC with chrome OEM rims and we were going to change them out for C5 Z06 rims but ended up leaving the chrome stock rims on. The C5 Z06 and early C6 Z06 OEM rims are two of the nicest looking stock rims on a C5 IMO.
07-15-2016, 03:26 PM
#20
Great find. I guess it intrigues me as to why you didn't drive more of the vehicles memtioned; including the ones you both dimissed and purchased; in multiple forms (open roof vs not etc etc). To me the c5 is just as much of "you didn't know you liked it until you were there" as any.