Classic or Current Vette for the Same Cash?

1. Reliability and Maintenance

In his 1970 Camaro review, Regular Car Reviews' Mr. Regular opined something to the effect of, "you don't want an old car, you'll never stop fixing it." He was basing his comments on his early '60s Ford Falcon, and so far no one has let him borrow a C2 Corvette to complain about and make fart jokes over. We’d wager that if he had the $60,000-$80,000 various 2018 Vettes cost to spend on a fairly-nice small-block ‘67 String Ray or restored ’68 big block Corvette, maybe he'd be singing a different tune. Granted, even a restored 50-year-old car is going to have a few 50-year-old parts left on it and as such will let you down sooner than a brand new car will, but every car will eventually break, and as easy as reading codes and plugging in plastic connectors is, turning wrenches on a classic yields a different kind of reward. Still, a new car is going to go longer without a failure than most classics so...

Advantage 2018 Corvette, less so if you enjoy modification as much as operation.

>>Join the conversation about which is better, classic or current when it comes to Corvette.

2. Speed

No one is going to dispute that, with a few notable exceptions—we’re looking at you, L88— new Corvettes are significantly faster than old ones, and even the fastest classic Vettes can’t touch the top speeds new Vettes can attain. Still, 80,000 dollars is a lot of money, and if you need 750 horsepower in your muscle-car era Corvette, you'll find a way to get it for that much coin. However, if you want 750 reliable horsepower in a numbers-matching C2, you might have to come up with a little more scratch. Settling for a little less performance, swapping in blown LS power or building a big-block, selecting a less-loved model year as a starting place, or buying someone else's project are all ways to make a little room under the price cap. The good news is that no warranty means no warranty to void. It says a lot about GM’s dedication to maintaining the Corvette’s status as a world-beating full-on performance machine that—unlike modern versions of the Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger—the Corvette is still the svelte, industry-leading sports car it was in the ‘60s. So again...

Advantage 2018, less so if raw horsepower is your goal or you own a full-race Corvette.

>>Join the conversation about which is better, classic or current when it comes to Corvette.

3. The Practical Stuff

Comfort, fuel economy, emissions, safety. We'd divide these into two categories. Regarding Category I, fuel economy and emissions: who cares? No one buys a Corvette for those things. There are options for less-polluting, higher-mileage engines, but nobody’s swapping 1.2 liter fours into Corvettes. Though, if you want to save the planet, it's probably better to reuse and recycle a 1960s Corvette than have GM build you a new one. Safety and comfort are real concerns though, and the more miles you put behind the wheel of your Vette the more you are likely to appreciate the comfort and modern conveniences of a car built in this century, and the more likely you are to rely on its protection.

Clear advantage: 2018.

>>Join the conversation about which is better, classic or current when it comes to Corvette.

4. Long Term Value

No one really knows what the future will bring, but C2 Corvette values show no sign of a slump, and the bottom isn't going to drop out of the 1968-1972 muscle car market anytime soon. Real estate may dip in value sometimes, and gold bars, but not muscle cars. We could be living in another golden age of the American performance car, but you can never tell how history will play out—what seemed unbelievably fast a few years ago now seems merely mortal. If we are indeed at the peak, as with peak machines in the past, C7 Vettes will go on to be worth many times their original value. Will they ever reach the heights of the most desired '60s models? That depends on how history looks back on our current time and also on how many of today's car survive. As patient C5 owners will tell you— having a car that was faster and (arguably) better looking than the model that came before is no guarantee that it can serve as your retirement plan.

Advantage: Classics, for now.

>>Join the conversation about which is better, classic or current when it comes to Corvette.

5. Emotional Value

Of greater importance to the true enthusiast than any number is a more subjective kind of value. The way our cars make us feel has to do with something besides miles per hour or dollar signs, and even the experiences we have in them don't complete the equation. For some of us, it has to do with which cars we first fell in love with, others of us love the mythic cars we saw in magazines and movies during our formative years. For many of us, it boils down to what car we think is the most beautiful. You can't see fast when you look at a car, but you can see beautiful. Whether falling in love all over again every time you look at your Corvette requires giving up the niceties of modern technology is a question only you can answer. If Steve McQueen were alive today, would he be driving a C7, or still cruising around in his '66? The answer is probably both, and, in fact, that's the option most of us would take if we could.

Advantage: It's a draw, any Corvette you have is the right Corvette.

>>Join the conversation about which is better, classic or current when it comes to Corvette.

For help with your maintenance and repair projects, please visit our how-to section in the forum.