Greetings, I will hopefully in the next few weeks become a new C5 owner. I am just about to start looking at cars. I found a thread on this forum which listed some common problems with C5's. I was wondering if anyone had any other advise for someone looking for a vehicle. any years to stay away from? In particular, what should I pay careful attention to when looking at a used C5? Are there any important questions I should ask the previous owner? If anyone has any advice for someone looking at used C5's I would enjoy reading about it. Are there any significant differences from year to year?

thanks!

Edit: I've noticed that there are two different rear window styles for the c5, one has a sharply dropping rear glass simliar in shape to the convertable, and the other has a longer less steeply sloping glass which goes almost all the way back to the rear of the car. I've never really liked the look of the first type, and I want to find a car with the second type of rear class. is there any rhyme or reason to which vehicle got which type of glass? I know most Z06's I've seen have the short glass, I've only found a single Z06 with the long glass. did different years get different types? did different roof styles get different rear glass? and how on earth are they identified? I see some listed as "coupe" some as "hatchback" but the terms seem to be used interchangably by the dealers.

 

First off welcome to the site. To answer your question about the different types of glass you are seeing, there are 3 types of C5's: The coupe, fixed roof coupe, and Z06. The coupe is the onethat you like and is also the only one with a removable roof. The Z06 is considered the high performance Corvette and only comes in hardtop (fixed roof coupe) because it adds about 18% more rigidity to the body by not cutting a hole in the roof. The fixed roof coupe was design to look like the Z06 but give you the same horsepower as a normal C5 with better handling ability due to the extra stiff body.

 

The "Z06" you saw with the Targa Top wasn't a Z06. They didn't make Z06's in that roof style. What they do make is what I call, a "Clone" package. It's got all the cool looking stuff for the outside of the car, like the grill screens, the brake cooling ducts in the rockers, cosmetic stuff like that that you can put on your car. Hey man, I'm in the neighborhood of buying a black Z06 myself for my budget, so good luck in your search, Jonathan.

P.S. Don't steal any of the Black Z06 deals man!!!!!

 

thanks for the info! I had assumed that one I saw was a genuine Z06 by the badging and the brake ducts...but I guess its not hard to add those to a base model. I guess I'll consider both and see what I find. I want the coupe only for costmetic reasons, I just like the way that roof style looks.

 

Also, you can remove the roof on the Coupe, you can't on the Fixed Roof Coupe or the Z06

 

I went to check out my first prospect today, red 99 6speed. looked nice but when I told the guy that I was just checking out the cars to see if that's really what I want, and that I'm not ready to take it home today he kinda lost interest in me and wouldn't even let me drive it. I guess that's to be expected though. I might just wait a couple weeks until I'm ready to buy.

 

just to clarify... the FRC (fixed roof coupe) was in 99 and 00 (btw all m6's w/ z51 suspension and like 80 pounds lighter)... the zo6 was 01 on... sooo the the FRC couldnt be designed to look like a z06... the FRC chasis was improved and became the z06...

-me

 

I dont know how big of a hurry you are in or what part of the country you live but
check out CnV Corvettes web site. They are in Tempi AZ. 150 vets in any year and color
I bought mine there and I got a great car. My wife and i flew down and drove it home.
The prices seems to be very fair and you have a great choice of cars and options.
I am sure there are other dealers that only deal in vetts out there.
I did all of the paper work over the phone and transferd money for down payment before I even got there Interest rate was 6.5% thru credit union that they arranged
My salesman was Tom.Flanders
hope this will help
Jerry

 

I did notice on that 99 that there seemed to be a problem with the climate control LCD screen. you could see the information on it if you looked carefully, but it was very dim, almost out. someone on that other thread mentioned something about that. is that a common problem? how is something like that fixed?

 

I too can recommend C'nV Corvettes ..they go thru all their cars to take care of any problems before offering them for sale. If something comes up after the sale ... the service dept says to just bring it in .. I like that
I would not dream of buyin from a private owner unless I knew the car inside and out .. reputable dealership ..one that takes care of their cars and owners is mandatory IMHO.

I bought my C-5 black coupe there .. Jack Haley was very straightforward and a huge help in helping wife and I make our decision .. they have a 'few' to choose from for *sure*

-Frank