Hi there, I am faced with a hard decision to make between 2 cars... the Nissan 350z and the C5 corvette.
The reason I am thinking of getting one of these cars is because I want something newer than my current
1992 Nissan 300zx twin turbo. I like the car, but it's been giving me a lot of problems, and I don't really have
the time to deal with them because I am going to college. I want to get something nice, but which would have
low mileage (no more than 40k miles). Now I have always dreamed of owning a corvette, it has always been
one of my favorite cars (I just love how it looks and I've driven a few of them and the torque always brought
a smile to my face). However, reliability is a big issue for me - at least while I'm still attending college. This is
why I have also been considering the Nissan 350z. It's definately not as nice or fast as a C5, but its an overall
nice car and I can still get a warranty on it from the dealership because its pretty new. Anyways, what do you
guys think about corvette reliability, and what car do you think I should get in my situation?
Thanks a lot!!!

 

Vettes are pretty reliable. Parts are not expensive. It's easy to find dependable places to have routine maintenance and repairs done. About the only big headache area you can find on recent vettes is the electrics -- some cars just seem to give problems. Assuming you check for that carefully -- that all the electrical gadgets work well, etc., it should be a pretty durable car.

If you are in college your are very likely under 25 and insurance could be an issue - not sure if there is much difference in the cost of insurance on the two cars you are looking at but likely as not it is more than the difference in repair costs you can expect.

 

To be honest with you, I'd hate to have to park my C5 at a college parking lot. I have two cars - one for parking lots where there is alot of activity and one for driving to safe places. The C5 is fairly reliable once the common failures are taken care of. (including door lock module replacement, differential gasket replacement, column lock bypass installation, among a few) For full time college travel, I'd get a Honda Civic Si or Mazdaspeed 3 to hold me over until I had a full time job. Then I'd go for the torque monster!

Dave

 

Well I don't really have to worry about the parking because I live off-campus in an apartment and have my own space.
Oh and I would never drive a civic or a mazda 3. Front wheel drive scares me. So out of thosethings that arebound to go wrong with the car,
about how much does it cost to fix? Oh and what mileageshould I aim for when buying a used C5?

 

Hopefully, the previous owner of your future C5 took care of the aforementioned issues. All of thoseproblems were covered under my factory or GMPP warranty. Warranty Direct sells extended warranties for somewhere north of $1000. I have an 01 and it's been very reliable for the last couple of years. There is an air pump check valve that rusts shut every 5 years or so. Generally, the intake manifold must be removed to replace it. That's a $200 job at the dealership. Keep in mind that these cars were $50,000 when new (my C5 was almost $52K), so something like the active handling computer circuit board could run into the thousands of dollars - not something you'd like to dish out when going to college. This is why I recommended a couple of very reliable cars for your time at school. Heck, I had a Mazda RX4 when I was going to college. It was only three years old when I bought it.

As for mileage, I would shoot for under 100K, but really, how well it was cared for is far more important than the mileage.

 

My sig says it all about which one is morereliable.Im in college and my vette is my dd even with all my mods. I have problems here and there nothing major yet but my 93 nissan 240sx is at 130,xxx miles and is on the orignal cluth, water pump etc.... I say get the vette if you have a backup car, it will be way more fun to drive. If you have to rely on just one car I would get the 350z even though they are slow heavy pigs.

 

not to stir it up, because i love my vette have for years, but my wife has a 2004 350z ... i know but she wanted it and know we no it can hold a candle to a vette but a slow heavy pig! it only weighs about 350lbs more than my vette ! but anyway go vettes

 

"Pig" is maybe too harsh, but 350 lbs weight differential on a 3100 pound car is substantial, particularly when its basically the same size. Still, the 350Z is a nice car. I just think a 'vette is aimed a bit more at pure performance and gives you more of that for the money.

 

Wait where are you guys getting that the 350z is a "heavy pig"? Unless your looking
at the 2006-2007 touring edition, a 2003 base coupe only weighs 3179, which is
right on par with the C5. The enthusiast 350z only weighs like 30lb more than that, so
by no means is it a pig.

 

I think they were looking at the convertible. Vettes are almost unique among performance cars in that the convertible is no heavier (okay, I lie, about 15 pounds more) than the coupe. The Z convertible gains weight over the Z coupe, and frankly, it weighs more than generally advertised (based on my seeing one weighing on wheel scales).