Hi,

I'm considering buying a 2000 coupe. 31,000 miles. Seems to be in excellent condition. Garage kept and under a cover. Nassau Blue, 6 speed. I can get this car for $25k. This would be my daily driver. Besides the usual question of, is this a good deal, I have a more subjective question. Is this a good idea?

I can afford to buy the car. But I can't afford to have a ton of problems with it. This is beginning to sound a little stupid, even to me. But I'm gonna thow it out there anyway.

TIA,
Mike

 

It isn't stupid. 'vettes are reliable and durable, and not terribly expensive to keep up (compared to, say Porsches or Audis or even Cadillacs).

You do have to ask yourself whether the car is practical enough to be your daily driver. Only two seats. Not a lot of room to haul stuff home from the lumber yard, etc. If you can live with that . . .

Things to check: check all the things you would on any used car. If it were a Silverado pickup, what would you check? do the same here.

Vette-specific things you should check: mostly the electronics. Check around this forum and you will see most people have trouble with all the electronic systems: active handling, ABS, remote locks, etc. These are often a pain to diagnose and fix. GM gets a C- grade here for design, maintnenance, and support, so make sure everything works and works well.

Make some effort to ask/look/check if the car has ever been modified. Use your judgement here: if buying from an indidivual are they a speed nut and a bit shifty? If they seem decent, don't worry too much. But realize a very few vettes were modified, ruined, and then the owners re-fit the stock parts to sell the car and get rid of their problem. Usually you can tell on inspection. If you take it to a mechanic, ask him/her to check: have the heads ever been off? Does it look like the cam has been changed (the timing chain cover will have been replaced) or the exhaust manifolds changed.

If it is a daily driver, make sure you keep good all weather tires on it: pure "performance tires" give you a bit more grip on a dry road but become unfriendly in rain or sleet, etc.

 

Thanks,

I didn't ramble on about details in my first post. I wanted to see what came up.

I've had a vette before. An 87. Bought it with 72k miles and a broken VSS. So I don't know how many miles were actually on it. I had that car for almost 10 years. I finally sold it to get a newer used Camaro. A day didn't go by that I regretted getting rid of the vette. That's the long way around to say that I'm not completely blind to what I'm getting into.

But this is a good bit more expensive. And I would think a bit more expensive to maintain even if things go well. This car looks like what a 31k miles car should look like. Under the hood is pretty much spotless. I don't mean used car, dealer-prepped for sale look. I mean low mileage, doesn't get driven a bunch clean.

Also, I'd still like to know if this a reasonable price. I know what the blue book says. But what about the real world.

Thanks again,
Mike

 

If you go to www.corvettetrader.com you can look at simular cars and do a price compar.

 

When we were buying ours, as Lee mentioned, we focused on finding one with the following characteristics:
1) Un-modified
2) Un-molested
3) From a guy who seemed to know what he was talking about

During our shopping we noticed that there were some VERY high priced ones that were absolutely rat bagged. Beat on. Half dead. A thorough inspection should reveal things that are not what they should be. Our visual inspection revealed things like broken targa roofs which can be darned expensive to replace, engines that blow blue, interiors in very rough shape... that sorta thing.

To be honest, when it comes to these cars, as long as you keep an open mind (My wife was my voice of reason, "We are just going to LOOK at this one. DO NOT fall in love with it in 2 seconds flat. Look at it objectively.") the right one will find you, I believe. We looked at at least a dozen of 'em before finding the one we now have.

To me, from your posts, it sounds like you have found a real good one.

 

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the advice. I took C3's advice and had a look around at what's for sale. Looks to me, compared to a lot of those cars, this one is a steal. As another said, find one un-modified and un-molested. It definitely falls into that category too.

I think I may have found my next car.....

Any last advice before I call the guy? Should I post this anywhere else but the new guy forum?

Thanks again,
Mike

 

COOL! The best advice I can give you at this time would be to buy the car! And prepare for sore face muscles from chronic smiling.

 

Do it Dude!!!
Let the G-Forces be with you!!!