10K entry into Corvettes.
Discussion
Ive been asked this question a few times of late by novices that have never owned an American car but have liked the thought of running a vette.
What sort of buy could they expect,maintenace,mpg,parts,living with a LHD,performance from say 10K.
Ive not been looking at the vette market lately so ime a little bit out of touch to answer their questions honestly.
Would it be a good buy in comparison with whats available in the UK.
Thanks.
What sort of buy could they expect,maintenace,mpg,parts,living with a LHD,performance from say 10K.
Ive not been looking at the vette market lately so ime a little bit out of touch to answer their questions honestly.
Would it be a good buy in comparison with whats available in the UK.
Thanks.
Edited by ZR1cliff on Thursday 6th July 12:18
[quote=ZR1cliff]Ive been asked this question a few times of late by novices that have never owned an American car but have liked the thought of running a Vette.
What sort of buy could they expect,maintenace,mpg,parts,living with a LHD,performance from say 10K.
Ive not been looking at the vette market lately so ime a little bit out of touch to answer their questions honestly.
Would it be a good buy in comparison with whats available in the UK.
Thanks.
[quote]
The C4 is a great buy at the moment and for me, avoids the pitfalls of the C3 in terms of age and maintenance. The early ones go for around £5k but you have to be wary of what you have to rectify for that money. £10k should easily buy you any L98 C4 in mint condition with change to spare. An LT1 engined car should be well within range although I did find that later ones seemed to keep their price a bit better. However, I've now seen higher mile C5's selling for £15k so it just doesn't make sense to pay more than about £13k for a mint low-mile example.
As you know, maintenance is a doddle, mpg on my '85 example was around 16-19 USmpg, parts are still easy to get, LHD is a transition thing which passes after a few weeks of practice. They are still 150mph cars with 0-60 in 5.9 for the early 235bhp cars and I never had any real problems with mine bar the instrument pack going AWOL. My C4 was the first American car I ever owned and I was totally in love with it. A few niggles but nothing difficult to fix and eminently DIY with the possible exclusion of Optispark replacement.
I wouldn't recommend the C1-3 Corvettes to anyone other than die-hard collectors or people who knew their stuff. The C4 was the first Vette designed to compete in Europe. It didn't but had the right idea.
A guy on another forum recently blagged my old Vette in a straight swop for a raggy 2nd gen Camaro and he loves it too.
What sort of buy could they expect,maintenace,mpg,parts,living with a LHD,performance from say 10K.
Ive not been looking at the vette market lately so ime a little bit out of touch to answer their questions honestly.
Would it be a good buy in comparison with whats available in the UK.
Thanks.
[quote]
The C4 is a great buy at the moment and for me, avoids the pitfalls of the C3 in terms of age and maintenance. The early ones go for around £5k but you have to be wary of what you have to rectify for that money. £10k should easily buy you any L98 C4 in mint condition with change to spare. An LT1 engined car should be well within range although I did find that later ones seemed to keep their price a bit better. However, I've now seen higher mile C5's selling for £15k so it just doesn't make sense to pay more than about £13k for a mint low-mile example.
As you know, maintenance is a doddle, mpg on my '85 example was around 16-19 USmpg, parts are still easy to get, LHD is a transition thing which passes after a few weeks of practice. They are still 150mph cars with 0-60 in 5.9 for the early 235bhp cars and I never had any real problems with mine bar the instrument pack going AWOL. My C4 was the first American car I ever owned and I was totally in love with it. A few niggles but nothing difficult to fix and eminently DIY with the possible exclusion of Optispark replacement.
I wouldn't recommend the C1-3 Corvettes to anyone other than die-hard collectors or people who knew their stuff. The C4 was the first Vette designed to compete in Europe. It didn't but had the right idea.
A guy on another forum recently blagged my old Vette in a straight swop for a raggy 2nd gen Camaro and he loves it too.
There are two relatively low mileage LT1 C4 vettes for sale on Autotrader at the moment, a 1993 Polo Green one and a 1995 Yellow one, the Yellow one looks like Shoebag's old one but I don't think it is as it has the adjustable suspension by the look if the interior picture.
Lovely looking car for £9,995 the 1993 is only £7,995 which makes that even more of a bargain!
Lovely looking car for £9,995 the 1993 is only £7,995 which makes that even more of a bargain!
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