Second Vette?

"SmugAardvark" (SmugAardvark) 05/03/2018 at 14:58 • Filed to: Corvette, Bad Ideas

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I’m faced with a dilemma. One of the higher-ups in my company has an old C4 Corvette (1987, if I remember correctly) taking up space in his garage. It’s white with red interior, over 150,000 miles, and needs some work. The heater core is bad, the paint is faded and scuffed up in a few places, the interior is worn down, and it had a mouse nest in the trunk at one point. The engine runs (but could use a tune-up and fresh fluids), and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engages gears without drama. It passed smog testing here in California about 3 years ago, then it blew the heater core almost a year later, and he changed the registration to non-op. It has just sat since then.

He hasn’t been actively trying to sell it, and he told me he’d let me have it for “less than $1,500.”

So, do I buy it? I’ve tried to work out the pros and cons of such a purchase.

Pros:

If one Corvette is good, two is better.

Would make a wonderful track day/autocross toy.

It’d be great to have something to wrench on again.

Relatively small initial investment, well less than a single paycheck. I could probably clean it up and just resell it at a profit if I really wanted to.

Maybe a new LeMons car in the making.

Perfect for a Miami Vice cosplay convention.

Cons:

My girlfriend would be angry about me taking up another parking spot in our driveway/garage. (It’s already kind of full with my two cars, her car, my brewery equipment, etc). There is street parking, but not always a lot available.

I don’t really have a ton of free time for a project car.

Potential to become a money pit.

Plenty of additional ancillary costs (tires, fluids, insurance, and so on)

Perfect for a Scarecrow and Mrs. King cosplay convention.

For your consideration, here is a picture of a C4 Corvette. Sorry, I don’t have a picture of the one I’m considering.

Oppothoughts?

BeaterGT > SmugAardvark 05/03/2018 at 16:06

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Damn, this is a difficult one. The price is low enough to say, “JUST BUY IT ALREADY” but who knows how much TLC it really needs. Not sure how easy it would be to flip a C4 w/ 150k+ on it but it may make for a great beater/track toy like you said. Would need to check it out in person, drive it, etc before making the final call. Could always throw that money into your other Corvette!

asenna > SmugAardvark 05/03/2018 at 16:06

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buy it!

especially if you are going to replicate the photo you provided

asenna > BeaterGT 05/03/2018 at 16:10

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Its fully depreciated even a junk yard would pick it up and take it away for $500

SmugAardvark > BeaterGT 05/03/2018 at 16:16

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Yeah, this is the sort of moral quandary that can make or break a man.

Honestly, if it is nice enough mechanically, it might be worth it just to shred laps at Laguna Seca and Sonoma with, and just let the aesthetics be ratty, then just sell it at a break-even point if I get bored.

SmugAardvark > asenna 05/03/2018 at 16:17

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That would be ideal.

However, the state of California may take issue with it if I were to try and drive it on the street. I think His Stigness would come find me and personally fail the car during its smog test.

BeaterGT > SmugAardvark 05/03/2018 at 16:29

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I definitely support that idea. Track cars end up with scars and scruffy looking anyway. Sounds like you know what you need to do, test drive time!

PS. This is why I bought a high mileage C5Z.

MoCamino > SmugAardvark 05/03/2018 at 17:29

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Cons:

Potential Near-certainty to become a money pit.

Fixed that for you. With that said....buy it anyway.  The potential for fun outweighs the financial impact.

Kailand09 > SmugAardvark 05/03/2018 at 23:05

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damn. I’m a huge vette fan, and simply buying one for 1,500 would be very hard to pass up haha.

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > SmugAardvark 05/04/2018 at 20:28

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It’s an antique Corvette for almost free. C4's have pretty much bottomed out in price, who knows when they’ll go back up and how much. I say do what it takes to make it a daily driver and clean it up.

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