Topic: Re: c4 not worth anything
in Forum: C4 General Discussion
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Sykesville, MD - USA
Joined: 3/20/2009
Posts: 8
Vette(s): '86L Coupe
Factory ordered 1/86
Sold 11/88
Found 12/07!
2016 Z51 Coupe
Night Race Blue
What was the reason for buying your vette in the first place? Was it to drive or did you buy it as an investment? Over time as the C4s get parted out, wrecked, or modded to the point of no return, they will appreciate in value. They will never reach the value of C1s or mid year cars, but as numbers dwindle they will rise.
I enjoy mine for the shear pleasure of driving it and after 5 years of having it back I still get a kick out of seeing it sitting in my garage. I paid just under $30,000 for it new and traded it in for $20,000 two years later with 17,000 miles on her. I gladly paid $9,800 to buy it back with 48,000 on her. It was still in great condition! Although see is a garage queen, I'm happy to report I just clicked over 60,000 miles last weekend. I drive this car year round on the weekends in nice weather.
My son in law just picked up an '01 roadster in great shape with 78,000 mile from an original owner for $15,700. C5 guys are in denial as to the value of there cars too.
Drive it and enjoy it cuz like everything else in life, you never know what life might throw at you!
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well i bought my vette to enjoy i like working on her and take it for a drive every once in a while. i also own a lot of harleys witch i ride just about everyday. it;s in my blood. i have to say this vette is getting in my blood. i think i'll go start it up. if it goes up in value. that would be great.
Technology is killing ALL newspapers. TV, and the INTERNET beats them to the 'punch'. So, they'll hafta adapt. C-3's weren't worth 'diddly'. Now, looks like, at least the conv.'s are increasing in value.So......?
I just joined the C4 registry, and looking forward to learning with all of you. I find the discussions very interesting about Vettes. They are sort of like which color is best? Is it Red, Yellow, or Black, or? We each perhaps chose a vette for various reasons. So often, I go to "third party" sources to get their take on occasion, not owners of vettes who inject their biases into reasoning. I find an Edmunds writing interesting that declares a listing of the "10 Best Corvettes of all time". Number 10 is a 70 vette LT1. Number 1 is, of course the 63 fuel injected split rear window vette. Now for C4 owners, sandwiched in between is number 7 the CR4 vette introduced in 1984 and number 2, the 1990 ZR1 vette! NO OTHER GENERATION HAS TWO ENTRIES! I too own a supercharged 3800 Fiero that is much faster than a good hunk of the vettes out there. Each car is fun and a hoot to drive for what it is! I have 60's GTO's convertibles and hard tops and love them too. I have learned a long time ago that the speed of your car is really directly proportional to the size of your pocket book, so who really cares! As many have said lets have fun!
BTW I to have worn out various Harleys and have found that as they get to a certain age they seem to hold their value and interest. They seem to drop to about $10,000 to $12,000 no matter what the year from about 2005 and back. I think the C4's are demonstrating a similar pattern. I just purchased a convertible, 6 speed 1990 "cherry" with 50,000 miles and well under $10,000-what a buy! Thanks for inviting me into the group! Sure is fun rounding the Tetons with the top down!!!! SMILE!
Since my reply from over two years ago, the market seems to have bottomed out for C4's. It wasn't good before, but it's certainly way worse now. The only impact this has one me would be in terms of value for selling mine or trading it in for a C7. In terms of how much I love mine, it matters not!
Just two years ago, the KBB value (for whatever KBB values are worth) on my Vette was around $20K for a private party sale, and now it's around $12K. I'm not sure I could even get that! I paid $17K for mine (probably over-paid, but I really wanted it... because I love C4's) back in January of 2010, so assuming its value holds for the next three months, I'm looking at $1k in deprecated value for each year of ownership. That's about $83 a month, and I think it's worth it!
I guess I should have sold mine a couple of years ago, but then I'd sitting around without a Vette, because I'm not planning on getting a new one for a couple of years. What kind of life would that be, without a Vette for four years?!?!??? 

I think of Corvette values as a wave, passing through the generations from left to right. The shape of the wave in my visual imagery is like an inverted bell curve. The crests are at the left end and right end of the spectrum, with the trough roughly somewhere in the middle. The most valuable Vettes are the older ones (on the left) and the newer ones (on the right.)
With this imaginary (and unverifiable, as it's just my impression of Vette values) wave moving left to right, a few years ago the late C3's (78 - 82) were at the bottom of the trough. It's moved to the right, into the early C4's, which are now at the bottom. This means that all C4's are bottoming out; a trend that I fear will continue for a number of years. Those C3's I mentioned seem to be gaining in value. Maybe not a lot, but they seem to be going up.
Plus, a Corvette is not a Porsche or Ferrari, which are over-priced to start with. We buy new Vettes because they are great "bang for the buck" cars in terms of performance for cost. Want Porsche performance for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost? Then buy a Vette. Fit and finish are not important to me, performance is! We buy them used for that same reason. To expect to be able to sell them used for inflated values is not being objective.
With the introduction of the C7, the C5's have been "C4'd", meaning their values are dropping to shockingly low levels. You can get a good C5 on the cheap, and have a helluva Vette on your hands. Even low mileage early C6's (2005 - 2007) are advertised at mid $20K, so I would imagine they can be had (around here at least) for the low $20K range. Check out this 2006 black vert with 29K miles, at an asking price of $26,450: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4738883704.html I bet you could get that for $23 - $25K all day long.
So to sum up this long-winded post, I agree with what everyone else is saying. Drive it, enjoy it, and don't count on it being a collector Vette. There were just too many C4's made for that. Maybe as time passes and there are fewer on the road... who knows?

1996 LT4 Collector Edition
Each of us bought our Corvette(s) for different reasons. I bought my C4 (84') because I wanted a Corvette since I was in high school in the early sixties. I feel in love with the 63' Vette but when I retired I decided that the 100K plus for one was an investment which would be stored rather than driven and I preferred to be able to drive mine every day.
For me it was worth every penny I spent. It had the "look" I wanted and after an initial 5k in replacing tires and parts, I could take a break and just enjoy it.
I still have some major items to replace with OEM or OEM improved parts, leather seat covers, new amps and speakers, etc. but right now everything works. The rest of the replacements can be done one at a time.
For me, the joy is driving my Vette. I do not care if the car appreciates in value. For those that do, there are C1 and C2 models that you can purchase, put in a garage and wait till you get your price...to each his own. You should know which option (for value appreciation or because you want one) before you purchase and that way you may find the same sense of "feeling great" that I do.
For the most part, I agree with what's been said. My '94 is nothing special but it's mine and I love it. It makes me smile whenever I look at it and it makes a whole bunch of other people smile too. I drove it to a Titans game a few weeks ago and after the game a group of younger men, maybe in their 20's walked by and one kid said, "Man, that's a nice car." Folks, to me that's worth the price of admission EVERYTIME! I've had people try to buy it. I've gotten compliments on it. So, maybe it's not the fastest or the newest but it's damn sure mine and it's not going anywhere! And for what it's worth, it's THE American sports car as far as I'm concerned.
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Montgomery, AL - USA
Joined: 4/19/2012
Posts: 47
Vette(s): 1986 Gray/Blue Z-51 Coupe & 1998 Pewter Coupe
A C-4 may never go up in value, but I bought it for my driving enjoyment, not to impress anyone else or make a profit.
She has some quirks, but I certainly love her as is.
Fred
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Garland, TX - USA
Joined: 1/1/2013
Posts: 37
Vette(s): I have a 1991 Artic White, Red Interior convertible, 30,000 miles on it, & a 1993 40th Anniversary with 50,000 miles on it
I own two, a '91 white convertible with torch red interior..........take it to car shows only. My daily driver is a 40th Anniversary Edition. She only has 65,000 miles on her. There is hardly a day go by that I don't get complimented on it. Absolutely driving either one of my C4's and doubt that I would be any happier with anything else A CORVETTE is a CORVETTE, regardless of the year ot rolled off the production line. It's all about the ride.............
in Forum: C4 General Discussion
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