Looked at a 2000 vert today

[yitbos]

My wife and I looked at a 2000 vert today at a honda dealership. It was a trade they had and they actually listed it on ebay to begin with. No one had purchased it in about 3 weeks, which seemed weird to me.

It has 27k miles on it, silver in color, active handling, HUD, single cd BOSE radio. A few paint chips as you would expect from rocks bouncing up off the pavement.

They wanted $27,500 for it.

However, now the down side. No offense to smokers, but I don't smoke and we noticed the smell immediately. Plus the cigarette lighter looked used and abused. It needed new tires, they were completely bald. Even the dealer said it needed new tires. I mean there was no tread at all on them and you could barely tell where the tread was acutally at it was so smooth. Reminded me of Indy Car tires the were nearly that smooth.

I noticed under the hood a little oil that was around the valve cover area. Looked like it might be leaking a little bit there. It ran well, braked well and was generally pretty nice. The tires bother me because if they are needed on a 28K mile vehicle, the owner drove the heck out of it I think. No telling how many other things he neglected.

I had them give me a price for my 84 as a trade but they were way low for me. They only came in at $6500 and my 84 only has 51k miles on it and it's in extremly good condition. We would have passed either way as the smoke and the potential condition of the vehicle botherd me.

The one downside, it's silver and that's what my wife would like.
John

 

[cruzer99]

At that price I think you did right. It's a walk away.....It sounds like it should be at $20K (tires, brakes, complete service, etc.).
Keep looking, it will jump up when you least expect it and you will know when it is the right one!
Good luck.

 

[vett boy]

I don't know to many people with c-5 cars getting much more than 30'000 mile on tires-price is high.

 

[jrose7004]

Those new tires would cost you a smooth $1000.00! Any car I would buy from a dealer would have good tires on it or I too would walk!

 

[bluecoupe]

There are plenty of nicer C5s around for that price. Check collectorcartraderonline.com

 

[MsSchroder]

That mileage sounds about right for running through the first set of tires.

I agree with everyone else, the price seems too high. And the smoke smell would be completely unacceptable. I once bought a used car that had been smoked in. I tried everything but the smell just kept coming back.
I won't ever do that again.

Tammy

 

[Patrick]

Several years ago, I was watching an episode of "MotorWeek," which, at the time, was on PBS. During the "help" segment, the resident tech expert was doing a segment on what to look for in buying a quality used vehicle. He spoke a little bit about cigarette smoking in a car you might be looking at.

One of the things he spoke about was that the smoke from cigarettes affects adhesives in things like headliners and the various parts attached to doors, etc. The smoke tends to break these adhesives down, and you start getting portions of the ceiling headliner falling in, or door pulls coming loose.

You can wash the carpet to get the smell out, but the damage is already done. This is why vehicles that have been smoked in tend to take a hit in resale value. Obviously, as a 'vert, you wouldn't have the headliner issue, but if the previous owner smoked while the top was up, you will have advanced wear in the top itself, and those tops are not cheap to replace.

My advice: keep looking. You might visit VetteFinders, one of the CAC's sponsoring vendors, and take a look at their inventory.


-Patrick

 

[chevyaddict]

Just a comment about ebay.... most of the vettes on there (I've been watching extensively for about a month now) are not hitting their reserves and/or are selling low. I'm thinking the market is either saturated with them right now or people simply don't have the money. Its an opportune time to buy in my opinion so most certainly keep looking... you'll probably save a buttload if you're just a wee bit patient.

 

[6 Shooter]

Enjoy the hunt for your Corvette . . .

C5 Roadsters R Great - 2000 Corvette Convertibles on e-bay

Later . . . . . .
6 Shooter

 

[rwpeders]

That mileage sounds about right for running through the first set of tires.

I agree with everyone else, the price seems too high. And the smoke smell would be completely unacceptable. I once bought a used car that had been smoked in. I tried everything but the smell just kept coming back.
I won't ever do that again.

Tammy

I believe there are companies that specialize in removing the smoke smell. A car fire is a typical situation where they would be used. My Mom had a car where the engine caught on fire from a gas leak. The dealer repaired the damage and had some company remove the odor. I don't know what they did but it worked. Iassume such a company could remove the smell of ciggarettes.

 

[rwpeders]

If you could get the dealer to replace the tires or deduct $1000 for you to do it, that would be a start. Then check with the local Chevy dealer and see what they would want to check the car over and service it (lube, oil, filter, etc.) and ask the dealer to deduct that. Then ask them to have a specialist company remove the smoke smell.

An alternative would be to use these concerns to get them to drop the price to around $25k. If you decide to buy this car, make sure you purchase an extended warranty from GM - it can save you a ton of money.

However, as many have already sugggested, you can find a car in great condition with no smoke odor, less miles, good tires and for less money.

 

[smook]

Run away from this one!

The bald tires tell me it's been abused and possibly the odometer turned off/back.

Lot's more out there!
-Bill.

 

[65-to-00]

gotta wonder?

Who was the dealer .... Fast Fred's Fine Used Vee-hicles .. ?

A dealer was about to send you out the door on a set of skins that would put you in a ditch the first heavy dew?

Would they pass a DMV inspection in your state?

Falling in love is rough, but that's the automotive equivalent of running down to the red light district .... never mind ... we have "polite company" present.

:eyerole

 

[motorman]

My wife and I looked at a 2000 vert today at a honda dealership. It was a trade they had and they actually listed it on ebay to begin with. No one had purchased it in about 3 weeks, which seemed weird to me.

It has 27k miles on it, silver in color, active handling, HUD, single cd BOSE radio. A few paint chips as you would expect from rocks bouncing up off the pavement.

They wanted $27,500 for it.

However, now the down side. No offense to smokers, but I don't smoke and we noticed the smell immediately. Plus the cigarette lighter looked used and abused. It needed new tires, they were completely bald. Even the dealer said it needed new tires. I mean there was no tread at all on them and you could barely tell where the tread was acutally at it was so smooth. Reminded me of Indy Car tires the were nearly that smooth.

I noticed under the hood a little oil that was around the valve cover area. Looked like it might be leaking a little bit there. It ran well, braked well and was generally pretty nice. The tires bother me because if they are needed on a 28K mile vehicle, the owner drove the heck out of it I think. No telling how many other things he neglected.

I had them give me a price for my 84 as a trade but they were way low for me. They only came in at $6500 and my 84 only has 51k miles on it and it's in extremly good condition. We would have passed either way as the smoke and the potential condition of the vehicle botherd me.

The one downside, it's silver and that's what my wife would like.
John

have a GM dealer run the VIN for service work done at the dealers and this will tell you whats up

 

[BLUEDUCE]

I realize not the same year, but we bought a 2003 Z06 with 3180 miles for $28,995 with trade which was a 1994 Coupe with 99,642 miles. They gave us $6000 for the trade. Not a good deal.

 

[yitbos]

We are definately passing on that vert. The potential oil leak in the engine and the smoke are the two biggest reasons with the bald tires the close runner up. We'll keep looking and will probably put an ad in the trader magazine this week for my 84. We need to sell it first so we have the cash in hand to purhcase something else.

If you buy a car from a private party, can you buy an extended warrenty from GM still? What do those cost, any idea?

Hopefully one day soon we will be able to sell ours to a new, up-and-coming vette entheusist and let him or her enjoy how great a vehicle this has been for us.

Thanks for all your comments.
John

 

[MsSchroder]

My understanding when I bought my GM extended warranty was that you could only purchase it while the car was under the original factory warranty. I don't think there were any restrictions on whether you had to be the original owner or not.

There are other warranty companies out there, like WarrantyDirect. Their policies might be different.

Tammy