What would a brand new midyear cost you today ?

[Chainshot]

I found an interesting website were you plug in the 196x dollars and you get what it equals today(or 2001). Looks like a midyear would be a bargain compared to a C5 !!!

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

 

[Sting Ray]

Now I understand why everyone and there brother under the age of 20 could afford a new Vette back then.

Tom

 

[Mac]

If that was the case, why didn't the General sell more of 'em?

I guess the easiest way to see what the value was back then is to ask the only guy I know who still has the 67 BB coupe he bought new- 67Heaven!

I've got a feeling the Vettes back in 67 were still at the top of the cost scale.

Chainshot, I loved the website. Interesting calculation tool.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Now I understand why everyone and there brother under the age of 20 could afford a new Vette back then.

Tom

Oops......I have two brothers and neither one of them ever got a Corvette. I think they secretly hate me to this day. :t

As a very young, recently-engaged guy working a steady nightshift job, it was all I could do to pay for my Corvette.

I was earning an average wage and was then still at the age when women, cars and parties were my only real concerns (like they aren't now? )

Man, were those payments brutal on the tiny wages we were paid in the late-60s!!!!!!! Only one other guy in our entire city bought a '67 Corvette and his parents were very well-off business owners and property investors. Me? I was just a crazy grunt whose parents were busy trying to pay off their home while raising three more kids.

The best way that I can put it would be to say that an early-20s guy buying a new L-71 Corvette in 1967 is equivalent now to (price related to income level) the average-income guy in his early 20s buying a brand-new 2003 Millennium Yellow, Museum Delivery, Z-06 Corvette (list $53,795) today.

How many guys in their early 20s are doing this today? Just about as many as bought new big block Corvettes in 1967. Not many.

Why did I......and how did I? Pure lust for the car and a severe lack of maturity. The money should have gone to a thousand other things in those days, but here's the interesting part. It's the only thing (aside from blood relatives) that I still have from that era. The woman I was engaged to? Ohhhhhh, you mean my ex. :J Not her fault.......ALL mine.

Gotta stop ramblin' on here. I forgot what I was talking about.

 

[youwish2bme]

67 It's great to hear the way people have kept their vette's thru the years. The bad thing about today is I don't think that there is a car/truck whatever worth holding onto in hopes of them becoming a classic like what you've worked so hard for. As always waiting for the next chapter...Dave.

 

[58Mike]

I wonder if the reason could have anything to do with people's willingness to go into debt then versus now. I suspect people were much more conservative in the 60s about buying a luxury item on payments than now.

Nowadays, just about anyone can "afford" just about anything because borrowing has become so standard and easy. When a friend of mine married his wife, she had over $30,000 of credit card debt for clothes!

Another friend of mine drives a BMW. His payments are about $500 a month and he only makes about $20,000 a year (handyman). He struggles to make those car payments and is usually behind. But no way he'll sell it. A nice car is just too important to him. :crazy

- Mike Greene

 

[Classicvette63]

Corvettes might have been one of the priceier cars in the '60's but they were still affordable for the average guy. My Dad got out of the marines in '62 and promptly went out and bought a '61 Corvette. Not too many guys nowadays are buying a '01 fresh out of the service. Maybe they are, but back then dad could afford it. In '65 he traded it in on a '64 vette with 365hp. and 4.56 rear. This was his everyday car for going back and forth to work. The interesting part is when he traded the '64 in on a brand new '68 SS396 Chevelle.( I was on the way, so he had to get a respectable car:eek The good old days when a big block was a family car:L ) He recieved $606 for the '64.:cry Classic

 

[WayneC]

When I was fresh out of engineering school in 1963, working for GM, I had an annual salary slightly under $6000. Base price of a new Corvette was about $4200, and most probably cost closer to $5k or $6k with desireable options.

So, it was a struggle, even back then, for the average Joe to afford a new Corvette. Perhaps not quite as much of a struggle as it is today... but the car was not nearly as sophisticated or well-equipped either, especially in it's base configuration.

My first Corvette was a used '61 I bought in 1963 for $2800 from another employee who was being drafted.

 

[Mac]

I've always worked, from the time I was 14 or so, but the direct consequence was I was expected to pay my own way. My family wasn't wealthy so I bought my own clothes and school supplies. When I graduated and went to college, my folks contributed to defray my housing costs but everything else was on my own dime. There was only one time in my life when I was close to purchaing a midyear- I still kick myself in the pants over this one.

In the mid-1990s, my wife, our two (then) small children and I moved to the Victoria area, which is the provincial capital of British Columbia. As a result of a lucky investment and some hard work, we had some cash in the bank for a change. We still had a mortgage on our house but that was our only debt.

At the same time, an automotive museum was closing it's doors. All of the display cars were privately owned so some of the owners were selling their cars rather than move them, including a 1963 SWC Fuelie. I contacted the guy and initiated negotiations. He didn't have much documentation and I wasn't confident in my knowledge of midyears but the car looked awesome.

We weren't far apart on price but my wife added a rather nasty caveat to granting her blessing to the purchase- I would have to sell the 73. This was before the frame-off resto. I had a couple of sales geeks look the 73 over and it looked like I wasn't going to get much money for it.

I sat with Mrs. Mac (good advice for marriage preservation- discuss major purchases) and did a cost/benefit analysis on sale of the 73 and purchase of the 63 (a $10,000 loan would have been required) versus putting the money onto the mortgage. We ended up passing on the 63.

Hindsight being 20-20, I should have bought the car. I ended up putting $10,000 into the frame-off resto on the 73. Yes, my mortgage got paid down some but that's pretty dry comfort. Another sad tale from the book of "If only."

 

[58Mike]

Mac-

FWIW, I think you and Mrs. Mac made the right decision. I guess I'm financially conservative (certainly not politically conservative :t ), but I think it's a bad idea to borrow money to buy luxury items.

The gamble on a SWC might have paid off, but would it have to stay in the garage in order for you to come out ahead of where you are now, with all that extra equity in the house?

- Mike Greene

 

[Mac]

My wife made the same arguments and it's difficult to refute them.

I still find it rather apropos that I spent about the same amount of money doing the frame-off on my 73 as I would have spent buying the SWC fuelie. Mind you, the money wasn't borrowed and the equity in the house is still there. I don't regret using the money in a more fiscally responsible manner but the missed opportunity.... c'est la vive!

 

[ChuckG]

I'm another old "geezer", soon to be 56 years old. It's certainly interesting to compare prices in 196x dollars, but you've got to realize that if you had a job making 10K a year back then, you were on "easy street". Many/most were making FAR less than 10K. Both of my parents were school teachers. I think they made about 12K between them back in the 60's.

Me? I worked while I was in school, high school, college, and dental school. Had a LOT of different jobs, including banking, making acoustical ceilings, steel mill laborer, truck driving, hospital lab work, etc. At $2.00 to $4.00 per hour, you weren't making a lot of money. SO....you've got to temper your enthusiasm with the financial realites of the times. Chuck

 

[Robert N]

Mac-

FWIW, I think you and Mrs. Mac made the right decision. I guess I'm financially conservative (certainly not politically conservative :t ), but I think it's a bad idea to borrow money to buy luxury items.

The gamble on a SWC might have paid off, but would it have to stay in the garage in order for you to come out ahead of where you are now, with all that extra equity in the house?

- Mike Greene

Mike, I agree that borrowing for luxury items, or any non essential is a bad idea. Great if the deal works out, but is it worth the risk.

Then there's the flip side. I bought my vette using my personal line of credit. However, my income can well cover it, I have enough equity in my house to pay it off if needed, will sell it (even at a loss) to pay off any amount due (I am realistic), and I personally like debt. For a minimal monthly fee, I get to play with someone else's money. ($20,000 at 9% would cost about $150 per month based on a rough calculation. Sounds good to me.)

It is a risk, but manageble with several ways out. Too many peope today are too willing to rely on debt with the assumption that their future will be rosy. There is no planning for diaster.

 

[IH2LOSE]

Well i would like to add some information here.in 1974 my dad purchase a brand new caprice classic .the caprice was considered an up graded car.( not a cadillac but still it wasnt a dodge duster)I remember my dad exspaining to me that the car cost him over 4500.00 dollar whitch he also said was 10% the price of our entire home.

So its interesting to think that 8 years prior to him purchasing that caprice ,that the luckey original owner of my 1966 roadster spent aproximately the same amount of money.So I am thinking that the corvette in the old day's was just as unfordable as the new C5's are today.

am I correct on this or not.

Also as wayne (I think) stated above an engineer was just about making the cost of the car per year in earnings.Engineers I would think were always on the top of the pay scale certainly your average blue collor worker was not going to pay that mucj for a car

 

[safety_match]

In 1974 a new Olds Cutlass was $4200 (Canadian). That same year I purchased a 1-year old Corvette. It was fairly basic; it was an L48 automatic panel top with no a/c. I paid $7500 (Canadian) for it.
At that time I made $5-$6 per hour (good wages). That same job would now pay me $25 per hour.
Would I now pay $37, 500 for a 1-year old 2002 C5??...you bet!

Safety

ps. For you Americans the exchange is as follows...
$4200 CDN = $2900
$7500 CDN = $5100
$5-$6 CDN= $4
$25 CDN = $17
$37,500 CDN = $25,500

 

[Chainshot]

My parents had a restuarant and I would clean tables at around 10 years old. Then, my dad, started a small landscaping business and everyday, after school, I would go help him - I was around 11 -12. Then, my brother, got a job at a gas station and if I WASHED HIS CAR (cutlass supreme) he would let me go to the gas station with him and pump gas ! Full service in those days (1970,s). But, it got me out of the house and I enjoyed it. My first real paying jobs began at around 16. I am now 38.

I bought a brand new off the showroom 1993, Trans Am, 6 Spd. I had to pay sticker, since they had just come out. I financed it and along with the insurance, I felt like all that I was working for was to pay for that car ! It wasn't worth 50 hours a week, just to drive that or any car to me. So, I have to agree with 58Mike, about the guy working to drive the BMW.

I saved and payed cash for the 66, Conv. that I had. I just hated making payments on my toys. But, like someone else said, that seems to be the way the world works today - you buy everything on credit and pay as you go. I was just never comfortable enough to do that with the toys.

At a car show a few years ago. A guy had a nice documentation display of his Chevelle. It has his pay stub, I think it was around 1968 and he worked a blue collar job at a utility company. Seems like his take home was around $80 - $90, a week.

I also once read a story of people complaining about the price of a new Harley Davidson. Someone ran the numbers and all the comparisons such as from the above website and it turns out the price actually dropped in todays dollars and they are more affordable today then back in the 60's.

 

[Mac]

I guess part of my regret about the 63 Fuelie is based on how the value of those cars has risen and shows no sign of stopping. Short of finding oil or a thread of gold in my backyard, I don't see me affording a midyear any time soon. Kind of the 'bird in the hand' syndrome. Deferred gratification only works if you actually get something at the end.

 

[Vette60]

Hi Folks.

Interesting topic. My Dad was 23 when he bought the '60 back in '62. Had a job at Westinghouse and was going to night school for a EE degree.

I can't remember the exact $$ that he paid for the Vette. Think it was around 2.5k to 3k though plus a trade in of his '56 Chevy BelAir Convertible. Will have to ask him.

I think that having the job and living at home certainly helped, but he was supporting his Mom at the time too.

When I was 23 (5 short years ago) I could have bought a 2 year old Vette, but would have had to lived with $0 extra cash to do it even with my ME salary.

I friend of mine from work who is in his mid-20's lives at home with the folks, saved every penny he earned and bought a 2002 Z06. Sweet car. But, he is thinking of selling it now so he can get enough cash for a down payment on a house.

I'm just happy that Dad hung onto the '60 for all these years...

 

[DkBG]

You have to take into consideration how complex cars are now . Inflation is only part of the equation . Cliff