Corvette, high miles.. still warrantable ?

Hmmm, To me, "highway miles" means no short trips and many long stretches with mild variations in road speed, few clutch actuations, gear changes etc.etc. He may mean that he hasn't autocrossed on weekends. You might ask, "can you tell me a little more about a 'highway mile'?"

A couple of times a quarter, I go up to the Bay area and get plenty of exercise on the freeway segments between Alameda, Sunnyvale and Campbell at different times of the day. Unless this gent is commuting between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., he isn't driving "highway miles" as I understand them.

I did a C5 search in October, went hands-on with a couple of nice '01 & '02 Z06's with

my 01 conv has 108k on it. mostly because its driven 35 interstate miles to Tampa each day and back

70-75 miles a day I haven't had any probs, very light maintenance, tires - oil changes - 1 set of brakes. It has a wear tear in the seam of the drivers seat at shoulder height, some wear showing on the white conv top. Other than that its a "perfect" car. Butt trade in is $16k honest dollars So instead of a new one we decided to put on a new top, get some new floor mats, and pick up a seat at the next vette show in Kissimmee in feb. I also will put on some Billstein shocks and maybe an exhaust upgrade. Spend $2500 +- and drive it another 100k and re-evaluate. Since we bought the car new in 2000 we know the car and Cindy loves it and cant see giving it away . I think its funny that I can get more for my 79 than for the 01 - (list for $54000 new)

Good luck with your choice, but I have had several Chevy's with 200k miles over the years, my 88 pick up had 300k when I sold it to my mechanic, the orig engine never was opened up ,

kickstart

My 96 has just a little over 100,000 miles on it it needed a few more things than yours but I only paid $12k for it, And mine as well is highway miles most of the miles are from Phoenix to Flagstaff and back....

I will tell you Southern California emissions are harsh and mine passed great with the origanal spark plugs still in it but will give you the list of things I have done so as to not shadow your mind saying nothing will go wrong.....I do plan on getting at least another 100,000 more miles out of it...

Things I have done Including what was needed and what I wanted to add...

1. right front bearing

1. front brakes

2. Reupholstered seats

1. windshield wipers

2. radiator / Thermostat and housing

1. Upgrade to 2001 rims and New tires (Wanted)

2. 2 new keys

1. 1 key fib

2. drivers window regulator

1. new red top (Wanted)

2. plug wires (But plan on changing the plugs)

1. headlight motor gears

2. Fluids changed include oil/trans/rear-end/coolant

1. had a chip in the windshield fixed (Wanted)

All of this except the Rims and Tires was about $2,800 so I have a 98 C5 with 100,000 miles on it for less that $15,000 and love it?

Things still to be done?.

Paint Job, Find out which air conditioner pressure lines leaks and fix it, replace the key tumbler because I have to jiggle the key, and replace that little bushing in the drivers seat so I can get rid of that ¼ inch movement?.

If I had it to do again I would with a smile on my face, but I would not pay $30,000 on a used car...

The only thing is I wish mine was a Z06 hard top?. I would like the power and I love that type of back window?

Just my 2 Cent$

There were no 2000 Z06 Corvettes, just a cheap 345 hp hardtop model.

Yes.

Wouldn't hurt to try

for some up front information. Also try they will discount sometimes.

Well Said Dad....and now you know why I am looking for a 2000 Billy Bob in any color except black .... got the Z06 basic looks, not a lot of options that are of no interest to me, and I never pull the tops off my coupes or put the tops up on my Ragtops (unless it rains...)

But to be honest 137,000 miles is a lot...even for me since milage has never really been a put off for me... Corvettes tend to be weekend cars and I would expect to see 2000's with no more then 50.000 miles on them... from what little looking I have done so far mid 20's for a

2000 (coupe) which I do not want...is about normal and most have a lot less then 50,000 miles

I Never purchased an extended warranty ... just too cheap I guess...never had to dump money into repairing a car either..(just lucky I guess) ....

My 95 now has 70,000 miles on it and I think I drive it a lot... all my other Corvettes have well over 100,000 miles on them.. one has a replacement engine under the hood.. 2 have been rebuilt, and two have never been opened up (yet).

Bob G.

64 72 76 79 & 95 Corvettes and looking for a Billy Bob lol

What is a Billy Bob???

Billy Bob was a cut at red neck buying power, a stripped down version of the Corvette released in 1999 to pick up the sagging C5 sales. Or it may have been Dave Hill's way of getting the platform to make the Z06 option viable. Sales on it didn't do much, 4,031 in '99, & 2,090 in '00. Looked like it was headed for the tank until they beefed up the chassis and added 35 hp over the stock '01. That only sold 5,773 but cost more than the convertible. In '02 they bumped it up another 25 hp and charged allot more than the convertible and got away with the rip-off selling 8,297. The '03 was not changed much and sales leveled off at 8,635. Total sales were down and didn't get better in '04 and the Z06 only sold 5,683.

More than you might want to know but it's interesting to watch how the pricing changes the market and vise-versa. Some of the first C6 Z06s have been rumored to sell for over $80,000. Hopefully I don't know anyone that crazy so I can't confirm it happened. OTOH a dealer here had a GT40 and was asking $100,000 over list.

AHAAAAAAA!!!! I thought it was a little low for a Z06. But I'm confused. The Z06 is distinguished (in my mind) mainly by looking for the rear brake vent intake to the lower rear of the door. right ???

now this guy selling his 137k corvette says it has a Z06 body, how could that be ? Is it possible to buy a vent and install it ?

I am not extremely engine savvy, so looking under the hood does little for me, except identify engine parts (Which I can do) But figuring out whether it sounds right or is functioning right beyond the look of it is beyond me.

I am still interested in buying the car from him, though.

Dad seems to have a hell of a lot of know-how-why about corvettes. Its refreshing to read his posts (Throughout the corvette forum)

Technically it is the same body configuration. Many corvette owners have added the vents, wheels, tires, red calipers, and the screens to make the hardtop look like the Z06. The exhaust is up for grabs, even some of the Z06 owners took the titanium Z06 exhaust off for after market cat back. Sway bars, spring rate, shocks, LS6 engine, and black seats with embroidered Z06 insignias were not changed as easily.

Outwardly the LS1 and the LS6 (Z06) look the same.

I learn something every day plus the Corvette has been in my life for many years. My knowledge areas differs from some of the other regulars and you'll get some good information from them.

It won't take long to see who they are and what they add to the group.

basically we know all the right answers .... if they ask the right questions. a 2000 Z-06 clone wouldn't be a bad car so long as you don't race against a real one. Most people - non vette owners- cant tell any years apart anyway. Drive what you like and enjoy it, pay what your comfortable with, if its a good deal to you - its a good deal. You can invest in fun and enjoy life and/or you can invest in the stock market and that too can also be a source of enjoyment(of course I never enjoyed it -$$$)

kickstart

If the car had "highway miles" (I live in the SF Bay Area and the area he's describing doesn't have real freeway miles on the freeway. That area is mostly stop and go very much like city driving) then why did he have transmission problems? Stereo problems (or did he mean he replaced the factory with an aftermarket)? Normally "highway miles" means the car has less wear and tear, but in California where the roads are so bad (the worst roads in the country, doing far more wear to the car per mile) and the stop and go (even on the highway) it means a lot less.

Also do you intend to modify the car any? If you're already planning to say rebuild/upgrade the suspension then you would be fixing any wear and tear there. I would highly suggest you have the care inspected by someone who can really go over the car and determine what repairs (if any) are on the horizon.

Yes, most of the ones I looked at for my C4 had a cut offs of 100K (but not all) You can bet the price will go up with more millage.

Thinking about it, anything that could go wrong with a car , warrantee wise, would surely have gone wrong in the first 100k miles. So unless an extended "warrantee" covered normal wear and tear, what would it cover ? Sorry , but I'm not real familiar with these extended warrantees, I'm like BobG ,to cheap to buy one and willing to take my chances on seeing what the car has left in it, and hopping I'm right. It's insurance vs. a gamble, could anything more costly than the policy go bad ?

kickstart

I own a 2000 coupe with roughly 80,000 miles. I happen to own 2 c5's. (The second one was kind of an accident..really.. I didn't mean to buy it) Anyway.. the 2000 Coupe w/80K miles runs so great and is so reliable, that I can't seem to part with it. The car just works. Change the oil, routine maint, and that's it. I would imagine that it's probably worth +/- 18,000 but like I told my wife, I'll sell the car and spend the money on more junk for Xmas. I think I'll just keep the car. BTW, IMHO I preffer the convertibles to coupes. Can't comment on the hard top though.

-Stan