Pasadena; 6:30 AM
One week into this Corvette exercise and I’m still not sure if I want to buy one. Could a sub 100k mile C5 Z06 for only $7,900 solve that confusion? I don’t feel too good about this. Shower. Breakfast. Road. I don’t have much time today, I promised to help my friend move, and he hasn’t given me a start time. Everything’s up in the air today.
8:00 AM
Rancho Dominguez
Thankfully the drive didn’t take too long; I don’t have the slightest idea when my friend intends to pick me up. Anyway, the car. When people talk about falling down a rabbit hole they never talk about where the rabbit hole leads. Today the rabbit hole leads to an industrial sector of West LA near El Segundo and a car lot hidden in an old brick building. Unlike most car lots this place doesn’t offer test drives because all the cars they sell are salvageable insurance wrecks none of which run.
8:15 AM
One of the salesmen casually leads me through a maze of wrecked cars. In the back, among a field of pickup trucks and sedans, a yellow gem shines through. The car that I’m here to see is a 2001 C5 Z06 in banana yellow with 79k miles and some accident damage. From afar, it looks like the bargain of the century. It’s only a set of fog lights and a big wing away from being a C5R tribute. From the driver’s side, the car looks immaculate! The C5R yellow is luminous and the rims look fresh. Better still, the interior is in pristine condition and in my favorite two-tone red and black leather. Luckily, the airbags didn’t deploy. Predictably though, I didn’t fit because the power-adjustable seat wouldn’t move without a battery. The previous owner must have been a hard-core enthusiast as the stick in this car is the stiffest shifter I have ever felt.
Now to the damage: on the passenger side the low price starts to make sense. There is an alligator’s-bite worth of missing fiberglass on the front fender and one of the headlights is missing. The inner fender also appears to be broken. Still, the reason this car is so tempting is that to my eye the frame looks straight, and the wheels seem to be aligned.
10:30
Time to go
I wish I had more time, driving away from the lot it occurs to me that as much as I am attracted to the low asking price and the otherwise very attractive qualities of the damaged Vette I still need a car that runs from the start. And just because the damage doesn’t look so bad isn’t an indication of a good investment. Add to that, the salesman told me this car doesn’t actually start (when is that ever a good sign?) and the dipstick didn’t even show any oil. Lastly, the salvage title means that the low acquisition cost is balanced out by who knows how many repairs and the prospect of costly insurance. I am really going to have to pass.
On to car number nine.
Run, don’t walk…
That custom projector lens headlamps gotta go..
That’s a prime example of racing technology looking awful outside a racetrack environment.
Looks like one of those girls you see in the movies and who are probably not uncommon in parts of LA – completely incapacitated on drugs in some squalid motel room. She can’t even tell you her name. She looks attractive below the abuse and hard living, and you are just sure that with some rehab and emotional support she would make a lovely companion. But you are looking for a car, not trying to open a mission or a treatment center.
Yeah, I once looked at a YJ Cherokee a little like this – nice car with reasonable miles that someone had run the right front corner into some solid object. “It just needs a fender” the guy said. I saw lots of other parts it needed and the front end felt odd. I let it go.
Lindsey Lohan?
Cherokee YJ? Never heard of that model in the US, was it privately imported or something?
No offense; but judging by all the examples you’ve posted; you should look into a less expensive car. There’s no shame in it; but if you can’t afford a good example then you shouldn’t bother.
Leave the cheap Corvettes to the meth dealers.
Agreed. And never finance a used cheapish sportscar. A lesson learned at a price.
+1,
It does make for good reading material. But, taking out a loan for a vehicle like this strikes me as very unwise.
That is heartbreaking! Had a Millenium Yellow Z06 in Europe when new. The Z06 was a Corvette variant was never sold officially in the EU – I got mine from Switzerland and registered it in the UK.
You owe it to yourself to test drive a good one, David!
I found mine to be a great handling, fast , fuel efficient (same consuption as a 996 with greater performance) piece of kit. It was let down by its poor interior, but then, I didn’t pay 911 money for it. And I was driving a gen 2 996 at the time, so could directly compare them.
Where the Porsche bobbed around at the front, the Z06 moved around at the rear. Once you got used to this, every roundabout and on ramp became a playground! The ‘Vette was also really light – I had to get it weighed with a tank full of fuel to pass the British SVA inspection and it came in at well under 1400kg.
We had to work really hard to get the Carrera GT under 1400kg with a full carbon fiber structure (in fact it reached that dfigure only with aircon delete), so the achievement of the Corvette team was really impressive. This combined with its great aero (0.29 I believe) and long top gear to make it so efficient – I got 10 l/100km (about 23mpg US or 28 imperial) whilst fully exploiting its performance on the Autobahnen.
The Z06 also had seriously good brakes, something that even my colleagues at Porsche acknowledged – I think this was the first Corvette (and American vehicle) that they acknowleged as posessing a really balanced set of dynamic qualities.
All in all, one of the best cars I have ever had….
Great post, Huey. Your experience is similar to my own.The C5Z is a bargain.
I’d love another, or a C6 Z06, but limited to 2+2s since my son arrived…which is why 911s make so much sense…
I had an ‘04 C5 automatic that I bought to flip and it was surprising how different the Z06 was to drive – much more tied down and the 6 speed made a huge difference.
That car in Europe and the UK was seen as a real exotic – not the way ‘Vettes are viewed in the USA….
Yellow with red and black leather? The horror…
I don’t know if you’ve seen it before but it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds if you haven’t. The red is limited to places like the seat centers under the dash and the glove box while everything else is black, it’s not like McDonald’s arches combining those colors, it’s much more subtle and considering the dullness of C5 interiors it makes them quite a bit more welcoming with the pop of color.
IMO of course.