My 80 year old mother in law just called me asking for help putting a value on and selling her late husbands Corvette (see attached window sticker)
It has 14,500 miles on it and In nearly perfect condition. Has always been garage kept and probably had 10-15 oil changes performed on it.
Im not a Corvette buff, or really know how to value it. All the online buyers are obviously giving me what I feel are low ball offers $23,215 being the highest from Carmax.
Any guidance you can provide me for my mother in law would greatly be appreciated
Do a nationwide search on Autotrader and see the asking price on comparable Corvettes for sale. May want to check Bring a Trailer for current or past sales data along with EBay Motors.
But be prepared to answer all questions that get asked in the comments. The sellers who do well there are those who answer all questions and engage with the audience.
You’ll need high quality pictures & videos … the usual plus videos of the car being started and running, pics of the underside using a selfie stick but preferably in better lighting while the car is up on a lift.
If you’re not prepared to do that, spend $5 on a Craigslist ad asking a premium over your best bid so far or just sell it to Carmax and receive a check immediately.
Car is 18 years old. MSRP of the car was probably about $52K new… but probably got a discount on it as it was the final year. Pretty remarkable to get about half the value of the car (50% residual) 18 years later!
at 10% off he paid $52K. Its worth probably 25-27K I guess. 18 years later and its worth 50% what they paid (rough guess) - the point is, not many cars 18 years later are worth 50% of their value. Corvettes hold their value as well as any mass produced car.
My point was referring to “MSRP of the car was probably about $52K new”. It wasn’t because he posted the window sticker. MSRP and sale price are two entirely different things; the amount that was/wasn’t paid for the car is regardless.
OP, if you go the auction route, consider a no reserve auction. Apparently, sellers who engage bidders and don’t set a reserve tend to do better than the reserve auctions.
Your car is probably worth high 20’s or low 30’s. Not really sure there’s a huge market for these nowadays.
I sold my Dad’s Corvette for him a couple of years ago. It was very tough, and I am no stranger to selling cars. His was a 2000 Coupe and had about 50k miles, but I couldn’t give that thing away. Plus, it started leaking fluids and things just started breaking (headlight motors, TPMS sensors) just by looking at it funny.
We were all happy to see it go for $12,500. Obviously, the market is different now and this is a more desirable specimen, but my advice would be to sell it as quickly as you can while still getting a decent price.
The low mileage indicates it has probably spent a good deal of time sitting and that is trouble for cars like this once they start being driven again. Also, check the dates on the tires. They are probably too old to safely drive on and the power level of the car makes the lack of traction that goes along with old tires even more unsafe.
The fact that it is an auto and not a Z06 hurt’s its value among enthusiasts. $25k-$30k sounds right to me. By comparison a Mark IV Supra from the same era would bring $100k+
I agree. I was just going to comment that mid-upper $20’s would be a decent selling price. Low mileage and one owner, it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to sell. Depending on the location, I would say private sale would be the best route to go.
