At what age and why did you buy a Corvette?

[RockyPM]

I was 48 and finally bought my dream car.
Been away from the forum for a while so missed this post.
I grew up in a farming community and so “toys” like a corvette we’re not around the area. I watched the astronauts drive theirs and saw them in ads and shows. Loved the C3’s, wasn’t crazy about the 4’s but didn’t really care for any cars in that era.
Grew up and owned a Volkswagen Manx dune buggy. Had a blast but got married and the toys disappeared. (Note to younger people, if you have a toy and sell it keep those dollars for your next toy if you can! Easier to justify)
Kids were growing up and got hit with the big D and to top it off my health wasn’t doing great. Decided I had to do something for me. Starting researching and driving convertibles. XLR’s, Soltice and others. No imports as I didn’t want to break the bank with repairs. Also saw a group of Porsche’s heading down Hwy. 2 and as they past me everyone looked so serious.
2010, went on first visit to Las Vegas and rented a corvette to drive out to Hoover Dam. I was totally sold. Live the drive, power and the shape.
2011 started dating my now wife and called her up only a week after our first date to ask if she would come with me to Calgary to look at my now 2005 convertible.Joanne thought I was full of s@%# and told me so. We still own the ‘05 and love going out on the road. A side benefit is all the friends we have made and the community we knew nothing about before owning the car.
after 8 almost 9 years of ownership I value the friendships and community as much as the car!

 

[Tango]

Amiga 500. Had one of those must be 30 years ago.

Yes we had lots of games on the amiga. Ok I just found the game I was talking about it was actually on the Commodore 64, I was really young back then in little school . I didn't even know there was a corvette in there!!! Check this out, you gotta watch at least 2 minutes. The ending is also very cool and you can skip ahead.

Test Drive C64 [Accolade 1987] [Complete Game]

 

[Tourmax]

Yes we had lots of games on the amiga. Ok I just found the game I was talking about it was actually on the Commodore 64, I was really young back then in little school . I didn't even know there was a corvette in there!!! Check this out, you gotta watch at least 2 minutes. The ending is also very cool and you can skip ahead.

Test Drive C64 [Accolade 1987] [Complete Game]

Lol! I still remember typing up term papers on a Vic20 and printing them out on the old "tear off" dot matrix paper.....

 

[RonsterZ06]

...Then it'll be my reward for all those crazy customers and jobs I get...

This^^^

 

[Tango]

This^^^

This picture below represents some of the customers that hire me (Michael Myers in a Super Mario shirt) :

And then you have those who are always looking over your shoulder...

 

[RonsterZ06]

This picture below represents some of the customers that hire me (Michael Myers in a Super Mario shirt) :

And then you have those who are always looking over your shoulder...

View attachment 34414

View attachment 34416

View attachment 34417

View attachment 34415

Hollywood should make a movie entitled: "The Plumber" - "a horror/thriller wherein the plumber gets to exact his revenge on all his cheap, ball-busting, ungrateful customers - lots of blood 'n guts" and he is always seen fleeing the scene in his Wicked Corvette! 5 stars ***** lol

 

[Tourmax]

Hollywood should make a movie entitled: "The Plumber" - "a horror/thriller wherein the plumber gets to exact his revenge on all his cheap, ball-busting, ungrateful customers - lots of blood 'n guts" 5 stars ***** lol

Oh no! No to a movie full of plumbers butt!

 

[2009CGMZR1]

Not sure why I bought a Corvette... since I am a Ford guy!

Ok, tried a LMB C6 Z06 and then wanted to try a ZR1...... and it was friggen cheap ( $60,000 off the new Canadian price - how could I go wrong ).


B

 

[Tango]

Edit : I just remembered there's a thread called "Why did you buy a Corvette?", but it didn't ask the age question. It is similar but the question of age is very interesting to me and I won't get results continuing in that thread for this very reason.


At what age and why did you buy a Corvette? Did you have to save a life time to get the latest model or started off with an older model? Did you finance it, a portion of it or paid it in full?
What are the reasons you bought a corvette, for speed, for looks, a retirement prize, you stumbled on a good deal etc.?

I'd like to know all about your stories.

Why did you buy a Corvette?

Hi all. I was wondering what made you choose to buy a Corvette? There are lots of sports cars out there, so, why the ‘Vette? Had you tried other sports cars first? Personally, I had loved and wanted one since I was a kid, and it finally happened, very recently. I would always say that if I won...

canadiancorvetteforums.com

 

[taylorsk8]

Well guess i a m first!

I was 21 (2006) and always wanted a C3. I had an instinctive like for corvettes before I even knew what they were. Of my Hot Wheel cars I had with my 1/64 scale farm 6-8 were corvettes that the "farmer" owned.

Anyway I got (what I thought at the time anyway) a good deal on a sort of rough looking 1973. I paid $7500 and drove it home that day. Drove it for 6 years with minor fixes and updates. Started tearing into it when the summer of 2011 (I think maybe '12) gave me many power steering hose issues. Long story short.....there was many reasons the former owners sold it for the price they did. There was a lot more wrong as I got deeper in and I am more than glad I started the rebuild because it was an accident waiting to happen.

It has crossed my mind more than once to sell the parts and buy on in better shape. I certainly know what I am looking at now and would be a much more informed buyer, but I just can't do it. This one is mine and I am making it my way!

I would be interested in a C5 or newer now but financially and family wise it doesn't make sense at this point. I will slowly play on the one I have rebuilding it.

T

 

[kerry4]

I was 19 when I bought a brand new 1974 Corvette. I had a horrible head on collision with a drunk driver when I was 18. After a long recovery I got a nice monetary settlement from insurance. First thing I bought was a new Corvette and a high end stereo system. Put the rest in the bank. Theres more to this story but that would make for a longer thread. LOL.

 

[Tango]

I'm copying and pasting a little bit from my other threads into getting a car :

It started off with the Italian week festival 2 years ago with all those lambo's and ferraris. They shut down an avenue for a parade and other Italian festivities and on another street after the parade the cars do pulls for the crowd. The exhaust sounds at the parade when they revved them made me shiver with amazement and joy. It gave me goosebumps to see them in person, seriously awesome looking cars.

After that time seeing those u-tube videos of guys displaying daily their exploits of supercar ownership and them saying gotta work your butt off if you want one of these, it inspired me. I spent thousands of hours on researsh, buying books, taking notes, studying for my exams while sitting on the throne, asking advice from fellow business owners in the US on building a business. Building a website, marketing and working for each customer one at a time. Sure it’s not a lambo but it’s better in a way because it won’t break down like them as often, I can repair it when it decides to go down and won’t have to pay 10K for some obscure part from Italy.

At first I looked at C4's because they were inexpensive but not exotic enough to me, then for months I looked at C5's and C6's but still not there yet to my tastes so I decided to crunch some numbers and go all in and get the model I really want the C7.

Now at 44, I just put a 5000$ deposit on this 2016 black Stingray(Sight unseen in person) and waiting for the contract to arrive so I can send a tow truck to get it. I want to pay it in full because of 2 reasons, one I vowed to myself when I was 19 years old I would never have debts again(except a mortgage) because I sold my first truck to go to professional school and still had 2 years of payments to do on it after I sold it. Second reason was to prove to myself I could reach my goal.

 

[Tango]

I was 19 when I bought a brand new 1974 Corvette. I had a horrible head on collision with a drunk driver when I was 18. After a long recovery I got a nice monetary settlement from insurance. First thing I bought was a new Corvette and a high end stereo system. Put the rest in the bank. Theres more to this story but that would make for a longer thread. LOL.

Cool, I'd love to know more!

 

[Tourmax]

54, wife and I wanted a convertible for sunny days in our retirement. Happened across our 88, more coincidence than anything else. Didn’t have to be a vette. We looked at classic mustangs, mgb’s, etc. and this one made the most sense in terms of condition and price.

it wasn’t a decision based on “practical” reasons, even though it may sound like it was. To is it’s just a nice, fun car, but we would have been equally happy with something else in as good a shape.

Now, being the gearhead I am, the 88 is in “prototyping” to become something.....more.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Ok... due to these two threads being almost exactly the same, I've taken the liberty of merging them. So the guys that had already responded to the previous other thread can just edit their post and add the age when they got their Vette... At least that's what I'm going to do...

 

[kerry4]

Cool, I'd love to know more!

In a nutshell. I married my girlfriend after. Had the Corvette all done up the way I wanted it with custom stuff. She got pregnant and decided she wanted a house. So the Vette went to buy the house and the rest of the money I had put away. A few years later she wanted a divorce. So the house was sold and she got half of all the money I had put in it. And she took my beautiful stereo system. She did ok, and I almost got killed and had very little to show for all my pain and suffering.

 

[kerry4]

I don't have one yet but I will have one. The reason why, Italian week festival with all those lambo's and ferraris. They shut down an avenue and the cars do pulls for the crowd. Then it'll be my reward for all those crazy customers and jobs I get. Just today a woman called to have her kitchen sink line unclogged because the husband stuffed poutine in the gargabe disposal and the cheese curds clogged the line further down. She said I had to go there tonight(Dec 24th after 4pm) As if I have nothing better to do on Christmas eve. She had a party during the day so it's a no brainer the plumber will be there for peanuts. Then she said they put sulfuric acid down there. I refused the job because of her attitude and second I'm not spending 8-16 hours in the emergency room crying in pain from acid burns or losing an eye. F-that.

I always loved Lamborghinis and I'd play the old school Amiga racing game. Since I can't afford a lambo and it would be ridiculously pricey in repair parts.

I don't like mustangs, I think they are ugly and there's a million of them, I saw a rag top driving in the snow just last week.

So I was planning on getting a used C6 but it's still not exotic enough for me so might as well go for a C7, now that's exotic enough for me. It'll have a wing and some decals.

I never had the pleasure of owning a Ford product. Think I will keep it that way. LOL.

 

[Riley P]

I grew up with my dad owning a 65 Convertible....white with a red interior powered by a 365hp 327 with side pipes.....I can still smell the exhaust in the garage after he fired it up. He sold it to buy a mini-van when I was 9 years old so my dream of taking it to my high school graduation was crushed. But, that got me into Corvettes. My uncle restored Mopars, so that got me into the 60's cars. Out of high school, I bought a low mile 350 4-speed 1981 Camaro as Corvettes were too much money. At about the same time my dad bought a 66 Chevelle with a 396 and powerglide. It didn't take too long to put a 4-speed in that car. In 2005 he was thinking of selling the Chevelle, so I bought that off of him. A few years later when I was in my last year of engineering in 2008 my friends decided that after our last final, we would head down to Vegas on a road trip and one them kept pointing out how cheap Corvettes were in the states. I started looking and as our dollar was above par, if I sold my Camaro, I could almost slide right over to a C5. I found one in Vegas, struck up a deal with the owner and put the Camaro up for sale. To this day, I'll never forget how good the Corvette looked coming down the strip in the Vegas sun as the owner came to show me the car. My test drive consisted of driving right to the DMV!. After it was purchased and parked at our hotel, I thought I better check the vin on the car to make sure it matched the title just to be safe (yes, I should have done this before) but it turned out an A on the title was supposed to be a 4! I wasn't sure what to do as I didn't want to risk my car being stuck at the border, so I spent the next day at the DMV trying to get a new title. After a whole bunch of time in the office and checks with the agents going out to see the car, the title change was approved. Little did I know they couldn't print it on site but told me it would take 8 weeks to get a new one sent to me, plus if I didn't pay for an out of state title, the request simply wouldn't be processed! This scared me a bit as this wasn't just out of state, but out of country! So the next day was spent at the library looking for places near the border where I could store my car and finally found one in Billings. It was a great trip to Billings but not so great going back home without a car that I had paid for. Fast forward 2 months later and the same day I sold my Camaro, my title showed up! The next weekend a friend drove me to Billings. I went straight to the DMV!......but it was closed on the weekend and my friend had to work, so they went home. Monday came, I walked to the DMV with my title in hand so I could get a permit to drive my car home only to find out permits were issued at City hall!.....long walk to City Hall, I got to the front of the line. The clerk looked at my title and asked if I had registered the car and told them no. They stated they could not give me a permit for a car that wasn't registered.....I was about to lose my mind and can't remember the details, but I think they took pity on me, knowing I just bought the car, was from out of country, so they processed the permit. Sweet! Permit in hand, keys in hand, I walked to the storage place to fire up my car and the battery was dead. The folks at the storage place were great and let me use their battery charger. After 4 hours of waiting, I turned the key and the old girl fired up. What a breath of relief. It was a great drive to the border. Got the the US side and looking through my papers, they asked why the dates between the title, and sale and everything were so far apart so I explained the situation. They went out to the Corvette and came back to inform me that the vin was still wrong, but by the look on their face, I knew they were joking, plus, I knew they were wrong as I checked both a million times but acted like I was shocked and worried to humour them. Then they smiled and told me to have a good trip and enjoy the car. Finally getting home, I registered the car and put the license plate on the back. The sense of relief of putting that plate on the car can't be over emphasized. So, I finally had my vette at 31 and have enjoyed every mile since.

 

[Rruuff Day]

I never had the pleasure of owning a Ford product. Think I will keep it that way. LOL.

Good and bad in all of them Kerry. Not necessarily a Ford guy but I have a 21 year old Ford 7.3 L, 6 spd manual Diesel that I bought new in 99. Has 200k on it now and other than a water pump two weeks ago, it has been a great truck and still looks like new...

 

[EJChevy]

I was 33. Last summer, in fact. Love every second I'm behind the wheel or can see it parked.