Hebbis

I'm looking at buying a black on black 2004 Corvette M6 with 32k miles on it. It has a clean title. It's a targa top with the body colored roof included. The owner said the car is in good condition except for a few scratches on it. The tires will need to be replaced as well since the car hasn't been driven too frequently in the past few years (around 2k miles in 4.5 years).

I haven't seen the car yet. I'm test driving it tomorrow though. Is there anything in particular that I should be looking for?

Hebbis

I had my dad drive the car because he's been a mechanic for over 20 years and he couldn't find any faults with the car mechanically. The only issue was that the passenger side view mirror would move side to side, but not up and down. There were small scratches on the car which are to be expected from the age of the car. I got it for $17k. I think that was a good price, but I'm not sure what it should have gone for.

Firebrian

That seems like a very reasonable price to me (similar to paying $15K to $17K for a 2002 12K mile WS6). I don't know about the tires needing to be replaced from the car not being driven much. If they aren't over 6-10 yrs old, not dry-rotted, no flat spots, they could still have more years left in them.

Hebbis

The tires have some dry rot and they're the original tires that the car had when it left the factory, so they're old as well. They're also low on tread, so they need to be replaced soon.

NC01TA

Definitely replace them. 11 years old is really pushing it, especially at highway speeds. A new set will do wonders anyway. Get a quality tire like Goodyear or Michelin. You get what you pay for. Enjoy your 'new' ride

Firebrian

That's actually pretty impressive that the owner didn't wear out the first set of tires in the first 15K-20K miles like many 6 speed owners have. Probably a good sign that they didn't beat on the car. $17K + having to buy new tires is still a really good deal imo. Lots of good information in this site's tires section about driver preferences, costs, wear life, etc. If you have questions about tire life, value, performance just ask.

Looks like most 2004's with 30K-45K miles are in the $19K-$20K range on autotrader. And nearly all of them are automatics. So you're well under that range even after replacing the tires, fluids, etc.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/Used+Cars/cars+between+10000+and+20000/2004/Chevrolet/Corvette/East+Lyme+CT-06333?endYear=2004&engineCode=8CLDR&engineCodes=8C LDR&listingType=used&listingTypes=used&makeCode1=C HEV&maxMileage=45000&maxPrice=20000&minPrice=10000 &mmt=[CHEV[CORV[]][]]&modelCode1=CORV&photosOnlyActual=true&pricesOnly= true&searchRadius=0&showcaseListingId=0&showcaseOw nerId=1360232&sortBy=derivedpriceASC&startYear=200 4&Log=0