Captain Buddha

Welcome Mike! I started out pretty much like you...when I saw the convertible Camaro I LIKED what I saw...went down and drove one...did NOT like it....auto/paddle shifter was pathetic...car felt HUGE, sightlines were horrible, etc....AND, they were NOT dealing on the prices, at least the dealers I checked. So....got a new '11 Corvette 'vert for the SAME price, if not just a tad cheaper! Crazy, eh?!?!?! I have ZERO regrets! Good luck on your purchase!

Archias

I lucked out, I found a great dealer that sold me the car at Invoice. I would really stick with him for the Vette, but he cant seem to find any used Vettes that fit my prefs: black, manual, 2lt that fit the price Im looking for. And a new one is just too much to pull right now or any time soon. I saved for years to buy new, and my savings were hard hit in the purchase so I cant really comfortably afford to front much more cash.

I want to do the trade while the Camaro is hot and trade in is high. I did love it when I got it, its huge and fast but my main regret is the paddleshifters yes.

Its great for what it is, but it just isnt the same and I cannot stand having to chase the buttons around the wheel. You just dont get that same UMPH dropping it down and hauling *** like you do in a stick. Honestly I dont know why GM doesnt atleast do a sequential shifter on the stick, it would just feel so much more natural.

As for the Camaro itsself, its a great big car, a nice balance of practical and sporty...but I am single 26 year old guy that loves a quick spirited drive and cruising the coastal areas. I don't need practical. :

ceastham1

You might want to check out the cars for sale in this forum and avoid the markups. There are some great deals if you look around and find what you want ... just sayin !!

oh yeah - welcome to the forum !!!

ceastham1

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...s-for-sale-98/

Archias

Thanks, I posted an ad a few days ago to see if any were interested in a trade. Had a few interesting offers, but only one was a manual. Both so far the only interest is from pre-08 cars as well.

1MEANGT

Welcome and good luck on getting your first vette. One thing you mentioned in your original post was paying tax on the vehicle you are buying. Keep this in mind.

If you are trading in a vehicle you do not pay tax on the amount they are giving you for trade in.

example - You trade in your Camaro for $30,000 and you buy the Corvette for $32,000. You should only pay tax on $2,000.

vindicator

The best deal always is to sell your ss privately and then buy your Corvette privately. Lots of time and hassle sometimes. I did business with Car Max and was pleased. Everything up front with a small processing fee. I did business with them because they made it simple and smooth but I paid in lower trade and higher purchase price.
Also, I would check about returning a car. I doubt they can give you back sales tax etc but maybe. Have fun

sprtplt

I can't imagine you can come close to trading them even. Please do report back what happens!

JKbride

When I bought my C6 back in April, 1 of my 2 cars on my short list was a Carmax car. They offer a great service to send the car to your local (for a reasonable fee) Carmax dealer if the one you find is out of your town. The car I wanted was in Louisville and Im in ATL and for $199 they would transport it to a local Carmax for me to look at and apply the cost to the purchase price if I bought it. I feel Carmax does have good cars and are carefully inspected.

That said, there cars cost more. In my case the Carmax car, had 15K more miles and they wanted 2K more for it....they would not budge on the price...saying "With CARMAX you are getting a great car" whereas with others it's a crap shoot.

As a car guy, I would avoid taking a car to CARMAX to sell...they will only offer you a much lower price than if you sell outright. Likewise, I know if a car is in good shape or not and do not need CARMAX's service to make me feel good.

My .02 worth

Good luck on your Corvette search...I have a 6sp Convertible and love it!

pittperson

Before I bought my Corvette I had to have an '08 strictly because of the LS3, but after doing some research and looking at prices the difference between the 07/LS2 and 08/LS3 was not worth the extra cost. The LS2 will definitely give you a spirited drive, I'm 29 (almost 30, man I'm old! ) and it certainly gives me one.

I might be biased, like other people have said, but look hard at anything after an '05. I ended up with an '07 3LT and 29,xxx miles and an engine bay I could eat off of for $29k out the door from a seller in this forum.

boost2na

If you care about your warranty, make that the number 1 priority. VIN report will tell you the in-service date, quite a few of the 08's are losing their 3 year bumper to bumper warranties right now, so I would make sure you have enough time left to purchase a GM Protection Plan (GMPP) [bumper to bumper needs to be active or you will pay out the...]; a few people on here sell great packages ($0 deductible for a few years of coverage). Re. your powertrain warranty, like above, make darn sure that car wasn't tuned, they will drop you like a bad habit.

If the car passes a thorough inspection, and you know that your bumper to bumper and powertrain warranties are intact, you should be good to go, because even if something breaks, it will be replaced.

hawkgfr

You can find a lot about a car in the five days CARMAX gives you......

tim414

Why not get yourself a Z06....??? You can get a 06/07 Z06 for title swap if ya look hard enough I would think. All Z06's have the same 427 engines and ALL are sticks (6 speeds)....just a thought.....WELCOME to the forum....

vetteright

GMVIS = General Motors Vehicle Identification System. A computerized record of every dealer vist where work was performed on the vehicle is recorded in the system by VIN. Any GM dealer can run a report and provide a print out; all they need is the VIN of the car.

Archias

Forgot to update this thread!

I ended up heading over to the Carmax just south of Atlanta and ended up purchasing an '08 Black on Black, Manual 2LT with 29K miles on it.

I traded in my 2011 Camaro SS, 7K miles. They gave me 30K for it, considering I bought it at dealer invoice at just under 31K, that was excellent.

Ran Carfax, GMVIS, Autocheck, all clean.

I ended up getting the car at $33K, a $3K difference, out-the-door.

There was minor damage as driver side bumper had been curbed, plastic air-dam was broken and it some gross *** Autozone chrome trim all over the car.

I took the car immediately the next morning to my trusted Chevy dealer and had the car fully inspected and fixed. Repairs and resto totalled only $300. Which Carmax will reimburse (yes I have that in writing).

Mechanically, the Corvette checks out completely. It already had its rear diff fluid changed as per TSB as well as all scheduled oil changes. It still had stock-type Goodyears on it, but they have quite a bit of tread and suspect they are relatively new to the car.

Overall, I am very pleased! $3K difference was too good pass on.

Free 1 Year Onstar and 6 mo SiriusXM as well. The only real negative was that it took FOREVER to get out of there. I walked in at 3pm and didnt leave until nearly 10pm after closing. I ended up having to get a hotel room for the night.

My only regret? The previous owner apparently left their SiriusXM account active on that Corvette the entire time its been with Carmax (8 months)...when I contacted SiriusXM to start my trial they informed me of it and deactivated the current account!

Damn! I could have had free satellite radio on someone elses tab forever

NRVUZ

Congrats on your new purchase