Don-Vette

Used a $6000 tax return and financed the rest at 0% for 72 months. Come April only 36 more payments!!!

RJRSW

Keep saving and buy one that you can easily afford to start out with. It doesn't hurt to start out with a earlier generation that you can comfortably afford.

I have owned vettes from all of the first 6 generations and they all were fun cars in their own way and of all the ones I have owned the one I kept the longest was a 1986 pace car convert that I kept for 18 years. Loved that car and was a lot of fun to drive. They are a lot more enjoyable when you don't have to cough up a big payment on it every month.

My first one was a 1953 when I was 17 and still in high school for $500 cash that I had saved up. Since then I have owned 24 more. The last time I had a loan on one was when I was still in college and I borrowed $2,000 to purchase a brand new 68 convert in the fall of 1967. Since then I have always maintained a savings account to use when I find the next vette that I have to have and when I sell one of the others the money always goes right back into that vette account.

This was a photo of me and some friends taken in 1963 when I was 19, I'm the second from the left, believe me it is never to early to start enjoying a vette and I still get a smile on my face after all these years every time I drive one of mine:

Nino S

I was very luck to grab my first vette when I was 17 for my senior year. I am 27 now and my 08Z is my 3rd vette. Have had 7 mustangs between them

truckplay

I bought mine at Carmax. I saved for a while. paid for 1/2 ($15k) and financed the rest for 2 years. I had to wait for my 40th though - so don't rush. You will enjoy it more when you get yours.

IrishSpuds

Please do not waste your money. Get your credit back on track, pay all your bills and buy a house/condo when you have savings. I am almost 20 years older than you., so my priorities are different. I immigrated to this country 20 years ago with nothin. Got a job, got married, bought house, had kids, bought vacation home and paid off mortgages. Maxed 401k, college savings for kids, and last of all, bought a Vette. Love cars but as many have said, they are a luxury not an investment.

LinxuSx

His war story aside, this guy brought up a great point. Your credit should be your #1 priority right now. I know it's hard to hear this, but this is coming from a guy in your same generation (I'm 24). Get your credit in order now, and you will be in a much better place throughout the rest of your life.

Once you get your credit back in order, then come back to the scene. Also if you pay anything more than 2.49% interest rate, go somewhere else. Credit Unions are a great place for people without perfect credit. I got 1.74% from PENFED.

Remember that a corvette (or 99% of cars for that matter) are not an investment. Its an expensive, but rewarding, toy

mickey5

GM gave me a gift...a new '13 for under $39K. Didn't look the gift horse in the mouth. Sold my 25 foot Searay and '90 Vert and paid cash. Just changin assets.

BT ZR1

should read just changing toys.

boraxman

Paid Friday bought Saturday/

Boomer111

Both my children got their degrees too.

Also inheritance money was used. I knew I could never realistically afford a $50,000 car, and keep my family.

plmkrzy

I waited for what seemed like a lifetime. I was 50 before I got my first Corvette. Family came first. No car payments ever and now I'm on my 5th Corvette. Life just keeps getting better and no debt. Your day will come, be patient.

Tonylmiller

52 years before it was my turn.

Gabbiani

First at 29. No kids and two incomes.

That doesn't mean I paid cash.

I won't buy a car if I am going to be upside down on it. Made money selling my cts-v. Paid down a fair chunk, got the dealer down $7k, and the rest is financed @ 1.8%. I couldn't buy a honda for $300/month.

I never saved specifically for the Vette but have been trying to be responsible for quite a while. I was at a point I felt comfortable buying it. Going to salt the wound a little.... Fix your credit first.

Mr.Nubain

I traded in my 2001 for my C6 and financed the rest. My credit was shot too, but this was my way at getting my credit back. 5.9%. My payments are 17% of what I take home each month so I'm good. I used to blow thousands a month on dope, so a few hundred on a beautiful Corvette is well justified.

wbob

Over 40 years ago, when I was in my mid twenties, both me and my wife, who is also employed, each purposely drove our paid-up (no loan) cars but continued to make the car payments to ourselves. Now 40 years later, we have continued to follow that strategy and each buy ourselves a new car with the money saved plus the trade-in value. The amount saved per month had to increase over the years and there have been times when we had to supplement with money from savings when we bought more car than the "strategy' allowed (like my GS), but we have always paid cash for our new cars every two years. My daughter, who is 29, is doing the same thing. No leases and no car payments - except to ourselves. I love it! I know that some people will tell you to not trade every two years. However, we like having the new cars under warranty.

lytmup

Honestly, buying a car in cash just serves as an ego boost for someone.

There is absolutely nothing sound about buying a car in cash.

Financially, buying a depreciating asset is a TERRIBLE decision in general. Financially, buying a depreciating asset with CASH is an EVEN WORSE decision.

No one "magic wands" cash to buy a car.

IMO, all "saving" money to pay cash for a car amounts to is a reverse car payment, a reverse car payment I might add on a moving price target (if you are saving for a specific car like the Vette).

Prices of new cars don't go down over time, they go up. Going back in time 5 years, consider the published MSRP of a 2008 Corvette was 46,100. The MSRP of a new model year Vette is 51,000. (I realize that the new Vette is a new gen.... but even last years C6 published MSRP was 49,600)

So, you start saving in 2008 for a price target that is now, just 5 years later, roughly 5k more. So, any "interest" that you pay on the price of a car by financing in 08 is "offset" with the price inflation. One can also argue that you can earn interest on the saved money (If you ever have enough capital to buy something that is 50k, do the math and you will find that invested properly, you will earn more in interest on the initial capital than you would pay in interest on the same car loan amount)...... but 5k in interest earned PURELY on the extra money you would be saving for the car is a stretch.

AND..... You would have not had the 5 years of enjoying the car.

csf

LOVE this picture, thanks for posting . . . like looking at a scene right out of the movie "Diner". Incredible.

(By the way I was 4 y.o. in 1963 and just bought my first Corvette this year, after my youngest kid went off to college)

Craig

CHOPPER1

The other day I read someplace, or maybe it was on news. The average age of a Corvette owner is now 61 The average age of the high dollar Mustang owner was in his 50s. I found this interesting.

Not sure how factual, but in reality it might be pretty close. Not sure about 61, but I'll agree the average Corvette owner it is probably in the 50s age bracket. Younger guys have them, but I think the study was based on average of adults. For the young guys who have made smart financial decisions and own one already, kudos to you and you have done well, this study did not apply to you. I've been on both sides of that fence. As a younger guy I had high dollar cars and every month it was a challenge $ wise. With age we live and learn.

Turning 50 this month I'm glad I'm on the greener side of the grass now and life is good. This makes for enjoying my GS that much sweeter. No worries. This is my forth vette over the years and I can actually afford this one.

SSTEVEGS

I'd advise you to keep saving until you have the cash to pay the entire amount. I wanted a new C5 but didn't have the disposable cash. I saw the improvements on the C6 and decided it was a good thing I didn't buy the C5. Once I had the cash in hand (late 2007) the LS2 was history and the C6 now had the superior LS3.

Good things come to those who wait!

By the time I have enough cash to buy a C7, I'm hoping for some modest improvements on that one too!

RJRSW

Thanks, the cool thing is I'm still in contact with those guys nearly every week and we are all still car nuts some 50 years later.