BLKM3

I am about to buy a 2007 Z06 from a Chevrolet Dealership. I test drove the car and everything seems alright. It was a little hard to engage into gear when I was on it. The car has 8500 miles and the carfax checks out ok with 1 owner registered as personal use.

As I was checking out the car, I noticed there was a lot of rock chips all over the paint. This is a black car keep in mind. The front bumper and side rear fenders looked sprayed.. Could this car be possibly tracked? The tires and brakes looked fine (Good Year Run Flats - looked to be original) What do you guys think? I don't want to buy a car that has been beat on, since I am going to be doing some heavy modifications to it. Also is there a way to find out who the previous owner of that car is, I want to ask him some questions to reassure my purchase. Thanks

ranger1

check the color of the engine oil, brake fluid, check all the fluids, also check the rear quarter panels for melted tire rubber...

Garry

VetteHunter

I don't understand. If you are going to do heavy mods to the car, why do you care what the previous owner did? If he beat the car some, isn't that what you want to do to it?

BLKM3

Yes I am going to be "driving" the car. The car can only take so much "driving." I had a bad experience with my 2002 C5 Z. When I had bought it with 28k miles, the car was stock. I drove it hard for 8000 miles and the motor blew. When I had brought it into a shop for repair, the shop owner knew the car, and it had been supercharged and raced many times. I didn't know this and don't want this to happen again..

tlaselva

If you want an assurance that the car's not beaten on, buy the car new. And even then, there still isn't any guarantee it won't blow just as quick as one that's been 'beaten' on, especially if your going to race it.
If you want to play, you got to pay.

NORTY

Even 100% box stock one's can do this~

360 FORGED

^^^ouch^^^

Heber Guy

I had a black Z06 and mine looked like it was sprayed with rocks and it was babied. The Z06's are famous for being sprayed around the rear ducts and above the ducts on the fenders.

dfinke23

A shot in the dark. If you're going to mod it, just forget your worries and go to work.

jschindler

I think it's a legitimate question and concern. I'd run car faxes and get a dealer to check their system for repair info on the car. I'd also spend a lot of time doing searches on the forum. If the car had been modified, it's a good bet that the owner bragged about it on the forums.

I'd just use various searches based upon the color, model and location of the car to see what you can find out. It may be a shot in the dark, but better than nothing. For that matter, just post a new thread in this section with a full description and location of the car and see if anyone knows the car.

RocketV

I never got all the bits of rubber from out of the nooks and crannies of the underside of my coupe after I took it to the track. I never ran slicks, but most other cars did and the marbles ended up everywhere. They even stuck to the inside surfaces of my wheels.
I don't know if drag racing will do this, but road racing sure will. Good luck

CanadaGrant

You said you're buying it from a GM dealer. Ask them where they got it from. If it was a trade in, ask them for a name and number. If they are not willing to provide it? Forget it...
In Canada we can also take the VIN to the DMV (department of motor vehicles) and for a couple of bucks, they will give you the previous owners. You might try that.

radstoy

You might want to clear bra that Bad Boy especially if black.

Luweegy

It's got 5yr 100k warrenty doesn't it.Mine is black and rock chips are awefull on these cars.Just high speed on the interstate will chip it.Even staying back aways. By the way,Carfax don't mean Sh^t.You can't believe the Clear Carfax reports I saw when buying my Duramax this spring.One truck was a rebuilder that wasn't even done right.LS trim with leather seats?Just one of the things I saw.

BLKM3

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions guys. I will think about it, if I don't get the 07, I might just buy a new one instead. I like black and most of the black ones looked like they've been sprayed with rocks. Easier to get a new one and then clear bra it.

barakmd

I just traded in an 06 Z06 that I bought used with 7800 miles on it for a new 08 Z06 with 5 miles on it. One of the main reasons I did this was because I was concerned about how hard the previous owner was on the 06. Another reason is because I got a pretty fair deal on my trade and new car purchase. Here are some of the things that led me to believe the 06 had been rode hard and put up wet:

1. With 7800 miles on the car, the original Supercar tires were worn and in need of replacement, especially the rears.

2.All the brake rotors had hairline heat stress cracks showing from the cross drilled holes. There was also a small lip/ridge built up on the outside edge of the front rotors. None of the cracks were considered severe enough to replace the rotors and I did not notice any really bad braking problems, but this cosmetic issue really bugged the s**t out of me. The rotors looked like crap when you got down close to look at them. Had my dealer look at the rotors and they told me that small, hairline cracks of this extent were normal for cross drilled rotors. They even printed out a GM service policy/procedure stating this to be the case.

3.Front air dam showed some signs of "bearding" as if the front end had been nose dived or scraped into a curb. After a closer inspection of this issue, I also found that two of the mounting screws where the air dam attached to the front facia had been pulled out along with some pieces of the facia.

4.Minor oil leak from several of the oil pan bolts. I also had my dealer look at this issue and again was told that this was considered "seepage" and not worth the effort of repairing at this time.

5.Driver's side seat bolster showing signs of wear on outboard side. A very minor and normal issue I agree. However, after owning 3 C6's and being extra careful when getting in and out of my cars, I believe that anyone else who owns one of these cars and feels the same way would do the same to avoid this problem.

6.After having my dealership do a service inquiry on the 06, I found that one of the axle shafts on the car had been replaced. This led me to believe that someone dumped the clutch with some high revs on the tach...

I will say that the 06 drove well and I never had any questions about the reliability of the vehicle. After owning a C6 Z51 and then subsequently the 06 Z06, the decision to trade into a brand new car came down to this for me; I love these cars and this type of vehicle is not a daily driver for me. The horsepower and performance of this car is MORE than enough for my needs and I plan on hanging on to this car for a while. I do not plan on tracking or competing with this car in any way and other than a M2W switch and a 1-4 skip shift eliminator I will not be adding any other mods to the car. Because of these factors, it more than justified to me the peace of mind I got with having a brand new, virgin Z06 that I can confidently say no else has beat on.

With that said I will agree that there are some positive things to be said for buying used especially if you plan on heavily modding it. Predominantly, after new car deprecciation you can usually get a little more bang for your buck if price is an issue for you. If you can find a Z06 with low miles which is still under manufacturers warranty (like my 06), you can probably save quite a bit of moola and still not have to worry if the engine grenades two days later. If you decide to go used I reccommend a couple of things. Ask the dealer you're buying from to pull a vehicle service history for you and do a THOROUGH inspection of the car from front to rear, inside and out. Request that the dealer put the car on a lift and also inspect the under carriage. A reliable dealership that is motivitated about selling a car should have no problem doing this. As far as contacing the previous owner of a car, some higher end dealerships that I have dealt with in the past have asked me if this would be acceptable. I have always agreed but have never been contacted, so you may want to start by asking your dealer if he has any contact info for the prior owner.

Good luck with your purchase and be sure to let us know how things go (pics of the new ride are a plus...). These cars are awesome and I don't think you will be dissappointed if you get a nice Z06 from a reputable dealer.

NMCarNut

Like CanadaGrant said ask the dealer to contact the PO to see if it is OK for you to contact him regarding the car's history. The worst thing that will happen is no. You might also get a little insight regarding the dealer by their reaction to the question. It used to be easy to get the info from the DMV here in the states but that has become much more difficult for non law enforcement types.

evo8 MR

It sounds to me like the previous owner had some fun with the car. The tires wear out fast but In would say at least 10000 miles. I don't do burn outs and my tires are 90% done at just 9700 miles.

Joezone914

They can go longer than that with a good alignment and no smoking tires. I have been to a few HPDE's and have almost 17,000 miles on my tires that still have a little tread left. ( I am just at the bars now) The biggest problem with the tires is after 1.5 years of warm up and cool downs they are hard as a rock and offer no traction for normal driving and are now loud as hell. At the track they do alright still. This car is my daily driver and I don't drive it like a granny. I only get 13.5 MPG since I bought it because it is fun to drive. I will say that my front brakes are ready to be changed now.

The rock/chips are annoyingly common for the car. All mine are from normal use. At the track I have taped up everything with 1.5 rolls per event.

JT Metal

Why Buy a car that has alot of little things wrong when there is so many to choose from..............Joe