Vettastic

Any experiences with any of these companies, good or bad?

Vintage Vettes in Missouri http://www.vintagevettesllc.com/

CNV Corvettes in Arizona http://www.cnv-corvettes.com/

GM Down Under in California http://www.gmdownunder.com/

Savage Corvettes in Minnesota http://www.savagecorvettes.com/

Pro Team Corvette in Ohio http://www.proteam-corvette.com/

Also, if you know of any other companies that deal in pre-73 Vettes that have a good reputation, please share them. :)

Moderators, I am cross posting this in the C3 and C1/C2 sections to get the most responses, hope that's not a problem. Thanks. :)

sb69coupe

ProTeam has a dubious reputation at best. The owner, Terry Michaelis has had some legal issues in his past.

CnV buys alot of cars on ebay and resells them at quite a bit higher prices. For instance, they bought this '76 for $6500 and are selling it for $13k
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2469551136
http://www.liveupdater.com/cnv/cardi...ID=-1883750788

In general, you're much better off finding a good car through an individual.

grayhook

can't help with any of these companies, but all i can say is know your stuff before you lay out the cash!!....my best frend got my vette from a local vette seller that's been there for 30+ yr's and he did'nt know anything about vettes and got the shaft big time!!!

good luck with your hunt for a good vette!
:flag

brooksman9

Man that guy at proteam has some outrageous prices :shocked:

JB

Why in the heck would anyone ever buy a classic car from a dealer?

Here's the one thing corvette dealers are good for: establishing what's a reasonable price for a car. Take whatever car your average classic car dealer has for sale, subtract 30% (on average), and that's pretty close to the reasonable value of the car. Subtract 40-50% and you've got what you could get the car for if you inform yourself and shop around. :yesnod:

JB

Jay M

I have no real experience, but When I was looking for my '68 here's what I learned:

I called one of those big Arizona dealers and there were two advantages to buying from them. 1) They can get you financing. It is very difficult to get a loan on a used car that is so expensive. 2) They offer a warranty.

There is a Vette dealer in southern california who is known for making the cars look really good. He usually restores the interior and gives it a quick paint job. It makes the cars look mouch better than thye are worth. I took one of those cars on a test drive (it was from someone who had bought the car from them and was selling it) It looked great but drove like crap. The poor guy WAY over paid for the car and was hoping to get some of what he paid back out of it. I think he wanted 25k for '68 nom small block that ran bad. This was three years ago.

You should only buy from a dealer if absolutly have no other option. They are in no rush to sell the cars. Private individuals are usually very motivated to sell. My uncle buys a lot of classic cars. He travels with a suitcase full of cash when he looks for cars. I a guy is asking $35,000 for a car, my uncle just pulls $20,000 of green money out and shows it to the guy and says "would be willing to take 20?" The seller then knows that he can immediatly have cash in hand and the car sold. That is very motivating.

When I bought my car the guy was very kind and waited for me to gather all thae cash needed to buy the car. I had only given him a small deposite. He had a dealer willing to pay cash immediatly. I happend to call the same day he lowered the price from 18k to 15k.

I drove 6 hours to look at the car and decided that for 18k it was a good deal the best one I saw, and the lowest price. So when got home I thought I would wait a week and offer 17k. Well three days latter he relisted the car at 15k!! So I called immediatly and said I wanted the car. He held the car for two days until my deposite arrived. It took another two weeks for me to get the rest. If he were not an ethical man he could have gotten the 15k cash from the dealer that weekend.
my website has the $15k car..... now it is a 45k car :rolleyes: :cry :U

any way...sorry to ramble. All this to say DON'T use a dealer. Even if they have a great car and a great reputation. They are WAY overpriced.

~Jay

markdtn

Can't speak directly on the ones mentioned, but I have had great dealings with Corvette Country in Fayetteville, GA. No website, but phone 770-461-5211, speak to John.

gq82

Contes is also very reputable. :chevy
http://www.contes.com/ccvlist.htm

Corvette_fetish

:nono: :nono: :nono: :nono: Oh, and did I mention :nono:
To be totally fair, I have no first hand real bad experiences dealing with them. The reason? All the horror stories I've heard about their cars and deals have prevented me from EVER wanting to buy a car there. Their dealership is only a matter of miles from me, and CNV is somewhat of a "bad word" in the local Corvette community. Since all the stories are second and third hand, I won't publicly post them, but many would freak you out. Let's just say when you've heard SO many negative things over so much time, after awhile you've got to say something's up with that place. They don't allow test drives. No third party inspections off their lot. What does that tell you. Someone mentioned CNV cars have warranties. Yea, their warranty, and I believe you must purchase it. You're at their mercy with it, and it's only as good as they allow it to be. As far as financing goes, a dealer is not the only place to get a car loan. Try a credit union. Mine will finance a classic car. My mechanic use to work at CNV. He left to go it on his own over differences in ethics. One other thing he told me - The owner of CNV does not drive a Vette. That says a lot, at least to me. The owner may own a Vette dealership, but not because he's an enthusiast.

The only classic Corvette dealer I feel good about is Roger's Corvette near Orlando. http://www.rogerscorvette.com/
I've yet to hear a negative thing about them from anyone. Good all around reputation. From what I've come to understand they won't buy and resell just any Corvette. All their cars are low mile well maintained examples. Pricey? Yea, to a point, but you drive away in a car from Roger's you can feel reasonably secure about it. At CNV you pay a serious premium too, but you also take a serious roll the dice there.

I can honestly say I'd probably purchase a Corvette off of Roger's Web site, sight unseen (other than the Web pics and description) requiring me to have to go all the way to Orlando to take possession of it before I'd simply run over to CNV and buy one directly right off of their lot just a few mile from my home. I'm not saying you can't find a good car at CNV, because I know people who have, but I am saying there's no way to tell which cars are good from which cars are junk with the limited amount of access you're allowed before committing.

I know nothing about any of the other 2nd hand Vette dealers you listed other than Pro Team having a generally negative rep too.

If not private party, Roger's, seriously. :thumbs:

Corvette ED

[QUOTE] At CNV you pay a serious premium too, but you also take a serious roll the dice there.

I bought a car from CNV 4 years ago. First let me say that I was looking for a 96 Grand Sport convertible with red interior. Only 53 GS convertibles with red interior were built. I searched all over the country and only found two for sale. Pro-Team had one and CNV had the other.

Since I am from Pennsylvania and Pro-Team is in Ohio I called them first. They had just sold their car. I then called CNV and they still had theirs. I told them that I work for a used Corvette dealer and ask if the would wholesale the car. They were asking $37,000 and the manager I spoke with said thats what they wanted.

After a couple of phone calls back and forth he said they would do $36,500 and thats it. The price was $3,500 less than the car Pro-Team had. The price was market value for that car.

I told them the car had to be a perfect car with no paint work and no mods. They said the car was a local car sold new at Midway Chev. They sent me some photos and I told them I would take it if they could get it shipped to PA.

They called back and said it cost $800. I had to wire them the money $37,300 and when they received it they would send me the title. I got the title the next day via Fedex.

It took eight days for the car to come and it was just as they said it was. The week that it arrived I drove it to Corvettes@Carlisle and had it in the GS display. I met a guy who told me he was talking to CNV about buying the same car, but heard to many bad things about them.

After seeing the car he wished he would have bought it. Looking back on the whole deal I guess I was lucky, but I don't think I would ever buy another $37,000 car over the internet without seeing it in person.

So I rolled the dice and got snake eyes, but I could have sevened out!!!!!!

1969BRUCE

I Had a very bad experince with cnv corvettes. car was not as nice a described.when you pay top dollar for a vett you expect to recieve a nice car.
When i got mine from them the seat back bolt was missing wiper switch broken,column cover hanging down,engine skipping,plug wire laying on exhaust heater fan noisey,pass window not rolling up to top,and lots of play in steering,also accel cable not adjusted properly had to drive 35 mph on highway home nice for new car huh.called them back and told them what all was wrong thought the car was misrepresented there response was well will give you 500.00 for repairs which was b/s but what was i to do. so i started repairs and soon as i fixed it went for test drive and then found water pump and radiator leaking.so i just decided to take car down and repair everything.lesson well learned about buying cars sight unseen.especially from a company not so great.What even worse is i was told it was checked out and also test driven.sounds like they need technicians.


[Modified by 1969BRUCE, 2:51 PM 4/29/2004]

Corvette_fetish

Sounds like you got a sweet car for sure. I really like Grand Sports, so I understand why you went for it in such a case. As I said, you can get a good car through CNV because I know people who have. If CNV acquires a good car, it's safe to say it will leave there a good car. As a matter of fact before I learned of their reputation I intended to purchase a one owner, non smoker, pristine, fully documented, 30K mile, garaged 1986 Pace Car replica from CNV they were asking 14K for. I missed the car by two hours. In that case that car's background was easy to confirm. Later, after I bought my '79 from a private party and became involved in the Corvette community, CNV's reputation surfaced, and after meeting my mechanic and hearing about his experiences working their, I don't think I'd feel good buying anything from them. Yikes! In your case they had a rare car you wanted, so you really had to roll the dice. I'm very happy to hear you got a fantastic car out of the deal. Roger's has a few Grand Sports for sale right now, and all I can say is :smiliedrool:

Corvette_fetish

Yea, I agree, all that stuff should have been found and addressed before the car was made available for sale. At the very least, should have all been repaired for free, or reimbursement was in order. I hate to say it, but this is one of the better of the bad stories I've heard.

Jb3778

I've bought a car from Pro Team... can't say that I'd do it again. However, if you ever saw all those C2's and C3's (about 200 of them), it's amazing. The facilities are outstanding, the staff knowledgeble, but the cars are way over priced. Stick to the private owners.

Daytona69

I had a good experience buying my '70 from Corvette Mike in Anaheim, CA. I looked around for months, both dealers and private party. Corvette Mike happened to have the perfect car for me, so I wrote a check and drove it home. There were a couple of problems that they fixed as part of the agreed purchase price before I took delivery (non-op wipers and a broken grille). The facility is great and there are always some amazing Covettes to look at.

LemansBlue68

You gotta figure these dealers are making money on these cars. It's a matter of buy low sell high. With enough time and patience a private buyer can buy low too. I know a lot of dealers (not necessarily THESE dealers) will see an ad in the paper by a private seller and call to feel him out to see how desparate he is to sell. If the seller NEEDS to sell, dealers have the cash available to offer up right away. Readily available cash can go long way in negotiating a price down to a desparate seller. There's no reason a serious buyer cannot use these tactics as well.

As for any of the aforementioned Covette dealers I couldn't speak one way or another about them other than they're used car dealers and these are used cars, so buyer beware. You can get burned on a private used car deal as well. I know one thing: I would never buy a car sight unseen over the internet without having a trusted party look the car over for me in person before handing over the hard earned cash.

Fevre

:iagree: I wanted a corvette and they had one I really liked. Would not recomend against them for any reason other than price. Be patient and shop around to find a good deal, if you want a car ASAP then they have hundreds to choose from.

JLinCA

I haven't bought anything from any of the dealers you listed, but I just bought a 1981 from Riverside Motorsports in Wisconsin. Unfortunately they don't have a web site.

This was my first time buying a car sight unseen, and the experience turned out to be one of the best experiences buying anything that I have ever had.

Dave, who is the owner and operator, spent hours on the phone with me describing every detail of the car. He actually walked around the car describing everything while I was on the phone with him. And he sent me many expertly taken pictures. Needless to say the car was exactly as I pictured it when it arrived.

Give Dave a call at 608-757-1008. Not only is he a very friendly and easy to talk to person, but he is also an extremely knowledgable Vette enthusiast. Im sure he can help you find the classic Vette you are looking for.





[Modified by JLinNY, 6:42 PM 4/29/2004]


[Modified by JLinNY, 6:42 PM 4/29/2004]


[Modified by JLinNY, 6:48 PM 4/29/2004]

Motor City Vette

You can also look for private dealers at http://www.collectorcartraderonline.com/ and go to the BUY section.

1974ta

I looked at all the dealers and found most of the prices to be outrages to say the least.

I wanted a 70 roadster with 350/350 4 speed, P/S and P/B. The dealers all wanted 25k plus for a numbers matching car or 29k plus with air.

I looked in Ohio, Texas, and Alabama but felt the cars were too high priced.

Finally Vette Finders notified me of a car with everything I wanted within 50 miles of my home in MD and it was a Texas car!

Drove it, ran great!, needed suspension work but so did the other cars. Put the car up on a lift and it was virtually rust free and it cost 5 grand less from a private owner. Closed the deal the minute I looked at the under carriage and confirmed that all numbers matched. It even had three of four original T3 headlights!

Moral of the story is be very very patient, do your homework, know exactly what you want and how much you want to pay. The car is out there.

The last lesson I learned is that unless you have absolutely no problem pouring money into a car, either spend the extra to get a very low mileage, documented car that needs nothing or buy and spend a little extra on a documented totally restored car that is ready to go.

Restoration is fun but very very expensive. These cars were extremely reliable new but bumper cars in particular will nickel and dime you after all these years. Especially if originality is important to you. I am still spending money on what was and is a very original car but is just showing it's age.

In closing, I almost bought a 70 LT! Conv. from Contes and they were totally accurate and up front about what the car was and was not. Have only heard good things about Contes.

I have heard from lots of Corvette people that some of the bigger names you mentioned are no longer reputable and their prices are insane. They are also notorious for restamps to make them appear to be numbers matching. They give the entire hobby a bad name.

Hope this helps,

Bill