Corvette C4 as FE car?
 

On another forum, someone posted about a C4 that got clunkerified.

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Responses were divided into two camps:

"I can't believe they clunkerified a Corvette"

...and...

"Corvette C4 is crap"

So, with the C4 being cheap enough to clunkerify instead of selling, its glacially tall gears (the ZF 6 speed has a .5:1 6th), good aero, and non-hypermilers regularly getting 30mpg out of Corvettes (does that include C4?)...I wonder if it could be my next FE car?

An even crazier idea I had was to trade engines with someone who wants a V8 to replace the 3.8 in their V6 Camaro. I figure I should be able to find someone who will do all the work of the swap just to get the Corvette V8...

How is the Corvette for repair/maintenance costs, and how is it for DIY work difficulty?

From everything I 've ever heard the repair/maintenance cost on the Corvette is pretty expensive. I've never had the pleasure of finding out first hand.

According to my quickie research, C4 Corvette covers 1984 to 1996. EPA is 18mpg, just qualifying it as a "clunkerable" car. Assuming the car to be in "fair" condition per Kelly Blue Book criteria, a 1989 car has a "trade in value" of under $2600. The '96 is valued at $4700 as a trade-in. So while, to you or me, destroying one of these cars is a major sin, it actually makes sense for the person trading in the car.

The guy I sold my VX to wants to sell it. It has about 45k miles on it right now. If you are interested I will see what he wants for it.

Needs nothing, new tires, timing belt, plugs, etc. You might want to put a radio in it.

regards
gary

regards

is that the crappy one with like 180hp?

I've always thought it would be cool to take a really old car (much older than that) and put a honda drivetrain in it. that way you get the look and the mileage, along with the reliability. basically a body swap.

If you look closely the vehicle in question has a severe alignment problem, with extreme wear on the outer edges of the tires. I'd be willing to bet that simply an alignment and 4 tires will cost over $1,000 on that car. Also consider if it needs ball joints or tie rods... you could be looking at closer to $2,000 in front end work. Yeah, its sad to see a 'Vette turned in on the clunker program, but it may have had some very expensive problems.

If you do the math from available Cd and frontal areas in the Wikipedia article on Automobile drag coefficient, a Saturn SC1 is more aerodynamic than a Corvette.

Or, it could be that the owner just liked to take corners really fast...

Not being all that familiar with Corvettes (they are not exactly in plague numbers this side of the Equator) my take is this:
Lightweight body , tall gearing and large engine with bucket loads of torque spinning at little above idle speed on the freeway.

I think sensibly driven you could get decent numbers from it but my guess is most owners didn't buy it for that reason which is why it has the reputation it does.

Could be a bargain given the hunt for more FE vehicles is making some of them head to the wreckers anyway.

Cheers , Pete.

That may well be. However, depending on your age, did you ever, as a kid, lust after a Saturn? Or a GM X-body car (Chevy Citation, et al)? Or a Chevy Vega? Or a Studebaker Lark (despite the fact that, properly equipped, the Lark could have given the 'vette a run for it's money...)? Or a Nash Rambler?


No, you probably didn't. Neither did I. Or any other red-blooded American boy I have ever known, liberal or conservative. But we've all, at one time or another in our lives, wanted a Corvette. And whatever was wrong with that one, unless it was badly damaged in ways I can't see from the picture, any repairs would amount to only a few months payments AT MOST on a new one, and you wouldn't lose any money to depreciation!

In fact, I'm betting that the cost of repairing THAT engine, after it has had the sand run through it, is probably only equal to a few payments on a new one! I wonder if anybody, just out of pure cussedness, has tried to rebuild one of these "clunkerized" engines yet?

Consider this...AMT, Revell, Jo-Han, etc. sold millions of Corvette models. When I was a kid I built a few. How many Nash Rambler, Chevy Citation or Saturn models have they sold?