Buying New or Buying Used

[Russm]

Good day, New to your board, decided I wanted to get a ZL1 several months ago and I have been learning about the car, availability, cost, maintenance, mods etc. One thing has really hung me up, I look at the 17 model and I really like it but $62K+ is not in my plans, if anything wait 6 mths. to a year and look for depreciation. There in is were I see something real funny about this car. I am in SE WI, looking in a 300 mile range, I found over 400 ZL1's from 2012-2015 under 10K miles with a cost from $37-$51K.
1. How and why could so many people purchase these great cars and use them so little and take such a loss.
Owners, is there something wrong with all these cars or do you think a lot of people just got way over their heads.
2. Would you recommend buying one of these low mile units saving $20K+ and just spend the extra $ on a Lingf/Hennes kit to get to the 650 HP?
Great to meet you all and look forward to your thoughts!

[GONMAD510]

I think it is one of 3 things.
1) Bought more than they can afford.
2) The scared the hell out of them.
3) They bought it for weekend cruises and garage queens.
I drive mine daily. I bought the car to drive and enjoy it. IMHO I would buy the low mileage cars and MOD it. Personally i think the Gen 5 looks better anyways.

[Can'tHave2MuchHP]

If you can buy a 6th Gen, then I'd go for it.

But the 5ths are great too.

About mileage, I bought my '13 that had 2970 in June 2016 and I am now at 3700. I don't think there's anything wrong with lightly driving a car. There's a few reasons for my low mileage:

1) Time. I don't always get the chance to take it out on the weekends, and when I do, I have a few cars to choose from which leads to number 2
2) I spread out my driving on multiple cars (pleasure cars, I have a truck for daily)
3) Weather. My cars will never see rain if I can help it or cold weather. This cuts our days in half in Michigan.

Just because someone took excellent care of and lightly drove a prized car doesn't mean they can't drive the car or can't afford it or BS like that.

If I had the time or the weather, I'd drive my car a lot more.

And if you had a crystal ball, you WILL very much appreciate low mileage down the road. Sometimes I look at my ZL1 and my truck on a sunny work day...and I think "Why take the risk of rock chips, road debris, and even possibly a crash (Caused by other idiots on the road) when there's no real reason for me to drive my ZL1" and end up taking my truck. That's just me.


My advice would be, buy a low mile 2013-2015 Coupe M6 (Most "Fun" combination IMO) and then spend a few grand on it in modifications BUT don't go crazy unless you really want to, in my view, ruin the car. Pulleys, intake, exhaust, nice cam and be done.

You'll be blowing a lot of money by paying a shop like Hennessey or Lingenfelter, you're paying for name. You can get the same work done for a lot less somewhere else. But if you really want one of those huge shops to do it, then go for it. Just note that you'll likely spend 2 times as much money or more than you needed to.

An average performance shop could do for 650 HP:
Cold Air Intake
Upper/Lower Pulley
Headers
Injectors
For less than $4,000.

And you can make 650 WHP off of the above list, not just crank hp.

[Nor Cal ZL1]

A lot of owners have them as a second, third, or fourth car, or are limited by the weather where they live.

Mine gets driven once or twice a month, but when it goes out its always for a fun road trip. I have put 24000 troublefree miles on it in 3 years. Car is still like new.

Others buy them, just because they need to own the latest and greatest, but since they are not generally a primary driven car they just sit a lot. Then something new comes out and they must have it, so the cycle begins again with the new latest and greatest.

Those are the low mileage cars to score a couple of years down the road when the values have dropped.

There are a few owners past 100000 miles here somewhere.

[Snoman]

New '17 ZL1s will be under $50k in 10 months with low mileage used in the $44-48k range.

The '13-'15 ZL1s are proven vehicles, both in reliability and longevity able to produce 10s 1/4mi times with little to no effort. Your current target price is $33k and if you perform your due diligence and are patient, you can find a slightly modified one owner for under $36k.

Paying a $20k+ premium to own your own color choices and have the newest vehicle on the market is a personal choice, but know up front you're burning cash.

[SnowyCamaro]

I'm limited by weather and I don't daily the car. They are reliable, built strong and well. Very few issues on models 2013+. Only issues I've heard of so far are:

Supercharged rattle (fixed with new isolator and under warranty for 8 years)

Power steering ground screwed up (seems to be related to cai when people relocate the ground stud)

Clunking from diff (tsb from gm and is fixed under warranty, this is mostly isolated to 2012 models)

As for the new one. The waiting list will be long. Whatever they tell you it will be longer. I hear 5th gen is more mod friendly. I bought a used one from gm dealer and love it. Was low mileage and had 1 scratch on it. Thats literally it and have just been modding and having fun.

Now why would someone sell theirs? I agree that it may scare the crap out of them. My aunt has that problem with her vette. I love the power but for some may be too much. Can't say why someone sells the car but I can say its not because they don't live up to the hype cause it does!

Go check one out and test drive it.... You'll be sold. Its easy to make enough power to get close to the new zl1. Now is the new one better at the track ? Yes... But I certainly don't have the skills to tell the difference, I track mine and love the performance but it's got more than I am able to push it to.

[Switchy]

Personally if you can afford to buy new buy new! It's worth the extra cash in my opinion. You have no idea what the driver did to the car before you get in it. Could have drove it like a high school kid, reving the engine up all the time, took the car through a couple of automatic car washes... the list goes on... you buy new you don't have to worry about any of that. I know if I'm spending over 40K it will be a new not used, my thoughts though.

[markmsf3]

Unfortunately, I can't afford a new one either or I would. That's why I'm trying to be patient and wait for a 1 owner, adult driven, and under 10k miles. There's a lot out there, but if I'm going to pay 40k for a 3 or 4 year old used car, it's going to be exactly what I want. I let that car slip through my fingers this past week and I'm still beating myself up about it.

[leemozoid]

It was never our intention to benefit from someone else's misfortune but that's exactly how we ended up with our ZL1. It's a 2013 A6 vert with 34k that we were able to get from a local CU's repo lot for $30k. Sometimes you can catch the white rabbit. Good luck with your hunt. We are happy!

[AJensen383]

I kind of had the same questions when i was looking... Why are there so many Zl1s that have 2 or 3 previous owners already?? I think it just comes down to wanting the lastest and greatest, then getting bored and moving on to something else, or they realize they cant afford a 60k+ car that doesnt get used...

For me personally, I wouldnt buy a '17, I think they lost all of the muscle car look that the 5th gen has, and are more "european" looking. Yes, they are a better track car, lighter and are basically a corvette with a back seat and lower price, but in my opinion they dont have the badass look the 5th gens do... Maybe because I love first gen Camaros, and the 5th gen is based off a 69...But for me who will never tell the difference in track performance , the 5th gen ZL1 is pretty stout and like was said before, you can easily make 650hp with a 5th gen with bolt ons and save a ton of cash...

Oh yeah, one other point, if a back seat is important to you the 6th has a smaller cockpit than the 5th gen and will even be more difficult for ANYONE to be comfortable in the back.

[E. Bryant]

The 5th Gen ZL1 is no longer the fad-of-the-day. Not sure that it ever was; it's not the sort of one-trick pony waving around a single gaudy spec number that tends to lend itself to that sort of popularity. Instead, it's the sort of well-rounded performer that works very well in a variety of real-world situations. I love driving mine anytime that the weather is warm enough for the tires to work; it brings the kids to school, does spectacularly well on a road course, holds up at the drag strip, and can make ice cream runs with the whole family.

As far as depreciation goes, I was more than happy to let someone else take a $20k hit for the privilege of putting on the first 6200 miles. I ended up with a couple years' worth of remaining factory warranty (which was worthless - the car has been flawless and nothing went wrong), and there was a lot of money left over for gas, tires, insurance, mods, etc.

[lbls1]

This is a personal choice. You have to decide whether you prefer the '12-15 or the '17.

If price is an issue, you could get around that in a couple of ways. Right now the '17 is a hot item, so my advice is to wait for a short period and then shop around for a bargain. You could also wait and see whether chevy will offer a rebate or discount. The last big discount on chevy stock was 20%, and a few people were able to score nice bargains on new ZL1s in stock.

[O.F.]

Does anyone buy a supercharged car with the idea of driving it 100,000 miles plus? I don't know...never owned one. I have known people to buy a Corvette and drive it 1/4 mile at a time then turn it back to stock again and trade. Caveat Emptor!

[redcoats1976]

bought my 2015 RS a few months ago as a certified used car.it only had 8,000 miles on it when i picked it up,remainder of 3 year bumper to bumper warrantee is in effect and the 2010-2013s were not that much cheaper with 50-60,000 miles on them.a certified 2015-2016 would be a good deal right about now too,and give you the choice of which gen you prefer.