Our Survey Parameters
Thanks to Corvettes numbers man, Peter Graham, we are able to provide you with a summary of all the Corvettes advertised for sale on the premier Australian automotive sales site, CARSALES.COM. While not all cars are advertised on this site, most of them do find their way here. So, although we will obviously miss a few, the numbers and averages, etc, should generally give a very good indication of what is going on in the market.
We also make the assumption that if a car disappears off the Carsales listing, it has been sold, and sold at the listed price. Again, this will not always be accurate, but it will give a good general indication of how the market is behaving.
Corvettes Australia plans to report each month on these numbers so we can spot any trends; either for a particular Generation of Corvette or for the whole Corvette used car market.
While the total cost of what it would cost you to buy all the cars and the size of the “chook shed” you would need to house them all may not be applicable to everyone, Peter is sure this must be of vital information to someone !! Possibly more important is the value of the first prize in Powerball, which would certainly help with buying all the cars and building that super-sized chook shed.
There is a slight drop in the number of cars listed at the end of September from 127 to 119.
Looking at the column that shows the cars removed from Carsales during the month, you can see 15 C8s appear to have been sold. If the sellers achieved the advertised price, the average sale was just under $257k, which is an impressive number.
There were 5 C5s sold during the month, reflecting the ability for owners to now retain early C5s in their LHD configuration. They no longer require conversion to RHD, dropping their price considerably. The C5 was the first of the “modern” front engine Corvettes making them a comfortable car to take on a club cruise. You can see the median asking price of a C5 is now just over $60k and the average selling price right on $57k.
There were 4 C4s sold for the month, but you can see that they were sold at the upper end of the market, averaging a sale price of $38,500. The C4 usually provides the entry level price for Corvette ownership as you can see from the low asking price of $24k. The C4 was sold in large numbers when released and there are many for sale at a low price in the US. In general they provide good value for money.
There were only 2 C3s sold out of the quite large number of 28 that are on the market. There is quite a wide price range within the C3 market, with some very basic cars available, while the best cars are expensive. There are many very good “collector” C3s on the market and their price reflects their quality.
Sales of C1 was impressive for the month with 3 sold at an average asking price of just under $187k. Most C1s in Australia are of high quality and are certainly seen as good investment cars. They have become highly desirable lately. There was only 1 C1 left available on Carsales as of 1st of October.
Again, C8s provided the largest number of sales, accounting for nearly half of all Corvettes sold. There have been again no C6s sold for the month, with one more car added to Carsales. This could be partly due to the availability of the LHD C5s on the market which may be seen as better value than the C6 at about 45% of the price. The C6 is a markedly improved car over the C5, but the C5 price is obviously attractive. It is interesting to see a couple of C7s sold for the month. With the least expensive C8 advertised at $199k, there are some who have decided the C8 is too expensive and have opted for a C7 at a slightly more affordable price. Some traditionalists also prefer front engine Corvettes.
It remains to be seen how long the C8s will hold their selling price. Although 15 were sold last month, these were replaced by another 22 being listed – making a total of 39 C8s currently on the Carsales listings.
With the total value of all Corvettes advertised on 1st October being $17.3M, the Powerball winner ($60M) could easily afford to buy them all!