Amen, but will be hard to find at his available dollars.

Oh I should say..with a Vette there are NO minor issues.....be careful
..!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Tom.
This is not the first Corvette I've looked at. I've looked at 4, (3
seriously), driven 3.
I went to see an '85 that looked great in pictures, at a small dealer about
40 miles from
me. It was horrible. Didn't even drive it.
Saw an '88 at a "classic" dealer near me. 80k miles, interior was tired, but
it was nice
otherwise, or so I thought. I drove it, not much punch, and then, it stalled
out on me. I
ran from that one.
The current candidate is an '86 from a private owner. I can't get a read on
the guy. I don't
know for sure if he's the kind of guy you should buy a car from. :) But, the
minor issues:
Someone keyed the car. 2 scratches, one on the door, one on the front fender
area. Each
scratch about 6" long. Not terribly deep. But the paint is new within the
last 4 years.
Nice and shiny white. The antenna is stuck in the up position. The radio was
replaced with
an aftermarket. The radio part doesn't work, but the CD player part sounds
great. The
heater/ac fan doesn't work at "high". Works on medium and low settings. It
has a cracked
marker light, and the front trim, (nose), is a little high on the passenger
side. Finally, the
power windows go up and down VERY slowly.
The good: 74k miles. New carpet. Interior is very good, dash all works. It
does have the
CD player and good speakers. The paint is very good where not scratched. It
has '96 rims
with Z rated tires, tires have good tread. Newer exhaust, K&N intake, and
chip in the engine.
It's very strong, very responsive. It's a little creaky, even for a
Corvette, but seems to ride
as it should.
He wants 8500, I was thinking of offering 7k and seeing where it goes.

Great advice! I would add to that the need for a decent shop for the fixes
and a few thou available -- unless the prospective owner is
mechanically/electroncally adept. In the early C-3 days I know I was able to
cope with routine repairs that today I don't think I would or could handle.
And. electrical problems are the worst when you consider aging electronics.
I, too have thought about a mid 90s C-4 as a possible weekender, but
remember all too well the frustrations of something that you cannot get
fixed anywhere.

Vern, you can get it here:   http://tinyurl.com/y3aol9

I don't think it is legal or proper to eliminate the cat converters....it's
people like you that are destroying this beautiful planet...you should be
fined and jailed for you total indifference to rest of us...and your Vette
should be impounded.

I hope some one from the Feds reads your post and takes the necessary
actions to get you off the road.

Close, but not quite.

The Borg Warner second version T-10 four speed (known to many as the Super
T-10) or ST-10, was used during the mid to late 70s in Corvettes, as well as
other vehicles. Borg Warner had some problems, and Doug Nash acquired the
rights to the ST-10. This may be one of the reasons for no 4 speed 1982
Corvettes, but I am not sure.

Corvette needed a manual and they needed an overdrive with the fuel economy
issues. Doug Nash offered a solution, his newly acquired Borg Warner-based
ST-10 with an electronic overdrive on the rear tail housing.  This type of
design had been used in several cars before this.

Doug Nash pulled a bit of a switch by using essentially an automatic
transmission on the tail of a manual transmission. It worked, it solved the
problem, and had potential to be great, but issued came up with the
automatic section.  See http://www.5speeds.com/dne.htm for more information.

The DNE 4+3 was a good idea in a cobbled design. It became available around
mid production in MY 1984 and ran through 1988. In 1989, the ZF six speed
became the available manual transmission as option MN-6.  BTW, there is no
such option ZF-6 which means a 6 speed transmission.

The basic ST-10 which is the main part of the 4+3 transmission is still
available through Richmond.
http://www.richmondgear.com/01fourspeed.html

If you look at their web page, you will see their line of Australian right
hand drive transmissions. (Kidding, they have mirror images posted by
mistake - sloppy web work.)

The 4+3 transmissions are not as good as the six speed, but they are not a
terrible thing with enormous problems.  Once rebuilt by some of the
specialized rebuilders now, you can expect long and good service from them.

While many lean towards the LT1, the first couple of years had problems with
the Opti Spark which is expensive. Not all have, as there are owners who
claim to still be running their original, however, it is more often to be a
problem.

Possibly the best choices are the '89-'91 L98 with the six speed or the '95
and '96 if you want the manual transmission cars.  While the 700R4 automatic
has its own weaknesses, they are typically a $1400 rebuild to get them into
good condition and have plenty of service.  The later ones are the best, of
course, however, the early ones most likely have been rebuilt by now and
should be as good.