If you are on the hunt for a clean and tidy C3 Corvette that you can drive and enjoy immediately, then this 1978 example is worth a serious look. It looks like it has been the recipient of some pretty fastidious ownership under the current owner. It has also recently received a significant amount of mechanical work, meaning this is a classic that is ready to hit the open road. That all sounds really encouraging, so if it appeals to you, then you will find the vehicle located in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, and listed for sale here on eBay. Spirited bidding has pushed the listing along to $10,600, but the reserve hasn’t been met.

The Corvette presents very nicely for a car that is now 42-years-old. This has no doubt been assisted by the fact that the vehicle has received a repaint in its original Mahogany shade. I’ll qualify this a bit by stating that this work was performed in the 1980s, so that repaint now has a few decades on it. The fact that it has survived so nicely would suggest that the work was undertaken to a fairly high standard. I can’t see any signs of significant marks or dings on the car, while the panel gaps remain tight and consistent. As far as rust is concerned, this doesn’t appear to be an issue. If you piece together the shots of the vehicle’s underside that the owner provides, the Corvette is as clean as you are ever likely to find. The owner also makes no mention of any problems with areas like the birdcage, which would seem to be further good news.

By 1978, the Corvette was a vehicle that had become less about outright performance, and Chevrolet’s aim was to provide owners with improved comfort and refinement. This was especially true if the vehicle was equipped with the L48 version of the venerable 350ci V8, as this car is. This engine produced 185hp, and in this case, this finds its way to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission. The upshot was that in this guise, a Corvette would take 16.4 seconds to cover the ¼ mile. Still, I guess that it wasn’t all bad news, because even the more potent L82-equipped cars struggled to break the 16-second barrier. From a mechanical perspective, it seems to be nothing but positive news with this car. The owner has recently had a raft of work performed on the car, and the result of all this time, effort, and expenditure is a car that is said to run and drive really well. The main areas of focus have been the suspension and the brakes. The front and rear suspension have been rebuilt with all new parts, while the steering arms, power steering pump, and the hoses have all been replaced. The brakes have received new discs, new calipers, new rubber lines, and while they don’t rate a mention, I suspect that given their appearance, both the master cylinder and the booster have also been replaced. The owner does claim that the Corvette has a genuine 56,625 miles on the odometer, but doesn’t mention whether any evidence exists to verify this claim.

Looking around inside the Corvette reveals an interior that presents even better than the exterior. The combination of the Mahogany exterior and the Light Beige interior trim is a real winner. The seats are upholstered in leather, and it appears that they have managed to avoid issues with splits, stains, or outer edge wear that can be evident on cars with the trim of this shade. The same is true of the leather-wrapped wheel, which shows no wear on the rim. The dash, cap, door trims, carpet, and all of the plastic looks to be in first-rate condition. For comfort and convenience, the Corvette comes equipped with air conditioning, power windows, a tilt wheel, and an AM/FM radio/cassette player.

On the desirability scale, the 1978 Corvette, especially when it is equipped with the L48 engine, probably doesn’t rate that highly. However, this example is a really nice one that could be taken to any Cars & Coffee with the owner able to hold their head up high. If you want to “buy into” the Corvette lifestyle but want to do this with a reasonable level of comfort, then it is cars like this one that can allow that to happen. Values on these seem to vary quite widely, but a nice example like this could potentially fetch a price of up around the $16,000 to $17,000 mark. That isn’t necessarily definitive, because I have seen them sell for considerably less, and also for considerably more. What I will say is that after spending the past 2-years with values heading south, they are beginning to show some signs of firming back up again. That means that if the next owner can secure this Corvette for less than the upper figure that I mentioned above, then they have probably secured themselves a pretty reasonable buy.