As if the McCall, Idaho location wasn’t beautiful enough, the condition of this 1972 Chevrolet Nova appears to be just as beautiful. The crazy part of this car is that it has traveled just 14,054 miles since it rolled out of the Van Nuys, California factory in 1972. That’s fewer miles than the average person drives in a single year and this car is 52 years old!
I don’t care if this Nova has seven doors, this car is gorgeous. I wouldn’t change one thing about it: the number of doors, the white top, the painted steel rims, the thin white wall tires, and the dog dish hub caps, it’s all perfect and it all goes together. Would a two-door be more valuable? Of course, but who cares unless you’re buying and selling cars for a living? The fact that this Nova has “two extra doors” doesn’t bother me at all.
Chevrolet made the third-generation Nova from 1967 for the 1968 model year until the end of the 1974 model year. If you want a car to be seen in while you wear that sweet thrift store leisure suit you recently scored, this is it. They came in a four-door sedan body style, a two-door sedan, and a two-door hatchback. The fact that Chevy never offered a Nova convertible is weird, so I made a quick one here.
The photos are pretty small but from what is visible both inside and out, the interior looks as nice as the exterior does. The seats appear to be what Chevy called standard cloth and vinyl and they look perfect both front and back. The trunk also looks outstanding. We don’t see the underside, but the seller says that this car was owned by someone who only put around 12,000 miles on it and then passed away. It was parked for the next four decades until the current owner (the seller) bought it in 2019 and has only driven it 2,000 miles since then, and only in the summer.
A lot of you expected to see a 250 straight-six here, this is Chevy’s 307-cu.in. OHV V8, which had 130 horsepower and 230 lb-ft of torque. It’s backed up by a Turbo-Hydramatic THM-350 Powerglide two-speed automatic and a column shifter that sends power to the rear wheels. The seller says it runs great and they “had power steering put in”, so that’s a huge bonus for drivability. They have it listed here on eBay in McCall, Idaho, there is no reserve, and bidders have upped the price to $5,300 with three days left on the auction. Any thoughts on this beautiful survivor?
This is one clean Nova. I wouldnt touch a thing. The only thing is, its not a THM350. IT has a Powerglide in it.. you can see the shift indicator only has a Drive and a Low position. I think the Powerglides last year was 72 if I am not mistaken. You wouldve though the Powerglide would have been hooked to a 250 straight six.
You’re right, Driveinstile! My mistake. The THM350 was an option for V8s, but the Powerglide was standard with the “standard” engines, which would have been the 250-six and the “Turbo-Fire” 307 V8. Thanks for catching that.
Thanks Scotty. I usually have only one moment of intelligence per week…… And that was it!!! Thanks for the extra research on the Powerglide. And for the great write up!!!
Dave
A friend of mine has a 70 Nova , 307 with a powerglide. Reading the options list it says the th350 was the standard auto and the powerglide was an option.
Bone, that may have been the case in 1970, but the 1972 Nova brochure that I read listed the 250 inline-six and 307 V8 as the two “standard” engines and either could be had with the Powerglide, but the THM-350 was available on all the V8s as an option.
Page 6 here:
https://www.xr793.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1972-Chevrolet-Nova.pdf
Ehhnnn( disagreement buzzer) I just don’t think think so. Not clean enough for 14K. Too clean for 114K though, so the great mileage mystery continues. I think good old cars, not wheel standers, will have a place in the future, and this right here will be what everyone will want. Once they tire of their info screen, lane correcting, know nothing know it all info systems. By golly look at the heater, on/off, warm/cold, floor/defrost,,,beautiful!
Howard, it’s hard to tell from those tiny photos for sure, but I agree about plain ol’ cars like this filling in the gaps in the collector car world in the future.
Ow that I’m looking again at the pictures, I’m wondering if this Nova had a vinyl top? And someone just repaired and painted the roof? The trim looks like its all there for one.
I remember when Novas like this were everywhere. We had a green one similar to this in our auto shop in high school to work on. It had a 307 as well. We used to take cars like this for granted. Its nice to see one in this nice a condition today.
Dave
Put an LS in it !!!!
Just kidding.
Ha!
Nice looking survivor. I’d probably leave it as is. If I were to make any changes, maybe put in a roller cammed 400 sbc with a built 200-4R for something with more giddy up and go than a 307/PG had to offer. But keep the 400 factory looking as if it were the 307.
Lovely car. I’ve always loved this generation Chevy Nova. I’ve always preferred the 4 door sedan like this. I consider it a damn shame that it was no longer available in station wagon form, like the first generation was. A convertible is also nice, but my favourites have always been 4 door sedan and station wagon. Sadly, most car makers at this time were only offering 2 doors and 4 doors.
Chevy did offer a Nova convertible in ‘62 and ‘63. Ron Liebman drove one in the 1970s tv series “Kaz.” I forget whether it was a ‘62 or a ‘63.
Boy oh boy. I can still see them through the fog in my mind. Two tone paint, spear molding and the baby moons with the bowtie stamped into them. Common sight all over the place fifty years ago.
BTW- The convertible’s adorable.
You’re way too kind, thanks!
How much over $5300 will this beauty go?
Sold for a high bid of $6,300.
Steve R
Thanks, Steve!
I’d drive it like it is, dog dish hubcaps and all. very easy to work on. Shine it up real nice and take it to the car shows. Price is still reasonable so far $5800.
It’s nice to finally see a seller who is not expecting the moon for their nice, clean vehicle.
Good luck to both buyer and seller. More doors or not, this is nice one that will draw attention.
Just right for me and my girls, and very affordable to boot. I’d daily drive
it as a 2nd car and leave the K-5 at home. Needs disc brakes up front to
be safe on our roads today and the 307 V-8 was cheap to run and reliable
engine that wasn’t very exciting but got the job done. Might put a Holley
Sniper on it to up MPG a bit to save
gas. Other than a period correct stereo with Syrius XM, you really don’t
need much more than what’s here.
Gonna have to enlarge that pic of the
drop to to see if I can make a print of
it. I did a print of an AMC Hornet convertible 40 years ago to show off
my prints at car shows. Back then, I
could show up there dead broke and leave with $300 in my pockets. Might
wanna start doin’ it again to make some extra money so that I could run
out and buy a car just like this one.
You would have to do a heck of a lot of driving, to save enough fuel to pay for a Holley Sniper fuel injection system. That Rochester two barrel carburetor is a pretty efficient unit.
I got a chuckle out of your “disc brakes so it’s safe” comment. That is a common misnomer, as a skidding tire is a skidding tire, no matter what locks it. While I will admit there are advantages to disc brakes, single line drum brakes have stopped us for 75 years, and through a time when we really could have used better brakes and we’re all here. For average driving, I see nothing wrong with drum brakes.
My parents bought a ’68 Nova that looked a lot like this one, but the roof was the same blue as the rest of the car.. In ’68 it was called a Chevy II Nova. The one we had was a 6 cylinder with Powerglide. The AM radio and power steering were added by the dealer. My dad had the dealer install the steering wheel from the deluxe decor package. He didn’t like the horn button in the center of the steering wheel. The deluxe wheel had the horn buttons on the wheel spokes. It had the dog dish hub caps and color matched steel wheels.The car was pretty slow and wasn’t much fun to drive, even considering that I learned to drive on that car.
Great goofy car. Save,it & drive it
By the time you got anywhere the charm of simpler times would have worn off with no power anything & no A/C & not even a turbo 350 trans you will figure why this classic has so few miles.
I agree that the Nova is not well optioned. However, it excels as a pristine example of a 1972 compact economy car. I approve of the upgrade to power steering. Installing power disc brakes and an aftermarket air conditioning unit would make the drive more pleasant to car shows without altering the appearance. Today’s younger buyers woul be shockef to realize that the aforementioned items were optional in 1972 except for luxury cars.
A/C, etc. was not std even on lux monte carlo or caprice – until 198?
A radio was not even std on a t/a until 1982, i believe.
This car would be peppy even with 6 cyl & powerglide – & turbo muffler in back seat area & at least a 3:07 rear. & would get better mpg w/quadrajet & a light right foot.
– in place of 2 bbl on a 307 v8 or 350 v8.
There was a Nova convertible in ’62 and ’63.