While mileage claims can be dubious, some sellers exude a certain level of confidence in their low-mileage specimens. This 1973 Chevrolet Nova is one such car, as the seller claims it has a mere 15,000 original miles and there seems to be little doubt in his mind that it’s for real. The Nova is a very basic car, right down to its factory radio delete. Find it here on craigslist with a for-sale price of $12,500.
The Nova is equipped with the base-spec six-cylinder paired to a Powerglide automatic transmission. There’s no real street rod potential here short of an engine swap, but that’s OK – clean Novas like this don’t turn up every day, and the V8 and SS cars are usually trashed by this point.
The bench seat and door panels seem to validate the seller’s low mileage claims, as they appear to be in excellent condition. Hope you like green, because there’s a lot of it to go around. The seller doesn’t provide much else in the way of information, other than to say there’s no power equipment – so assume you’ll be wrestling that steering wheel.
The best part of this Nova for me is the chrome pieces that remain in showroom condition – the bumpers, wheel trim rings, and subtle touches around the grill, for starters. When chrome looks this nice, it truly pops and gives an otherwise plain-jane car like this base model Nova some much-needed style. Would you take home a bone stock Nova like this for $12,500?
Nice looking car! It would be a shame to take away its originality by adding horses and a manual tranny but, oh, the temptation!!! Speaking of bench seats, does anyone know if any new vehicles today offer bench seats? I’m no longer that familiar with all of the current offerings and wonder if they can be found.
Yes pickup trucks have bench seats .
You know if it weren’t for trucks we wouldn’t have tail gates . I met all my wives in traffic jams. There’s just something women like about a pickup man 😎
I see we have some country music fans!! Yee Haw!!
This car may be a “stripper”, but it also has the chrome window moldings, and the OEM body side moldings, which were optional. It also seems to have benefitted from some mild customizing w/ the addition of rally wheels and blacked out grille. The steelies and poverty caps that came on the bottom line cars were (IMO) truly hideous! :-)
Yes, cleaned up the engine too with a little paint, but it looks great to me. I hope it stays this way forever as proof that almost all cars in our time were like this, not high HP bruisers.
Lemme see…this, or the ’78 Buick with the warmer 350 for basically HALF the price…seems like a no brainer…
Last year of the powerglide trans. I had one is a 63 impala. Great trans.
Agreed, Bongo. I had a couple powerglide cars, one of them a 67 Camaro 327 4bbl…it’s amazing how fast you can go in 1st before it shifts into 2nd
I’m with NotSure on this. A nice, clean, original (well, almost) plain-Jane cruiser doesn’t deserve to be defiled with an LS1/5-speed powertrain. Even if that is exactly what I’d want to do if it fell into my hands….
In my defense, I certainly wouldn’t do anything to it appearance-wise. One thing a mega-horsepower beefup doesn’t need is to be advertised.
This is one of those cars I hope falls into the hands of someone who will respect and enjoy it for what it is.
I’m not certain, but I think there was a more basic vinyl interior than the one in this car
True enough about the PG – though IMO TH generation trannies are way more entertaining to drive. The PG behind that six does nothing to make it move(nor do any slushbox), even a standard light duty 3spd manual would help it a lot.
Actually I’d keep the six, add some well-chosen upgrades like Clifford / Offy 4bbl intake, split headers , 307 pistons and an RV-spec cam.
Has anyone experience with backdating a 73up Nova face into the 72down look?
Just pull the bumpers in to the body will change the look…
Never underestimate the Powerglide Local Sheriff. With all due respect, I had a 1972 Lemans sedan when I was in my teens with a Chevy six and a Powerglide. That SOB could top out at 100 MPH no problem to my amazement..Truly one of my better cheap beaters.
Good car at a reasonable price needs a V-8 though!!!
On your “cruise-in” placard, you could list it as, “Wow! I coulda had a V8!”
This is darned near as nice a Nova for the price as your going to find. Some of you guys won’t like this but it would shortly have a BBC in it with a 12 bolt, the tranny would get a good rebuild and a 3000 stall converter something that would make a conservative 500 hp. I would leave the bumpers and color as is at least for awhile. It’s a beautiful car!!
A small block bolts right up to the PG. Engine mounts are the same as the 6. My choice would be to hot the 6. Great car.
Our country has been brainwashed into believing everything has to have a V8. One of the coolest (and it was fast as hell!) Camaros I ever saw was a ’67 that had the original 250 inline six, and three speed manual on the floor. The owner had completely gone through the entire car, set up a killer road race suspension system, and had a company in Arizona build the 250 into a mega turbo monster. It was very detailed, and wicked looking as hell, in triple black, with the RS grille with lots of performance upgrades. It was VERY unusual at the time, because it was in 1983. He enjoyed embarrassing big blocks at the drag strip (and on the road). Most people don’t realize the potential in these inline six donks!
Nice car.
Good price.
Buy it and drop a 400 smal block into it.
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I’m not a Nova guy, but if I was, 12,500.00, you couldn’t re do a decent one for, 396, buckets, console,4 or 5 speed, vintage air, it’s a win win
Keep it exactly like it is. If you want a V8 they’re out their. Leave this one alone, it don’t have to be fast to be nice. Clean car like this should not be butchered.
God bless America
I agree, everybody is always foaming at the mouth to do this, do that and end up ruining a perfectly good original car, that, in the long run, would be worth more if they left it alone. A well detailed original in mint condition is going to impress me, much more, than some hacked up ‘hot rod’ that a chowder head punk has turned a rare original survivor into!
Words to live by “never underestimate a Powerglide” I had an altered dragster engine in my shop we we’re doing some head repairs on, the engine was a 496 BB with an 8 71 supercharger making over 1400 hp and behind that sat the powerglide all that power went through. We rebuilt that glide once a year and it kept going!
Most all Chevrolet (drag) race cars these days use Powerglide transmissions but they have few if any stock parts in them. Incidently, what is an “altered dragster”?
i really like this car for some pretty good reasons. However, I would like a/c a, ps and a good sound system. At my age, I am not ready to wrestle regular steering and I like my creature comforts.. All that and the price is just out of my range. Not saying it doesn’t price out like that, just my wallet screaming at me. This is a very practical car and I hope it finds a good home. Best of everything to both the seller and new owner.
The first car ever drove in an Enduro was a honey gold 1973 Nova 2 door , and it was even more base than this – no trim molding, much plainer looking seat upholstery , no carpeting , dog dish hubcaps and a three on the tree ! I never knew that a column shift manual trans was available . It went pretty good (for a 6 banger) until the right front blew out going into the turn and I hit the wall hard – I was really glad the car had that huge front bumper !
the Ad recently expired instead of being deleted…Hmm… I wonder if it sold.
Did anyone have contact with the seller while the ad was up?