Here’s a comment that few will ever hear at the gas station: “That Vega belongs in a museum!” Well, this Vega has been in a museum for 25 years, in the collection of “Downtown DeSoto” in Clinton, Missouri, and they are selling this well-documented 23,275-mile 1976 Vega on eBay. It’s so original that it even has its factory A78-13 tires, to which the seller applies this caveat: “They should not be relied upon for highway driving.” True words. Barn Finds’ all-star car spotter Curvette sent this one in, and the high bid currently sits at $5,325 and has not met reserve. What will it take to take home one of the few museum Vegas the world has known?
Quick digression—I have a small collection of H-Body dealer promo cars because I like their styling and they’re inexpensive. Fortunately for me, I have this museum car’s twin; painted Lime Green Metallic, it differs only in its interior color.
The most important thing to look for when Vega shopping is rust. Although this car was clearly parked on a lift for photos, this is the only picture of the undercarriage that is posted on the eBay ad, which is a shame. The rocker panel does seem to look good, so that’s something.
The seller does post several documents, including a journal for fuel stops, that prove that the mileage claim is genuine.
The interior also indicates that this is a low-mileage car. Based on this picture, the Vega has not a four-speed but rather the standard three-speed manual. Yes, you could still get a three-speed in a Vega in 1976 (I’m a little surprised, too). Surprisingly, there are no pictures of the engine posted, but the emission sticker tells us that this car has the standard one-barrel equipped “Dura-Built” 140-cubic-inch four, which produced 70 horsepower and was fed through a 2.92:1 rear axle ratio. (There is a video of the engine running, and it sounds good.) Chevy worked fairly hard in its sales materials to distance this engine from earlier examples in earlier Vegas; in an attempt to soften the car’s dubious reputation for reliability, the engine had a 5-year/60,000-mile limited engine warranty. Anecdotally, the later Vegas were of much better quality than earlier examples, but the damage was done.
The museum car is not perfect. Although the seller has cleaned the fuel tank and installed a new fuel pump, they mention that it will eventually need a carburetor rebuild. Nevertheless, it “runs extremely smooth and the brakes are totally operable”; those brakes were front discs/rear drums for 1976. The top has some light hail damage, there are a couple seam tears in the interior, and “the left rear quarter was painted at one time.” Also, the AM radio doesn’t work and the fuel gauge is inaccurate.
At least there’s a full plate of factory literature that comes with the car.
Regarding the car’s issues, it’s impossible to think that you’re going to buy a perfectly running and driving car from a museum. A museum car’s job is to sit and look good, which this Vega undoubtedly did for a quarter century. Any reasonable car fan knows that they’re going to have to spend a lot of time tinkering on a car that’s sat that long, and this one will be no exception. But imagine what people will say at the gas station.
A clean, unmolested economy car of this era is hard to find, perhaps even more so for the rust-prone Vega. It’s fun to see one in good shape. A couple interesting features: the A78-13 tires (I remember that tire size), and the gas purchase journal. Three-on-the-floor, surprising. At the local cruise-in I suspect this would be more entertaining than the SS396 parked next to it.
Good write-up Aaron. Your almost-matching scale model is cool.
I bought the 1976 bicentennial edition Vega. It was white with blue and red pin stripes. It was two years old when I bought it from a lieutenant transferring to Germany. Cost me $1500 bucks. That was a lot of money for a PFC back then. Unfortunately it only lasted a couple of years due to that infamous aluminum 4 banger. Never the less I loved driving that car as it was my first.
Youre right about that. Economy cars are the first to disappear. You dont see horizons or chevettes anymore. They used to be everywhere.
A car like this would be so fun to put a nice engine in it.
Overall, its not a bad looking vehicle.
This is almost unbelievable. ( I do believe it though). I didn’t even know you could get a 3 speed in a Vega, I always thought it was a 4 speed as standard. The fact the rockers are all there is a good indicator that everything else underneath is ok as well. I can’t get over how well preserved this one is, even the original tires…. Wow…. I like your scale model too Aaron, what are the odds about it being the same exterior color as this find too? And you truly hit the nail on the Head with Curvette, truly an all star finder if I ever saw one!!! Hope this gets preserved, like Bob in Tn already ( very accurately) pointed out, these do have a tendency to rust very quickly, so to see this with its original steel is pretty rare.
Youre lucky if you can get a Vega to do any speed.
Love it.
Years ago I found a Vega promotional model car at the
local Pay Less drug store.I asked a clerk “How much?”.They
told me $1.00,so I bought it.
I learned to drive stick in a ’71 3 speed Vega identical to this one in color!
GLWTA!! :-)
We had one in the family in 1976. Same colour combination, but ours was automatic.
I know I’ll catch a lot of flack for this but, this would make a perfect period street machine! A tunnel rammed 355 and a super T10 feeding a 12 bolt with 4.10 gears, bass boat green metal flake paint, crushed velvet interior, that is my dream Vega. Eat your heart out
What a cool car! This would be worth it. They were always really good looking cars, issues be damned…
I had a yellow 75 hatchback several years ago here in Germany in the same good condition with ~50K miles only. The engine was troublefree, but veeeery lame- but mine was an automatic, which even hurt the engine performance.
It was surprisingly well build and had a relativly good handling. Too bad, that the issues were only solved after some years of production and the image was already hurt.
They are great looking small cars. And yes, Chevy should have offered a small V8 or V6 in the Vega, too.
Of course the subsequent H bodies that evolved from the Vega offered V-8’s and V-6’s
1976 would be the last year for the three speed transmission. I’ve seen many. In Ford’s advertising they mentioned that one of the Pinto’s advantages over Vega and Gremlin was its standard 4-speed transmission. I always liked these mostly because I was oblivious to their defects until I was older.
When I was in high school, a classmate bought a 3 year old 1975 Vega with PB, PS, AC, auto and a trailer hitch! He said he bought a newer car so when the loan was paid off he’d have something of value left.
Later on in Vega and H body production, they all received excellent rust proofing, even far better than what Cadillac had. I know, from having a wrecking yard with both models, the Cadillacs had rusted quarters.
The Vega was a very decent car by ’76. The Durabuilt 140 finally addressed the cooling and crankcase ventilation issues properly (even with the stupid cast iron head) and most of the rust issues were also finally addressed by this time. GM had a lot good looking cars in the ’70s, but the Vega was still the best, IMO.
Fun fact. The cast iron head was immediately called out as problematic when Chevrolet was awarded production of the Vega. John Delorean, when he became GM of Chevrolet after leaving Pontiac as Director of Engineering in 1969, had his team develop a cross-flow aluminum head and actually built prototypes with this setup (this was before the Cosworth was even conceived in 1970). Much better performing than the cast iron boat anchor head and did not suffer the heatsink cooling issues that the cast iron head did. Ed Cole (whom of which hired an engineering team of 50 outside of the divisions to design the Vega, a GM first), insisted that the cast iron head stay due to cost (and likely ego) issues. We know the rest of the story…
House of Horrors would be a more appropriate venue. 👻
Say what you will, but, unfortunately, it’s still a Vega.
its neat but i bet the want at least 20-25k for it. really got to want it
“… a certain amount of light hail damage” to the roof.
Any rust free Vega around today should be featured on That’s Incredible. ;)
My dad bought me a new one when I was a senior in high school. We ordered it from the local Chevrolet dealer, red with black interior and red piping around the seats and red carpet. Had a set of B.F radial TAs and had a body shop paint the rear panel between the tail lights flat black. Oh and it was a 4-speed. Fun car at the time
Sold on 12/13/2025 for a high bid of $10,000, there were 6 bidders and 19 bids.
Steve R