When Chevrolet introduced their first compact car, it elected to go down the “path less traveled.” At least for U.S. automobile manufacturers. The Corvair arrived in 1960 and followed in the Volkswagen Beetle’s footsteps with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine. The Corvair sold well for several years until Ralph Nader came along. The seller has a sweet 1962 Corvair Monza 4-door sedan that’s said to be “museum quality” with less than 30,000 miles. This apparently all-original Corvair is in Fairfield, Ohio, and is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $12,500. Barn Finder “Pnuts” brought this air-breathing tip our way.
The Corvair was a Chevy fixture for the entire decade that was the 1960s, selling 1.8 million cars across two generations (1960-64, 1965-69). Upwards of 300,000 copies were sold in 1962 alone, of which 49,000 units were Monza 4-door sedans like the seller’s. This showroom performance put the Corvair in a head-to-head battle with the Ford Falcon and the Chevrolet Chevy II, the Corvair’s internal competitor. Sales would start declining with the arrival of the sporty Ford Mustang and the widely publicized safety concerns raised by advocate Ralph Nader (that’s another whole other story).
From the seller’s description, this Monza could qualify for the “nicest one left.” How many 64-year-old cars like this one could be left with 30k miles and still be (we think) in original condition from head to toe? The seller does not refer to any sort of restoration, so we have to assume that what you see is what you get. The Chevy sports Autumn Gold paint (factory finish?) and a “rare” (per the seller) Fawn cloth interior (no photos).
We assume the 145 cubic-inch flat-six has never been apart and is flanked by a 2-speed Corvair Powerglide automatic transmission. Interesting options include front and rear bumper guards, an emergency brake warning light, back-up lights (long before they became standard fare on cars), and window shades. This seems like a solid ride from front to back, but will Corvair fans go for the asking price on a 4-door sedan (flat top roof!)?
Why FB?????
Age of the seller ?
AHA! See? We can’t make it through a Corvair post without a Ralphie schtip. It’s okay, try as he might, he didn’t crush the spirit Corvair owners had. It was the naysayers ( like my old man) that followed him, people that had Corvairs didn’t listen to him. Don’t forget Valiant and Rambler American, the public had plenty to choose from. Corvair buyers marched to their own drum, and I rarely heard anyone say anything bad about their Corvairs. I don’t think Nader had that much to do with the decline of sales, the people that wanted Corvairs, kind of grew out of them, or more accurately, fell through the floor, oh, and lest we forget, there were plenty of foreign options to choose from, and the Corvair quietly faded away,,,,until right now. I’d love to have this, but where’s the spare tire? No inside photos, but I’ve never seen a Corvair motor that clean, I’d imagine the inside is just as nice. Nicest one I’ve seen in years.
wow what a super clean Corvair. i think that f/b is not the place to sell it though.
Exactly—
The undercarriage is suspicious. It appears it was recently sprayed with some form of undercoating.
I seriously doubt the engine that’s in this one is the untouched original that came from the factory. Back in the day of the Corvair, owners would pop those engines out with no more fret than rotating the tires, rebuild them and put them back in – put the four mounting bolts back in and hook up all the lines and wires and they were good to go for another 30 to 40K miles until they needed to do it again. I personally knew one of them, and after getting it disconnected, he’d simply bend over the engine bay, lift the engine right out and carry it to his work bench and rebuild it – and he was not a big guy. Air cooling that engine did not go over well for the life of the rings, valves, and heads.
Did that many times early in my career with corvairs AND vw’s on hoist with an empty 55 gallon drum….the good old days…:>)
My dad was one of those guys – except he’d rebuild them on a tarp in the driveway. Pull it, fix it, put it back in, what’s for supper?
This ones quite nice, although it looks strange not having Dad’s patented 60 lb block of steel in the bottom of the front trunk to help with the handling.
My dad almost bought one of these in the ’60s……but he listened to Nader. Wish he would have bought it.
Lovely looking car. I’ve always love the earlier (1961-64) Corvair. It’s unforgivable that Chevy would discontinue the car. The only mechanical upgrade would’ve been to install a water-cooled boxer engine, disc brakes, seat belts, etc.
Why is it that everybody has to mention that flea-bag attorney when talking about a Corvair? You deserve to be smacked.
Hahaha. Because my dad listened to my mom who listened to Ralph.
Ralphie is still kicking around. He’s run for president in just about every election since I became old enough to vote. My high school English teacher had a 1966 Mona convertible with maroon paint and black top and interior. Sharp car. I like flat tops like this one too. Someone is trying to sell one of these near me. But it is not nearly as nice as this one. GLWTS.
Back in the day a car dealer that knew I was a mechanic, offered me a beautiful late model 4sp Corvair that needed a throw-out bearing, its only problem. For just $150.00. I passed on it even though my brother had a very hot four carb ‘Vair that I really liked to drive. Too Old Too Soon, Too Smart Too Late, as my great friend us to say. God rest him.
I’ve always loved the earlier 1960-64 Corvair. It’s a damn shame that Chevy wanted to discontinue the car. For many years, I thought it was the fault of Ralph Nader and his book “Unsafe at Any Speed”.