In the early 1970s, Buick needed a compact car to compete across all lines (the imported Opels weren’t getting the job done). So, in 1973, they cloned the popular Chevy Nova and called it Apollo, named after the Greek god. They were only sold for two years in 2-door form (another year as a 4-door) and are seldom seen today compared to the Chevrolet that spawned it. This 1974 Apollo may only have 34,000 actual miles and comes across as a sharp survivor. Located in Clearwater, Florida, the car is available through a dealer here on eBay. Click the Buy It Now button for $24,900 and it’s yours or you can submit an offer. Hats off to Larry D for another arrow for our quiver!
By 1973, every division of General Motors except Cadillac had a version of the X-body Nova. The Olds Omega and Buick Apollo are rarer than the Chevy Nova or Pontiac Ventura. The Apollo would see only 25,000 assemblies in ’73 and another 40,000 in ’74 (the year of rising gas prices), a small percentage of the rest of the fold. The seller’s 1974 model is a hatchback, one of about 12,000 to roll down the line that year. This era of the Nova and its clones were subject to poor build quality that led to premature rusting, especially with the hatchbacks. Fortunately, the seller’s Apollo seems to have escaped those ills.
The seller’s car is said to have 34,383 miles on the odometer which would be hard to believe if it were not for the quality of the overall car. It’s a dressed-up version of the Apollo and has the lettering “GS” on the trunk lid, but the only reference we can find to that is a GSX option that was available that year, nothing like the GSX’s on the Skylarks just a few years earlier. So perhaps those letters are owner-added. Besides a 350 cubic inch V8 (probably 2-barrel considering those fuel-conscious times), this Apollo has automatic transmission, power steering and brakes, and factory air conditioning (but the compressor is bad).
Both body and paint look good on this car, especially in the hatch area which tended to develop leaks. The interior is solid and functional, though not exactly fancy. The ’74 models had those pesky “safety” devices whereby the car wouldn’t start without the seat belts being buckled. We hope that feature has been disabled here as were many because they got more people in trouble than helping them out.
Hagerty doesn’t seem to have a handle on the Apollo’s regarding resale value and NADA says they’re just used cars. An ordinary ’74 Nova may be worth $10-13,000 tops, so the seller of this car is banking on the low miles and condition of this Buick to warrant double what it might otherwise bring. For the asking price, I’d have replaced the broken A/C compressor before listing.
Agree the AC should be working at the $25k asking and that the price is way too high for a average malaise era car with bench seat and mediocre performance. You could finds tons of more desirable cars for the asking.
And all Apollos were hatchbacks, not particularly popular with collectors. I hope the seller actually likes this car because at that price, he’s keeping it.
Not all Apollos were hatchbacks. They offered a 2-door sedan and a 4-door sedan, both with a trunk.
This definitely has a dealer “markup”. Yeah people are lining up to buy it, priced double what it’s worth.
Really nice car and I’ll be curious too see what it really sells for.
N ova
O mega
V entura
A pollo
And no, there was no Apollo GS.
I never realized that. Wow, GM was cleverer (is that a word?) than I thought!
Way overpriced and the seller knows it. They spend more time telling prospective buyers about available options this car didn’t come with than this actual car they are selling. They couldn’t get their asking price for a 73 Nova in similar condition, good luck getting that for an Apollo.
Steve R
Typical dealer bs trying to triple the cost of a car knowing someone out there will be suckered into buying it at best it’s worth 7500 and that’s on a good day
The door jams show this car has been repainted
Never saw a GS symbol on apollo before. Looks exactly like gs symbol from my 69 ga 400. Think it was added
Good catch A.G ! Yeah stay away from this pig with lipstick!
It amuses me how GM would take a successful model (in this case, the Chevy Nova) and stick a different front and rear on it for their other divisions, which most times didn’t work.
In the 80’s we would sometimes see regular 4 or 6 cyl mustangs with a 5.0 badge glued to the front fenders. We called those guys “posers”. This owner is a poser and his car is just a gussied up grandma’s church Nova. There, I said it. He has besmirched the GS name. He needs his car guy card and maybe even his man card if not revokes, at least suspended for this offense.
We glued a, “Celica” badge on the back of my wife’s 1973 Mustang. It confused some people. One even asked,”Is this the new Celica?”.
I put SS Badges on my 70 Impala. Most people never knew that they didn’t make a SS Impala in 1970. My initials are SS.
My ex-wife had a four-door Apollo with the 350 and used during college. I drove it a lot and really liked the way it felt on the highway.
a nice winter car when I take my Porsche of the road.
My dad’s ’74 Nova had a 350. It never got more than 14mpg.
They did have a GSX package available on the Apollo…
Such a silly shallow hatch area floor near the rear bumper would not be of much use back in the day for groceries in stand up paper only bags – b4 plastic ones came out.