The Chevy Celebrity rewrote the script on the phrase “celebrity sighting,” because these cars were literally everywhere in the latter half of the 1980s. This 1988 Celebrity can be seen in Peoria, Arizona and is priced at $6500…or $8000 obo, depending where in the listing you look. Tip of the cap to Jack M. for sending in the original post from Facebook Marketplace, which you can view here.
General Motors got a lot of mileage out of their A body platform in the 80s, producing extremely popular cars across their Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Chevrolet makes–the Celebrity being Chevy’s offering. GM put out more than 258,000 Celebrities in 1988, and 3/4 of them were sedans like the one shown here. These weren’t exactly vehicles anyone wanted to preserve. They were meant for hauling families and groceries around, maybe passed down when one of the kids turned 16, and consequently most were used up and eventually junked. Finding a Celebrity in this condition after almost 40 years is almost miraculous. The seller notes one shrub-generated dent in the right front fender; otherwise the outside looks pretty good. The paint, which appears to be Light Blue Metallic, doesn’t show any fading and I don’t see any rust or other problem areas either. The Arizona climate appears to have been good to this Chevy, and the seller’s claim of “hardly driven…always garaged” seems spot-on.
This appears to be the standard, entry-level Celebrity, but the original owner upgraded to the 2.8L Multi-Port Fuel Injected V6 engine, good for 125 horsepower and using a 4-speed automatic transmission to send those horses to the front wheels. The seller indicates it starts right up and drives smooth(ly). They also just installed a new battery, new brakes and tires, and had an alignment done. The car has no leaks and is reliable; for a 1988 anything that’s really saying something.
I have to think the seats have been replaced; the color difference between them and the carpet, dash, doors, etc. is too far apart. There looks to be a few age-related flaws and fading, but overall this interior is serviceable at worst. Also, is the pairing of Tan/Saddle interior and light blue exterior weird to anyone else? Feels like the inside should blue, or grey. Maybe this Celebrity received a respray at some point. The a/c works, as do the crank windows and everything else. This 1988 Chevy Celebrity isn’t a show car, but if you’re looking for a cheap-ish driver it seems like a good bet. Would you take a chance on this Celebrity?
B list celebrity
These were everywhere back then. And if it wasn’t a Celebrity in the driveway it was one of the cousins. Century, 6000, Cierra….
This definitely had a respray. You can see the original color in the door jams and the under hood photo. I think the seats are both recovered as well. It just doesn’t seem like the original color. The respray looks pretty good, it’s a nice color, but I agree with chrisr, the two colors don’t quite go together. That being said, it’s very nice to see one of these survive and still be on the road.
That 2.8 was pretty common. Is it considered dependable, like the 3800?
That car looks like it’s in pretty amazing shape, pics make it look almost showroom, if it wasn’t for the rust-coloured engine bay.
Mom had an 87 Celebrity Wagon, it had an intermittent steering problem, when it was extremely difficult to steer. They also hadn’t yet worked out all the bugs in their new fuel injection system, so occasionally, it ran terrible, I recall hearing something about a PROM, programmable read-only memory. I don’t remember much else, but they did have that car for a long time.