I miss the era when automakers gave their vehicles actual names, even if they were a little strange. This 1974 Chevrolet LUV (Light Utility Vehicle) is a rebadged Isuzu Faster under the Chevy bowties and badges, and unless someone “drops an SBC in it,” this truck is anything but fast. It can be found posted here on craigslist in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and the seller is asking $4,900 cash. Here is the original listing, and thanks to fast Mike F. for the tip!
I was thinking, which is rare for me, what a four-door/crew cab Chevy LUV pickup may have looked like, and I started creating one in Photoshop. Then I realized that Isuzu actually made a four-door version of the Faster, and some were badged LUV, either here or in other markets, such as this one. I don’t need a modern four-door pickup, but I can’t get enough of vintage four-door pickups. It’s got a great profile as a single-cab truck.
You can see lots of rust on this truck, and the seller confirms that fact. They say, “Plenty of body rust with original paint.” I can’t imagine anyone restoring this truck, which is a shame, but they’re using it as a daily driver now, so maybe for that purpose, it’s good enough as it is now? Not everything has to be in Pebble Beach Concours quality, despite my brain automatically going there. Here’s what the bed looks like, by the way.
The Mikado trim package added some nice touches to the interior, such as great seat fabric (either blue or saddle, as seen here) that’s covered up by a blanket cover, so we have to assume the worst. It also included carpet, color-matched headliner, arm rests, a very cool three-spoke steering wheel, and more. You can see that the formerly stylish padded dash has seen better days. If it’s going to be a daily-driver work truck, no worries. If not, Just Dashes will work their magic, or you can try to tackle it yourself.
The engine is said to be a replacement ATK engine installed in 2019. The original would have been an Isuzu 1.8-liter SOHC inline-four with 75 horsepower and 88 lb-ft of torque when new. It’s sent through a four-speed manual to the rear wheels only on this truck, and the seller says it also has a new fuel pump, fan, electronic ignition, and newer tires. Would you restore this little truck or keep it maintained and use it as, you know, a truck?
Cute little measles-riddled thing!
I was thinking the same!
!
These were great little trucks. I remember them everywhere when I was a kid. Unfortunately, the rust bug bites hard into these things. But they’re fun to drive, and were reliable from what I can remember.
You know, not to pollute the authors great posts with my views, but how he can write something up, knowing full well this is a $500 beater, clearly shows his professionalism. Don’t get me wrong, GM needed to buy time while they worked out the S10, and quite frankly, should have stayed with this. I knew several that had LUV trucks and liked them. Isuzu made a great product, perhaps because of its GM ties, they sadly had marginal success here, and faded out pretty quick. $500 tops,,,
A rotted in half subaru brat will sell for over $500. Im not saying that truck is worth $5k but i wouldn’t be surprised if someone paid more. Its all in what you like. If someone offered me something like a hemi cuda for bottom dollar I still wouldn’t want it just because I dont care for them. On the other hand I would pay a decent amount for some oddball 80’s survivor car. Its all in what you like. You cant price what other people like off what you dont.
This little LUV truck reminds me of my first cheap truck. It needs welding and metal sections installed should one want to have a car from their past.
This car reminds me of a cheap truck I had in the past.
In 1984 I had an early 1970’s Toyota lil truck with the 20R engine. I rebuilt the engine and put 10 pounds of bondo in the rockers and back bed around the wheel wells. I drove it for two years and sold it to a person who wanted one like mine with an automatic. I disliked the auto but paying a 100 dollars for a second hand truck was cheap transportation being just married and graduated from college.
Good luck with sale and hopefully some LUV can be thrown to the little beater pickup.
Scruffy little fellow but that’s a sweet looking steering wheel to sit behind.
I love these earlier Chevy LUV trucks. Although I was way too young at the time to drive a car, I remember trucks like this. As long as it’s only surface rust and there are no holes or compromises in the integrity of the framework, I can see this being a good resto project.
It was pretty common back in the day to drop a small block Chevrolet in these. Just like they did to the S-10’s.
These trucks have a limited market, niche you might say. I bought a 76 LUV a couple years back with the intention of making it a daily driver. I paid $1500.00!for mine but couldn’t get a clean title so I ended up parting it out. I met a lot of people that were into these trucks. Most do LS swaps and make them into full on race trucks. No one that’s into these trucks will pay more than 2 grand for this one. More likely top out at a thousand dollars.
God Bless America
Mine rotted in half
Dad and I bought one brand new for my Mom’s 39th birthday.
It started out as a mid level model until we started tricking it out as a gift for my Mom. We added Cibi driving lamps, an
AM/FM casette stereo, a Robyn SX 101 CB radio, pin striping,
and those very popular Jackman white spoke rims wrapped in off-road type tires. Well, as you can guess, Mom was blown away when we handed her the keys. Our truck had a
simple black interior that looked pretty spiffy for a mini truck
And yeah, we saw to it that the truck had A/C for those hot summer days. But all that happiness was dashed when she drove her new truck to work and was told by the stewards at
the Machinist Union told her that only American vehicles are
allowed on company property and anyone who drove an import car would be fired if they drove them to work. But Mom still got to enjoy her new truck on weekends til it was
traded in 1978. Through the week, she drove my ’62 Buick
LeSabre convertible and later a low mileage ’57 Pontiac Star
Chief 4-door hardtop with a cammed up 347 V-8 and 4-speed
automatic transmission that I bought from an old friend of mine. Boy, would I love to have one now.
These were the best looking of the mini-trucks in the early 70s, but they were like early Vegas, pieces of crap. As long as you sold them before they hit 50,000 miles, you did OK.
A couple of months ago, there was a LUV siting in the parking lot of a grocery store across the street from where I live. It was in that light baby blue color that many of these seem to have been born with, and looked pretty decent.
Certainly not a show truck, but much better than this. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still serving someone as a daily driver.
Seemed that rust was the only problem these trucks had. The engines in them ran forever with the proper maintenance. Mom’s truck had 95K miles on it when it was traded in 1978 with no real issues other than the body was starting to seriously rust through by then–and we even had it
Zeibarted before we gave it to Mom. Then Dad put her in a
3 year old Mercury Comet that was okay for what it was back then. Nice looking car but had no balls. Even though it had a
302 in it, the car would wheeze as it went down the road. That, and you’d hear the whine from the rear end as the tranny FINALLY made it to shifting speed. They bought the Comet after a half dozen or so of the workers were fired for driving Toyotas to work. Mom was closing in on 20 years with the firm and didn’t want to lose her pension and benefits. And just so you know, she worked in Area W assembling atomic bombs for the Government. As for these
trucks, other than the Yugo and ’80s Nissans, they were the first true throw away cars ever built. That’s why it’s nice to see one on the road these days.
My mom had one of these back in the day as one of her first vehicles. It was the apparently unobtainium step side beds. I’ve been looking for a step side luv for a friend and it is extremely hard to find one in good shape for a decent price. Anyways, mom’s step side was really nice. A hippy named Crazy came through town one day and asked her if she would like him to paint the truck. He did and pinstriped it and wrote “California steppin'” on the back, and that became the name of the truck. I think she said she chose that because the truck was made in California??? And then, because it is a step side. She loved that truck and said it was one of the best trucks she has ever owned.
I’m trying to get $3500. for one better than this.
The seller has deleted the listing; someone must have grabbed it.