For years, GMC was the truck arm of General Motors as an alternative to the Chevrolet brand. In many cases, GMC products were sold alongside Buick automobiles (which is still the case here locally). They expanded their portfolio by adding the Sprint in 1971, which was a rebadged Chevy El Camino car-based pickup. This ’71 edition of the Sprint, which was 12% of overall El Camino/Sprint sales that year, doesn’t run and is pretty rough cosmetically. But it doesn’t appear to be a rusted-out mess, so it’s available here on craigslist in Tempe, Arizona, for $7,000 OBO. Credit goes to “Chuck F 55chevy” for the tip.
There wasn’t much to differentiate a Sprint from an El Camino. Every time a major change came to the El Camino, it also did for the Sprint. When the vehicles were downsized along with the Chevelles in 1978, GMC dropped the Sprint name and went with Caballero instead. Both the El Camino and Caballero disappeared after 1988 as rear-wheel-drive was dropped on GM’s mid-size products. In 1971, GM sold more than 47,000 “Utes” (utility coupes), of which 5,500 were Sprints.
We don’t know the history of this GMC, but it looks as though it hasn’t moved in quite some time. The bed was full of bits and pieces in one photo, and the interior is in disarray, but it comes with a few empty beer cans you could recycle and make a couple of dimes off of. It has a non-functional small-block V8, which would be either a 307 or 350 cubic inch motor from Chevrolet. It also has an automatic transmission (TH-350?), and other goodies like factory air conditioning. So, this could have been a pretty snappy truck when new.
A full restoration is in order unless you think $7,000 is the right price for a donor. Its Arizona inhabitation speaks for the pickup being corrosion-free, but it certainly has more than its fair share of surface rust. Believe it or not, this GMC has just 26,000 miles per the seller (if true, how did it get this bad off and why?). GMC Sprints are far rarer than Chevy El Caminos, so does that add value to this project? BTW, sorry about the pics (the seller didn’t include the whole pickup).
I believe it only has 26,000 original lines just as much as the sell will get close to $7,000 for this non-running mess that they say “needs total restoration” as the first line in the ad.
I like El Camino’s, I’ve had several, I just think the asking price is way too aggressive for one in this condition. The GMC Sprint designation means next to nothing when a car is in this condition. It might be a different story if is was an SP model.
Steve R