This isn’t the usual type of exciting, dream-about barn find vehicle that most of us hope to find hiding away in a dusty barn or garage somewhere. But, it is a first-generation 46k-mile 1983 Chevrolet Cavalier with a 5-speed transmission and it’s been parked since 2004! The seller has it posted here on craigslist in Eureka, California and they’re asking $1,900. Thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip! Here’s the original listing.
Gaaaa! A base model four-door Chevy Cavalier on Barn Finds?! COME ON, GUYS! Am I a mind reader or am I a mind reader? Hey, I heard that, you knew that I was a mind reader, watch it… Ok, enough of that nonsense. I think this is a cool little car, four doors and economy status or not. The first-generation J-body Cavalier was made for the 1982 to 1987 model years in a variety of body styles. Just so mine has a 5-speed I don’t care if it has 17 doors.
Sure, a two-door with a manual transmission would be cooler and maybe wouldn’t pile up as many two-too-many-doors comments, but this would be a fun, cheap project car for a first-time driver. And with it having a 5-speed manual, it’s a perfect car for teaching a son or daughter how to drive a stick shift. We don’t get to see inside the trunk but that’s about it for missing photos, the seller has done a great job of showing almost every angle of this car, even the underside! Well done, seller.
They say that “grandpa” decided that he was done driving in 2004 so he parked this car in the garage and it’s been there ever since. The seller put a little air in the tires (they were low but not flat) to roll it out for photos. The interior looks almost like new in this little thing. It’s really nice inside and is about as basic as it gets, which isn’t a bad thing at all. The seats look perfect both front and rear as does the headliner. One issue is that the key is missing, but it’ll have to be trailered back to your garage anyway, it doesn’t run due to sitting for almost two decades.
The engine is Dodge’s 426 Hemi with… no, this is a Chevrolet LQ5 2.0L inline-four with 88 horsepower and the best part is that 5-speed manual transmission. Slow or not, having a 5-speed is a huge bonus for this sub-$2,000 car. I think this one is very much worth taking a chance on and if shipping wouldn’t double the price I’d be all over it. Any thoughts on grandpa’s Cavalier? Do you like seeing meek and mild garage finds like this Cavalier or are you a show-me-the-dusty-muscle-or-nothing sort of reader?
That’s in my old home town! I thought about submitting
this one,but didn’t think you’d accept it.
Anyway,looks like a decent car at a fair price,plus it’s
a manual.
If anyone’s interested in this,I could probably get someone
to take a look at it.
Thank you so much for having this on. I like ALL cars. Even every day economy cars from the early 80s.
I love seeing these old economy cars that are so well preserved. Most of these were trashed and wound up in the junkyard. So yes, keep ‘‘em coming
Thanks Scotty. This idea, odd as it may be, popped in my mind.
Let’s say you are in contact with a group of teenagers. Maybe you are a coach or work with youth at a church, or whatever. And you had this car. And you used it to teach them how to drive a stick shift. I’ll admit it might be a little scary and wouldn’t be good on the equipment, but…. in this case, so what? The kids would think it was a hoot, and so would you. And for sure, they wouldn’t forget the experience, no matter how it turned out.
Ray do you ever have anything nice to say? Your comments contribute absolutely zero to Barb Finds. Bob in Tn usually has a comment worth reading whenever I come across him, I cannot say the same for you.
You have a right to your opinion,but stop the
rude name calling.
You could have put it politely,as in “I disagree with your post”.
I wonder if it’s numbers matching:-)
More likely, numb matching…
Comment of the week. Have a like.
For sure the front and rear license plate match! There can’t be but a handful of these left. It even has AC!
Sold, probably to a flipper. Definitely a rare one…
Had an ’82 with the 1.8 carb. Great little get-around car with no issues. I would drive this today. Thanks for having the guts, Scotty!
I would love this, but $1K tops.
Really? You don’t get much for 1K, Ed.
Love to see it!
Having grown up in metro Detroit, this was from a time when we were really feeling the sting of the imports. We were all looking for something to fight back with. At the time, these were really good looking cars. Forget about quality for a moment, but put yourself back to that time. I vividly remember seeing one for the first, time in 1982. We were behind one, headed westbound at 13 and Southfield. My dad was really excited about it, and he said “Wow, GM really has a winner here!!” Of course, based on looks alone, but that was the era….
These were coarse and slow and the sight of it hit me like a bad memory. I can even smell it.. But it would be a sure hit at a Radwood event.
I had a red two door with the 5 speed and in 1990 it had about the same miles, under 50,000. This was the WORST car I’ve ever owned. A day after purchase the electrics started acting up, it needed an alt and battery. It always went dead. One day while driving to work I pulled out the driveway and was shifting from first to second and the cable broke, made horrible sounds. I had it towed in and the mechanic said he’d never seen anything like it, the transmission was wiped out. This is one car I have no fond memories of.
One of my dearest Aunt’s had one of these also. Mimie had very similar problems with it. She had a ’54 Dodge Coronet until 1966. Rarely a problem, rust did it in. Then a ’66 Chevelle, very plain jane, very few problems. She bought the ’82 Cavalier and managed to keep it for about 8 months. Chevy gave her “a deal” on a Laguna. Not as bad as the Cavalier, but … How to turn off a customer. Mimie went to a Mercury dealer, bought an ’85 Grand Marquis, paid cash and I bought it from her. 1992 and 15,000 miles ! It died in 2000. 85,000 miles and so-o-o rusty. I miss that car.
I enjoy reading stories like this. We had an 88 Grand Marquis, great cruiser!
I think they switched to EFI in 1983 in the US if I remember correctly? That was a major selling point for many GM cars back then. In Canada we had the carbureted 2.0L engine for a couple more years after this before we finally got with the times.
Yes, 1.8 increased to 2.0 and fuel injection added.
I like to see these pop up too. Not everything has to be a collector’s item. Seeing it made me remember my last Cavalier, which was also the last GM I’ll ever own.
Bought a new 86 cavalier z24.
Have not own an American car since
Same, but I loved that little thing. White w a red interior. Sounded snotty as hell. Sadly was car #6 in an 11 car chain reaction on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn and totaled.
My wife and I ordered a new 1984. 2 door silver and red, 5 speed, F41 suspension, type 10. We thought it was fast as she previously had a LeCar. Decent car, except for leaking sunroof.
I’d have to put in a later GM double-DIN sound system or at least FM radio to get some good ’80s tunes coming out of the dash, and period-correct red vinyl tape pinstripes to break up the gray-on-gray.
I small step above a Chevette, or maybe not.
Gone.
I loved mine. I had a 1982 blue 2 door with sunroof mine .. was 4 speed. Manual
I loved mine. I had a 1982 blue 2 door with sunroof mine .. was 4 speed. Manual
I didn’t get to keep it long. I had to sell it to pay rent. I had a chance to get it back but the guy dented it and broke inside pieces. 💔 I still should have kept it. It was a good little car. I learned how to drive stick.
Had the Caddy version, same body, drivetrain, leather, fancier trim, better suspension, bought off the “back lot” of a Chevrolet dealer for $2000 with 87000 miles, got passed around the kids, went over 230,000 before power windows gave up, only expensive issues were steering rack, and a valve issue. Easy to park in the city, would go 80 no problem. Nimble. A good car for a teen.
My first new car was a ’99 Cavalier, tracing it’s trigger from an ’84 Citation II, which was triggered by my parent’s ’84 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.
I loved it. Had the 2.2 spawned from the 1.8 then 2.0. Never had a problem. By ’95 they were longer in length than the Citation. But the size and styling and room were close to that X body I loved.
Brock Yates wrote a great piece about the Cavalier and J Body development and introduction in his book ‘Decline And Fall Of The American Automobile Industry’.
American? car companies don’t build or even think of anything like this now. Just good basic economical transportation. If it aint some sort of a Suburban assault vehicle there is no interest.
As a young kid in the 80’s just learning automobile makes and models I categorized cars by their “faces”. A lot of 60’s and 70’s muscle cars were angry faces, there were slick faces like a Mazda RX7 and these Cav’s always had a happy face. The original single headlight cars looked a little dopey in my opinion, but the 84 and up quad headlight cars looked happy with their bow tie grills. The car looked like it was smiling. Call me soft but almost all of today cars look angry, especially at night with the sharp angled LED lights coming up in your rear view mirror at 80mph trying to push you out of their way. It’s just reflective of our culture now, everyone seems angry.
I had a 91 Cavalier Z24 and loved it. It didn’t do anything great and nothing awful, it was simple and worked.
Cars of 80’s and especially 90’s look like they smiling. The cars of today look like angry samurai or assassins. Korean and Japanese cars. Now we have fewer colors and mostly dark colors; white, silver, and grey..black.. no more bright colors. Now you pay for reds or blues.
Our first new car was identical to this one. Had a problem with the car draining the battery. My wife tried to help me by pushing it out of the garage. It took off and went down the driveway ,the rear view mirror was taken off buy the corner of the neighbors house,it mowed over two two small fruit trees ,went through a barb wire fence,missed three cows and impaled itself on a huge pine tree.the rear bumper was where the back seat should have been. We only made two payments as they took it to the salvage yard.😥
My mom had the Buick Skyhawk version of this, same color and all. My first serious girlfriend had the Pontiac Sunbird version, same color! The Buick was a nice solid car until Mom got T-boned on the passenger side and used insurance to have it repaired. Car was never right after that. I liked driving them.
Hey, I don’t know if anyone is still interested in the 1983 Cavalier, but I am the original seller. I pulled the original Craigslist posting while waiting for the replacement for the lost pink slip to arrive. Also now have a new ignition switch and two new keys!
So I am about to list it again with clean title and pink in hand and new ignition.
And even better, I confirmed that the car is on non-op status, so no smog required for title change.
If anyone is interested, drop me a line. I will likely put up a new Craigslist post in the next day or two.