Pragmatic bumper design notwithstanding, I think the newly-engineered and much smaller GM B-body cars were pretty nice. They were about as quiet, smooth, and luxurious, but fit in the garage more easily and drove by more gas stations than previous generations of these cars did. This 1977 Chevrolet Impala is posted here on craigslist in the Corona, California area, and they’re asking $14,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Rocco B. for the tip!
$14,500 is much more than what this car was new, of course. This isn’t a 1970s muscle car that would have been $4,000 new and now sells for six figures. We can sympathize with those of you who cringe at asking prices like this for “regular” cars that used to be everywhere and sold by the hundreds of thousands every year. They aren’t rare, especially in four-door form. All that being said, does the passenger door look a shade darker, or is it just me?
The seller says this car is a one-owner “grandma’s car” and is wearing its original paint, so maybe it’s a shadow. I believe this is “Orange Poly,” more of a burnt orange than orange-orange. The exterior looks about as perfect as it can, even the bumper filler material, or what we can see of it. There isn’t a photo of the rear for some reason, and some of the interior has cracks from the hot California sun, so we don’t know about the rear bumper filler material. They do show a photo of the trunk compartment. It appears to have been touched up, but the seller doesn’t mention rust or any damage at all anywhere.
The dash pad makes me a bit worried, as there are a few cracks in the front face of the dash in spots. The woodgrain radio insert piece is a little unusual. I would have guessed that there would be either full woodgrain or no woodgrain, not just the radio area. I’d bet that was from a Caprice, but we don’t know. They say “factory radio that works,” so maybe it was a special order? It’s hard to tell from this 1977 Chevy brochure, but the Impala doesn’t show woodgrain, and the Caprice does. They say it’s fully loaded, but there are no power locks or power windows. The seats look nice from what we can tell from the photos, although parts of the headliner that show up in the photo of the back seat look a little rough.
The engine is said to be Chevy’s 350-cu.in. OHV V8, which was rated at 170 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque when new. Backed by a three-speed automatic sending power to the rear wheels, they don’t say how it runs, but that it’s a 77,000-mile all-original one-owner “grandma’s car.” I can’t see anyone paying anywhere near $14,500 for this Impala, but maybe? How much would you pay for this one?
Agreed, Scotty. This is a $5-$7k car all day long. It looks nice and clean, but I can’t see more than $7000 for this one.
Don’t see the $14.5. Maybe if it were a bent-wire coupe, the seller could get more than what this relic is worth.
I agree about the price. Heck, in 1989 with this kind of mileageand condition you could have picked this up for 2 grand all day long. 5 or 6 thousand today, maybe. Scottys right about the dash, there’s a little mismatch going on there. And speaking of mismatch, someone probably tried a can of Duplicolor on that front passenger door. The link to the brochure brought back a lot of memories, thank you for that too Scotty. I always like it when you post a link to a dealer brochure. Hope it finds a good new home.
My father-in-law had this same car when I first met him. Although this is in reasonable condition for a survivor, it’s a pretty basic easy to find car. I think the seller has misjudged the market and set his price at double of what this car should sell for. This car will be sitting around for a while.
$4500 tops
if this were a coupe in this color, 350 and AC well id be callin and offering.
I had one that i took for granted, as seems most here do, and it was as was mentioned, smooth, comfortable, well built and plenty of power.
In fact, i blew the trans burning tire behind my work, Ford dealership.
I regret ditching it, i so shoulda just swapped transmission.
Young, dumb and full of …. 🤷
I had a 1978 impala four door as one of my first cars. Mine, like the vast majority, had the 305. So the 350 is a rarer and more desirable spec that would help the value. But 14.5? No way
I had a 1977 Caprice back in the early 1990’s silver/gray with red interior. Mine had the 305 2 barrel engine with all options including rear sway bar. I added dual exhaust with both cat convertors. Decent car and first year of the new body design. This car here is clean but over priced. 5k tops.
It’s nice to see a 350 under the hood. But the seller listed as fully loaded. Ok.. Loaded with what?? It has AC, ps and pb thats it!!. No tilt, power windows or door locks and power seat. Then maybe $14,500.00 but as it stands now $7,000.00 with the mileage is what I would pay max! Good luck to the seller. 🇺🇸🐻
A search for “1977 Impala dashboard” will produce photos of dashboards with and without the woodgrain around the radio. Perhaps it depended on the radio chosen?
The wire wheel covers, however, are not stock. They weren’t offered until 1978.
Could be this car was “restored” using bits and pieces from other Impalas and Caprices of like years. And that “350”? More likely a malaise-era 305. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most 350s were Chevy orange. a VIN check is needed to verify.
Last year for Chevy orange specifically was 1976. A few stragglers made their way to ‘77 if they were earlier builds. As for these cars having 350s as an option the answer is yes. I had a ‘79 with a 350 just like this and I did burnouts with it all the time as a kid.
Whenever I see these, I can only think “9C1 conversion”. Not necessarily with the appropriate paint scheme & light bar, but stripped down to dog dishes & minimal trim.
I had one. 350/350 with a rear gear 2.56 What a slug.
I drove one of these 77 Impala’s professionally with the 9C1 package. Overall a decent car with ok performance, brakes and handling. The best feature of this car was the comfort and after a 10 hour patrol shift, it felt good I could still walk and my back wasn’t out of whack. I agree with the rest of the comments that this car is way overpriced but would make a nice comfortable ride for long trips.
Agreed on the pricing. The car looks to be in very good shape, but not desirable enough to command that price.
Overall, these weren’t bad cars, and served Chevy well in those downsizing years where they still managed to retain interior and trunk space.
another overpriced crew cab. these sellers need a cold glass of reality on these prices they want
Buyer beware. Chevy had a rash of soft cams in their V-8s that year so if the engine has a tick it’s going to need a new cam and lifters. Had a 77 Impala with a 305 that I had to replace the cam in. I worked at a GM dealership in the early eighties and had my pick of cams. The stock cam did not go back in there needless to say!
I had one of these when I was in the Air Force, when I got it had 175 k miles on it, I put another 250 k miles on it. Did regular maintenance, could not kill it. Sold it when I had orders over seas. I hated selling the car, just a good steady work horse. Love to have another one but I agree with the other comments price is really high fair price is about half.
Thank you for your service
The ad has been deleted. The grille looks like a 78 model. If I could of seen the tail lights that would of helped determine model year. The color looks like Camel Metallic. Same color my Dad ordered on his brand new 1978 Malibu.
The other thing I noticed was the steering wheel. 1978 and newer Chevrolets had the 3 spoke wheel. The 1977s still had the single bar.