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