Chevrolet built more than two million copies of its Vega subcompact from 1971 to 1977. But only about 3,500 of them will likely ever be considered collectible. That small group is the high-performance Cosworth Vega produced only in 1975 and 1976. The seller’s ’76 edition may be largely original at 54,000 miles and could be one of the nicest ones left. From a dealer’s location in Fresno, California, this rare car with a special engine is available here on eBay for $11,950 OBO.
The Chevy Vega was a well-thought-out small car when it was introduced in the Fall of 1970. But its execution turned out to be flawed and many of them had expired engines or premature rust that eventually may have gotten sorted out. Midway through the car’s lifespan Chevy partnered with England’s Cosworth Engineering for a special version of the 122 cubic inch inline-4. 5,000 hot motors were built for a two-year production run of 3,508 cars (so what happened to the other 1,492 powerplants?). The Cosworth Vega was not a cheap machine – you could buy a new Corvette for just $900 more. It was Chevy’s first auto with fuel injection.
The rarest Cosworth Vega are those from 1976, like this one. 1,447 copies were sent to Chevy dealers before the GM division decided to discontinue the Cosworth deal. With factory headers, the engine was good for 110 hp. The seller’s vehicle wears Dark Green Metallic paint with a Buckskin interior. Both look as good as new. It also sports the Cosworth signature 8-spoke gold wheels. The car also has spoilers fore and aft.
Most Chevy Vegas have long since gone to the junkyard or the crusher. And, sadly, some of them were probably Cosworths, too. It’s doubtful that any Vega other than the Cosworth would fetch the kind of money the seller is asking for this one. But if you were to take it home, you might have the only one at Cars & Coffee. This one’s priced at about where Hagerty estimates they’re worth.
Sharp looking little cars.
Russ, didn’t Chevy build a 57 fuelie, also a few early Vettes? This is a nice and rare find, hard to believe the price when they were new! Most of the previous models if you made it to 30K miles, you set it out to trash!
First Chev with EFI.
Set aside build quality….. Vegas were great LOOKING cars…. some of the sharpest designs of the 70s.
“so what happened to the other 1,492 powerplants?”
GM broke down 500 leftover Twin Cam engines for spares and destroyed the rest.
If only GM had got the quality issues ironed out this car would have been a world beater. Way ahead of it’s time. Now every car has overhead cams, more than two valves per cylinder and EFI. I imagine this car would be a ball to drive.
If only feces didn’t smell bad.
Every bit of engineering, every part, every component was inferior. Terrible management decision led to a terrible product.
Fiat offered all of this in 1967 with the 124 Coupe, with the exception of fuel injection.
Twin cams, five speed, four wheel discs…….and the engine was unbreakable. And, it was fun to drive.
The Cosworth was $200 less than a Corvette, and A/C was not available….with all the prestige the Vega name brought to the party. Sold so poorly that 1800 expensive motors went to the parts bin or the dump.
Collectible Vega list I agree is pretty short but I personally would like to find a really nice 1973 Vega Millionth Edition. I wonder how many Chevy made? Someone here will probably know. That orange GT package was a real looker for me. Unfortunately, it came with standard lackluster Vega performance.
Not really nicest one left, its clean but there is many, many nicer cossie Vega’s out there. They have been viewed as collector vehicles for awhile – I had a roomate with one in the mid 90’s that was at this level or better (he still has it.)
That being said, they are fun cars.
At least Cosworth did a better job on the Vega than some of the garbage Chrysler paid Shelby to put his name on.
For me, I liked the styling of the wagon version the best. I don’t think there were any Cosworth wagons. Too bad we can’t go back in time and salvage those 1400+ twin cam motors! They would be a hoot to drop into a project today!! As for most of the Vegas I knew, many guys ‘tubbed’ them and dropped 350’s in them as drag cars!!
“Nicest Vega” is an oxymoron!
Up here in the snow belt, an original, nice, clean Vega is a head turner. 90% of those that remain up here are V8 conversions of course.
I thought these cars were so cool and lusted after one for awhile. I finally got my chance and bought a black and gold with the 5spd. The shipping company tried loading it up a ramp not realizing it had a ‘dogleg 1st’. They stalled it, it rolled backwards, jumped a cog on the timing belt and tagged two valves. So I received it as a non runner in need of a head rebuild. When I finally got it running and ‘tweaked’ a few things to squeeze out extra HP it was a huge disappointment. All show and no go. Sold it the first chance I could get.
As I’m sure you are aware, Cosworth wanted GM to reinforce the aluminum block so they could squeeze out more power, and had hoped that the lightweight engine would be good for racing.
For costs and emissions reasons, GM declined to improve the block, making the car far less sporting than it might have been.
I have never seen a green Cosworth Vega with tan interior before. This has to be a real rare combination.
All 75’s were black, while 76’s came in numerous colors (black,white,firethorn, green, orange, metallic beige). One of the rarest for 76 was blue.
My sister had a Vega wagon. I always liked the look of the wagon
Got a new Vega off dealer in 1974 a GT. After a few years engine was trash, replaced it with 327 what a fun car.
Getting back to the 1973 Milllionth Vega does anyone know how many were built? Has anyone seen one in recent times or maybe I should just ask does anyone even know that they were made?
Approximately 2 million Chevrolet Vegas were built. It’s been a very long time since I have seen one.
All I know ( I’m a senior) is that there were plenty of Vegas around in their day, I dated two women who both drove one. One was a GT the other a ‘plain Jane’. Both cars were junk, both women were good people. The cars didn’t survive, the women did!! I do have one remembrance of the Vega. I still have a set of the stock “mag-type’ steel wheels with the original trim rings and Chevy center caps! Does anybody need them? Let me know!!!
P.S. I did like the styling of the car. There actually were good looking cars in their day especially the wagon…
I would be interested in the wheels, rings and caps depending on location since shipping gets stupid expensive these days.
Jack… I am in Vermont… The wheels have tires mounted. I know how nuts shipping is today.
Thanks for the reply Joey, that probably is not very doable unless I run across someone that is in that part of the country that is going to be going to Woodward for the Dream Cruise this year.
I hear you Jack!!