After coming off a record sale high in 1979, the 1980 Camaro brought Chevrolet crashing back to Earth. In 1979 Chevrolet managed to sell 282,000 cars across the Camaro range. In 1980, the total was a mere 152,000, which represented a 47% sales drop in a single year. Of this 1980 sales total, 45,137 were the Z28 version, and it is one of these cars that we are looking at today. You will find the Z28 located in Decatur, Georgia, and listed for sale here on eBay. At the time of writing, bidding has reached $7,400, but the reserve hasn’t been met.

The owner says that the Camaro is original, except for a single repaint. He doesn’t specify when this was performed, but the paint does look to be quite good, and fairly fresh. I can’t see any obvious signs of rust, or dings or dents in the limited number of exterior photos that the owner provides. One interesting thing to note is that the car is also fitted with what the factory options list refers to as the “removable glass roof panels.” This was a $695 option when the car was new, which was not cheap. However, 24,816 people chose to tick that particular box in 1980.

The interior is where the Camaro is beginning to show its age, but at least it does appear to be largely complete. There are a few minor knobs and pieces that have fallen off over the last 38-years, but these are items that should be able to be replaced both easily and cheaply. The entire interior could really just do with a refresh, but the dash pad is beyond that and would need to be replaced. Given how much vehicle manufacturers were battling with the quality and longevity of plastic trim pieces during this era, I think that the interior has actually held up quite well.

The days of the fire-breathing Z28 seemed to be nothing but a distant memory by the time this Z28 rolled off the production line. The 350ci V8 fitted to the 1980 model produced 190hp, which many people found to be disappointing. The one in this car is original. In fact, this is a full, numbers-matching car. Bolted to the back of that 350 is a 4-speed manual transmission, while the Camaro is also fitted with power steering, power brakes, and air conditioning. Overall, the car seems to be in quite reasonable mechanical health, but there are one or two issues that will need to be addressed. There is an oil leak somewhere in the engine, which the owner believes may be coming from a valve cover gasket. There is also a vibration from the rear end at highway speed. The rest of it seems to be okay.

The owner makes a bold claim that the 1980 Z28 is going up in value, and I am always wary of these sorts of claims from a seller. I’ve had a look back over sales history and results for the past 10-years, and values for immaculate examples have been fluctuating wildly during that time. However, if you look at mid-range examples such as this one, or cars that would require a full restoration, this claim actually does seem to be true. The rises haven’t been dramatic, but they have been consistent. If those trends continue, then this Camaro could be a good investment.