From its introduction in 1964, Chevrolet’s mid-size Chevelle would be a sales success for many years to come. The redesign from 1968 to 1972 was especially popular, which included the seller’s Malibu 4-door sedan. It was owned by two senior citizens before the seller received it from one of them. It’s an all-original car except for consumables and can be found in Laveen, Arizona. It’s available here on eBay for $39,000.
Lore has it that the Colonnade redesign of 1973 was first set for 1972 but was postponed another year. This could explain why the 1972 Chevelle was little changed from the 1971 model. In fact, the only way I can tell them apart is the differences in front turn signal lenses. The car remained popular, and Chevrolet built 45,000 Malibu sedans with four doors (like this one). It’s finished in Mojave Gold, which is an interesting coincidence considering where the car has landed after 54 years.
When this Malibu was cobbled together, it was a pretty routine example. It comes with a 307 cubic inch V8, paired with the TH-350 automatic transmission. At 70,800 miles, the only thing that isn’t of the routine service variety that has been changed out is the heater blower motor. There is no factory air conditioning, a nod to where it was originally sold (Washington State).
The first owner was an old guy who put 65,000 miles on it before he stopped driving in his 90s. All the factory and dealer documents followed the car to its second owner, the seller’s father. The sale was the result of a friendship, so the seller may know the vehicle going way, way back. Dad put a few thousand miles on it before he, too, had to stop driving. He passed it along to the seller, his son.
There are no visible issues with the body, paint, or interior. And the latter looks to have hardly been used. This could very well be one of the nicest, original Malibus left because it has too many doors to have ever been considered for an SS 396 cloning. If you’re more interested in original traits than speed and don’t care about door count, wouldn’t this be a cool entry for Cars & Coffee? But we’re betting our readers will find issues with the price. For that amount, I would have at least pressure-washed the engine bay,
So,,,is this the norm, $40,000 grandpa cars? Tell you what, you have to admire the professionalism of the authors, that can reiterate this nonsense and still maintain their dignity. If it was me, I’d go down to, where now, AZ, and punch this person right in the chops,,,right after my nap. Yeah, pretty frustrated, naturally, I wouldn’t do that, but this seems to take the exploitation to its maximum level. I wonder if there is some sort of publication or website with guidelines on how far someone is willing to go. There just is no issue with asking such a large amount for such a lackluster ( for the time) car. Can’t really blame the kid, they are used to paying large sums of money for things, they don’t have anything to compare it to. Shows how shallow the next generations can be.
I keep a mental list of cars advertised for sale with one too many zeroes in the asking price.
This car is added to that list. $3,900 would be a decent price. Not $39,900.
Funny – it’s so dark on the L side of the engine that I thought at first that is was an inline 6.
So apparently the seller dropped a line in and I just can’t see close to 40K getting any bites. Well those big dollar auctions keep them hoping.
👀 knew Howard would ring in lol. 👍 👍
It’s a good looking car for sure and that styling was “just right”. But who besides the Malibu obsessed would give close to $40k for it? That’s so high, the buyer could do nothing with it but store it. Yet it’s drive train and equipment make it nothing but ho-hum. SMH. If that’s what ends up happening, I’d like to see its value after another 20 years.
I had a 71 chevelle 4dr, mint 49k orig miles, bought from orig owner, same eng/trans combo, biege with black deluxe interior, ran perfect, cold A/C, sold a few yrs ago was lucky to get $4500, I started at $6500. Maybe I should have started at $40k. Good luck to this seller, looks like a solid car.
The insanity just keeps coming.
The seller got a case of the Barrett Jackson fever. Unfortunately , he forgot to take a look at auction prices lately. I’m not even sure if a ’72 SS 454 in the same condition would reach that in this market.
The asking price is ridiculous. Sometimes people get a few compliments at a coffee and cars, look at a few inflated prices online then think their car is special. As they say, a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. At best, this car is probably worth mid-teens.
There is no real reason to get worked up over sellers asking too much. This is nothing new, in the early-1980’s when me and a couple of friends would meet every Friday at noon to get the latest issue of Auto Trader as it dropped, other than looking for good deals, the next best thing was to laugh at the ads with overpriced cars.
Steve R
I bought an Arizona car 1971 Torino GT 351C-4v /C6/ 9” rear car with 70k with AC and options for $1500. These GPa 4 door cars were never collectible. B-J and Mechum auction insanity has made crappy common cars near Grade 1-3 muscle car territory. Just a spectator ticket to these auctions has rose to $30-50/day.