If I thought my Cosworth was cheap at $800, this Cosworth-from-a-different-mother is practically free: $300 for a rusty Chevy Cosworth Vega, located in the lower Hudson Valley in New York. The seller claims his township won’t let him keep unregistered vehicles on his property (heathens, those townships) and it’s time to get this unfinished project gone. There has to be more than $300 in parts on this car, right? Looks like a good option for anyone restoring one of these rare birds. Find it here on craigslist in Elmsford, New York.
Pictures aren’t great but you can just make out the faded graphics letting you know this wasn’t your father’s Vega. I don’t know why these aren’t more desirable, as they seemed to have all the right ingredients for being a treasured hobbyist car, from the hotter engine to the limited production numbers. Even the assembly process was downright legendary, from the hand-built engines to the cleanroom conditions it was assembled in.
Despite all of the potential promised by the twin cam engine, the final power output was significantly off from earlier projections, winding up with a respectable-but-not-too-exciting 110 b.h.p. Despite this, the Cosworth was considered an excellent driver’s car, with fluid handling and a rev-happy engine. While many pundits at the time thought the Cosworth’s future collectability was all but guaranteed, sales results of even the best examples have proved otherwise.
For $300, you’re getting the shell; engine, transmission, and rear end; and three of the four original bronze Cosworth-specific wheels. That’s not a bad haul for $300, especially if you’re restoring a Cosworth or want to convert your Vega to a Cosworth clone. When you see sellers letting go of limited production cars like these – even in parts car form – for less than the cost of a set of tires, it’s safe to assume values won’t be skyrocketing any time soon. Does the Cosworth Vega deserve better?
I had a couple of Vega wagons in the day. I’d say overpriced by a couple hundred dollars!
The engine alone is worth 2x that you don’t know what a Cosworth is :o(
The motor is worth the $300
A top contender for the world’s worst Craiglist photographs. The only front photo makes this look like a plain-Jane Vega with crappy wheelcovers. No quarter-on view, no interior shots, hell we don’t even know if it is missing a hatch or condition of glass. I know, the Cosworth were all hatchbacks, but my point is the photo doesn’t scream COSWORTH VEGA until you open the listing and find the engine photos.
What do you want for $300! Jeez!
You know it’s a CL ad when the seller can’t be bothered to take the car cover off all the way.
Wtf does Cleveland have to do w anything….its in new york
Cleveland?
I wonder if Sanityfactor thought CL meant Cleveland in Mike’s post.
Good catch. CL is Craigslist.
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport code is CLE.
IATA CodeCLE
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Twitter@GoingPlacesCLE
Cleveland’s code is ITROFA- “Is The River On Fire Again”
A rusty Vega? In the words of Jack Nichson as Col. Jessup; “Is there another kind?”
Yes mine is rust free with 43K miles and original paint.
I remember hearing that the Cosworth-only turned-aluminum dashboard is worth $300.
It’s only worth that if you meet someone who’s just gotta have it. What are the chances?
This engine should go into a 73 GT hatch after proper enhancing
Or a gt wagon!
Looks just like a buddies in his wrecking yard….same color….same rust.
Nope.
It looks like it’s been stored in a river.
to bad its not a wagon. why is it a lot of used car owners think a car sitting under a pine tree, or any other tree for that matter, is a good thing. and how do pine needles get in the cowl and engine area. especially with a tarp covering this car. can you just imagine a ventilation system like that and you turn defrost on. worse yet if you choose to save this vehicle and you open the cowl area you will find the only thing left to do with this flower pot is add sunlight since dirt, water, and carbon dioxide already exists. i knew photosynthesis would come in handy from school later on in life. do i get a passing grade teach…
photosynthesis;;the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.
Back in 1986 I bought a 1978 Dodge Warlock with a 440″ that was in pretty good shape except for the wooden bed floor, it ran super, was very fast, everything worked, the A/C, cruise control, but obviously parked outdoors its entire life, dead paint ETC. One fine winter day I’m driving home and I start smelling smoke and figure its just someones wood stove or fireplace but the closer I got to home the more intense the smell got. Then the cab started filing up with smoke and got worse and I had to lower both windows & the vent windows as well, I opened the sliding rear glass but nothing helped so I kept on driving as I was only about 1/2 mile from home and had nothing on board to stop any fires. I pulled into my Dads driveway & luckily he was in the garage , saw the smoke now billowing out of the truck , grabbed his fire extinguisher but didnt know where to aim it, no flames, only lots of smoke, once I got my wits back about me I could see the smoke coming from the windshield defroster vents on the dash board so thats where I sprayed the extinguisher, and no more smoke. A day later I started to find out the cause and found a slightly melted heater box under the dashboard and further found it stuffed with 8 years or so of pine needles and leaf debris. What happened was that it got so full of trash that the blower motor resistor coil ignited all of it, how that crap got past the screening on the cowl vents is a mystery. It took about 4 days to clean up all the white residue from the fire extinguisher, that crap found its way into everywhere inside the truck. I wound up selling that truck to a friend for $300.00 bucks and 2 new tires for my Harley in 1990, I miss that truck. I bet the heater box on this Vega is filled with crap.
There were an awful lot of these put away when new by speculators. Perhaps more than the world will ever demand. It’s hard to justify spending any money on restoring one when #2 condition ones still need luck to hit five figures.
The Cosworth Vega’s problems as a collectible are many. It really did predict the future of engine technology, so every decent econobox made from the late’ 80s until about 2014 had a higher development of what the Cosworth had under its hood. Chevrolet/Cosworth really struggled with emissions certification, so the Cosworth Vega wasn’t as fast as its price suggested when it reached the market. The regular Vega’s rust and engine issues created a black mark on GM and eventually the entire US auto industry. Put that all together with the constant availability of preserved ones coming out of storage, and you’ve got values nailed to the ground.
Number one cars are selling for $25,000+ while #2 cars are getting $12-$15,000 while you can find a nice running #3 for $6-$9000
I think I would call the Cars For Kids place and dump it..
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I have a Vega Panel it came from Canada it running a 401 AMC engine full roller cam 12 bolt GM rear end with a power glide it’s a solid 9.90 Vega all day of course it’s on slicks with a trans brake!
Much prefer the ’71-’73 Vegas, rust free & as a drag car. That is their true calling.
Cosworths are a completely different class of Vega and cost 2x as much when new for a good reason. BTW they are the 1st DOHC 4cyl made in the USA along with 1st electronic fuel injection production US built car.
if your right we have come a long way with technology. and i guess japan / china stole the technology just a guess based on rumor.
This would make a great LeMons race car.