Chevy’s Vega was one of the best-looking and least reliable small cars of the 1970s, making today’s Nice Price or No Dice wagon a laudable survivor. Let’s see if its price survives our poll.
Voltaire, one of the Age of Enlightenment’s most prolific contributors, wrote that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Living much of his 83-year life in 18th-century Paris, France, Voltaire was denied the opportunity to experience the modern automotive evidence of this aphorism.
The 2016 Volkswagen Golf R that we looked at yesterday may not be exactly what one might call perfect, but when there are perfectly good cars like the slightly less frenetic GTI about, the R’s greater costs in buying and running might very well be called into question. That was just the case with our low-mileage R. The ad’s note of a new clutch with less than 50K on the clock also called into question the seller’s claim of the car having always been adult-owned and operated. Perhaps one of those adults didn’t know how to drive stick? That puzzlement led most of you to call the car and its history into question, resulting in its $23,999 asking price falling in a 64% No Dice loss.
Car of the year
When you think about the first domestically produced small cars to arrive on the market, it’s amazing to consider just how wrong the two biggest names got it. Both Chevy’s Vega and Ford’s Pinto arrived for the 1971 model year to great fanfare, with the Chevy even earning Car of the Year kudos from Motor Trend magazine. Each of these models, however, would later gain infamy; the Ford for a design flaw that the company’s bean counters decided would be cheaper to litigate rather than fix, and the Vega simply for being generally craptacular in terms of reliability and build quality. The smallest of the four major automakers at the time, AMC, released its import-fighting small car competitor, the Gremlin, a year before the Pinto and Vega hit the scene, and it escaped its production run without suffering any such ignominy.
By the time this 1977 Chevy Vega wagon rolled off the line, most of the model’s flaws had been fixed. The die had already been cast on the Vega’s fate by then, as the car’s early reputation drove down sales to the point that Chevy abandoned the Vega nameplate entirely the next year and to this day refuses to discuss it in polite company.
Mini Camaro… wagon?
The Vega’s fate is all the more frustrating as it was arguably the best-looking of all the domestic small cars, and perhaps even one of the most attractive cars overall of the 1970s. Originally fitted with a Camaro-aping nose featuring bucketed headlamps and a wide grille transected by a blade bumper, the Vega, whether in notchback, hatchback, or as is this car, wagon styling had big car looks in a well-proportioned small car footprint. Over the years, that nose would be modified to meet federal bumper standards, but as far as those efforts went at the time, the Vega’s was one of the most successful.
This one has several add-ons, including a bee-like paint scheme with black stripes over a yellow background. It also has a roof rack, Centerline-style wheels and, questionably, an aggressive set of spikes on the back bumper. The bodywork on the car is straight, but there is a noticeable bit of rust popping through on the front fenders and around the rear hatch. That spiky back bumper is also a bit wonky. It’s still decent enough, however, that the seller claims it “makes people smile when you drive by.”
Last and least
This was the last year for the Vega, and sales had dropped precipitously during that final run, making this the rarest year of all production. That’s neither here nor there concerning this car, as most Vegas of any year have long ago gone to the scrapper, making any model still on the road an odd duck.
This duck’s interior has been updated over the years with black and yellow vinyl upholstery, a small-diameter steering wheel, and an eight-ball shift knob atop its four-speed shifter. That manual gearbox is paired with the Vega’s standard 2.2-liter DOHC Aluminum block/iron head four. By the time this car hit the streets, emissions standards had robbed the engine of all but 84 of its horses, making the Vega kind of a dog. This car seems complete in both its engine bay and cabin accouterments, but it should be noted that it is parsimoniously equipped, lacking even a radio in the dash. The odometer reads 32,480 miles, but as it has only five barrels, it may have rolled. In the plus column, the car does have a clean title and current tags on its retro vanity plates.
A classic?
You won’t find much love for the Vega in the general auto enthusiast population, so it’s questionable just who might find this car to their liking. That makes the car’s $7,500 asking price a tough proposition. One the one hand, it is a rare remaining example of a historically significant automobile that Chevy fans might find appealing. On the other hand, it’s a cheap-seats Vega that’s probably not all that pleasant a car to drive.
What’s your take on this old-school wagon and that $7,500 asking? Does that seem fair given the car’s condition and relative rarity? Or does that price mean this Vega’s star is dimming?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Santa Barbara, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T Don R. for the hookup!
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