1977-1990 Chevrolet Caprice
I've been preaching this for years: Chevy hit a home run with this model. Weather you agree or not, you have to admit that sales were huge: over 2 million units.
While their popularity has taken a huge hit, Caprices have an unyielding beauty and panache of style that is only rivaled by their driving performance. Currently they are being degraded by ghetto cars for all the "Hackmens" or pimped out with ridiculous rims and massive woofers. But I stand behind their beauty and classic lines (thus the Caprice "Classic"). How many other cars can pull off barn-door aerodynamics with such slight of hand?
Now, before you start stating all their drawbacks, let me list some attributes:
1) Aforementioned styling
2) Ultra-durable power plants (not to be confused with reliability)
3) Ease of maintenance
4) Comfort, for driving, what else?
5) Safety. I've never seen one totaled in a junk yard.
6) Heavy-duty chassis, suspension, and drive-train components
I welcome your comments, but remember we now have a confirmed sixth generation of the Caprice built on the capable Commodore or Statesman platforms of Holden.
I like your comment about the power plants. I think a wagon with a stick (that they never offered) and an engine with enough to power to move it's 4000lb+ bulk with alacrity (such an engine was never offered) and a even moderately less boaty suspension (only available on the P91 cop version) would actually be a pretty sweet ride. So there I said it.
ReplyDeletePlus one point you sort of made but didn't really come out and say: They actually must have something going for them, as there's still quite a few on the road, and you can't say that for many other '80s American cars. I mean how often do you see a K-car, Chevette, or Citation anymore?
And now I'm thinking what a cool project sleeper that wagon would be.
/abashedly heads to ebay to search for caprice wagons...
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ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteThank you. Those are the nicest words I've ever heard from you regarding the Caprice. Of all the cars I've owened, the one that was the best all-around car was my 1987 Caprice Classic. It was able to serve more car "duties", be more generally comfortable in the most situations, and have the least maintenance head-aches. That being said, nothing is perfect and the true test of any car is how many overall niches and desires can it fulfill? I must say cost of ownership comes into play here, because I'm sure if I'd onwed a late model BMW 3 series I'd say the same about it too.
General Motors has confirmed that it is NOT building a Commodore-based Caprice. Argh!
ReplyDeleteThe Caprice is supposedly confirmed for fleet (cop) sales only. However I think it's safe to assume they will eventually wind up on the civilian resale market. However, outside of being large, RWD, and having a V8 it doesn't have that much else in common with the Caprices of yore.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a huge, hotroddable Camry! Caprices for everyone! Well, actually just for me... Also, my mother loves them. Is this a good thing?
ReplyDelete