Junkyard Find: 1975 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Classic Landau Coupe
1975 was a wonderful year for Detroit ( and Kenosha) personal luxury coupes, whose heraldic crest badges and crypto-velour upholstery made it clear to those damn commies that a life queuing up for sawdust sausages and— if you were lucky— a shot at a new Zaporozhets wasn't much of a life at all. Today's Junkyard Find is an example of the Chevy Monte Carlo's more affordable brother, found in a car graveyard in Carson City, Nevada.
The Monte Carlo for 1975 had a lengthened snout and extra gingerbread inside and out, but it started at $4,262 (about $25,701 in 2024 dollars). Meanwhile, the huge-selling Olds Cutlass Supreme coupe had an MSRP of $4,048 ($24,410 after inflation).
The General didn't want anyone desiring a personal luxury coupe but unable to afford a new Monte or Cutlass to buy a Ford Elite or Dodge Coronet, so the 1975 Malibu Colonnade Hardtop Coupe started at a mere $3,420 ($20,623 in today's money). That was with a six-cylinder engine and no frills, but your friendly Chevy dealer was happy to sell you upgrades.
Today's car had an MSRP that was quite a bit higher: $4,193 with V8 power ($25,285 now). In fact, it was the most expensive Chevelle model available in 1975. That's the now-defunct Star of the Sea Room at Anthony's Fish Grotto near San Diego in the background of this brochure cover photo, by the way.
The Malibu name began life as a Chevelle trim level way back in 1964, eventually replacing the Chevelle name after 1977. For 1975, every Chevelle was a Malibu except for the Laguna, but the Chevelle name still showed up in marketing materials and on the occasional badge.
The Malibu hierarchy of 1975 had the base Malibu at the bottom and the Classic at the top. A few decades later, a fleet-only version of a previous-generation Malibu was named the Chevrolet Classic, because why not? Hell, you might as well sell a car badged as the Chevrolet Chevy!
This car wasn't as plush as the Monte Carlo or Cutlass Supreme, both of which lived on the same A-Body platform, but the padded landau roof (now completely fried by the high desert sun) classed it up.
Being lighter than the Monte and Cutlass Supreme made this car quicker than both when equipped with the correct engine. This car has a Quadrajet-equipped small-block Chevrolet V8 under its hood.
The build sticker says that the original engine in this car was a 350 small-block with four-barrel carb, rated at 155 horsepower… and there's a nonzero chance that the engine in the car now is the original one. The Z in the 7th position of the VIN tells us that the car was built at Fremont Assembly in California, which became NUMMI in 1984 and then the Tesla Factory in 2010.
You could get this car with a 250-cube six-cylinder engine and its 105 horses (which dropped the price to $3,943 or $23,777 today), or you could pay an extra $340 ($2,050 now) for a 215hp 454 big-block and its single-digit fuel economy.
The base transmission in the 1975 Chevelle with 250 or 350 engine was the good old three-on-the-tree manual, but no self-respecting driver of a landau-roof-equipped personal luxury coupe would have wanted that 1930s-style gearbox. This car has a three-speed automatic, priced at $235 ($1,417 after inflation).
Even pricier was the air conditioning, which added $505 to the bottom line ($3,045 today). The clock was a steal at $18 ($109 now).
We don't know what factory radio (if any) came with this car, because it now has a mid-1970s-vintage aftermarket AM/FM/8-track player with "Matrix" audio, which is some sort of faux-quadrophonic gimmick that was popular for a few years.
There's no rust on this car and the interior could have been fixed up with readily available aftermarket stuff. Being a 1975 model, it's exempt from California emissions testing.
This would have been a fun recipient for a modern engine swap and some body/paint work, but the Malaise Era GM A-Bodies don't get the love that their 1964-1972 predecessors do. Next stop is The Crusher.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
1975 Chevrolet Malibu in Nevada wrecking yard.
[Images: The Author]
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Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Billy Joel neglects mentioning the 1975 Chevelle Malibu Classic Landau Coupe in ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ but with a bit of lyrical finesse he could have slipped it in between "Watergate, punk rock" and "Begin, Reagan, Palestine".
As a kid growing up the the 70's it's a wonder I survived those bumpers.