They seemed to be playing catch-up all the time, but it seems the market still favoured Chevrolets in general by a large margin regardless. My freind in , had a Malibu S. Maybe, if you ordered a 4bbl , that filled the gap required to fit optional engine, Criteria thereby entitling S. There never was a factory stock with either 4 barrel or dual exhausts. Your friend either modified it, or he had a different engine. The most profit was with the higher-tier cars, and Pontiac exploited this well since Pontiac was technically the next rung up from Chevrolet.
It was easy for Pontiac to move the GTO from the option list in to a separate model in Chevrolet had a tougher time slotting in the SS, made worse with the success of the hot-selling but lower profit Road Runner in That ad lists two of the four available engines as the and Turbo-Jet Could the other two engines have been either a 2v or 4v ? Yes, you could get the bbl or the bbl with the Heavy Chevy.
All I wanted to do when I owned it was drop in a V8, but the car was too rusted to make the engine swap worthwhile. Was there an El Camino SS in or ? There was no El Camino SS from The top trim level was the El Camino Custom in these years. However, for and you could get an El Camino with the same options as a SS Chevelle, including the engines.
Any SS El Camino from you see today has been converted and is not factory correct. For the SS model was introduced to the El Camino line. In , it became an model option like the Chevelle, but was limited to the Custom.
The SS option remained with the El Camino until its demise in I always thought that the last Chevelle Deluxe coupe in had an impact on the goofy Ford was trying to ape the Deluxe but was caught by surprise in when the Deluxe coupe was eliminated and Chevrolet only offered a Chevelle hardtop. My theory is it was one of the reasons what would otherwise have been known as a Fairlane coupe was strangely called a Falcon and the last, real Falcon was dropped after January 1st, Plus, of course, Ford saved a few pennies by not having to perform the minor updates of moving the ignition switch to the column and removing the horn ring.
It makes sense when one considers that the Are you sure about the horn-ring being a Federal safety no-no? I know Mopars still had them in Not sure, but it certainly seemed plausible. Maybe Chrysler somehow got an exemption?
Or were there other examples of cars that had a horn ring? Unlike today, the manufacturers were very good at finding loopholes or getting exemptions for those safety mandates in the first years. Good ole Chrysler skirting the intent of the regulation if there even was one by putting some sort of perfunctory padding or plastic on their last horn ring.
They certainly all seemed to be gone in any version by Further, the Fairlane was not a mid year model release. The Fairlane was introduced in the fall of as the base model along with the rest of the Torino line-up. Ford did release a Torino Sportsroof as a mid year model though. This had the same formula as the Road Runner, basic trim with a big engine as standard equipment.
Remember in , the Chevelle Deluxe coupe 2-door sedan — 2-door post car and the Chevelle Deluxe sport coupe 2-hard top — pillarless car could be equipped with the Z15 package. The Chevelle line began the model year with the Malibu as the base trim — the standard Chevelle hardtop coupe and sedan were added later.
The Pontiac Tempest T is another example. That was my whole point. So, Ford tried to do some juggling with the Maverick and Falcon and renamed the 2-door intermediate sedan as the Instead, they went a different route for those two years by offering two hardtops: one with a formal roof, and the other being a fastback. Imagine if the Maverick 2-door had been created by using the Chevrolet never had these issues with the Nova and Chevelle, although it does shed a little light on their own creation of the Deluxe intermediate line.
They pretty much played it completely straight with completely unique sheetmetal for the different markets, and never tried to wedge any kind of compact down into the subcompact market, i. Nor did they try any of the goofy stuff of using a Deluxe center section with a Nova front and rear.
I am not sure exactly the date the base model Chevelles were reintroduced, but if anything, Chevrolet was following Ford by trying to get more of the low end market.
Ford definitely had a much better model line-up to cover the market and also did in Then they released the Falcon mid model year to really hit the bottom of the market. According to Collectible Automobile, there was a price war between Chevrolet and Ford and Chevy in the intermedaite market for This was the reason that they reintroduced the base Chevelle and brought out the Torino based Falcon to try and get the lowest priced intermediate.
Never quite understood the 65 whole Malibu SS thing till now and how expensive they were. While you could get the F41 suspension in , only cars actually ordered the F41 option there was also a F40 heavy duty suspension which was not in the same league for handling. Early Chevelles were not known to be great handlers, but the cars with the F41 suspensions were tops among its competitiors. As for the mirror, GM literature says that a sport mirror was part of the package.
As I have learned over the years, there were often time many exceptions to the rules for cars built during this era. This article is very interesting — what a maze of model confusion! Never knew about the 69 Deluxe SS They must be quite rare — I never saw one back in the day. Beautifully styled, fast car 4-speed , as desirable as a GTO at the time. These would be hard to distinguish from a Malibu based SS from the exterior.
I wonder whether the brochure was just plain wrong, or if there actually were plans to make the available at one point. Rather, the SS buyer was required to purchase a cubic inch or larger engine as an option, separately from purchasing the SS package. Malibus sold well, with , rolling off the assembly line -- led by , Classic four-door sedans.
Among GM makes, at least, the era of bigness was fading into history, overtaken by a new age of efficiency and economy. El Camino car-pickups also adopted Malibu styling, with engine choices ranging all the way to the cubic-inch V The Chevrolet Malibu Classic Landau Coupe came standardwith a vinyl half roof, pinstripes, and Rally wheels or Sport wheel covers.
Although changes to the Chevrolet Malibu were minor, sales of the car, including this base sedan model, jumped nicely. The Chevrolet Malibu got minimal changes following its debut as a redesigned "new-size" model in Alternations to the Chevrolet Malibu amounting to little more than a new divided grille and reworked taillights. However, a "small-block" cubic-inch 4. The Chevrolet Malibu cars sold in California were subject to different exhaust-emissions regulations and offered a 3. A cubic-inch 5.
Both three- and four-speed manual transmissions had floor shifters. The Chevrolet Malibu offered Malibu and Malibu Classic models in coupe, sedan, and station wagon form. The Classic line also included a Landau coupe. Sedans and wagons had fixed rear-door windows with swing-out vents for draft-free ventilation. Malibu Classics got additional bright window trim and vinyl-clad body moldings. Options included a vinyl roof, special gauges, wire wheel covers, auxiliary lighting, powered rear vent windows, and a Power Skyroof.
Chevrolet literature boasted of such technical details as double-panel doors, a full-perimeter frame, and coil springs all around. Production of the Chevrolet Malibu grew to ,, up from , of the models. The Chevrolet Malibu saw changes to its grille and taillights. Sales of the Chevrolet Malibu fell due to competition from imports and the new Chevrolet Citation. The Malibu series included this Malibu Coupe. The Chevrolet Malibu started out the decade of the s with few changes, though engine choices were shuffled a little.
The base V-6 for the Chevrolet Malibu displaced cubic inches, up from the year before. Horsepower increased from 94 to , enough to shave 1. Optional again for the Chevrolet Malibu were a cubic-inch V-8 with horsepower and a V-8, now with horsepower down five. The "hot rod" with horsepower offered in was dropped.
A "three-on-the-tree" manual transmission was standard, but most Chevrolet Malibu cars got the optional three-speed automatic. Optional again for Chevrolet Malibu V-8 models was the F sports suspension, which made the normally soft Malibu into a fair-handling family car.
Once again, two-door coupes, four-door sedans, and five-door wagons were offered in base and Classic trim levels. Sedans were most popular, and Classics outsold base models. Higher prices in combination with the fuel crunch and Chevy's own Citation competition, forced Malibu sales to drop: from , in to , for However, that still made Malibu a strong midsize entry. The Chevrolet Malibu series included this base wagon model. The Chevrolet Malibu, including this four-door sedan, received a squared roofline with a semi-formal rear window.
The Chevrolet Malibu received what amounted to a "radical" styling update for a car that had changed little since its introduction: Sedans adopted a rear roofline more formal than that of their Buick and Olds siblings.
Other changes were more subtle. The base cubic-inch V-6 made horsepower down from , as did the California-only cubic-inch Buick V The cubic-inch V-8, now with horsepower, was relegated to station-wagon duty, so the sole optional engine on sedans and coupes was the cubic-inch V-8 with horsepower.
The three-speed automatic added a lock-up torque converter to aid highway mileage. As before, the bulk of sales consisted of sedans, with ritzier Classic versions being somewhat more popular than the base models. Station wagons and coupes were likewise more popular in dressier trim. The Chevrolet Malibu series included this Sport Sedan model. The Chevrolet Malibu, including this sedan, featured a new front end with a crosshatch grille pattern and quad rectangular headlights.
The Chevrolet Malibu became little more than a blip on Chevy's production charts during , with the new front-drive Celebrity undoubtedly stealing some of its sales. Model choices for the Chevrolet Malibu were trimmed from fourteen to four, which didn't help either.
The base Malibus and all the coupes were dropped. That left just Classic sedans and wagons with either V-6 or V-8 power. Nevertheless, the Chevrolet Malibu sported a new Chevrolet Caprice -like frontal appearance, with a crosshatch grille flanked by quad rectangular headlights. Bigger news was under the hood in the form of not one but two diesel engine options.
The horsepower 4. The horsepower 5. Gasoline-engine choices were unchanged, except Chevy's cubic-inch 3. The Chevrolet Malibu series included only sedans and this wagon. The Chevrolet Malibu was the final model year for the rear-wheel-drive Malibu. This Malibu Sport Sedan was available with gas and diesel engines. The Chevrolet Malibu drew down the curtain on the Malibu as Chevrolet's rear-wheel-drive midsize car, but the nameplate would return in the late s on a new sort of Malibu.
The Chevrolet Malibu marked the sixth and final year of its design generation. It again came as a sedan and wagon. They looked the same as before, though Chevy no longer applied the "Classic" prefix to their names.
Chevy also dropped a few standard features, including wheel covers and some exterior moldings. Also gone was the 4. Standard engine for the Chevrolet Malibu was again Chevy's 3. With the 4. Continuing on the options list were the 4. In its farewell year, the Malibu was actually more popular than it was in , selling just over , copies.
That was only about 22, behind the new Celebrity, and 25, ahead of the beleaguered Citation. It was almost surprising that this generation of the Malibu hung around as long as it did, what with the more-modern Chevrolet Celebrity debuting in But the Celebrity was not an instant hit, possibly because many folks still liked the simplicity and proven engineering of rear-drive cars -- not to mention the solid reputation the Malibu had gained. They also apparently liked the Malibu name, which returned in due time as the Chevrolet Malibu.
The Chevrolet Malibu series included this wagon model. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe.
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