Our 1963 Days last week were fun. Lots of cool cars, all sleek and snazzy–a time before big bumpers and thirty pounds of emissions equipment spoiled the fun. Plus, Studebaker was still in business! But for those of you missing our regular ’70s fare, here is a gray-primered Colonnade I saw a few weeks ago.
It has a nice red interior, before the secret Bland Group took over automotive interior color choices. Looks to be a ’77 Malibu Classic, judging from the vertical-bar grille, stacked quad lamps and multi-buttoned interior.
I do see the occasional Colonnade at shows and even in traffic, but the four-door is quite elusive, at least here in the Midwest.
I always thought that the colonnade sedans looked better than the coupes.
I think the original ’73 round headlight and tail light treatments worked best as well.
Agreed! Wholeheartedly. I hated everything in between those headlights and tail lights, though.
I thought so too, my favorite feature is the way the roof extends seamlessly down the b-pillar.
How could you miss the black Eagle Vision in the background of the first photo?
Probably the same way most Americans missed it when it was offered new. If you wanted a car that looked like an Intrepid, you bought an Intrepid. The design on the first gen intrepid was good looking.
Oh, I didn’t miss it, and it is actually purple!
That Vision is a regular in this lot; I’ll get some pics one of these days 🙂
A school friend’s father had a 1973 4-door that he drove us to school in. My friend later inherited when the father passed away in the late ’70s & had it until the mid 80s at least.. It was yellow w/a black vinyl top & really nothing special to write home about.
Looks like the current owner is working on destroying what appears to be a low-mileage car (look at the condition of the ash tray — it’s perfect — ugh!) What kind of idiot primers over the door handles & locks… I wonder how many cigarette holes are in the seats & carpet by now….
Working on destroying his own health too, by the looks of it.
Yep. Let’s primer all over that original paint 🙁
It even had overspray on the tires. The tires!
These are becoming rare.
Last Friday, I did see a two headlight version of this in pea soup green south of St. Louis. The old man driving it could have easily been the original owner. It was in remarkably good shape.
If I had not been driving, I could have got a better look at it.
I am slowly coming around on these GM Colonnades. However, if there is a Colonnade pecking order, this car would be on the bottom. Malibu, sedan, over/under square headlights. Is there a less desirable Colonnade than one of these?
The wagons.
They be ugly.
I don’t know, we had a ’74 Century wagon when I was a kid. I liked it…at the time. I still think it had some nice lines.
I felt each Division’s version was appealing, as they were each so distinctive from one another. Besides the 1977 B Bodies, this was one of the last times that GM did such an excellent job creating such unique brand identity amongst the four divisions. The distinctive fender sculpting on the different Colonnades went pleasantly further than the limited Division branding we became used to seeing.
In this case, GM should be credited for creating more Division distinction than say the Granada/Monarch/Versailles or the Aspen/Volare/Diplomat.
The sculpting detail on the Pontiacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles being especially unique.
Alternately, at the same time, GM dropped the ball when it came to creating uniqueness amongst the Nova and Monza clones.
For some, the Colonnades are an acquired taste: kind of like beer I guess.
Rare bird indeed. Took me a good 30 seconds to realize what looked off about this 77 Plymouth Fury — “Oh that’s it, it’s a freaking Chevy!”
The Rally wheels and tires on yesterday’s Caprice, would look great on this one!
That interior looks in decent shape under the clutter. The four doors always looked like a bit of styling afterthought compared to the two doors.
I bet in a few more years this thing will be a heap. It probably has low mileage and is another car that suffers from a stupid owner who bought it at a low price. My guess is the paint was a little faded (might’ve even been black looking at the bumper fillers)so he thought the project car look was in order so went to the parts store for primer and cheap hubcaps. Also in the process of adding cigarette burns to the mint seats and next will be an aftermarket steering wheel and gauges bolted to the dash. I see he already has the Walmart sound system going on..
As to these cars, I’ve found the pseudo hardtop 4 doors on these rather unique, as 4 door cars go. I think Ford did something similar with the Torino 4 door during the early to mid 70’s.
In any event, this is just sad, what may have been a very nice Colonnade, a ’77 yet with that bordello red interior now looking like a semi hooptie, probably occurred in fairly short order too.
According to Wikipedia, if this is a ’77, it’s technically a Chevelle, but is the Malibu Classic as the Malibu was a trim level of the Chevelle. The Malibu became a model in its own right in 1978 when it replaced the Chevelle name, and this change was in the new downsized models, and ran until 1983 when the Malibu was dropped, only to come back in 1997 as a FWD model as it is today.
of them all, I don’t like the 77 Malibu Classic due to the stacked headlights not looking as well integrated with the rest of the car, nor do I like the ’75 Laguna S-3’s front clip. Probably the best taillights of the 73-77 Colonnade Chevelles were the ’73’s large round units.
Otherwise, I like how the 2 doors were designed, especially with the triangular rear windows for the back seats, I find they look better than the opera window on the Malibu Classic.
Then again, I remember friends having a ’73 Grand Prix, I think it was with the larger rear windows.
Blue air freshener on a red interior? How gauche…
Seriously though this has to be the biggest interior/exterior disparity between outside and inside, looks like crap on the outside and it looks almost new on the inside, which for a Colonnade is a big deal, considering how badly some of them aged.
CC Effect: I see a creampuff 76-77 Chevrolet Chevelle/Malibu coupe drive by while I’m in a parking lot right after I read this.
Nice. The colonnades were light years ahead of the overstyled midsize dreck being peddled by Ford and Chrysler at the time. The Chevelle/Malibu wore especially clean styling.
Tom, you live in Indiana like JPC right? My grandfather had a 1977 Malibu Classic sedan, white exterior, red interior, almost no options (bench seat, crank windows) and he owned it from the early 90s until his death in the late 90s. After that my grandmother sold it and moved out of Fort Wayne.
You may have found a car that I spent many adolescent hours in, my grandmother with a pillow behind her back to be able to see over the huge steering wheel with the non-adjustable seat. (God bless her, she’s only about 5’2″.) I do wonder if that was the one he had. It just a had a little bit of rust in the quarters and would have been a good candidate for primer.
Illinois, actually. Northwest IL; Davenport, Iowa is right across the Mississippi.
First reaction: “Noooooooooo”!
Second reaction: Of all the “new” post-pillarless designs that came out in the 1970s, GM still did it best.
The example above deserves a better fate than the one it is appearing to get. Not that I’d want it, but a nice survivor like this deserves better.
Take a second, l-o-n-g look at this car – it was considered a “mid-size”! It HAS to be longer than my 2012 Impala, but I didn’t bother to look it up to check!
I’m sure it’s longer than your 2012 Impala, Zackman. If I recall correctly the downsized 1977, Caprices and Impalas are actually smaller than the “midsize” Malibus that were parked next to them on the showroom floor.
I never did understand the use of the architectural term Colonnade for a car. I’m sure that most people on hearing the word in a tv commercial thought it might be a laxative.
“I’m sure that most people on hearing the word in a tv commercial thought it might be a laxative.” Couldn’t agree more. I remember visiting my grandparents in 1973. My Grandad had gotten a little booklet about the new 1973 GM cars in the mail, and he gave it to me. I started to read all about these “Colonnade” sedans and coupes, and wondered “what the hell is a colonnade?”
The last car my Grandfather bought/owned was a 1973 Malibu colonnade four door. As my grandparents aged and no longer drove, the car sat except when my dad drove them about in it. Ultimately, I ‘inherited’ the car. They were still living, but had no use for it. I drove it for a few years as a commuter, and it ultimately became my daughter’s drive to high school car. My recollection is saying to her, everybody wants a first car that is weird and wonderful, and we can’t afford wonderful. My major recollection is how slow and thirsty the thing was. It was the base V-8 with automatic, but the nadir of pollution/smog gimmickry. In the end, I traded it, if I recall the sequence, for a Mercury Topaz four cylinder stick, and felt that a definite improvement. I have no regrets over never seeing the Malibu again. My 1977 Impala, which is another story entirely, I do miss. As the saying goes, the difference between cheese and chalk, those two cars.