It goes without saying that you can go to just about any car show in the country and see lots of Chevy Super Sports, Mustangs and Corvettes. But I found something interesting in this shot of a number of vintage Bowties–how similar those 1964-65 Malibus look when compared to the black 1978-81 Malibu coupe farther back. I had never noticed the similarity, because I’d never seen them parked side-by-side.
Accounting for some late ’70s touches like wraparound taillamps and bigger bumpers, these coupes have more than just a family resemblance. Even the faux pillarless roofline of the newer car recalls the earlier roofline. Were some of the designers thinking of the original midsize Malibu when they were drafting the downsized ’78 A-Body Chevrolets? I rather think they did.
Note: Photo taken by my uncle at the 2012 Nauvoo Grape Festival Car Show, Nauvoo, IL.
Well no wonder I like the ’78 Malibu roofline. Thanks for pointing out the similiarities!
That and the fact that small ‘bu is the only one not red…
The ’78 was a clean looking Malibu as well. For the moment, I thought that you were about to say that Re-sale red and coupe’s rule, and the four doors drool! Can you tell that it’s been too long a Winter here, and that I’m longing for decent enough weather to start getting some cars out of the barn?
I always liked the looks of 60s Chevys, nearest I got to one was my Vauxhall PC Cresta.
YES! (or maybe you asked that rhetorically?)
And for a good reason, as the ’64-65 Malibu was already well on its way to being a “classic” in the mid seventies. Good designs are prone to be recycled; almost inevitably.
I would add that when the 78 Malibu came out, its resemblance to the ’64-’65 was very much noted by all of the media, and such. It was too overwhelmingly obvious, and Chevy was pretty up-front about it. After the Colonnades, it was an intentional return to the ‘bu’s roots.
Well, I wasn’t around in late ’77 when they came out. It never really dawned on me until recently how similar they are 🙂
Hard to imagine:)
Now why Oldsmobile couldn’t do something similar with the Cutlasses….
LOOK! Real honest to god trunks that you could easily place things in! Dang I miss that, sadly in my lifetime only my 82 Celebrity and 87 Oldsmobile fit that description.
I’ve owned a couple of 60’s vintage Impala. The 61 was cavernous.
It took an act of congress to figure out how to do this but I suppose my first crop cut and paste job would be appropriately displayed here. Among the cars at last Saturday’s AutoBarn was a very nice 1980 Malibu black with red interior. Very nice built up 350/350 not too over done.
Lovin that Impala, the Malibus are nice too!
’64-’67 and ’78-’83 are my two favorite eras of Malibus. I’ve always considered them to have a lot of fundamental similarities, but I had never realized that there is a literal resemblance between them. I wasn’t fully sold on it until you pointed out the piece of trim on the later model coupe that serves as a fakeout hardtop device, now I can’t un-see it… which only makes me like them even more. Seems like about half (or more) of these that have survived have been hacked up into dragstrip warriors. What a shame…
My 79 Malibu was the most comfortable car I’ve ever owned. The high rooofline helped that. Plus, people were always trying to buy it from me, even though it had some rust in the wheelwells and was a 4 door.
I like everything in the picture. What I don’t like is the group think that goes on where everyone does pretty much the same stuff. I love old cars but not so much in a lookalike herd. I haven’t been to a car show for years. Besides I can still get my fix right here.
I had never noticed the similarities between the 64-65 Chevelles and the 79-81 Malibus, but it’s definitely there. I always thought the downsized Malibus were better looking than the overwrought 78-80 Monte Carlo, even though I liked the Colonnade version of the Monte.
Still, the rear of the Chevelles looks plain compared to that Impala.
Ive only seen two Malibus of the early variety a local imported one overpowered it and stuck it in a tree backwards and the spare body he imported to repair the first not a common car that guy couldnt get anything other than powertrain parts locally break a tail light lense and yer on the fone to the US in the pre net days.
Nothing better than that good ol’ ’64! My dearly-missed avatar…
What jumped out at me first was the twin tailpipes on all of them, and they’re all chrome too.
Never noticed the similar roof lines to the later Malibu. Although, I much prefer the 60’s tail lights, bumpers and trim over the late 70’s model.
A good friend of mine had the wagon version of the late 70’s Malibu with the tail lights in the bumper. It was a Chevy V6, in gold with the wood grain sides. We had many a conversation about dropping a 350 in it, but never did. Notable feature on that wagon was the rear windows that didn’t roll down. How about the coupe pictured? Were those quarter windows fixed, or did they roll down?
I’ve noticed that since I first found out about those late 70’s Malibu’s building model kits as a kid, I thought that was pretty cool. It was retro without trying too hard to be, still in tune with the rectilinear styling GM had going with all of it’s other cars.
The other thing I find clever is the larger styling details used on the later cars. Visually the ’78+ Malibu looks bigger because of the larger window area and 15″ stock wheels, when in fact it’s a smaller car, shorter by seven inches in wheelbase. I noticed this with my ’87 Caprice coupe next to my ’65 Olds F-85. Both the same size but the Caprice comes off bigger because of the large doors, bumpers, flat sheetmetal and wheels.
My sister had one of those for awhile, think it was a ’79 or ’80. I thought it was a decent car and looked good. Comfortable and reasonably roomy for a coupe.
I always loved the 78-81 Malibu coupes. Now it makes sense why. As a kid I always lusted after the little old lady that lived down the street with her two tone silver classic coupe with red bucket seat interior and vin code H 305 4 BBL V8. Too bad her grand son inherited the car and destroyed it.