Yes, I know we’ve had a full CC on this vintage of Nova recently, but I had to share this one, as it is a very rare ’79 model, the end of the road for the traditional RWD compact Chevy. And it even has a landau top!
1979 was the last roundup for the Nova, unless you count the NUMMI-built Corolla clone from the late Eighties. While not much had changed since the 1975 restyling, the ’79 did get an attractive new grille, and for one year only, rectangular headlights.
Novas were available in plain hatchback, sedan and coupe models, plus a plusher Custom sedan and coupe. The luxury Concours version, meant to compete with the Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch, was gone after ’77 but many of its plush features moved to the Nova Custom, including the wide chrome fender moldings and Cabriolet landau top.
Engine choices were the tried-and-true 250 inline six and 2 BBL 305 V8. A 350 V8 was also available in California and high-altitude states. The basic Nova was the most popular by far; out of 97,721 ’79s sold, over 82,000 were standard Novas. There were not many takers for the Custom, with only 7,529 coupes and 7,690 sedans made. Our featured car, a Custom coupe, sold for $4,164 with the six and $4,399 with the V8.
I spotted this Nova a few days before getting photos, and thought it was a Concours until I saw the square headlights. It’s pretty clean for a ’79, with no obvious rust, other than the bubbling under the landau top. It even has a CB radio, and appears to be owned by a car guy, as there was a car show flyer on the seat.
Despite the short model year (production ended in 11/78), Chevy moved nearly 100,000 Novas in 1979. The new Citation was waiting in the wings, and was supposed to be the way of the future for compact cars. Given how that turned out, maybe Chevy could have kept the Nova in the lineup a couple more years, at least until the Celebrity was introduced. But then, it’s always easy to second guess!
Without the catastrophe the X-cars were the General would have never learned how to get the A-bodys eventually right…
But I wouldn’t mind a nice last of the RWD Novas.
So far as I’m concerned the general could still be making these. You can definitely see what branch of the tree these come from. It is easy to see my 68 Nova here.
If I could design a new one for me, it would be a hatchback with a 4.3 or 3.8 and an overdrive transmission. The general might even get me back for a new car if they had continued like this. I actually drove a citation and thought they had shot themselves in the foot. I can see a lot of folks shared that opinion. These were timex cars (lickin/ticking) and I like them regardless of whether they were chevy, buick, olds, etc.
Interesting. It is the high level Custom with gobs of trim outside, yet inside still has the black steering wheel and seat upholstery that belongs in a base Volare (and no, that is NOT a good thing).
Up until fairly recently, this is the kind of car that would have melted into the background for me, but now it is kind of cool. If I ever knew that these came with square headlights for a year, I had forgotten it.
A nice find.
Ah my first car.. 79 Nova hatchback. Mom and Dad gave me $1000 towards my first car. I soooooo wanted an El Camino Royal Knight or a Monza Spyder. Reality was a lightly used Nova. I combed the newspaper ads (pre internet days). The local Chevy dealer Jim Rathmann had used Novas advertised. I remember it was an unusual cold day when we went to look. Those used Novas were off-rentals, 6 cylinder plain jane, 4 doors. What self respecting 16 year old male wants a 6 cyl 4 door?
Dad and I left there and went to the Olds dealer where the parents had bought cars and they had a used 79 Nova hatchback with the 305. As JP says it had a black steering wheel and column. Black seat belts too. The rest of the interior was blue. The seats were very cheap ugly vinyl.
After I wore the belted white walls out, I put on some white letter BF Goodrich radial TA’s. Those made a big improvement. A couple of years later I was working at that Olds-Toyota-GMC dealer and traded the Nova on a 1981 Toyota SR5 truck. I look back and wonder how I ever fit in that truck.
Like others on here who remember their first car with great memories, that Nova was not very exciting. I never knew that as a hatchback I had something so rare for the day.
Except for the luxury models (C-bodies and maybe some of the higher trim B-bodies), most GM’s had the black seat belts standard. If you ordered the “custom” seat belt option, then you got belts that were color-coordinated with the rest of the interior.
But oddly enough, even the base model Chevy Custom Deluxe/GMC Sierra pickups had color-keyed seatbelts. Choice of four interior colors, too, in a work truck…
The RWD X-body hatchbacks weren’t too common, especially after the first year or two they were built (they were introduced in 1973).
A bit intriguing is they didn’t shipped the tolling of the 1975-79 X-body to Brazil and/or Argentina like Chrysler did with the A-body Dart who was made until 1982 (or 1981 depending of the source), or Ford, beside the Falcon who was made in Argentina until 1991 or the 1965-66 Galaxie body made in Brazil until 1983. Ironically, GM keeped the old 1968-72 body in Argentina until 1978. I spotted a Spanish site about that Nova oddity http://www.chevynet.com.ar/
Had they keeped the X-body Nova and its siblings a bit longer, it would had been in a internal competition with the RWD A/G-body who got a smaller wheelbase then the X-body Nova.
And I spotted additionnal pictures of these Argentine Novas at http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142881 Interesting to note then they used the Malibu name for a trim level of the Nova there.
Probably due to the 1979 oil crisis. South America was going to smaller cars; the Brazilian Dart and Galaxie were made in truly tiny numbers toward the end.
I have to give Curbside Classic.com a lot of credit for giving due recognition to the 1975-79 Chevrolet Nova since these cars during their productions were considered pedestrian “banal” cars which I heavily disagreed with since they were the best neatly designed 4G RWD GM X-Bodied Cars compared to previous iterations. The 4G Novas were probably very influential in the design and sized similarities with the 1978-83 Downsized RWD A/G Bodied Malibus as shown on this photo that I posted. The square headlights and the grille appearances themselves between the two cars were almost dead ringers of each other. That is just my opinion as a 4G Novaphile though.
“Uneasy? Queasy? Take a Bromo…”
Every time I see some example from the brougham era, I think of that old jingle from the Bromo-Seltzer commercials – but then, I’m getting old, too…
Leave off the stupid top rear cap applique and you have a nice car underneath.
I like these, the big landau top though is too much on this meat and potatoes car, really who are you kidding? If you squint….it almost looks like and Eldora…..nah, its a Nova.
These are no longer cheapo beaters, used to be you could buy these for almost nothing in pretty decent shape, (every old lady had one) but now, its harder and harder to find good ones for non-insane prices, still I would like to snag me a late 70’s coupe, with either the straight 6 or a small V8.
This ’78 Nova Custom has been for sale up in my neck of the woods for awhile and I’ve been tempted to make an offer for it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230766235059&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648
$7,500? No way!
Keep Them coming Tom. Thank you for stepping in to keep feeding me on my favorite Website.
These look a lot better in retrospect than they did in 1979, I mean knowing how that whole X-Car turned out. I Was 21 but I wanted a Skylark in 1980…clean full width taillights…
The Landau/Cabriolet Roof Cap gives these Novas and its other RWD 1975-79 GM X-Bodied Cousins aka the “NOVA” group a Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare’ look.
Here is that photo.
Wow – I guess the resemblance goes deeper than just the seat upholstery. I think that the Plymouth looks better, but even I will admit that the Nova was probably the better car.
Stricking resemblance, even more stricking coincidence is the Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare got squared headlights for their last year just like the Nova for 1980 with a front more or less inspired from the 1979 Nova. http://www.aspenandvolare.com/showthread.php?2596-1980-Plymouth-Volare-Dealer-Sales-Brochure
YES the only difference though, the 1980 Plymouth Volare’ 2 Door Coupe had even became larger in Overall Length than the 1976-79 Plymouth Volare’ Coupes measuring at around 197.5″ without the front & rear spoilers, while the same model without those sporty add-ons measured at a whopping 200.3″ long and the sedans even grew larger (larger than even the Nova based 1976-79 Cadillac Seville @ 204.0″) from 201.5″ (1976-79 4 Door Sedan) to 204.3″ long. The Nova meanwhile became constant all throughout its four year run from 1975-79 with the Overall Length of 196.7″ long for both the 2 Door Coupe & 4 Door Sedan Models.
Wonder how Volare Sport Wagons were sold? Would love to see one in the metal.
This was my first car my graduation present they made a down payment and then handed me payment book. I love that car I wish I still had it today.It was a orange looking color I never had no problem with it at all. Is this car for sale!!!!
wow, these really sucked. i can’t imagine what it took to keep one running all these years.
Like most cars from that era it didn’t take much. A set of 5.5mm, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 5/8 and 9/16 wrenches, a Phillips and flat screw driver and a BFH were really all the tools you needed..
These X body RWD’s were VERY reliable, durable cars. Had a ’78 Skylark Custom 4D. 212K – V-6 ran like new!
These last Novas were really rugged and solid, especially for an economy car. Funny how even the toupée, um, I mean landau top, looks kinda ok to me now. I considered them absolutely cringe-worthy back in the day…
SFPD had 4 door Novas in ’79 and ’80, probably with 350s and HD suspension and brakes. They had an aura of toughness I found appealing, even then.
ISTR on the civilian Nova the rear windows went most of the way down, too. They really should have continued to evolved this platform rather than scrap it for the “New Cheepnis” FWD X-bodies, but as you say, hindsight is easy. 🙂
The 1975-79 4G Chevrolet Novas were Reliable, Dependable and Durable Mechanically Simple Cars. Its replacement the FWD Monza-sized Chevy Citations were very much an embarrassment to the Nova name and the Citations and its divisional cousins were POS.
I’m looking at this Nova and realizing how badly I bought into the whole GM thing… I was just drunk with their kool-aid, maybe it was the water from the Detroit River or something. But you know…I still like the car. However I will never buy another vehicle from GM or the other two. It’s been over 10 years since a domestic has graced my driveway. Let somebody else take their place and open up factories and give people jobs maybe whoever can do better by us.
I was looking for my first brand-new car around ’75 or so, and recall stopping by the local Chevy dealer. For some reason the only thing the salesman wanted to show me was one of these Novas, a hatchback in canary yellow with a white vinyl interior. I ran away as fast as I could, and eventually ended up with a VW Rabbit 2-door, which remains my all-time favorite car, despite turning out to be appalling flimsy and unreliable. A bit ironic as the Last-gen Novas seem to have a reputation for relative ruggedness.
The Nova seems to Mirror the Holden Kingswoods rise and demise luckily we did not get a FWD turd to replace it.
my mom had one. It had the cheapest and most uncomfortable seats I have ever sat in. I think they were made from burlap.
At first, one would think why do square lights for only a few months? But, these headlights were introduced on the 77.5-Pontiac Phoenix X body and carried to Chevy. Phoenix name took over for the Ventura line in 78-79. Pontiac’s “luxury compact” for a season, then became an average Nova clone.
The overlap of the RWD G/A body pushed the old X’s into the ‘bargain basement’ slot in anticipation for the ‘revolutionary’ cars coming. And we all know the rest of that story.
Besides the square headlights much like its identical “larger” cousin twin the 1977 1/2 Pontiac Phoenix (since they are almost 7″ longer than the Nova, Phoenix @ 203.4″ vs. Nova @ 196.7″) which replaced the 1975-77 Pontiac Ventura, the Chevrolet Nova also had a new grille as well in which I agree was indeed a wasteful effort on Chevy’s part since they only had an abbreviated production run from 8/1/78-12/22/78. At least the Oldsmobile Omega with only a grille change for 1979 and Buick Skylark remained unchanged kept their round headlights.
For some reason, I had thought that the upper-level ’78 Novas had square headlights, then they were used across the full line in ’79, but I guess that’s wrong. Was there some other Nova styling feature in this era that was rolled out to the upper-level models first like that?
I remember reading somewhere that 1977 was supposed to be the final year for the RWD X’s. The Citation, which was originally to be called the Condor, and the other FWD X siblings were due for a 1978 release. Production got delayed for a year and a half because the tooling was not ready.
I owned one of these in 1984 in London, England. It was a straight six! Everyone I knew said I had a granny car, but I didn’t care. It was a sale item from one of the U.S air bases.
I wanted to strip the cabriolet roof off and stick a V8 in there, but crashed it into a VW Beetle one night in London instead. It was a write off, and sold for £20, or $40 at the time.
I had a beauty of a blue 1979-&-1/2 Nova (back when they actually introduced HALF-YEAR models occasionally). A hallmark of that particular half-year model was the lovely square headlights. Nova disappeared soon after. Sigh… It was a great car; you couldn’t kill it with a gun.
Toyota is advertizing the heck out of the “new” 2014.5 Camry and all of the discounts on them. They botched the 2014’s structural integrity so bad that it did fairly poor in crash tests so the felt compelled to fix it sooner rather than later. They also messed around with some of the trim content.
i own a 1979 all original nova coupe custom cabriolet. It was burgandy with red interior. In the process of restoration.
For full authenticity make sure it dog-tracks when you’re done.
Like this one?
Every time I see pictures of the Nova, I regret not having it anymore. My friends who owned 50s American cars used to laugh at it, but it never let me down. It was hard to get parts back in 84 over here in the UK, but I was always able to fix it up. Happy days!!
The 1979 Chevrolet Nova – the last gasp of the 1955 Chevrolet.
Check the dimensions, and the power trains. See the similarity?
I’d say the ’77-up B-Body Impala/Caprice was much closer to the ’55 in concept, especially when it comes to interior space, never mind the BOF construction, etc. The X-Body may have been similarly long overall, but its space utilization was much worse than the ’55. The Nova’s back seat was pretty tight.
I have only one impression that I recall of the ’70s Nova. A near base level sedan. It seemed incredibly cramped front and back, the trunk wasn’t much and had an odd floor pan, and the institutional grade interior had no charms. Amazing that some were police cars and that Argentinians probably considered these premium cars. As Americans, we are frequently quite spoiled.
The ’77 B-body stemmed the longer, lower wider philosophy of the prior 20 years with a taller car that was more passenger and luggage friendly. Wheelbases: B: 116, ’55 Chevy: 115, Nova: 111. The B really did have some ’55 in it.
This generation of GM compacts had a short back-seat cushion, which gave the illusion of more rear-seat legroom.
Ah, this brings back fond memories. In 1984, my neighbor, an older lady, asked me to help her find a cheap, reliable used car. “Nova” was my first thought (“Slant Six” would have been choice number two). We located a nice blue ’75 two-door, 6-cylinder Nova somewhere near Buffalo and I got to drive it all the way to NYC to deliver it to her, stopping by Niagara Falls en route – a nice minor road trip. The Nova handled very well on that drive and I rather enjoyed “seeing the USA in your Chevrolet”. It subsequently served its new owner faithfully well into the 1990s. The vinyl top on the subject car kinda ruins it for me, though. A Nova is best enjoyed plain.
These were built a few miles from where I grew up (and live today). My parents were friends with someone that worked at the factory and we got to go for a tour. I remember being placed up into a Nova coupe body that was on the line, it had only a dash installed. I had to have been three years old, but I remember it well…
Thanks another car I’ve never seen.Lose the vinyl roof and I could easily put up with one.For some reason Novas are nowhere near as common as Ford and Mopar compacts at UK shows.
The styling of the late RWD Novas is inoffensive to me, which is a considerable improvement on the 1968–74 iteration (whose looks make me cringe from any angle), and it’s one of the few American cars of its era that actually looked better with rectangular sealed beams. However, the chrome wheel arch moldings and landau top really don’t do it any favors at all.
This Nova would look so much better without the landau roof. It just spoils the clean lines of the two door coupe. Was there a buckets and console option for the Nova?
There was a bucket seat option for all of the X-cars, though you don’t see it that often.
If there was, I would pass-I have never liked buckets-and-consoles, even when I was young. The wide,comfy bench seat is something I sorely miss on newer vehicles. I owned a ’77 Nova with bench, when my rear got sore on long trips, I just shifted my position a bit. Buckets hold you in one spot too much, kind of like a straight-jacket,I get sore on long trips in anything I have ever driven with buckets, can’t move or shift much. Then there’s the cracks between the buckets and console that everything falls down between and you can’t get it out easily. Yes, I still fail to see the appeal/popularity of buckets-and-consoles.
I had three of them in the 80’s, a silver one with black vinyl roof , a bleu/bleu one with a factory steel sliding roof, and a real beauty, red/red with red vinyl roof, a Concours version. Great cars, could take a lot of abuse from a 18 year old…..real cool cars back here in the Netherlands, specially when you’re 18.
In the spring of 1979, I remember thinking that there was no way I would ever want one of these old-fashioned Novas when I could get a new, world-beating, front-wheel-drive X-car.
Oh, boy….
I always thought the 68-72 were the best looking of the bunch. A friend’s GF had a 71 with a 350/4 speed in black with nice chrome Cragars and fat tires. Not jacked up end the rear, that always looked like crap. I did ride in the back seat a time or 2, it was not a nice place to be in. There cars are easy to fix and parts are cheap as dirt.
My grandmother needed a new car and had extra cash, and was planning to get a ’79 Nova. But, car guy me, convinced her to get a ’79 Malibu and was a solid car, lasted 10 years in the family. It was a better handling car in base trim, compared to my uncles stripped ’78 Nova.
But, yeah, back then the Nova was called ‘way outdated’ by Buff Books, and lots of praise for the Citation.
BTW: There was no such thing as a “1979 1/2 Nova”. The 79 RWD X’s were built in early part its model year, ending late 1978. The “1/2” designation means the 2nd half of a model year, such as the 1970-1/2 Falcon.
Incorrect. The 1979 GM rear-drive X-body GM car line did not end altogether in late 1978. Regular production did in 12/78 and the key word here is REGULAR production. There were none of these cars built in Jan. of 1979, but GM did do a limited run of these cars February and March of 1979 on special order only. March 1979 really spells the end of the classic GM American compact with a V-8 option for good. The very last Novas, rear-drive Oldsmobile Omegas, Pontiac Phoenix and Buick Skylarks ended in March of 1979. It was national news on TV back then. The new front-drive Citation and other GM new front-drive X-body line division cars would go into production in April of 1979. I believe all the 1979-calendar-year production Novas were badged ‘Nova Custom” and may have had top-of-the-line amenities as wire hub caps. I did see a wire-wheeled Nova Custom years ago when worked as a mechanic in a Novato, CA shop with the door tag that confirmed it was built in March of 1979. I am not sure how many special-order Novas (or Nova Customs) were built in the calendar year of 1979. It would be very weird if a car model-year were to not actually be produced in the calendar year that it was actually named for. I also saw one rear-drive Pontiac Phoenix built in Feb. of 1979 and a Buick Skylark rear-drive built in March of 1979.
It was indeed very true that both the Nova and the Malibu would be very competitive towards one another because both were almost identical in size – Nova having only a 4″ advantage even though on the average a Nova would weigh 200 pounds more than a similarly body styled Malibu. The 2 Door Coupes of both models were strikingly similar that many who were for the market for the Nova or Malibu Coupe or even lets say its divisional cousin the Pontiac Phoenix or Le Mans Coupe were even confused as to which model they would like to purchase in 1978. The Malibu 4 Door Sedan which was redesigned in 1981 almost looked like the 1979 Nova 4 Door Sedan from a couple of years earlier. Anyway, here are the side by side photo of the 1979 Chevrolet Nova 2 Door Coupe vs. the 1981 Chevrolet Malibu 2 Door Coupe. I only picked the 1981 Malibu because its grille resembled that of the 1979 Nova.
Now here are the 4 Door Models of both the 1981 Malibu and 1979 Nova. See the similarities?
I knew a Nova fanatic several years back who picked up a mint rust free Southern 2 door just like this in light blue with white vinyl top and white bucket seats and a 305 2BBL V8, optional gauges, rally wheels as on the sedan above and suspension upgrade. That was truly a rare car and I remember being shocked at how well it drove and handled. It even felt fairly peppy. I need to look him up to see if he still has that car.
I just saw one of these, square headlights and all! It was parked in a Boston neighborhood and I almost thought it was one of those one-year-only 1980 Volares featured here recently but obviously it wasn’t an exact match (being a ’90s kid my knowledge of this period isn’t the best). So then I figured it was a Nova but couldn’t stop to check it out. Thanks for this timely post, Tom!
So many of these around when I was a kid! I remember seeing them well into the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
I wish i had photoshop to see what late nova’s would look like as hard tops.
My husband has 79 chevy Nova custom cabriolet 305 engine in much better shape 43,000 original miles what is it worth? I want my garage back.
Do u still have it and is it a 4 door?
My favorite car was my 1979 four door Nova with 305 cu in V8. A few suspension mods, modified air intake, HELLA European style rectangular H4 headlights, Hella metal housing fog lights, best GOODYEAR Aramid belted tires, AUDIOVOX AM/FM only digital display stereo. And I had custom aluminum block risers for the low front bench seat that got the driving position just right, for a factory slab bench seat. While bucket seats were on my mind to hold me better, It was a street car, not a track racer and the lifted bench seat was finally, regular driving comfortable. No vinyl roof thank goodness. Also modified the HEI distributor a bit. Shift points on the tranny could be asked to shift when I wanted with just the right goose on the accelerator pedal.
If I could find another one and my wife was ok with it, I would love to buy another ’79 four door and set it up exactly as I had it before, plus a few modern suspension and brake updates.
Bought it new at EDDIE HOPPER Chevrolet ( surprised I remember that) in Garden Grove, Ca. Some years later I used it as a trade in on a limousine for a business. I wish I had kept it! Never sporty looking. Never that fast. I still liked it better than my 68 Corvette which I always felt was a dangerous handling car back then although go-pretty fast in a straight line was a blast.
Best friend had 1, the hatchback body style. His parent’s car originally. He bought it from them when his old man bought a new Mopar K car. My friend kept that ‘79 4 a good number of years B4 selling it to his nephew around 1991 or so. He has fond memories of the car & wishes he had kept it. Never let him down!