The holiday season is full of boxes. There’s the packaging wrapped in colorful paper from which gifts are removed, or even just the cardboard containers that arrive in the mail. Sweaters, toys, electronics – boxes can contain all kinds of things. On this first Tuesday of January, there may still be some empty boxes stacked neatly in some corner of your living area for items awaiting shipment back to their original vendors for one reason or another. For others, boxes may already have been broken down and placed in a recycling bin. I like reusing good cardboard boxes because they facilitate efficient storage in closets and such. The box is good.
I’ve mentioned in previous essays that I have a penchant for purchasing diecast scale models of my favorite vehicles, and also how I’ve had to periodically ask myself, “How many is too many?” I had been doing so well with this at a certain point last year. After a beautiful, silver, 1:24-scale Bburago 1980 Ford Mustang Cobra had arrived in the mail at the end of last summer, I had stepped back from buying for a good while. I had been able to set it in my mind that I had enough scale models to enjoy and appreciate, and that there will always be some other thing I just “have to” have if I keep looking in my spare time. Taking a break gave me the chance to take inventory of the coolness of the miniaturized fantasy garage that I’ve built for myself, with each purchase representing some vehicle I had once wanted to own or some fantastic deal that I just couldn’t pass up.
Then something snapped. This is how I know I will never enjoy another alcoholic beverage for the rest of my life, with God’s help. “Oh, just one more purchase… this Alpine-Renault is in such great shape, and the seller has this killer collection that he appears to be liquidating at fire sale prices. How could I not buy this? I’ll regret it if I don’t. Therefore, I have to buy it. It’s a matter of not having to keep thinking about it.” To be clear, I’m not living in a residence full of things stacked everywhere with a narrow pathway leading from my front door to the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, etc. It’s just that knowing myself, I’ve got to be careful.
With all of that aside, I’ve learned that the condition of the original box in which these diecasts have been stored can be a significant driver of their value on the secondhand market. I guess I had never realized this before, but it totally makes sense to me that when it comes to nostalgia-driven purchases, an item that looks like it just came off the shelf of your favorite Toys ‘R’ Us store from childhood, complete with original packaging and the orange price tag with blocky-font numerals printed on it, will be worth more to a collector than an item in a box that’s faded, ripped, or in otherwise subpar condition. On popular e-commerce sites, the presence and/or condition of the box will often be included in the description of the item for sale. As for me, I have enough items in perfect-looking boxes, so I’ve been drawn more recently to box-less diecasts in beautiful shape that I will have no problems handling or playing with. I’m still a big kid in many ways.
This generation of big Chevy is often colloquially referred to as the “box Caprice”. I’ll admit that I had to look up this reference before including it in my essay just to make sure it didn’t refer to something foul, but as I had originally suspected, this nickname refers simply to the car’s boxy shape in comparison to both what preceded and followed it. The first three model years of Chevrolet’s downsized B-body, from 1977 through ’79, don’t seem quite as boxy to me as that of our featured car, as those earlier models seem to have more of a bow-shape from stem to stern. The coupes also had swoopier sheetmetal. The 1980 restyle, which stayed in production through 1990, is decidedly boxier to my eyes, with blunter front and rear styling and a raised horizontal surface of the rear decklid which gives a more pronounced (here’s that word again) three-box look in profile.
Until putting this essay together, I had no idea the Caprice was such a strong seller as late as ’89, when 197,000 were sold. Fleet sales certainly contributed solidly to this number, as reflected in almost 70,000 base models having been purchased (I’m imagining a sea of Yellow Cabs in the Chicago Loop as I type this), but that means that most of the rest of just over 127,000 big Chevys went to private owners – still a very impressive figure. The breakdown of the non-base ’89 Caprices was as follows: 43,000 Caprice Classics, 32,300 Caprice Classic Broughams, 28,000 Caprice Classic Brougham LS sedans (with their fancy, extended roof caps), and 23,800 Caprice Classic wagons. This was solid business against 134,100 Ford LTD Crown Victorias that year. Chevrolet sold almost a third more full-sized cars than its direct competitor.
The condition of this blue box is not great. An eBay or Mercari vendor would have to mention this in the listing. “Original packaging shows significant wear and tear. Bid accordingly.” On the plus-side, its body appeared to be free of dents, so this box had not been dropped or had a face-to-face run-in with another object (at least that hadn’t been subsequently repaired). I was snapping these shots on the quick in the hope of making the nearest CTA Red Line train into downtown on this particular Tuesday morning, so I didn’t get a chance to peer more closely into the windows. From what I could tell and as this car’s highly unmodified exterior would indicate, the inside looked original, in good shape, and very plush and comfy.
The contents of this Light Blue Metallic box would have checked many boxes for a retiree or a larger family seeking full-sized comfort: a 170-horsepower, five-liter (305 cubic inch) V8, a four-speed automatic transmission, and full bench seats in dark blue velour. The $16,325 base price of the 1989 Caprice Classic Brougham translates to about $44,000 in 2026. For comparison with a modern, full-sized family hauler from Chevrolet, a base-model 2026 Chevy Tahoe LS would start at around $63,000. I realize that comparing a big sedan with an SUV is a little like apples-and-oranges, but SUVs and crossovers are where buyers’ tastes have gone today. A new Equinox starts at about $28,600, but I can’t quite draw a straight line between one of those and a large car with upscale aspirations like the Caprice.
I can honestly assure you readers that I’ve got this diecast thing under a reasonable amount of control. I live to a degree of general frugality that is often referenced and joked about among those closest to me in my various friend groups, so I save much more than I spend. Jack Benny and I could have traded notes. I no longer believe in making resolutions for the new year, though I have considered it might be a good thing to stop searching e-commerce sites for a while (they get you by memorizing your search patterns in their algorithms – believe it) and just enjoy what I have. I may even take a few of these cars out of their boxes and enjoy them. They’re new only once, but some things are meant to be enjoyed and not merely collected. Life’s way too short.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025.
Brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
Nice find! I do not find the sales numbers surprising, full size cars were still popular at the time, with Ford moving a good number of LTD Crown Vics as well even though, like the Caprice, it’s age was plainly showing in it’s styling and interior by the late ’80s
These cars were a relatively good value and provided comfortable and spacious transportation; something that today is offered either by a rapidly declining range of minivans, or indeed as you highlight, expensive SUVs
You bring up a great point about the relative disappearance of the minivan. This is something that would have seemed unthinkable even fifteen or twenty years ago.
I think you also hit the nail in the head with regard to the value proposition these cars presented with their tooling probably long having been amortized by the time this one was new.
full size cars were still popular at the time
I guess that depends on one’s definition of “popular”. In terms of their market share, RWD full size cars were down to about 6% of the passenger car market, and as Joseph pointed out, a very healthy percent of those went to taxi and police fleets. So in terms of retail sales, it was probably less than 5% of the market.
That’s a stunning chart. I had no idea of the 15% drop from 1957-59, then ‘another’ 20% drop from 1959-61. IOW, full-size cars went from 95% to 60% in a span of just four years.
The ensuing drops in following years weren’t nearly as dramatic, but it was still definitely a steady downward trend. No wonder the Big 3 have finally thrown in the towel on all sedans just a few years ago. It’s actually rather amazing that they clung to them for as long as they did.
Surely you’ve seen my post on this subject?
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-who-killed-the-big-american-car/
Update: You were the second person to leave a comment at that post so you presumably did read it.
Thanks for another nice story, Joseph. And as ubiquitous as these Caprices were back in the day, what these photos really remind me of are the joys of on-street parking in a midwestern winter. (I’m from Madison, Wisconsin.)
Madison, Wisconsin – so I know you know about the fun of street parking in the winter. It’s crazy because since this article was first written, it’s now going to be in the lower forties for the high today. For a while, it had felt like a “normal” Chicago winter, and I was thankful for that.
Help me out here, is a high in the “lower forties” cold or warm for Chicago in January? Asking from coastal California where I’ll be bundling up for a high of 59° F and looking forward to next week, where it may almost hit 70.
Only a few degrees warmer, and some people would be wearing shorts. I’m only half-kidding about this.
There always seems to be wild temperature swings in the winter. It was 64 here today; I checked the weather and that was equal to LA and Santa Barbara. Speaking of, when we were there six weeks ago, it was cooler (and far wetter) there than here.
However, two weeks ago we went a few days where it never rose above freezing. Also we’ve had zero measurable snow at my house so far this winter.
At 64F, Jason, I would have had all of my windows cracked open. With the exception of Saturday, when our temps will top-out in the 30s, the next week or so here in Chicago will have highs in the lower 40s. This does not at all feel normal for January in the Windy City.
Someone is giving maintenance a good try on this Caprice given the replaced bumper fillers that are either black or dark blue. The rust is a bit tougher to address.
While mentioned another time, I recently became heir / caretaker to a copious number of slides that my father had. Amongst the pictures were a few of my sister and I somewhere in downtown Chicago around 1981 or 1982. It was as cold as, well, it was cold. While one picture of us has a Checker darting by in the background, I don’t remember them so much as I do the sea of yellow Impalas of the post-1980 design. We rode in a couple while there and as that was one of my first impressions of Chicago, it has stuck.
Enjoy your model cars. Mrs. Jason gave me a display cabinet for Christmas, so the other day I put it together and my various models (most still with the box!) have migrated from a storage room in the basement to a display cabinet.
The bumper fillers! Jason, I hadn’t even noticed until you pointed it out. Maybe subconsciously I had assumed that they were just missing, since they’re in a darker color than the rest of the car. This adds to my theory that this Caprice had been inherited from kin who had taken care of it.
I miss the sight of Crown Victorias as both livery and police cars, which was a common sight when I had first moved to Chicago over twenty years ago. Oooo… I sense a diecast search about to happen.
Jason, I’d love to see a photo of the display Mrs. Jason gave you for Xmas. It sounds like your display practices are more in the box than out of the box (I’m more out of the box), but nevertheless display ideas are always welcome. I really need to ramp up my method of displaying these things if I’m going to keep acquiring them (particularly at the rate that I seem to be acquiring them).
Check your email. Pictures sent!
Jason, I like the idea of display cases but if I showed off all of 1950s-70 spinning reels my wife would count them, and that would be bad. Better to leave them out of sight…
I like Jason’s idea for display cases, too, but in my situation, I think having my diecasts on display might help curtail future purchases if I can see what I already have. Which I suppose would be a good thing.
I still don’t have anything for all my Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars…so I can identify with what you say.
These really gave the Cadillac Brougham a run for the money, especially in Brougham LS trim. True, you didn’t get things like the power trunk pulldown or Electronic Climate Control…but at least the sedan got the EFI 305 a few years before the Caddy did. They have all but disappeared here in the Northeast – I don’t even see them at classic car shows. Still see some Buick & Olds wagons, but nothing from the Bowtie. Great find!
Tom, I feel like if I could have all the niceties of an upscale, full-sized GM car of the time, and if that was what I was into, I don’t think I’d miss automatic climate control or an automatic trunk pull-down.
I think the latter would be useful to someone like me only if I was used to having people load things into the back of my Cadillac. Actually, come to think of it a lot of modern SUVs and crossovers seem to have this feature. It’s probably more useful than I realize right now.
Somewhere around here, I think I have a box Caprice (love your aside on that term…) in the aprox 1:64 scale that I collect. But at the moment I can’t find it and instead only come up with the previous generation 1975 Caprice. My point being that I guess if I’m going to have an addiction to collecting these things – and yeah, given that we’re only 6 days into the new year and I have already acquired 3 more than I had 2 weeks ago, I think it’s an addiction – at least they’re small enough so that I can keep a ton of them around.
I too internally-debate the box or no box thing. Since I’m mostly about getting the things on a weekly basis when I visit the grocery store, I tend to take them out of the card/box so that I can play with them. There are some that I either deem (or discover) are more rare than others, in which case I then proceed to search for a second copy that I will keep in the package, thereby allowing me to sell one copy someday if it becomes valuable enough. Of course, that will likely never happen and I’ll just instead have more and more tiny cars.
Happy New Year.
Jeff, I like so many of the ideas you expressed here – probably because I can relate to so many of them. My jaw might have dropped when I read the part where you mentioned buying a second copy just to keep in its package in the event it was particularly cool or collectible. I’ve also done that. I used to mostly collect Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars up as late as maybe fifteen years ago, and I still have many of them in their cardboard bubble packaging.
I had to go online to look for a Bburago 1980 Mustang Cobra…pretty cool! My diecast collection has gotten completely out of hand; there’s no point in stemming the tide now.
Aaron, it’s somehow comforting to know I’m in good company in reading through the comments. It seems I’m not so unusual in my collecting of these. And my Bburago Mustang is on my desk under my computer monitor. It is my jam.
Since I collect for myself and not for others, I unpack. Plastic boxes and cardboard boxes are stored (in larger cardboard boxes), blister packs go in the trash (where they belong).
Bye the way: The Caprice Classic was THE epitome of an American car when my father’s son grew up … Rather scarce here, now and then. But when to see, often in that fabulous ice-blue metallic paintwork.
Boxes in boxes has worked for me for keeping original packaging as close to intact as I can keep it. And I seem to recall the paint color on this Caprice as being a very popular one for these cars.
Nice find Dennis and wonderful read! As to the diecast situation, the only way I was able to save space was to go the Hot Wheels and Matchbox route after too many 1:18 scale models. With 1:64 I can put one in my pocket. My 20 year old son and I deploy them at family meals for fun and many of the new selections at Walmart are awesome! My current fav is our collection of Pontiac Azteks.
That is awesome that you and your son bring the cars to the dinner table. That is probably something that I would either do, condone, or allow. I mean, why not? And I get your thought process behind collecting 1:64 scale for the sake of space.
I was at a thrift store last November and came across a small stash of really cool, well cared-for 1:64 scale cars, of which I picked up eight for just a dollar apiece. One particular prize from that small haul was a silver grey Dodge Daytona Turbo Z with an opening hood. Swoon.
Thanks Cang…you’ve provided me license to pick up the Aztec model. My collecting tends to orient around those vehicles I’d like to own in full-size…but the Aztec model had been tempting to get just because the very idea of an Aztec makes me smile.
I think I should just get one. And maybe fabricate a little sort of 1:64 scale tent to extend from the hatch. 🙂
If I get a vote, I say yes to both the Aztek and the homemade tent!
Nice post, Joe… a few thoughts after reading it and the comments…
1) The Box Caprice… yeah, once the whales came out, that’s what everyone called these to differentiate them, since they was all used as Maryland State Police cars around here.
2) I too miss the Big American Car… when I grew up, this is what families (that didn’t want or couldn’t afford a station wagon) used to get around. It seems that every generation did not want the cars that their parents drove, so enter the mini-van. Then the next generation said no to the mini-van, and all they want are S/CUV(s). Maybe we’ll all get lucky and this will all come full circle and the big car and station wagons will come back? – A car guy can dream….
3) I don’t own many die cast cars, and I think I only have the original package or display box for like two of them, and one of those is a key chain of my Civic I got from the dealer. The one like my Mustang was found at Walgreens on display with no box. I bought it anyway (pictured below).
4) You should DEFINITELY play with them Joe. NEVER stop being a kid at heart!
4a) Think about it: Are you ever going to sell them? I have a few collectibles. For a while, I was collecting the Hallmark lighted Star Trek Christmas ornaments. Only the first one from 1991 is really worth anything, as they did not make enough of them failing to anticipate the great demand. Yes, I have the original boxes for all of them (basically, to keep them protected), but every year I put just one on the tree. This year, it was the Enterprise from Strange New Worlds. It will go back into its box when I take the tree down, but repeated opening and closing of the boxes may wear them out eventually.
4b) I too had to say “Uncle” after a while, and now only purchase one if I really really like that year’s ornament. I never did find out what this year’s was… lost interest? – perhaps.
Rick, I like all of your ideas expressed here. No. 2 deserves its own post about generations discarding or going against the tastes of the previous generation. It’s hard to remember just how cool and untraditional minivans first seemed in the mid-’80s. To me, anyway.
I intend to take more of my models out of their boxes to enjoy. I recently watched as the entire contents of a neighbor’s two-bedroom condo were completely emptied in the course of one afternoon by a junk hauling company. I’m still shook from having witnessed that.
The Chevy’s rust reminds me of our used car manager’s rule from many years ago. Go south for a load of used cars. Take a load of used northern boats down south for trading purposes.
His theory was southern used cars could sell for a premium thanks to less rust ravaging. Meanwhile used northern boats were worth more in the south due to lack of sun fading and limited use from the short northern boating season.
This all sounds like solid thought process to this highly analytical insurance underwriter.
The market for box Caprices changed dramatically over their long 14-year run. For the first couple of years these were regarded as quite forward-looking, big-car roominess and comfort in a smaller, more manageable exterior package. Hard to believe now, but these looked absolutely small to my 12-year-old eyes when they were newly “downsized” for 1977; huge ’73-’76 land yachts were still in front of every third house or so. Sure the square-box Chevys quickly became popular as fleet cars, but most were privately owned. If taken together, the Caprice/Impala was the most popular car in the US in 1977 and ’78 (if taken separately as they were sold, the Cutlass was in first place). But by 1981, despite the previous year’s facelift, the B bodies were already perceived as conservative and a bit out of date – big, rear-drive v8-powered boxes were now seen as suitable only for fleets or old people who couldn’t get aboard the front-drive future (people who needed to tow stuff were also a market for these – yes people used to routinely use regular cars for towing back then). The box B bodies were originally intended to only be produced through 1982, after which what became the H body was to take over. The H body somehow got delayed until 1986 (Buick, Olds) or 1987 (Pontiac), while Chevy opted out of the H program entirely and stuck with the old Caprice.
LOL “I’m not living in a residence full of things stacked everywhere with a narrow pathway leading from my front door to the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, etc.” – that’s become my house in the last few years, not because I buy too much stuff or refuse to get rid of old stuff I don’t need, but rather just from being a slob, plus at any given time there’s always something more crucial (or fun) to do than clean up the house. Another big factor – for the first time in decades I’m living alone and not in any sort of relationship, which gives me no incentive to keep tidy. I nonetheless plan to clean out the place soon, because if it gets much worse I won’t look like a mere slob but rather a complete freak. One thing I’ve noticed over the years though is that lots of houses are kept very neat on the main floor and (if there is one) the upper level, but walk down to the basement and there’s crud piled up on the floor everywhere except for that narrow path for walking. The house where I grew up was like this, with old tools, paint cans, and lawnmower parts that hadn’t moved in decades. I feel it’s unfair for people to compare my cleanliness to those that live in such houses, as I have no unfinished basement or attic where I can hide my table saw or car parts or random crud.
Thanks for this. I get that people’s living and home situations can be different from household to household. We make use of the space we have for now we need to use it. I have a condo with some closet space and also a storage locker on the ground floor. What that means is that certain items have to go certain places, and others simply wouldn’t have space for storage and so I don’t have such things.
We just do the best I can. I mentioned the “path from room to room” thing only because I hope I’d know it if my relative materialism had gotten to the point where I’d be a candidate to be featured on a show on Bravo or something.
Sad to see the rust eating at it. Appears to be a bit sturdy, still. No inside shots. Wondering, is the headline is in tact?Oh those “saggers”.
Big, sturdy, and a little rough around the edges – this car does seem a bit like a metaphor for Chicago, itself.
When I first read your thoughtful story on this Caprice on my phone, I didn’t notice the rust, so it looked great on the small screen.
It wasn’t until I looked again on my laptop and read the comments that I saw the rust — too bad. Here in Central Virginia, we don’t get enough snow and salt in our now-typical winters to see rust develop like this.
Thank you, and while the rust is somewhat disheartening, the otherwise good condition of the body (no dents, etc.) shows that it had otherwise been well cared for with good use out of it. I liked seeing it that day as a reminder of seeing cars like this regularly. It’s things like this that suddenly make me realize how much time has passed.