Another image from the collection of the Texas History Project from the University of Texas. No exact location was given on Sanger Motor Co. but the image is dated to November 1977.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1974 Chevrolet Vega Kammback – GM’s Deadly Sin #2, Take Two
Keep ’em coming, Rich, can’t get enough dealer photos!
I’m guessing Sanger Motor Co was in Sanger, Texas – the photo purports to be from the University of North Texas (UNT) archives, and UNT and Sanger are both in Denton County.
I love how they put the Camaro, the Monte Carlo, and the Vega outside, so that hard-working half-ton can stay in the showroom.
Yes, it was in Sanger – on the north side of FM455 (Chapman Rd.). The building itself was demolished in 2019 when the road was widened, but below is a StreetView image from 2013 when the building still stood.
Sanger Motors operated there from 1965 until 1981. The building was originally built as a showroom for Barrett Farm Equipment, an International Harvester distributor. That business closed in 1965, and the family who owned the Chevrolet dealership purchased it (moving the Chevy dealer from a few miles away).
Hey, that is the standard IH “pylon sign,” huh? And the IH building template is pretty easy to see from the perspective of that 2013 shot. Good stuff!
Thanks for noticing that! That completely passed me by.
Here’s a good comparable (courtesy https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM48043 )
These photos are so cool!
Thanks for sharing them. It’s really sad that GM couldn’t do better with the Vega as far as reliability. If they had, they could have been very competitive in the market.
Someone must have been very excited about getting a new car!
Quoting from my own CC article on the Cosworth Vega:
“Internet canon says the Vega was one of the worst cars ever made. Well, it certainly had its issues, and I can only agree with it being included on these pages as one of GM’s Deadly Sins because of the corporate decisions that resulted in its failures. But other cars from the 1970s (domestics and imports) rusted out and blew head gaskets, too. By 1975-76, Vega was a fairly reliable and durable car when compared to other domestic offerings, and the later models get painted (unfairly IMO) with perhaps too broad a negative brush.”
Over 2 million Vegas (and Astres) were sold over a seven-year period, which belies the oft-repeated trope that it was a failure. “Deadly Sin,” (as defined by PN) however? No argument there!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1976-cosworth-vega-2196-muscle-memory/3/
The Vega, even in notchback form, was definitely a well-styled car. I might go so far as to say it was the best-looking of all the subcompacts of the time. But that’s about the sum of its redeeming qualities.
The Coswroth Vega is interesting. By the time it got released (1975), performance wasn’t near what had been claimed to be and, guess what? There was the brand-new, Vega-based Chevy Monza and its other division versions that had the Buick V6 as an option (even the 305 V8, but with an automatic). It was a decent enough performer, looked good, too, and was a whole lot cheaper (the Cosworth Vega cost nearly as much as a Corvette).
With that kind of internal competition, no wonder the Cosworth Vega, even with its exotic engine, flopped.
The Monza V8 was available with a 4 speed manual, at least some years, though not in California.
I know the California Monza’s 350 had to have an automatic, but was a 4-speed optional with the 305?
I would have guessed the only Monza V8 to get a manual transmission would have been the truly dismal 262.
I do agree that by the end of production, Vegas (and Pontiac Astres) were more reliable than before, but other than GM’s V8 diesel, I can’t think of a lot of ’70’s cars that had major head gasket issues. (I can think of a lot of them in the 80’s and 90’s, when there were more iron block/aluminum head motors out there.)
Being an AMC guy, a Gremlin, by comparison, would rust-not as fast as a Vega; but you couldn’t kill an AMC 199/232/258 six if you tried.
Their other Vegas are all on the lifts inside…
Year upon year, the hits continue
Well, despite their flaws, I always thought that these kammbacks were attractive little cars. To me, an other example of how the wagon version of a car is sometimes (usually) better looking than other body styles.
And this guy seems quite pleased with his purchase. Maybe he was still holding to the idea that there would be Vega Girls just over the horizon. (Paul’s article from 2011 about the marketing for these things is a memorable laugh-riot 🙂
I also like the truck inside the showroom visible through the windows.
I don’t quite recall if these were marketed as “wagon” or simply “Kammback” – or maybe both/either, depending on year.
But hear me out on this one… the original Vega coupe and hatchback were designed, somewhat in the image of the second generation Camaro, to be a “sporty car”. And as far as I’m concerned, if you make a 2-door station wagon based upon a sporty car, what you have created is a “Shooting Brake”, and that’s precisely what this car is.
Looks like they used both terms; “We call it a Kammback. A Vega Kammback Wagon.”
Because of the better weight distribution, the Vega ‘Panel Express’ with the blocked-off rear windows (and no rear seat) was the one to have for the notorious SBC swap.
Unfortunately, they weren’t that common, so the typical SBC Vega was a hatchback, of which there were plenty of donor cars.
Perhaps an unusual sun reflection within the Chevrolet bowtie in the GM corporate outdoor dealer signage. Recall bowtie as a solid colour.
I like the “America’s Favorites” (baseball, hot dogs, apple pie) poster in the dealership’s window!
Bloody hell – how I like these small Vega wagons ! I’m sure, I would have been one of the fools to order one in those days.
Not sure how long a Vega with A/C would last in Texas heat. By now, hope GM installed a better radiator and fluid recovery. The tires look to be bias-ply, another example of GM counting pennies.
Ah, a future Toyota in its pre-recycling state!
Except for the oil burning, my parents’ 72 Kammback was pretty reliable. It never stranded us, even with the back and roofrack filled with camp gear and an 18′ canoe on the roof, 100° on I 95. (I wish I still had that picture.) It certainly was more reliable than the Saab 95 2 stroke wagon it replaced.
Obviously the oil consumption was a big deal, and my dad (who tended to be pretty mild) had to fight all the way up to the regional manager to get the block replaced.
They traded it in, since at age 14+ I no longer fit in the back seat. I think it was starting to burn oil again too, which no doubt added to the urgency. Oddly the experience didn’t sour them on Chevy, as the Vega was replaced with a newly downsized (but huge by comparison) 77 Impala wagon.
By November ’77 thIs Vega would be a leftover, with the wagon bodystyle surviving into 1978-9 with an Iron Duke and a different grille.
So sad they screwed the Vega up .
I too liked them and briefly had a ’73 coupe .
-Nate
By ’77 it wasn’t a bad car, in fact it was the car it should have been in ’71. Also affecting the Vega’s reputation was the Lordstown plant it was built in. Not one of GM’s best in ’71, though like everything else about the Vega even the assembly was better after ’75. Too bad GM didn’t refine the Chevy 153 4 cylinder (like the Brazilians did) for use in the Vega, that would have helped the car a lot. Or maybe a larger version of the Opel CIH engine.
Yeah. “76/7” would a been “ok” years to get a “Vega”. Wish I’d a had enough sense to know that. ((then))
The Lordstown Vega assembly plant definitely had its share of problems. UAW members typically get blamed for it, but GM management went a very long way to exacerbating the problem. A prime example was reducing the number of people on assembly teams and ‘then’ speeding up the assembly line. Stuff like that went a very long way to the shoddy construction of an already poorly engineered car.
In fact, I once read a story where there was a concerted effort by the line workers to build one Vega that was so badly put together, it couldn’t even be sent to a dealer for repair since it effectively needed to be completely rebuilt by hand from the ground up.
Because of that, GM didn’t know what to do with the car and it just sat outside the plant for a very long time, sort of like a monument to how bad the Vega was. Imagine going to work at the plant and passing this really bad Vega everyday.
The Vega was already off my automotive interest list by the late ’70s. If not for Rich identifying this as a 1977 Chev Vega wagon, I would have wrongly guessed GM was already strangely calling it a Monza wagon by then. I had that little interest in the car.
The bad engineering of the Vega is well known, but one of my favorites has to do with the air cleaner. Instead of having a typical air cleaner housing with a removable lid to change the filter element, some genius decided it would be easier to assemble and more cost-effective to have the entire air cleaner assembly constructed as a single, sealed unit.
That’s right; in order to change the air cleaner element, rather than hitting up the local Pep Boys, a Vega owner got bent over royally by having to purchase an expensive, brand-new air cleaner ‘assembly’ at their friendly local Chevy parts department.
With all the problems a Vega owner had to go through with their cars, that would have to be just about the last straw.
An environmental and recycling disaster, in a car targeted at young people, who would generally care about such things.
Early Chevettes had them as well but they went to a traditional one before the ’70s were over.
I too think the long-life (or however they advertised it) one piece air cleaner was a joke, but there were aftermarket ones available…at least by Fram.
The gentleman is happily smiling with his new Vega, I wonder if he was still smiling a couple of years later. The Vega was such a terrible car on so many levels, I would say it was the worst car I ever owned, but that unfortunate distinction rests with the X car I owned.
Yes,I’d say my “X” had way to many “nuisance” issues!! I did put rather a lot of miles on it in four years though.
I too look forward to everything you put out. I have yet to see something that I didn’t find interesting.
I never understood why the US big 3, just start building their European cars in the USA when the 1973 oil price shock arrived ?
At that time,
Ford had the Fiesta Mk1, Escort Mk2, Cortina Mk3, Capri Mk2 and Granada Mk1.
GM owned both Opel of Germany and Vauxhall of Great Britain.
Chrysler had purchased both the Rootes Group (Hillman, Sunbeam, Singer, Humber, Talbot, and Thrupp & Maberly coachbuilders) of the UK, Simca of France and Barreiros of Spain.