We’ve all had one of these events–if not a crash, then some other experience where we did something stupid that resulted in the learning of a painful life lesson. I’ve had plenty such moments, but only one of which (knock on wood) resulted in a wreck and the write-off of a very good car. I wasn’t going to write about this car as it’s still a sore spot with me–and I mean that quite literally. But I’ve decided that the (very brief) story of my one-and-only GM B-body needs to be shared with the crew at Curbside Classic, if not as therapy, then maybe as my penance. I ask the forgiveness of you Curbside Classic faithful, (especially Carmine, since this was a twin of his beloved Caprice), for I am responsible for there being one fewer such car on the road. So now that the set-up is out of the way, here is the sad story of how I wrecked my 1980 Caprice Classic.
I first heard about this car, in the summer of 2000, from my dad. At the time, I’d been working for a company in New Jersey for about a year and still living at home in Pennsylvania. The 80-mile round-trip commute was really starting to rack up the mileage on my 1995 Thunderbird which, after having been a perfect car for the first 95,000 miles, was now starting to bellyache a bit about its constant use.
Having just completed the first of three transmission rebuilds my Thunderbird would ultimately need, I was thinking that getting a second “beater” car might be in order. Gas was still relatively cheap, so when I heard about a 1980 Caprice with very low miles and a V8, I was interested, and quickly called the owner to arrange to see it.
The car belonged to an elderly gentleman (as if there was any doubt), who could no longer drive and had decided to part with his Caprice, which he’d purchased new in 1980. It looked exactly as you see it in these pictures, which were taken less than a week after I got it. The interior featured a gold-velour split bench seat, still-working A/C, and not much else. The picture below comes from the web, but this interior is damn near exactly how I remember it. While mine wasn’t nearly as well equipped as Carmine’s car, it was a nice, clean, plain Chevy that just happened to sport two-tone paint.
I was a little let down when I opened the hood and saw the downsized, two-barrel 267 Chevy V8 with a single exhaust, but frankly, I wasn’t expecting any V8 from 1980 to be packing much power. The 267 did not disappoint in that regard, its 115 horsepower matching the output of the standard 3.8-liter Chevy V6. In other words, the 267 essentially delivered V6 performance with V8 fuel economy. However, the golden chariot you see before you had only 44,000 original miles, and man, it ran like a top.
It wasn’t without issues, mainly because how long it had sat unused. Among them were a fairly rotten exhaust system, some cracking brake hoses and a partially clogged catalytic converter. Still, the body was immaculate with no rust anywhere. I paid the man $700 cash for it, replaced what was needed to get it back on the road, and immediately began using my new ’80 Chevy as a daily commuter. I quickly became aware of the two or three times per week I’d have to fill its 25-gallon gas tank, but as I mentioned, gas was (relatively) cheap back then.
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad on the highway, although the majority of my driving was done in the city. On the bright side, I also got to like driving this car in traffic–while the car was not easy to get up to speed, people driving newer cars do tend to stay away from you when you drive one of these older beasts, and I think I started getting a bit of an attitude behind the wheel of this car as a result. When I wanted to merge into traffic, I just did it; chances are that guy in the new Camry would simply have to make room for my tank. Little did I know that this attitude would lead to my undoing.
One day, as my then girlfriend (now wife) and I were leaving her parents’ house, up in Bethlehem, PA, I was cut off by someone in a mid-90s Dodge Ram (the official vehicle of impatient rednecks on the go) with a four-wheeler in the bed.
I was young and stupid, so I began riding his rear bumper. Some gesturing back and forth ensued. And then it all happened, too fast. At the next intersection, the guy decided to teach me a lesson and locked up his brakes. I don’t think he meant to actually cause a wreck, but I had no hope of stopping the Chevy in time. I might have managed to slow down to about 35 mph before I slammed into him. The physics of the crash were such that the Chevy stopped dead from the impact, and the Ram was sent hopping through the intersection. Both my wife and I were OK, but for a few days we suffered sore collar bones and ribs where the seat belts had caught us.
The impact folded the Ram’s rear bumper up over the license plate and pushed the bed into the cab. The Ram was otherwise drive-able, and the guy actually took off, never to be seen again. I’m guessing he had a good reason not to wait around for the cops. The Chevy took the worst of the impact due to the bumper height misalignment. It’s hard to tell from these Polaroid pictures (which I snapped at the towing company’s lot the day of the wreck), but the radiator had been pushed onto the fan and the engine lifted off its mounts. (Check out the Pontiac T1000 in these pics.)
In hindsight, I’m thankful that the guy drove off; doing so instantly put him “at fault” from the legal perspective here in PA. I didn’t go through my insurance on this old car; instead, I essentially wrote it off as totaled and gave it to the towing company in exchange for the tow. I’m sure it was fixable, but that option wasn’t worth considering at the time. I did learn a lesson that day–one that didn’t sink in until much later–that although I may not have been directly at fault for the wreck, my actions certainly escalated the whole thing. I more or less could have avoided the whole mess, and that’s the reality I now accept. Even to this day, I’m not perfect; I drive a lot, and get frustrated a lot, but I try only to drive defensively and not to get involved with any of these nut jobs.
The other lesson I learned was one that I was too young to remember the first time around: The simple economics of driving something that uses 60 to 70 gallons of fuel a week just don’t make financial sense when gas isn’t cheap. Within a few months after the incident, I bought a 2000 Nissan Sentra five-speed manual, a car which would actually save me money by using only 25 gallons of fuel a week. After gas prices went up, in the mid-2000s, it worked out that the total cost of the Nissan, including the loan payment, insurance and gas, was less than what I would have been paying for gas alone for the Chevy had I kept it. Nevertheless, I still am angry about what happened to my Chevy, and I wonder what might have happened if I’d kept it. One thing I do know is that I sure wouldn’t be using it regularly considering today’s gas prices.
Ultimately the Chevy (and later, my Nissan) did fulfill the original mission of extending the life of my Thunderbird, a car to which I had an irrational devotion. So there you have it. I humbly ask the B-body faithful to forgive me for taking a low-mileage example out of the pool. So how about the rest of you? Did any of you ever have a really good car that you wrecked (or otherwise mistreated) and thus shortened its life? Let’s get it out in the open, so that all of our CC sins may be forgiven.
The joy of rear ending. I just went thru that experience about three weeks ago when a woman in a Tiburon bounced herself off the rear bumper of my Scion xB. My first thought after the impact? I had been using the Porsche 924S that week for work and had, at the last minute, swapped cars since it was supposed to do rain showers that afternoon.
You may not necessarily have been in that exact time-space continuum in a different vehicle.
Knock on wood, but after 24 years of driving I’ve never been in a collision. Again, being a bit superstitious, I’m knocking on wood.
HOWEVER,
The folks who buy my old vehicles tend to shorten their lives.
– My ’89 Mustang 2.3 was traded for a new ’96 Thunderbird; I later saw the Mustang and learned it had been wrecked; I saw it again about a year later – owned by yet a different person – and it had been wrecked again.
-My ’87 Dodge Ram (which I covered some time ago) was sold to a 17 year old boy who later traded it for a Jeep. The new owner parted it out for it’s rare Dana axle (this was a 3/4 ton ordered new by the U.S. Army)
– We sold the wife’s Taurus to a girl who had totaled out her Cavalier in a high school parking lot. I can’t imagine an easy life for that Taurus (which is just as well).
– I sold my ’86 Gran Fury to the brother of a buddy; it was promptly vandalized to the point of no return.
– I sold my ’86 Crown Vic police car to a guy who promptly raced it around a truck stop his father owned; a few months later, I saw it abandoned behind a downtown building.
Yet I suppose this is somewhat common in the life of an automobile.
No need to ask for forgiveness for wrecking the car. I suspect that the towing company repaired the car and had it back on the road within a few weeks.
Yeah, really. Give them the car in exchange for the tow? I’d just as soon peel off the license plates and BURN IT – right there on the side of the road.
I know the numbers didn’t/don’t add up to repair the thing; but deals like that is why tow companies, used-car dealers, shady mechanics, wind up with image problems.
The same thing just happened to my wife’s friend, to a 1997 Taurus (that I had just replaced the WP, belt tensioner, plugs, and coolant on, and I topped off the R134a as well) that she rear-ended somebody with (the very next day after I worked on it).
The impound yard wouldn’t even let her collect her personal belongings out of the car until she gave them the signed title – I was so mad upon hearing that but it’s too late by that point to do anything about it.
Lesson: be very careful about who you let tow your car, and where it gets towed to. My friend had AAA and she could have had it towed to her home for free and then had it picked up from there, and at least she could have gotten paid scrap value for it (but from the cell phone pics, it looked repairable to me, oh well).
Que sera, sera…
The future’s not ours to see…
Story like yours with a happier ending:
16 year old me, approximately 8 months into car ownership, left a party (cold sober, but upset about something) in my first car, an 1987 Ford LTD Crown Victoria. I reached the stop sign but although witness accounts later determined that I did stop, in my anger I somehow did not look both ways, and got T-boned, right between the doors, by a mid 90s Accord at what I later learned to be about 35-40 mph.
I was 100% okay and after ensuring that the Accord driver was alive I ran to the nearest house (pre-cell phone era) to call the cops. The Accord’s air bag had failed to inflate.
Somehow I managed to get out of this with a $100 ticket for failure to grant right of way (and obviously, a claim against my insurance) which may have been reduced by the fact that the Accord was slightly over the speed limit and I was more than halfway across the road when the crash occurred.
Vicky’s frame was quite bent, but she still ran and drove (though the brake line was leaking badly). We got her home. I got two new doors and the frame unbent at the body shop for about $2,200. That was a significant amount of my savings, but I was determined to keep the car and didn’t think I’d find anything as good for the price (probably naive, but I had put a lot into it by that time—new brakes, transmission bands, tires)
I continued to drive it for another four years, selling it with 200K when I found a cream puff Cadillac Brougham as a 21st birthday present to myself in college. Once unbent, Vicky never had another problem clearly related to the accident, although I could never get the thing to stop leaking oil.
Although the fact that I was totally unharmed by the accident and the car could actually limp home (and later be put back into service) says a lot for the construction and durability of the 80s Panther…and I suppose the talents of the guys at the body shop.
I’ve been a pretty cautious driver since. So lesson definitely learned.
At least you were ok, and said truck-nutz hauler didn’t get violent after the hit.
Weirdly, I had a recent run-in with some clowns who wanted to play a little chicken on the highway. I was in my 3 and moved, uh, decisively in front of a new, lowered SRT8 Grand Cherokee. I was just getting in position for my exit! But the hotheads proceeded to gun it on my left and then slow down to match my speed, so one of them could hang out the window and make goo-goo eyes at me. I got off the road and he made some gestures at me. No harm, no foul, but all I could think was:
a) I must look younger than I feel.
b) How the heck can guys that young afford such an expensive truck?
Sad
Interesting car, its like a less equipped cousin of my Caprice, same colors too, was yours Canadian made too?
It was Canadian, based on the VIN.
When I saw your write up, I knew I had to do this one. You have the only other cream and gold Caprice I have ever seen. You might have the only Caprice that I have ever seen that well equipped also. Mine was like every other Caprice inside.
Actually, yours is the first Caprice I’ve ever seen with crank windows. All the ones I’ve seen in my life have been power-everything.
Enjoyed your writeup.
Like Orrin this is a similar experience with a different end. Bought a 77 Impala wagon from my daughter. 350/350 setup. Ran pretty good and I had a 100 miles per day commute across Houston to deal with. Had it jacked up with a bumper jack and the rear bumper came off. Pleased that I wasn’t directly under it. Replaced that with a 2 X 10 piece of lumber and painted the whole car (including bumper) with a rattle can. Paint was going but no rust (east Texas).
IIRC I paid $400 for the car. When a part needed to be replaced (brakes/shocks etc) it would always turn out to be a truck part that it used. Very heavy duty. When I needed to pull into traffic I always felt like Moses parting the water. Much better than my 79 Datsun truck in that respect. I used a little more gas than I thought was right and about 30k miles into our relationship I did a compression check. Only 5 cylinders had good compression but it didn’t seem to care.
With the rear seats in my shop it carried tools like a truck. One day, (while carrying a 16ft trailer full of deck blocks and 2X6s) out of the blue it stopped suddenly and dramatically. I was close to home so I just called into work and called home for a ride. The engine was locked up so duties transferred to my 1979 Datsun king cab. The handwriting was on the wall with respect to gas prices so I kept it that way. Going from 13mpg to 25-30 was a relief but every time I needed to part the seas in traffic I missed it. It had about 250k miles when it croaked and about 75-100k were mine.
I had painted it in my shop class and pulled a float in the art car parade. Still I have similar regrets to you and a very favorable impression of chevrolet in the seventies. A real paint job was the biggest thing that car needed till the day it stopped. It is probably the reason I was willing to move from Japanese trucks to my S-10, 3 years ago so I suppose in one respect it lives on. Considering the low miles I drive now it could still serve my purposes very well but I gave it to a kid I know. I suspect it was junked while still carrying a load of new parts.
Carlo, if your Caprice was equipped like the one in photo 5, did yours have automatic climate control like the one in photo 5 or not?
No auto climate control. Didn’t see that in the pic. It did have AC though.
If it’s any consolation, aside from the sore collar bones, you suffered a $700 loss versus several thousand for the ass**** in the Ram. I absolutely despise tailgaters.
What you did to him that day was dangerous to you and your lady but it no doubt taught him a lesson that perhaps saved the life of someone down the road.
Your red Thunderbird looks super btw. I loved how much room these had and how solid they felt. Heavy though.
Thanks. I loved the way the MN12 Thunderbirds drove. Still have yet to find a car with that mix of comfort and handling. I’d love to find another low mileage one.
tu tone exteriors, furl injection by the late 1980’s
chevy caprice’s give a caddy brougham a run for its money, pontiac parisiennes are nice too
Go in peace, and sin no more.
Sad about the 80 Caprice. My best friend bought a mint beautiful 1982 coupe with the 267 and two tone paint, A/C, cruise, limited slip and a stereo and it only had 61k miles on the clock. After a carb rebuild, a little more base timing and a full tune up she ran like new and was noticeably quicker than any 229 V6 Caprice/Impala I had driven to that point due to it’s greater torque or 205 LBS FT versus 170 for the V6. That car got more stares and compliments back in 2000. Sadly a similar fate bestowed upon him when a mail truck side swiped his beauty rendering it a total loss. I would kill to have that car today!
My dad had the same colour combo but I a ’78, IMHO the original version of the full sized Chevy was nicer than the squared-up 1980 restyle. And it had wind-up windows too!
It always irks me that regulators let pick-up bumpers ride higher than passenger cars, totally unfair.
I was rear ended in my GMC pickup by a teen driver in a Honda Civic one of those all tuned up and all fancy and all that. my truck suffered not a scratch the Honda – well lets just say it was totalled. the guy that hit me was apparently both texting and going to fast. a police officer saw the whole thing travelling one lane over and just behind us. good thing was no one was hurt. though the young fellow likely did lose his car. the police officer choose to only give a ticket for texting as he felt he had just learned a hard lesson
the reason for the story is that I can sort of relate to you havng lost a beloved car. He had learned a few lessons about driving but he also learned that no car is as valuable as a persons life.
Glad you were ok after the crash