1975 Chevy Caprice Covertible

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1975-chevrolet-caprice-5/

 

Looks pretty clean. Interesting that they lead with photos of the car with the top up. There are some convertibles where they look just as good with the top up as they do with the top down. This isn't one of those.
I hope a collector gets ahold of this one and it doesn't end up with 37" wheels and a picture of SpongeBob airbrushed on the side.

 

Although this generation of big Chevy (and other big GM vehicles) continued for one more year, the convertible was dropped after 1975. This was the last year for the big Chevy convert....

 

When I was a kid our family had a 75 Impala, before the Fury. It was a similar shade of blue. I have always had a fondness for this body style. I certainly wouldn't mind having this one.
It's funny you mention dropping the convertible Marshall. I always thought that 73 was the last year for domestic convertibles.

 

I remember CBS News having a story in mid-'75 about that model year was the last year for drop-tops, and IIRC, this all was brought on by a change in the FMVSA, prohibiting convertibles for safety reasons.

 

‘76 was actually the last year for the big Eldo. Don’t hold me to it, but I have a vague memory of the person who bought one of the last Eldo convertibles was going to sue Cadillac, as ‘76 was the announced year by GM for the last big Cadillac Convertibles. I remember those bicentennial white versions. Really nice cars. Were they reintroduced in ‘83-84ish?

 

Ford was out of big convertibles in ‘72. The Mustang and Cougar hung on till ‘73 then out. That may be what you’re thinking of OrthmannJ. Loved the last ‘70 Mercury convertible.

 

Ah my memory is not as bad as I thought. I got thinking about, and Googled the lawsuit filed against Cadillac from a Baltimore attorney that bought a ‘76 under Cadillacs hype of owning the last great convertible. He paid a premium $16,000 on an $11,000 sticker, as did several Eldorado buyers, some paying $20,000. The last 200 Eldo Convertible models being the bicentennial badged editions in all white with red and blue compliments He felt that Cadillac was fraudulent in their claim-hype that coerced, and lured buyers into picking up these pieces of history. He sued in mid 1983 after the announcement of a 1984 Eldorado convertible. So way too much info, but there you have it. Lol. By the way the lawsuit was unsuccessful.

 

You are correct Mercman, that is what I was thinking.

I knew it had something to do with safety regulations. Thought it was the NHTSA.

 

The funny thing is, automakers thought that (the law) was coming so they all stopped, but it never passed. which is why i think, Chrysler started makin them again in early /mid 80's

 

You know between 1966-1975 the NHTSA, amongst an over reaching general government bureaucracies of transportation and emissions, the car companies endured so many regulations and edicts they probably got wind of that in 1968 or so and just said the heck with it and scraped open air cars.

 

It’s funny not sure about GM, but all the big Ford Convertibles were built in one plant (Louisville). Probably what also pushed Ford over the line was they sold roughly 4,200 units in ‘72. With uncle, and the lack of market in conjunction with a tight balance sheet, and a complete sheet metal redo in ‘73 Ford probably said screw it. GM only had slight sheet metal changes from ‘71-‘75 so nothing major with roof line. Plus with a major redo of Mustang and Cougar for ‘74, ‘73 was a good jumping off point for their last convertible offerings.

 

Yes, the NHTSA administers the National Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1968, in all its forms. When the Congress, back then, had changed the FMVSA that covers the car's body structure, it included prohibiting factory convertibles.

 

Don’t forget 1966 when seatbelts, backup lights, outside review mirrors, and padded dashboards were required. I have a friend that always says 1968 and side marker lights were the downfall of the automotive world. It probably in his world was also due to 1967 being the last year for chrome garnish moldings at GM.

 

In noodling around the safety act was actually passed in August of 1966. January 1968 was the deadline to meet, or be working on nearly 20 regulations that Johnson signed into law. We’ve been saying the NHTSA, which really wasn’t established until 1970, with a name change from the NHSB. After many complaints from the car companies, many of the rules lapsed, or were not met in the 1971-72 model years. The 1966 outline was initially a $1,000 fine per unit for non compliance. The 1974 act jumped that fine to $800,000 for non compliance. One of the reasons for Ford’s “Quality is Job One” initiatives were that part of the rules were that cars with or without recall could be brought to dealers for a no cost repair, on safety related items. As aside from 1977 to 1980 more cars were recalled then sold new. No wonder Chrysler was broke. The other two I’m sure felt the strain as well. All of those government edicts, plus the price freeze of ‘71, and the oil embargo of ‘73, what a terrible time to build and sell cars. Not to even mention the onslaught of foreign cars slicing into your sales margins.