1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic: Joining the Fleet

Ha! I hope this is an April fools joke...

Don't toy with us. I grew up with two Chevy Caprice Coupes.

Uh . . . what day is it today? At least, I hope to *$&@ that's the explanation for this one . . . .

Drop a 454 crate engine in it, paint it candy apple red, slap some slicks on the back and terrorize your nreighbors! LOL

YES! This is awesome. I can't wait to see what they drop into this ridiculous thing. 23inch rims, 23inch subwoofers. They should totally go to galpin gas, that's gotta be close to them.
 
But 96,000 miles and it's cherry. That's some quality American craftsmenship right there.

Oh my goodness... Could be cool to read updates about a '77 Caprice, but I hope that "pimp-ify"ing the car is an April Fools joke!

April first really is a great day.

karjunkie - Great minds! You beat me to it but I was thinking a crate 572 on race gas making 720HP.
 
Great April Fools joke by the way.

This blog-post shocked me enough to register here.
 
It was only after I received my confirmation e-mail that I realized the date.
 
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of Edmunds.
 
Edit: I'm also down for a big-block swap.

April 1st is a great day. Next we should have 1487 do a post extolling the virtues of Accords and Camrys. :-)

April Fools or not, I think adding a Caprice would be pretty cool. Why not?
 
Nix the pimpin and all, but I love the idea of dropping a big block in it. A Blog Build!

To continue the madness...
 
http://www.automobilemag.com/features/news/0804_oldsmobile_brand_returns_to_market/index.html

I actually think this would be interesting if they really did it... find out the operating costs, mpg, repairs, utility, etc. of a big cheap American sedan relative to all the new cars.

I love it when I see companies pull stuff like this on April Fool's day. It's good to see that everybody has at least some senses of humor.
 
Anyway, joke or not, I think it would be a really cool idea if you went forward with this and actually did "pimpify" the car.
 
It'd be interesting to see how reliable it is too. I think performance numbers might give us all a good laugh too! I wonder how that thing would do on the skidpad.

Ahh, April 1 is a funny day.
 
Seriously, if you were actually thinking of adding the car to the fleet, modding it would be an interesting change from the usual long term tests.

lvranger: I thought the same as you, but then I went for the classic big block chevy engine that was actually put into the Caprice up to 1976, just one year before this one.

You guys in California are so lucky. An oldie with 96k on it would be rusted out in Michigan. Unless you are going to store it during the winter that car would be on the scrap heap by now.

Wow, this is close to the car my dad owned for many years - he had a '77 Chevy Impala 2-door (basically the same as the Caprice, but with 2 doors and fewer features). He bought it as a used rental from Avis, but despite the abuse it endured as a rental car, the car really held up well. The only problems he ever had with it was the alternator went once, the A/C stopped working, and a front wheel bearing fried once. It was canary yellow with black vinyl bench seats that could seat 4 across, and the steering was so over-assisted you could turn the wheel with one finger at any speed, even stopped.
 
Ahh, the memories of my childhood...

If this is a joke, then LOL...
 
If not, I think it would be cool to pit this against the Camry like the 308. Compare mileage, performance, costs, etc vs. a modern sedan. My parents had an 81 Classic white with maroon top and velvet interior. It was a decent car overall, but had tranny problems (different tranny than this car) after about 90k miles, but the rest of the car was pretty cherry. For it's size it got pretty decent mileage, around 17 city and 22 hwy (I did the logs) but was fairly underpowered by the 305 w/ 145hp...ahh technology. Mom got rear ended and they scrapped it.

get the wheels with the spikes that tear up other peoples wheels, that would be great!

I learned to drive on a Caprice Classic. I loved that car.

karjunkie - No matter what engine I would rather see a drag setup than deal with gold rims, lime green paint and curb feelers!

I went outside to get my bag out of my car and realized Edmunds stole it! Terrible. They came to my trailer park, took the Caprice instead of my 78 Camaro sitting on blocks with the huge blower. Nice joke guys haha. Now give it back. Mamma Gene needs it to take Billie Bubba to get his ingrown toenail out.
 
On a serious note. I'm with the Big block crowd as well.

I'm reading all the comments saying "go for it", and I'm having trouble envisioning the Edmunds staff ever actually driving a late 70's early 80's American anything.
 
It'd spend a year in the garage and get sold for scrap.

you need some hydrualics and jump the thing like 8ft in the air as you drive down the roads. Just jump over traffic

Any Caprice should be immediately donked. For those of you not from the drrrrty south, that means adding a lift kit, 26+" wheels, and painting the car (and upholstering the inside) in fluorescent colors, sometimes in the theme of a popular consumer good such as Cheetos, Pillsbury biscuits, or Hawaiian Punch. Thanks to living in Tampa, I've seen all three of those last ones personally.
 
At the very least it could use some stick-on portholes on each fender. They add instant class - the more portholes, the more class. It's proportional.

This was in response to my Cadillac comment yesterday, wasn't it? ;-P
 
Don't stop 'til ya ridin' on some gold spoke 22s, air ride suspension, chrome bumpers with gold grille, opaque tint, chameleon green paint, and a bumpin' system.
 
I expect you to get into Lowriderz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T_vojqVae8
 
Edit: Don't forget to put "EDMUND'S" in old english on the back window!

Too bad this is an April Fools, it would actually be an interesting experiment along the lines of DIY Network's "Blog Cabin" project.
 
Get a ride to be "pimped" by items/addon's voted on by Edmund's blogging community, keep it in your test fleet for a few months, then raffle it off to some "lucky" blogster. Proceeds going to a charity, of course.

BIG BLOCK!!!!!

I love the looks of these cars, I have had 5 Caprices, mostly the bubble shape, but I think it would be awesome to make a sleeper out of this one. I'm thinking a nice fuel-injected small block and a performance axle swap would be pretty easy. The B-body cars from 1977-1996 share a lot of mechanical parts, so front suspension,axles and brakes are easy upgrades.
 
Pleeeeaassseee don't DONK it out, it will be not only embarrassing but dangerous to drive. These cars were not designed to have 33's on them and the front suspensions don't like it.

Seriously - do it! This was the car that made people realize 'down-sizing' might not be so bad, after all. A modern classic!

Certainly pimping out the car is an April Fool's joke, but I'm not sure that the fact that a 1977 Caprice was bought isnt the real April Fool's joke. I have a hard time imagining Edmunds wanting to buy "an old person's car" or anything without a manual.
 
But if buying the car is not a joke - then thats AWESOME! I'm a huge fan of the fullsize RWD cars from the 70s and 80s - and I couldnt care less what others think. Cars from those decades had so much presence, style and tons of room.

Well rims are a must because that's the most popular modification. A bright new paint job would also be relevant, as well as a new sound system and some neon underbody lights

Even though its an April fools joke, I totally think you guys should get a vintage 50s-70s vehicle and add it to the long term fleet, it'd be interesting to compare the cars from 40 years ago to their current counterparts.

Nice, but Youtube wins my vote for best web site prank this year. In all seriousness, Get one, drop in a blown 454, tub the rear wheels, put massive slicks on it, go for the whole 1320 package.

My dad still has his '77 Caprice Classic. He bought it new with all the options.

HAHA... April Fools!!!

Oh man, I cannot wait for the track testing on this one!

If this is no April Fools joke, then are you gonna pimp-ify, or cruise-ify it?
 
36"-ers won't fit wheelwells unless you jack 'er up, but that trunk's plenty big for woofs.
 
Now if you want to show us a __real__ april fools joke, Pimp-ify your long-term GT-R!

One day later and yes, this was an April Fools' Joke. Thanks for playing along, though. I was interested to see that so many of you actually wanted us to do this.
 
Although I think it could make for an interesting article, as a long-term car, it would be a mess. After the initial hilarity of driving a 30-year-old Caprice wore off, no one would drive it and it would sit in the garage collecting dust. Then after we pimpified it and the initial hilarity of driving something designed for Xzibit wore off, it would sit in somebody else's garage collecting dust because we'd be too embarrassed to be even near it.
 
But, you never know. Keep lobbying and maybe we'll make something like this happen.
 
-James Riswick

How about finding(good luck) a mid eighties Buick Grand National or GNX? It could compete against the 308!

well i think that the lobby is clear. we want to see a late 70's early 80's full size rwd car modded for use as a big block dominator.

Although I think it could make for an interesting article, as a long-term car, it would be a mess. After the initial hilarity of driving a 30-year-old Caprice wore off, no one would drive it and it would sit in the garage collecting dust. Then after we pimpified it and the initial hilarity of driving something designed for Xzibit wore off, it would sit in somebody else's garage collecting dust because we'd be too embarrassed to be even near it.
  
But, you never know. Keep lobbying and maybe we'll make something like this happen.
  
-James Riswick
 
If the message is loud and clear, why not go for it?
 
A relatively clean early eighties full size sedan with a fresh motor, solid overdrive trans, and durable (limited slip) rearend couldn't cost more than $10,000 to make a reality.
 
In southern California you can probably find a really nice one on Craigslist for less than that.
 
As long as you restrain exterior mods to usable rubber and decent rims your only concern would be fuel economy.
 
It might be interesting to see if the "old" car is as competent a commuter as a new car that costs $20,000 more.

And there it is, it was just a cruel joke all along. Silly me for thinking that Edmunds might be open to getting a car that isnt sporty or doesnt have a manual or isnt a crossover.
 
That being said I think a lot of us would be interested in a long term test of an 80s or 90s American full size sedan.

"Silly me for thinking that Edmunds might be open to getting a car that isnt sporty or doesnt have a manual or isnt a crossover."
 
Have you seen the Focus???

Um jriz, the Focus is a reasonably sporty car, as backed by the Edmunds testing numbers. Plus its marketed that way, not as a grand tourer.
 
The only vehicles not in the categories I mentioned are the Tundra and the new Caravan.

LS1, Rally wheels, keep the look otherwise somewhat original...if you could find a Caprice that clean. That picture is quite obviously from a Chevy ad though. Nice April Fool.

thats nothing new bro..../ i own 1996 caprice classic with 42,000 miles i only paid 4,200 its better then yours i got to many guys ask me if its for sale no way bro.....dont ask why!!!! thanks.

thats nothing new bro..../ i own 1996 caprice classic with 42,000 miles i only paid 4,200 its better then yours i got to many guys ask me if its for sale no way bro.....dont ask why!!!! thanks.