Whatever Happened To The Chevrolet Corvair?
The Corvair could do it all.
Drive through the water. Drive-up rocky and rough mountain paths. Break on a dime. Plus it was really super cool looking! The Chevrolet Corvair would be around forever!
Except that it wasn't around forever. Unless you call the decade of the 1960s forever.
The Corvair existed from 1960-1969 and was a competitor in the car market with vehicles like the Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, and Studebaker Lark (now there's a name to remember!).
While over 200,000 Corvair's were sold in its first six model years, I think a lot of the 'older generation' had some second thoughts about the engine being in the rear. But that was OK, the Corvair was built for younger folks, and for the economy. Back in the old days of huge doggone near boat size family sedans, the Corvair was compact.
So what happened to the Corvair?
There were some, uh...well, safety concerns with the car, and Ralph Nader's 1965 best-selling book Unsafe At Any Speed proved to be something of a death knell for the Corvair.
But as you can see in this 1960 Corvair commercial, it could do anything!
By 1970 the Corvair was...no more. Done. Over. The end.
So the question becomes, who had one? Or better yet, who has one? I would think a well-maintained and shined-up Corvair would be worth a few bucks these days, certainly more than they did in 1960 off the showroom floor. A regular Corvair Monza coup would run you about $2,273. Now of course if you opted for a hot convertible, well that would cost you around $2,483!
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