At $8,500, Is This 1979 Chevy Corvette A Stick-Shift Steal? (2024)

A lack of garage space is given as the reason for the sale of today’s Nice Price or No Dice C3 Corvette. Let’s see if the price tag has any of you thinking about making room for it.

When people in America talk about the “British Invasion,” they usually mean the raft of British bands that hit the music scene in the 1960s. However, they could just as well be talking about the explosion of British cars that hit the U.S. market a decade earlier, the vanguard of which were lithe and lively sports cars, the likes of which most Americans had never seen. The 1959 Jaguar XK150 FHC we looked at yesterday is representative of those cars, and today, is considered a classic. At $60,000, apparently, it’s also a good deal, as fully 62 percent of you were willing to overlook its minor shortcomings at that price, giving it a Nice Price win.

America’s domestic carmakers never really felt the need to address the inroads the British sports car makers were achieving in the American market. There was one notable exception: Chevrolet’s Corvette. Brought to market in 1953 as a direct result of the American public’s new-found affection for sporting models, the Corvette soon solidified its position as “America’s Sports Car.” That’s a role and a title the Corvette maintains to this day, over 70 years later.

This 1979 Chevy Corvette L82 hails from the era that, arguably, was just about the nadir of the Corvette’s model run. By this time, the C3’s design was a decade old, its engines were strangled by emissions and fuel economy demands, and its limited production numbers meant GM wasn’t exactly pumping cash into updates to address any of these issues.

That all being said, if you’re going to go for a late-run C3, this is the spec to get. In this model year, the Corvette was offered in two flavors of 350 CID V8: the milquetoast L48 with 195 horsepower and the brawnier L82 offering 225 horses. This car is an L82 and backs that up with a Borg-Warner four-speed manual transmission. That gearbox could have been optioned with a wild-ratio (M20) or close-ratio (M21) gear set, but we don’t know which this car has as thead doesn’t get that far into the weeds in its description.

The ad does tell us that the car was given to the present owner by their dad and that the brakes, brake lines, and carb have all been refreshed between them. The mileage is reported as 44,000, but the seller thinks that the odometer has rolled over, making it likely 100K more.

The ad also calls this a 1979 Corvette although it wears the bumper caps from a 1980 or later C3 and has bright window trim instead of black like the earlier model years. That’s a bit perplexing, but nothing about the car’s appearance should be considered a deal killer. It should be noted, though, that the fit of the bumpers is off on both ends, and there are a number of flaws in the paint around them. There’s also the Eeyore’s tail of a radio antenna that should be addressed.

This interior also seems to be in worn but not worn-out condition. We only get to see snippets of it in the pictures (seriously, folks, shoot the entire space when setting up your ads!), but what we see doesn’t set up any red flags. The car does come with A/C, but that’s likely old-school R12, so that will need to be upgraded at some point in time.

Mechanically, the car is claimed to run strong and without any issues. It has a new exhaust and what looks to be some old tires on its very handsome factory alloys. The seller’s urban garage space situation is the cause for the sale and the car comes with antique plates and a clean title in that sale.

Based on all that, would you pay the seller’s $8,500 asking for this Corvette? Or are the discrepancies and deficiencies too great for that amount to overcome?

You decide!

Chicago, Illinois, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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