Quick: What comes to mind when you hear the word Malibu? Almost certainly not this. It’s a dull four-door sedan with no apparent options other than the two-tone paint job. Check out those original baby moon hubcaps with the Chevy logo on them. Were they left over from 1948? And what’s under the hood? Did you have to ask?
Since this was posted at the Cohort by canadiancatgreen, I initially thought this might be a special low-end trim version of the Malibu only sold in Canada. But here it is, the Malibu sedan, in the brochure. It took me a while to actually see that thin bright rain drip molding over the doors on the found car, but there it is, if one looks closely enough.
Yes, there was a lower trim Chevelle, the 300. The sedan is not pictured in the ’71 brochure, but here it is in ’72, with only a few very minor changes.
Not surprisingly, the Malibu coupe outsold the 4-door sedan by a margin of almost 10:1. So if all you can see when you hear the word “Malibu” is a coupe, you can be forgiven. These were wallflowers, and for good reason. Attractive they’re not.
It would be even more cool with three on the tree.
I love it, so enjoy seeing cars like this so much better than yet another dumb coupe or clone, the typical car show fodder.
MY M-I-L had this same car in red briefly when her ’68 Caprice was stolen. Stripper cars like these that many drove for daily use are so much cooler than the showboats, and so rare now.
In fact if for sale and reasonably close buy I’d consider buying it… is it available?
AMEN! I would run past 20 Chevelle SSs to drool over this example.
As the owner of a 71 Cutlass 4 door, I can appreciate these. I actually get a bit of attention at car shows because the 4 doors are so rare. Of course today, all Malibus are 4-doors, at least until it goes out of production, again.
I love the line about the dreaded side-terminal battery – resists corrosion (Hah!) More like trades a minimal problem for a worse one, stripped threads.
VERY RARE FOR BEING A VINTAGE BOTTOM-OFF-THE-LINE 4-DOOR THAT HAS BEEN KEPT NICELY VS. BEING THE USUAL TRANSPORTATION APPLIANCE THROWAWAY.
Sorry to be a stick in the mud, but when I read the introduction, YES, I did think of this car. Boring, but good transportation. Thanks for the article.
Maybe they should have used Malibu for the 2 door models, and just kept these as Chevelles.
Same with the Olds – they could have called the 4 doors Cutlass S’, and the 2 doors Cutlass Supremes.
Added note – I see for 1971 Olds differentiated to Cutlass using the name Holiday as a variant.
In the 1971 model year Olds sold 60,599 Supreme Holiday Coupes, 10,255 Supreme convertibles, and 10,458 Supreme Holiday Sedans (4dr hardtop).
So, imagine a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Holiday 4 door Sedan! Long name on a basic car.
Plymouth did that with the top of the line Belvedere series with the Satellite nameplate who was available only in hardtop coupe and convertible for the model years 1965, 1966, 1967 before expanding it to sedans and wagons and completely replacing the Belvedere monicker for the 1971 model year.
The name Malibu is definitely not the eponym beach in my mind but my dad burgundy ’74 Chevelle 4 door with the almost same hubcap (squarer edge) , no option . It made the cold mornings driving to school even more austere, it had an AM radio but damn, that vinyl bench seat was as cold as the water at Old Orchard beach.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-outtake-1975-malibu-basking-in-sunny-memories/
I’ve liked basic models since I was a kid – admittedly a weird kid, but a kid nonetheless. And weird kids grow up, some into serial killers (I haven’t done that for a good 20 years), others into your neighbour or fellow employee, that person you discover actually LIKES that awful, shaved-looking old car down the street.
To be clear, I don’t for a moment want to OWN it, because really liking the unadorned test of aesthetics that super-base models impose upon a car doesn’t mean I want to drive round in it, arse glued to a thin vinyl seat, steering a bullworker, brakes a vague concept and air-conditioning and acceleration things the folk around me are doing that don’t include me. No, I did quite enough of that many years ago, and do not want to do any of it again.
The four-door Malibu of this era is, simply, a good-looking car. And it’s most see-able in the nude, and as others have noted, the passage of time and excess of bad hi-po imitations give a charm anew to the lowest of the low.
Ditch the Baby Moon’s;
Paint it all white;
Add four factory full size wire wheel covers;
Add a set of whitewalls;
Refurbish the interior, if necessary;
Drive and enjoy.
I think it would be cool to hot rod it a bit, there are so many Chevelle coupes around a four door would be a bit refreshing and different. The import crowd hot rods four doors so why not this?
The Chevelle coupe – attractive.
The Chevelle hardtop sedan – attractive.
The Chevelle pillared sedan – generic boring drab car. Will always wonder why Chevy allowed that.
This!!!
So glad this era of car was essentially gone by the time I was able to turn an ignition switch.
This is why brown took 30 years to once again become an acceptable paint color on an automobile.
Good find.
I always felt like this generation of A-bodies were designed as 2-doors and the 4-door was almost an afterthought. The rear seats were kind of cramped, so if you wanted a sedan for the family or whatever reason, you might as well spend the minimal additional cost and get a Bel Air, or even a Biscayne.
My father’s parents employed a lady as a cook for decades. By the 70s, Sylvia was getting on in years but continued to work part time in my grandparents’ kitchen. She always drove low-trim Chevrolets. On a visit there in the late 70s, she had one just like this, only without the vinyl roof. I have forgotten the color, but the ugly sedan looked even worse with the black tires and those moon hubcaps.
I’m guessing a 250 straight six with three on the tree.
The lead photo in the “Cars in our Neighborhoods” post shows a ’55 Chevy parked across the street with a baby moon cap the one visible rear wheel.
Is this Chevys with baby moons week?
After the 1969 model year, Chevrolet dropped the “300” suffix as a model of the Chevelle and the lowest trim model was known simply as the “Chevelle”. Here’s a link to a copy of the 1971 sales brochure from the “Old Car Brochures” and “Old Car Manual Project” website that shows a picture of the plain Chevelle Sport Coupe and that mentions the plain 4-Door Sedan.
https://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Chevrolet/1971_Chevrolet/1971%20CHevrolet%20Chevelle%20Brochure%20R1/image5.html