Our Saturday afternoon urban hike took us once again up to Skinner Butte, which almost always results in a shoot-worthy car in its overlook parking lot. But this one is decidedly better than average: a pristine ’74 Nova coupe, and a hatchback, at that. But that’s not all: its owner is a quite young woman. And a lucky one at that, as her dad bought this Nova for her.
Cindi and her friends spotted our dog, and wanted to say hi to him. I noticed her car and wanted to say hi to it. So we all indulged in our objects of attraction: Lil’ Man got (and gave) lots of love. And I gave her Nova some photographic love. Her dad bought it two and a half years ago, and she’s obviously been taking good care of it.
It did spend over twenty years of its life shut up in a garage, which helps explains its time-capsule condition. Presumably its 350 V8 is still in equally good health too.
This is the first hatchback Nova I’ve seen in quite a while. It first appeared with the 1973 re-style that also changed the rear window and of course the new mandated 5 mile bumpers. Otherwise, the Nova was still largely the same as it had been when it was really new in 1968.
Kids were driving Novas in the 70s. And 80s. And 90s. And the aughts. And here they are still driving one in the teens. Some things seem to never change, especially when Dad finds a pristine one that spent over half its life hiding away.
Will there be more Novas to be found for the kids to drive up to Skinner Butte twenty or thirty years from now?
Lil’ Man is such a player. Styling ride Cindi.
Awesome, all-around. Cindi’s pride of ownership is clear.
Cindi’s just full of giggles at all the attention. I love the shots you caught.
The 73-74 Nova seemed real retro to me at the time. They had a very 53 Chevy vibe about them for some reason.
Great find.
I never gave these much thought or respect when they were new. They were such an obvious attempt to “update” what was an oldish design, though their competition wasn’t doing any better. My aunt had one of these, though not a hatchback, and while it spent it’s whole life in “sunny” California, it still had the infamous GM rusted rear window corner.
I would later buy a 77 Nova coupe, mine had an inline 6 with automatic transmission, and they are a nice driver but unfortunately the assembly quality can be “iffy”. Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
I always thought AMC did a pretty good job on the Hornet hatchback.
AMC did better than pretty good!
Nice old Nova, and nice to see someone Cindi’s age enjoying it. My 2 nieces and their friends, male included, have no interest at all in cars beyond utility value.
A guy I knew had a ’73 or ’74 hatch and after a front end collision installed the front clip from a ’68-’72. Once it was painted it looked pretty good, I always thought the ’73-74 front end kind of awkward myself.
Any ways, cool car and cool Dad!
This was the ultimate “chic car” in the 1970’s.
I thought it was more like the Mustang II.
Nice Nova! I had best not let my daughter see this, or Grandma’s 46k 98 Civic will no longer satisfy her. “Daaaad, I want a cool car before they are all gone or too expensive.”
Great brown and cream color combination. Even garaged, that cream vinyl roof needs regular care to stay as clean as it is. Kudos to Cindi for her pride of ownership.
Nice. That Nova was brand new when I graduated. Although there were plenty of small bumper examples driven by classmates around this time.
Love the ’70’s brown. Cindy is lucky to have such a cool Dad.
It looks like an extremely well maintained car that is 42 years old already.
Cool to see this one and the proud owner–thanks! My (twin) ’74 Pontiac Ventura hatch leaked, and the car rusted badly (road salt), but damned if it didn’t always get me where I was going, with modest upkeep. I wonder if anyone still has the “camping tent” attachment for those hatches?
These still look hideous to me. The previous one still looks better.
Kudos to her for driving around in it. And it’s in very good condition.
+1 on all comments. The front end on these just look weird, and it doesn’t help that the old cutlines for the previous nose are clearly and prominently visible at the leading edges of the front fender.
+2. The car has its appeal, but I think the intervening 42 years are mostly responsible for it.
What a nice ride, not a big fan of the color, but still pretty sharp. She is one lucky girl. My Dad’s cousin had the standard 2 door with a 6, I remember detailing it every year for her.
Nice car! And a rare one to boot! What were the production numbers on the hatchback?
These hatchbacks were available in 2 series, the “base” and the “Custom”, both with a choice of 6 or V8. Combined, nearly 89,000 were sold in 74, with the Custom 6 hatchback being the 2nd least popular Nova model in 1974.
In 73, almost the same number of hatchbacks were sold, though in 73 the Custom 6 hatchback was the least popular Nova model.
Thanks Howard!
Good to see a young lady who obviously cares about her car. Dad knew what he was doing. My own daughter, who is very talented and capable in many ways has absolutely no interest in the car we provided for her. It’s just transportation. She didn’t even care about getting her driver’s license until she started working and attending junior college. On the other hand my son is an absolute car and motorcycle guy. Maybe I should have bought her some Tonka trucks when she was a baby.
That Nova is in (much) better condition now than the one I owned in the mid-seventies. These cars have such a timeless quality to them; I’m glad that this one is being driven regularly rather spending its life on a pedestal.
Nice find! Back in the early ’80s I knew a guy that had a ’74 Pontiac Ventura hatchback, 350, factory 4 speed. I helped him swap in a ’70 Pontiac 455, the 360hp version. No subframe connectors. When he stood on it, you could see light leaking from the hatch, and I always expected it to pop open someday! Fun stuff… 🙂
Awesome car! Cindi is styling!
The restyle – driven mostly by the feds requiring ginormous bumpers – did no favors to the Nova’s looks. The blank spots where the lights used to be show how slap-dash adding the big bumpers must have been. Not likely most buyers cared since Novas – and their BOP bretheren – we’re bought as “economy” cars.
My first car was almost a 72 stripper Nova – inline 6, auto, no PS or PB, full vinyl interior, dark green paint. At the time I was horrified at the prospect of driving a literal little old lady mobile – it was owned by the spinster school marm on our street. Now I’d love to have it! Probably turned into a fake SS and driven into the ground by now…
Great! She’s a lucky one and it looks like she deserves her good fortune.
I had a red ’74 Custom hatch that I swapped a ’63 283 into, and pimped it out with sidepipes and hoodpins. I foolishly pulled the engine and got rid of the shell due to rust, which I did not know how to deal with at the time. Today I would be happy to find one in that condition to fix up. :/
I know many like the earlier body styles, in particular the smaller bumpers and grille treatment, but I really do like the battering ram bumpers, especially the ones with the rubber rub strip like mine had (and it looks like hers should have in the front too) . I prefer the somewhat larger rear side windows/styling highlight line of the ’73-’74s and think they look great with the popular small bumpers/fascias mod too.
I actually do like the quarter windows, I always forget about that rather big detail. There’s a local hatchback I see running around here during the spring/summer months, the owner swapped on the 68-72 bumpers/facia though, to me that’s best of both worlds
Cindi maybe a lucky girl with a cool dad, but check out the tatto on her hand. Her name is clearly not Cindi, unless she tattooed someone else’s name on her hand
Perhaps the names were changed to protect the innocent.
I’m not sure that most people would tattoo their own name on themselves. It could be an idol of hers, or maybe a respected family member or something.
Maybe she named the Nova “Amelia”, and since she loves the car so much, had it tattooed on her hand.
It definitely in better shape than this 76 at my storage shed. I’ve always liked Novas. In a lot of ways they were better than my Mavericks. In some ways not. Had a chance to buy a 77 2dr in ’10 for $500 but didn’t go thru with it. I should have.
This is pretty cool! Usually, I’m not a big fan of brown, but the brown color with the cream colored vinyl roof is really a time capsule retro throwback. I was assuming that it would be a 6 cylinder, but it being a 350 means that it still had decent performance, so it’s a cruiser car that has some balls. I also agree, I haven’t seen a hatchback version of these in forever. I’m sure that she enjoys the car, and the attention that it brings!
Ok, I’m jealous. Love Novas and have developed a strong liking for hatchbacks. Think this is the best of both worlds. Excellent find and capturing the camera struck young lady was brilliant.
Good to know there are still some dads cool enough not obsessed with planting their kids in the latest 12 air bagged equipped and electronic safety nanny laden CR top picked blandmobile. shows some trust in Cindi also as hopefully she will become a more defensive and careful driver and in return enjoy communication with the machine and the road. now maybe dad will become supercool and buy a shop manual, floor jack and some sockets.
Ah, the Nova. didn’t like any of them after 72 when they were newish, but now they all look good.
Pretty cool car, but I’d rather my kids have ABS, Stability control, air bags and crumple zones and save that nice Nova for the car shows.
That’s why kids (supposedly) aren’t interested in cars these days….
“So I bet you’re excited to get your drivers license Matt! I know you had your heart set on buying that 197x coupe with your own money, but you know Grandma may just be handing down her late model beige Toyota Camry, and we’ll let you have it if you get good grades!” ….hooray….
Yes, the world is an awful, scary place where imminent disaster is behind every bush. Don’t let ’em outside until they are safe in their sumo suits.
My wife had a Spirit of America version when we started dating 35 years ago, wish we could have kept it…
In my experience, kids don’t care about cars as much (unless they live in the country) partly because it’s no fun in the congestion choked cities and the “we made the whole town fifteen mph because think of the children” suburbs. My fiance works on diesel engines and is into cars, yet he hates driving. Cell phones, lane departure warnings, and complicated stereo/climate/gps/ tax accountant systems have just added to it. Nobody seems to know how to drive and the younger people I know all feel it’s more an exercise in paranoid self defense than a pleasurable, relaxing activity.
Our parents didn’t help either. The helicopter phase killed the fun. You have to be safe! Wear a football helmet when you dance! Airbags are more important than being able to see! I’m 31. The kids behind us just checked out and said “give me an appliance”. Self driving cars are going to be a hit with them.
Progress. :/
We ain’t seen nothing yet. NHTSA with their “Towards Zero Deaths” Draconian policies will stop at nothing with that patently ridiculous goal. It gives ’em carte blanche- no regulation will be too outrageous, expensive, or intrusive. Organizations exist to perpetuate themselves.
Nice. Back in the ’80’s a friend of mine had a red ’74 hatchback with a black vinyl top. It had the 350/automatic and was a blast to drive, though it had the drum brakes so you had to watch it around town. On the highway, though…good times.
This car is all american, but strangely has an Australian feel to it.