I’ve been kind of blowing up RG with Broughams lately. “Klockau, geez man, ANOTHER ’70s tuna boat. Fercryinout loud!” Whoops. But hey, it’s not intentional. I just keep seeing vintage land yachts out and about, and have to immediately write it up. It’s an incurable issue with me. I love pretty much all classic and vintage cars, but it seems I always gravitate back to Broughamville. Caprice Classics, Fleetwood Talismans, Bonneville Broughams, 98 Regencys. I can’t help it, man!
So now that that’s out of the way, here’s another one. A 1976 Chevrolet Impala Landau coupe, espied by yours truly on one of the FB groups I’m on, Finding Future Classic Cars. A rare birdie. In 1976, Landau was king. And Chevrolet offered both Caprice Classic and Impala Landau trim packages, consisting of the aforementioned Landau vinyl roof in elk-grain vinyl, color-keyed wheel discs, sport mirrors and custom pinstriping.
1976 Caprice Landau, formerly owned by Jason Bagge.
Of the two full-size B-Body Landaus, the Caprice Classic was the clear sales winner, with 21,926 of the $5,284 coupes sold.
The Impala Landau, despite its thriftier $5,058 suggested retail price (before options, of course!), sold approximately half as well, with 10,841 built. The $4,763 Impala Custom coupe proved more successful, with 43,219 coming off the big-Chevrolet assembly lines.
1976, as I’ve mentioned before, was in my opinion Peak Brougham. You still had truly gigantic full-size Chevrolet, Pontiac, Olds and Buick B-bodies, not to mention the C-body Nimitz-Class Ninety-Eight, Electra, De Ville and Fleetwood Brougham.
Which brings me to today’s subject, a ’76 Impala Landau for sale in Chicagoland. The ice blue metallic paint, blue expanded vinyl interior and white Landau roof make for a pleasing color combination, and although she’s got a couple of rough spots, still looks presentable.
So many of these ’70s Chevrolets have fallen prey to wild and wacky customization with giant wheels, eye-squinting color combinations and foundation-rattling sound systems, that when I see one of these 43-year-old Chevys in original showroom condition, I take notice. Sure, it’s got some rust, but even as she sits in these photos, cuts a Broughamtastic figure even now.
And with all the red Mustangs, Challengers, Corvettes and Camaros at so many car cruises and shows in this day and age, I bet this Impala Landau would draw all kinds of attention at shows this summer. You just don’t see them any more. Hope whoever buys it keeps it stock. Stock 71-76 Chevys are a rare commodity in 2019. Intrigued? Then check out the ad, and see if you’re Brougham Material.
Nice Leroy, I gent I worked with until he died, bought one of these new in black and kept it the rest of his life .
-Nate
Nice car!
O/T just a bit, when I scroll through this site on my iPhone, I keep getting a Pinterest “Save” button popping up on not only any pictures, but also avatars in the Comments. No other sites behave this way, and if I recall, this only started a couple weeks ago, maybe. I’ve got Pinterest installed on my phone, and I think I’ve got it locked-down as much as it can be. Is that something on the site, or something that can only be stopped by uninstalling the app? (Presumably, just the site.) Just curious.
I’ll look into it but I think it came with the last wordPress social updates.
Thanks Jack!
Hagerty will become a stop—looking forward to seeing your work there.
Keep clobbering us with broughams, my good man! The big “yank tanks” are my favorites.
I miss the big Chevy’s (and the big Buick’s and Olds’). When I got out of the Navy (the first time after eight years and finally back in CONUS) in ’77 I was a bit disappointed in the down-sized models – not real full-sized cars in my opinion and I never really cared for any of the large GM’s from ’77 until ’91 when they were re-designed to what I called the “Step Down-Hudson Style” bodied final series of full sized GM cars. I’m getting old and “Living In the Past”, as Ian Anderson would say.
Hi Tom, any experience with broughams from Japan? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F8i-CNFUkU
Nice one. I hope the new owner keeps it as it is.
Still available
How much? The original ad has expired.
Please do not stop writing abut these ~ I remember them new, warts and all, I doubt I’ll ever buy another big car but they’re glorious to look at and I love the details…
Here in Los Angles there are still plenty of 1970’s land barges doing yeoman duty and some being carefully preserved as weekend hobby cars .
The world will never again see their like for better or worse .
-Nate
Would you take $3k