Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Caprice Estate Wagon

Growing up, station wagons were a huge part of my childhood; we had a Subaru DL (which was very short lived), and my grandpa had a Ford Taurus wagon. I rode in my fair share of wagons, as well. One of my friends' parents had a Buick Estate Wagon, and that's as close as I would come to riding in a GM B-Body wagon; I rode in that car only once, but I loved it.

Station wagons were a part of Chevrolet's lineup until the demise of the Caprice in 1996; well, there was the Malibu Maxx, but I don't really think that counts. Not only was it a fairly ugly car, the thing wasn't a staple of Americana--and never will be. The Caprice on the other hand- if you grew up in the 1960s to the mid-1990s, you either owned one, or you knew someone who did. If I remember right, there were two or three in my neighborhood alone, and I used to not go a few hours without seeing one. Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore; good Caprices are hard to find, mainly because either a) they're not really collector cars yet and b) a large chunk of them ended up in demo-derbiers' hands--much like their 1971-1976 predecessors
.

This thing is awesome; I'm slowly becoming more and more fond of these as the years go by; when I was little, I didn' overly love these--and I didn't hate them either. These were common, so I never gave them much thought; as I explained above, I don't see many of these anymore. I still see the plain-jane wagons but never the ones with wood trim.

Maroon, I would have to say, fits the Estate fairly well, especially with the wood "trim", which as you can tell, is likely vinyl -wrap/applique. In the 1980s--and even into the 1990s to an extent, this was all the rage; these had wood trim, Jeep Grand Cherokees had wood trim (called the Wagoneer), and Chrysler minivans had wood trim. Why? I suppose to stay true to "traditional" family car values.

I didn't get to peek inside here, but I assume that the interior looks like the body; in great shape on the surface, but the devil is in the details. I'd wager that this a regularly-used vehicle that the owner has tried to take very good care of. Like almost all cars that are used daily, age is starting to take its toll on the big brute. 

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Caprice

I realize that Caprices and Impalas are almost cliche now--for car enthusiasts of all walks of life. But here me out; in Minnesota, thanks to a certain trend, these cars are getting more extinct by the day, much less rust-free examples. There are two main reasons these cars are getting much harder to find--demolition derbies, and donkriders.While I admit the donk game is changing, and some of the cars look very nice, I find it sad the "ryderz" tend to go after clean cars with no rust--such as this one here. Granted, the things are now being done up rather subtly compared to five or six years ago, there is still no excuse for hacking up a clean, low mileage, original car.

The demolition guys always start with the beaters, and tend to ruin them even more, and in their quest to build a demo car, they often destroy what they don't need. Why? Because rednecks. That's why. I hate demolition cars not only for the destruction itself, but the fact that most demolition derby cars aren't really car guys; they just like destruction. Most of them swap engines and throw whatever parts they can onto a demo car, without thinking about how well the shit goes together.

 And that, my readers, is why full-size American cars--particularly the full-size Chevrolets are disappearing. In large numbers.

I was shocked to see this example; not only is this one super-duper clean, it's original too; right down to the fender skirts, the landau roof, and all the intact badges. I'm not sure if this one qualifies as a time-capsule car, but it's pretty damn close. This is honestly the nicest stock one I've seen in person--and I took a bunch of pictures to savor the moment.

The beige hue looks dull--I'm not gonna lie; it suits this big boat well, though. I'd rather it another color, but stock is good. This looks probably as it did new--and that's a very good thing. Not many left.

Even though this one is for sale, I applaud the owner for keeping it so nice for so long. Shame it's next owner probably won't do the same. As time passes, we lose more cars like these. I can only hope that this one was saved--if not, yet another clean car falls victim to donkrydin homies who don't know "bout tha whip".