Classic cars are a dicey investment since unlike Wall Street, which, on average, has historically gone up in value, what cars will appreciate has always been a slippery slope. In the end, there's going to be a limit to the lift as well as the cadre of buyers interested in them sadly dwindles. Therefore, if you're buying a "classic" for any reason other than loving the car, it's best to proceed with extreme caution and don't get suckered into buying tempting "resale red" cars like this 1968 Chevrolet Impala Custom Coupe. This popped up on Facebook Marketplace a couple of weeks ago with a relatively low asking price of $23,500. Recently, that asking price was reduced to $19,500. So, something's up. Let's kick its historically incorrect, although very cool BF Goodrich Comp T/A's and see what we can come up with.
First some background. While the Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe had been around since 1958, the Impala Custom Coupe with the same rear roof line the Caprice coupe had, debuted for 1968. It was little more than a de-contented Caprice coupe Chevrolet charged more for than the Impala Sport Coupe. To-may-toe, toe-mah-toe? Not exactly.
The Chevrolet Caprice coupe, which debuted in 1966 when the Caprice became its own line, "Caprice" was a trim-level on four-door Impala's in 1965, never got the dramatic swooping fastback the Impala Sport Coupe had. The slope of the Sport Coupe's rear roof for 1967 and 1968, above is a 1968, is so big it looks like it could be a hatchback. For 1969 and 1970, Chevrolet reduced the angle or pitch on it blurring the figurative and literal lines of the rooflines between the Impala Custom and Sport Coupes. The redesigned Impala's for 1971 and beyond are a whole other story I've covered extensively.
In my opinion, the formal roofline does wonders for the proportions of the design of this vintage of the Impala hard top coupe and gives it better overall balance. It also highlights the distinctive shoulder arches on the top of the rear fenders; you just don't see that type of whimsy on vehicle design these days. Well, I should say, if you do, it's a throwback or homage of sorts to something from the past.
So, what could be so wrong with this car that the poster of the ad sliced more than 15-percent off what they were originally asking? Well, it's not so much what's "wrong" as what could be righter. Especially at this price point. Sorry, twenty-grand is still twenty grand. Those buyers with an aversion to risk may surmise that if things could be righter, what else is wronger?
For starters, this car came from the factory with a vinyl top and whoever painted it or had it painted, did not alter the car so that it looks like it was built originally without one. Note that chrome strip on the bottom of the rear roof line where it meets the body of the car - that would separate where the vinyl roof meets the rest of the car. Looks like this car has a removable hard top. Not a bad look, but when you're asking twenty-grand for a near sixty-year-old car, details matter.
Also, look at the size of the gap between the chrome trim around the windows - that's to go around the (missing) vinyl top.
Although rare, these cars were available without a vinyl top and on those cars, like on this '68, there's no chrome trim between the roof and the body. Sorry, I know it's confusing seeing this car is red like our subject car.
Moving to the interior, and the what-the-hell-is-that continues. Gosh, I haven't seen an after-market floor shifter installed on a factory column shift car in years. I guess it could be worse, they could have left the actual column shifter lever on instead of removing it and leaving the notch for it. Even if this car has a "shifter kit", which is fine if it did, you don't need that after-market floor shifter. Shift kits modify the internal hydraulics of a transmission regardless of where the actual shifting is done. This is silly boy racer stuff.
1968 Impala Custom Coupes were available with the SS trim package that included bucket seats and a, be still my beating heart, "horseshoe" shifter console (example above). All this stuff, the console, the shifter and the buckets are all available online. The steering column with the shifter-less column a console shifter car would have come with too. Ton of work and added expense to make it all right, but it makes a big difference at resale time. As time marches on, it's becoming more and more important for these cars to be at least as historically correct as possible. Especially if you're asking top dollar for them.
There are no details in the ad about what may have been done to the "numbers matching", 396 cubic-inch V-8 this car has. Aftermarket valve cover gaskets, headers and massive intake manifold denote "power", but who knows. Seeing the job done on the roof and interior, I wouldn't be surprised if this car is all show and little to no go.
Personally, while I wouldn't buy this car because of what I've pointed out, and this is what seems obvious to me. Someone may see the value upside in spending $19,000 and then pouring possibly another $3,000 to $4,000 into it. This bought closer to $15,000 makes sense, to the degree it could make sense. You'll still need to do some 'splainin to the boss why you need the checkbook again. Good luck with that.
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