Used Car of the Day: 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air
This 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air is considered a survivor and has paint and trim that is in good shape -- at least according to the seller.
There's a 283 cubic-inch V8 under the hood and the car has 69,000 miles on it. The transmission is a column-shift, three-speed with vacuum overdrive.
The suspension is stock, and the tires are 18s and 20s so that the car has stance. The seller says it's show-ready as-is, and he or she wants wagons in trade.
This car is in Fresno, California, and is priced at $26,000.
[Images: Seller]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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My comment was deleted again for no good reason. Growing up I had a neighbor that had a brand new 62 Chevy Impala SS gold exterior and interior with bucket seats console, automatic with shifter in the console, a 409, air, power steering and power brakes. It was a beauty and it along with another neighbor who had a white 57 Plymouth Fury with gold side trim got me interested in cars at an early age. Both cars were lust worthy. Another neighbor had a fire engine red 2 door 61 Corvair Monza with 4 on the floor, bucket seats, and wheel covers with the spinners. I always liked Chevy Impalas from 61 thru 70 just beautiful cars. This 62 Bel Air is in great shape but I as others who have commented would rather have the original rims and hubcaps. Sweet ride indeed.
It's unique because not very many of them are around any more. As far as a driver, it would be pretty mediocre, especially by the standards of today. Poor handling, acceleration, mileage, comfort, braking, clouds of carbon monoxide, no seat belts... it would be like buying a 1962 refrigerator over a nice, quiet new one with all the lights, storage bins and icemaker. It looks cool, gets the job done, but is terribly outdated and was a very ordinary car even back then.