At $8,500, Could This 1981 Chevy Malibu Wagon Bring Home The Canadian Bacon?

Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Malibu comes with a crate motor and wood panelling. Let's see if this Canadian wagon also has what it takes to make it an addition to your family tree.

Have you ever seen the third movie in the Halloween series, the one that's called Halloween, Season of the Witch? If you have then you probably recall the confusion and disappointment you experienced when you discovered that it had nothing to do with the two previous movies—no Micheal Myers, no Laurie Strode, no nothing. It was so jarring a departure that every ensuing sequel has conveniently ignored its existence.

The response to last Friday's 1993 Volvo 245 Classic was somewhat similar. As a special end of run model, that car originally maintained some unique features. A number of those have been replaced owing to the personal preference of its current owner, but those changes eliminated what made the car unique and interesting. In the end, the changes were too much for its $7,500 asking to overcome and it fell in a decisive 85 percent Crack Pipe loss.

Malibu, California and Vancouver, BC both share placement on the Pacific coast, however with more that twelve hundred miles and a national border between them, that's about all they share. Malibu is known for sun and sand and celebrity enclaves while Vancouver's fame tends more toward its damper clime and unique position between wooded mountains and the craggy inlets and islands that make up its shore.

It's there, in the Vancouver suburb of Aldergrove, where resides this 1981 Chevy Malibu Estate, and much like the Canadian city it presently calls home, this Malibu is also surrounded by wood.

The G-body Malibu was the last of the line for Chevy's mid-size RWD wagons. It's replacement, the Celebrity would offer a longroof edition, but with its engine turned sideways and driving the front wheels, it wouldn't provide much of a base for future performance upgrades. The much later Malibu MAXX would offer a sort of wagon form, but was still FWD-only.

This Malibu on the other hand, is RWD and has been imbued with some performance bonafides. The ad notes the addition of a 350 CID crate motor, and that seems to fit the engine bay like it was born to be there, which, as the G-body was designed to accommodate a V8, it pretty much was.

Along with the small block comes an updated 3-speed automatic, 3.73 Posi rear end, ceramic-coated headers and a Flowmaster exhaust to bring the sound to town.

Everything under the hood looks reasonably tidy and fresh, although there's no word on when the crate mill was dropped in. The seller says he's the second owner, having kept the car in his corral for the past eighteen years. He now wants it gone, with the reason given that he's run out of space. There's 90K on the odo and a clear Canadian title.

The bodywork looks to be in terrific shape, and who doesn't love those great old Rally wheels? Seriously, who doesn't love 'em? We need to weed you guys out.

The wood is good and so is the hood. There you'll find a nice bulge in the middle, likely to clear the air cleaner and carb.

The interior is just as nice with a pair of benches for your seating pleasure, and a horizontal speedo. This being a Canadian car, it's parsed in kilometers per hour so it goes up to 140 instead of the Federally mandated 85 miles per hour of the U.S. cars.

A fuel gauge is the only other factory dial here, but a dash-topping tach has been added because that's bad ass. A Grant GT steering wheel also calls this car home.

You could bring that and the rest of the car to your home for a mere $8,500, Canadian. That works out to around $6,385 in U.S. money, according to my currency converter. The question is, should anyone convert it at all?

I should note that after picking this car and writing all these words I realized that this isn't this Malibu's first rodeo here. Back then it asked a good bit more, so I think it deserves another look at this lower price, don't you?

What do you think, is this hot Malibu worth that kind of cash? Or, is this Canadian wagon priced out of bounds?

You decide!

Vancouver, BC Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to RevUnlimiter for the hookup!

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