The 1957 Chevrolet is probably the most iconic American classic car of all time. But with interest in 1950s cars cooling thanks to a changing demographic in the classic car world, is it still the collector car it once was?
The Chevrolet fin may not have been the biggest or boldest design of the rocket era, and in fact, it wasn’t really planned from the beginning. The story is the 1958 Chevrolet’s design took too long for a 1957 implementation, so GM hurried a redesign of the 1956 Chevrolet for 1957. The public loved it.
These cars were quick to become classics in the 1960s. From then all the way through the 1980s, they were easy to find, good looking, and easy to modify. But their popularity over the years may have had some dire consequences for their future value.
Here’s why: Their builders — the young car people of the 1960s — have long treasured these ’57s, keeping values high and cars out of the hands of the next round of younger, impressionable car people. As such, those younger people instead identified with newer cars, leaving the icon ’57 as a perpetually unreachable, and therefore not as interesting, goal.
So where does that leave the future of the ’57? I’m a younger collector and I still want one, but I also want to visit a chevrolet dealership and look for a first-gen Camaro, a Terminator Cobra, and a C5 Z06. How will I choose? Will the market be flooded with enough finned Chevys to bring prices down to where I might actually buy one? That’s hard to say.
For now, I’ll call these a Hold, as they’re still every bit of the American icon they once were — even with adjusting values.
What do you think? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.