Chevrolet’s tagline for 1971 was, “You’ve changed, we’ve changed“. Really? Sounds like some Madison Avenue horse hockey to me. Yeah, they changed by bloating up the B-body (Caprice, Impala, BelAir, Biscayne) bestowing Cadillacesque lines and size upon their best-selling series and there were other changes brought about too. The result? Chevrolet sold a lot fewer full-size cars in ’71 than it had the previous year. As to the why let’s take a look and see if we can determine the real reason. This Impala drop-top is located in Carlisle, Iowa and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of $17,800 with 46 bids tendered so far. Thanks to T.J. for this discovery!

The ’70 B-body was the end of the run for a very successful series that started in ’65 while the ’71 version marked the beginning of a generation that lasted through 1976. Total ’70 B-body production was about 825K units while ’71 saw a considerably more conservative 581K copies assembled. As for the convertible, ’71 was a nadir (unless you consider ’73 when none were built – the convertible had moved to the Caprice model) with only 4,576 examples seeing the light of day. The ’70 convertible volume was 9,562 and then things improved over the ’71 number, in ’72, yielding 6,572 ragtops. What happened? Well, ’70 was a recession year but that doesn’t really explain the almost 30% drop in total volume between the two years. There was a sizable GM labor strike that occurred between September and November of ’70, right at the beginning of the ’71 model year, and that’s more than likely the culprit for the abbreviated production volume.

Besides the big “upsizing” in ’71, there was a “downsizing” in the power department thanks to a change (those pesky changes again), the result of Federal law telling auto manufacturers that they were going to have to make changes. Thanks to the recently passed Clean Air Act, GM CEO, Ed Cole made a 1970 proclamation that all ’71 GM vehicles had to be capable of operating on low lead/no lead fuel for the ’71 model year. That order lead to reduced engine compression ratios and thusly, less power. The seller of this convertible identifies a 350 V8 engine as being the power source so that would indicate a standard 245 gross HP (250 in ’70), 350 CI V8 is under that Great Plaines sized hood. There was also a 270 gross HP version of the 350 available at mid-model year, but cars so equipped wore a fender badge and our subject car is not so adorned. The seller states, “Engine compartment is all original and I don’t see anything major missing” but makes no mention of operating capability. Being a barn find, assume this is a non-runner.

Another change for ’71 was a power ventilation system that kept the passenger compartment fan operating at all run times and pushed air through the trunk and then exhausted up through vents placed on the top of the trunk lid. The justification seemed fuzzy compared to ventilation systems in prior years. I suppose if you dropped your White Owl under the seat and forgot about it (and it didn’t engulf the car in flames), it might have made sense, but beyond that, its value seemed minimal. I remember owners complaining about a “drafty” interior with the fan always in operating mode.

Finished in what looks like Antique Green, the body has issues as the seller advises, “Car has rust. I would replace (the) front fenders, lower quarters and trunk pan the rest can be fixed“. The underside and floors are listed as “good” as is the top and its folding mechanism which works as it should.

We have more “goods”, at least considering its age we are told, inside. The images aren’t very telling though there is a noted rip in the black vinyl driver’s side seat back and the dash pad appears to be suffering from the same fate.  That said, and based on the limited pictorial, the environment looks OK and doesn’t seem to have been too taxed by a lot of top-down time.

Back in the mid-late ’90s, I was in the market for a Chevy convertible and I found a ’71 dark blue, big-block powered example in Orlando. I hadn’t considered a ’71-’75 B-body convertible but was intrigued – the car looked a lot better than I recalled convertibles of that generation. I ultimately bought a ’66, which was more preferred, but I wondered for a while who picked up that ’71 – whoever it was got themselves a very nice example. Considering what this car is, and what it needs, the current bid seems high but old car values right now, like pretty much everything else, are all out of wack. What do you think, priced right, or not quite?