1971 Chevrolet Caprice Reviews, Pricing & Specs

this was my 1st 71, it made me fall in love with them. i bought this car when i was 18 & i rode out in this thing for years!!! had MANY adventures in it. the stereo system QUAKED!!! & sounded great,no rattle,all professionally done. it was extremely reliable & never let me down even in a pinch. i miss this car to this day ;( wish i could have kept her,she was a beauty!!!Dec 08, 2012

The 1971 Caprice is a great example of early ’70’s Detroit. This is an example of what cars were like before imports like Toyota and Honda began to influence designers of American cars. This car is big, fast and runs beautifully. The experience of driving a car like this is completely different from a modern-day vehicle. Today, cars are engineered to provide a “responsive” feel, which loosely translated means even the smallest bumps in the road are felt by the driver and the passengers. Not so of early ‘70’s cars like the Caprice. The ride is smooth and on even bumpy roads, you’re not shaken and jarred around like with today’s cars. A review I read online described the ride quality as "vaguely nautical," which I agree with wholeheartedly. The ’71 Caprice is happiest on the open highway, where it truly is the king of the road. Sitting behind the wheel, looking over the enormous hood as you glide effortlessly along is a lot of fun. While the car performs great around town I would never take this car into the city because its size makes navigating in traffic a little tricky. The Caprice is a good example of when Detroit believed that “bigger is better.” The car boasts a wheelbase of 121.5 inches. It’s a very big car with an interior and trunk that are best described as cavernous. As would be expected the mileage is not good. Because the Caprice is strictly for fun I seldom drive it and haven’t measured the mileage it gets. However I do believe it to be roughly 9 MPG in city driving and about 11 or 12 MPG on the highway. This is with the original 8-cylinder 400 ci engine. Gas was $0.29 per gallon in 1971 so fuel economy was not a concern to the designers of this car. For anyone looking for a great example of Detroit iron back when bigger was better, I’d recommend the Caprice or it’s twin the Impala any day. Nov 16, 2009