This Baby’s Managed to Pay for Itself Many Times
In the summer of 1972, we ordered our Chevrolet Kingswood station wagon from Lee Johnson Chevrolet in Kirkland, Wash. The car was assembled at the General Motors plant in South Gate.
We had four teenage daughters still at home, so we ordered the three-seat version with everything but power seats and windows. I still have the window sticker showing a base price of $4,165.40 plus a $262 destination charge and factory-installed options and accessories of $966.50. The total: $5,393.90.
Our Kingswood is still in everyday use and has nearly 370,000 miles on the odometer (the “3” doesn’t show).
The longest trip we’ve taken in it was from Seattle to New Hampshire, down the East Coast to Georgia, over through Texas and back to Seattle in 1977. The only problem we had on the whole trip was a stripped speedometer gear in Troy, N.Y.
The only care we take faithfully is to have the oil and filter changed and the tires rotated every 4,000 miles. The engine is the small-block 400 V-8 and has not had any repairs other than a broken timing chain replaced about 15 years ago.
I had two offers on the coast of Oregon to sell the engine for dune-buggy use but had to turn them down.
We recently took a trip from Valley Center (near Escondido) in San Diego County up the coast to Santa Rosa, then over to Lake Tahoe and back down U.S. 395 in mostly 100-degree temperatures and over 8,000-foot elevation without any problems.
About six years ago, I drove the Kingswood solo from Breckenridge, Colo., to Valley Center in one day (close to 1,000 miles) to see if I could do it without too much fatigue. It was in September and I had to brush the snow off the car before leaving. When I passed Las Vegas, it was 105 degrees. It took 18 hours, but with the tilt wheel and cruise control, the car was easy to drive on the long trip.
The car has been painted twice, but the upholstery is original with the exception of the lower part of the front seat, where the stitching had to be replaced.
I get many offers to buy the car, especially because you don’t see many older station wagons in good condition.
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