1988 Box Chevy Caprice Quietly Agonizes in the Slaughteryard, V8 Surprise Still Inside

Ford produced 1,331,489 automobiles in 1988, while the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors only assembled 1,236,316 vehicles. The cause for this is not relevant to anyone but historians now, 36 years later, but one detail stands out about that particular year.

One certain model from Chevrolet suffered an abrupt downfall in sales, a five-year streak of dwindling sales. The Caprice is the unlucky nameplate going downhill in a steel drum barrel, hitting rock bottom at 128,208 units. In 1984, the same series had been credited with over 221,000 sales (again, a spike ending another production diet starting at 341,000 in 1977).

All these ups and downs occurred during Caprice’s third-generation timeframe, the longest in the series' three-decade run (1965-1996). Introduced as an option package for the sales champion Chevrolet Impala in 1965, the Caprice was segregated into a separate model the following year. The full-size car soldiered on through the Malaise and its aftermath and gradually ended up as the sole full-size sedan in the market in the late 80s.

That year also marked the swan song for carbureted induction in Caprice sedans (in 1989, electronic fuel injection replaced the ancient four-barrel system). Here’s a not-so-fine example from that model year, sitting in the Pick’n’Pull junkyard in Fort Worth, Texas, scavenged by parts foragers and waiting for the crusher. Benny Sanchez, the host of the Classic Ride Society YouTube channel, found it and made the video below about it.

The 305-cubic-inch V8 is still inside, although by then, GM had switched from imperial to metric denominations, so we should call it what it is: a 5.0-liter corporate engine (made by Chevrolet but used across the board by other sister divisions). Although the B-bodied Chevrolet Caprice sedans ditched the four-barrel version, that particular setup continued to be used in station wagons for whatever reasons.

This old and derelict Caprice has an automatic transmission, the Turbo-Hydramatic 700 four-speed (with overdrive), which sends power to a 2.56:1 rear axle. Yes, the Caprice held on to that traditional front-engine, rear-wheel drive architecture long after America began to adopt the FWD platforms (mostly under the pressure of imports from Japan and Europe).

Chevrolet might have called it a five-liter, but the eight-cylinder’s power ratings weren’t particularly encouraging, lest we forget the time of its inception. 170 hp and 250 lb-ft (173 PS, 339 Nm) was all the magic that the engine (RPO code LG4) was capable of. The powerplant was discontinued in 1987, but a batch was allotted to the carry-over production for the 1988 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Caprice.

Overall, this crusher candidate was a nicely optioned box Chevy with power seats, locks, windows, deck lid release, cruise control, air conditioning, tilt steering wheel, and whatnot. Feel free to cross-reference the SPID sticker in the trunk for the complete breakdown of optional extras ordered on this battered Chevrolet.