The 1960s and 1970s featured some of the most iconic American cars in automotive history. One such car is the Chevrolet El Camino. While Muscle Cars like the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, and Chevy’s own Chevelle offered amazing speed and style for blue-collar Americans back in the day, the Chevrolet El Camino offered a unique experience. The appeal of the Chevy El Camino was that it offered V8 American Muscle power, coupe styling, and the practicality of a pick-up truck in one affordable package.
If you’re interested in the 1964 Chevrolet El Camino, General Motors built over 30,000 examples. Here’s what the legendary Chevrolet El Camino will cost you today.
History Of The Chevrolet El Camino - Ford VS GM
Before we get into the pricing for the 1964 Chevrolet El Camino, we first need to discuss how the Chevy El Camino first came to be. Believe it or not, the idea for a sort of roadster utility vehicle began back in the 1930s.
Ford Australia was first to the market with their Utility vehicles in the 1930s by responding to the demand of the farmer community at the time. In Australia and New Zealand, Utility Vehicles are also known as UTEs for short.
General Motors’ Australian division wanted to compete in response to Ford launching their UTE, so they released their own Chevrolet version of a Utility Vehicle not long after Ford.
While these UTEs were available in the Australian market for over twenty years, it wasn’t until 1957 when Ford Introduced the Ranchero to the American Market. Chevrolet once again responded to Ford by releasing the first generation El Camino that ran from 1959-1960.
Overview Of The 1964 Chevrolet El Camino
While the first-generation Chevrolet El Camino ran for only two model years in 1959-60, the second generation did not begin production until 1964. This is because the Chevrolet Greenbrier took its place as Chevrolet’s car-based pickup vehicle.
When the second-generation El Camino was introduced in 1964, it was based on the Chevelle platform. It featured two six-cylinder engines rated at 120- and 155-hp. Those are fine, but the more desirable engines are going to be the optional v8 engines with 220, 250, and 300 horsepower, respectively.
One thing to keep in mind is that higher horsepower engines were offered throughout later years in the generation. There were also other transmissions and styling differences as the years of production went on.
A popular modification for second-generation El Camino is to convert them to a SuperSport trim. This was not offered officially from the factory until the El Camino’s third-generation arrival, however.
Cost To Get Into A 1964 Chevrolet El Camino Today
Prices in the classic muscle car market from the 1960s can sometimes seem insane to the average buyer, but the 1964 Chevrolet El Camino is surprisingly affordable considering the car’s cult status and popularity.
A recent search (as of January 2022) on Auto Trader Classic Cars shows several examples ranging from the low end of $28,000 to a high of around $40,000. There are always going to be exceptions depending on mileage and condition, but those are the prices you can expect to pay. For the price of a new Toyota Camry, the idea of having such an iconic collector’s car is appealing.
If that’s too rich for your blood, the popular car auction site Bring A Trailer shows much lower sale prices. If you're fine with buying a car without seeing it in person or test-driving, you can expect to pay around $11,000 on the low end to about $23,000 on the high end for the 1964 Chevrolet El Camino. If you want a 1965-1967 model year, however, they seem to hold a much higher premium.
Revival of the El Camino
There have been rumors about a revival of the El Camino going back as far as the early 2000s. The reason for this rumor relates to General Motors’ Australian brand, Holden. Holden has been offering a Utility vehicle or “UTE” for short versions in their model line up for decades. Since the original UTE was made for the Australian market in the 1930s, it’s only fitting that Holden would be the one to handle this task.
It can also be noted that the Holden UTE is a dead ringer to a modern take on the classic 1960s Chevy El Camino. Since Chevrolet and Holden are all under General Motors’ ownership, it seemed logical that the Holden UTE could be rebranded as a new Chevrolet El Camino.
GM did bring over three of Holden’s vehicles to be rebranded in the US but did not see the success they had hoped for. Those models were the Pontiac G8 Sedan (2007-2009), Pontiac GTO Coupe (2004-2006), and more recently, the Chevrolet SS Sedan (2014–2017).
Chevrolet even made a somewhat spiritual successor to the El Camino on their own with the SSR pickup truck/convertible that ran from 2003-2006.
Unfortunately, none of these sold very well which has led General Motors to focus its efforts elsewhere. With those factors in mind, the revival of the El Camino is highly unlikely. But with enough interest from the enthusiast market as used El Camino prices continue to rise, anything is possible.