Convenient Carrier: 1961 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Rampside – Sold?

November 22, 2022, Update – We just confirmed the listing for this “Classifind” expired, so with no replacement found we’re assuming this ride “Sold?” While this one got away, please reach out either by email or call us directly if you’d like to be informed when we come across something similar.

November 12, 2022 Update – After nearly one month with no sale, the private seller of this Corvair rampside just lowered their asking price to $19,900.

By 1961, Chevrolet offered a complete line of cars and trucks based on its new air-cooled, flat-six, rear-engine  Corvair platform. Designed to provide a made-in-America answer to Volkswagen’s growing U.S. market share, Chevrolet launched the Corvair 95 line of forward-control pickups and vans.  The most innovative of this new line of trucks was the rampside pickup. This innovative design combined a low floor height and side gate strong to double as a loading ramp.  This freshly restored, burgundy-over-white 1961 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Rampside, originally listed in October 2022 on Craigslist in Buckingham, Florida (Fort Myers), features the desirable 110-horsepower engine and four-speed manual transmission.

Once offered for $19,900 (the original ask was $23,000), Classic.com, the analytics and search engine for the collector car market, confirms the ask is slightly below the one-year rolling average of this guide’s summary for all Corvair 95 pickups produced between 1961 and 1964.  By clicking on the green dots in the graph below, you can navigate to each comparable car sold as a way to help you evaluate the price of the truck featured here:

As a second data point, the  Collector Car Market Review Online Tool reveals the seller’s ask falls between this guide’s #3 “Good” estimate of $17,250 and its #2 “Very Good” appraisal of $27,800.

Chevrolet introduced the Corvair lineup for the 1960 model year as the first of a series of generations of passenger compact cars. For 1961, expanded the Corvair lineup by introducing a more utilitarian style of vehicle the following year under the model designation “Corvair 95”. In appearance and design, the vehicles were similar to the competing Volkswagen Transporter, which was essentially a bus-like adaptation of the Volkswagen Beetle that moved the driver over the front wheels (Forward control), also commonly defined as a cab-over vehicle.

Chevy engineers located the air-cooled horizontally opposed Chevrolet Turbo-Air 6 engine in the rear of the vehicle under a slightly raised cargo floor. It was similar in principle to the 4-cylinder engine of the Volkswagen but unusual for most contemporary cars. The 145 cubic inch engine developed 80 horsepower at 4,400 rpm. Unlike the Corvair cars, the Corvair Greenbrier van had a 95-inch wheelbase and was thus known as the “95.”

A Corvair truck could be ordered as a “Loadside” or “Rampside”. The Loadside was essentially a pickup truck with a standard tail gate. The Loadside was only produced for two years and is the rarest of the Corvairs; production totaled 2,844 in 1961 and 369 in 1962. The Rampside had a side ramp to be used for loading and unloading cargo. These were used by the Bell Telephone Company because the loading and unloading of cable drums were eased by the side ramp.  While produced in higher quantities, these trucks were literally worked to death that remains a rare find today.

The MiddleofTheRoadway YouTube Channel features this 1961 Chevrolet Corvair 95 launch commerical:

While the seat upholstery likely deviates from what this restored 1961 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Rampside originally came equipped with, the balance of the restoration appears to be of high quality, especially considering a Corvair specialist handled it.

Here’s the seller’s description:

Show or go: What would you do with this restored 1961 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Rampside?  Please comment below and let us know!