Selling an old or dead Chevrolet Caprice

This page covers the 1984-1996 Caprice: the square-bodied car through 1990 and the rounded 1991-1996 car, police 9C1 and taxi versions included. NHTSA lists 21 recall campaigns for those years.

The two Caprices on this page

We read these counts out of NHTSA's data on October 10, 2026. Four complaints filed under a 1997 model year sit in neither row. The total, 834, also carries 152 complaints filed under Impala, most of them the Caprice-based Impala SS.

1984-1990: few complaints, a cluster of recalls

The boxy car drew only 96 complaints across seven model years. The 1986 is the exception. Eighteen of its 30 complaints are about the hydraulic brakes. One owner said the cast housing of the power master cylinder broke open and leaked fluid; another described a pedal that went straight to the floor at any speed. No recall in the files covers that.

Five recalls did land on these years:

• 85V153 and 85V151 (November 1985): on the 1985, the positive battery cable could rub through on the control arm or exhaust shield, and a fuel hose could touch a radiator shroud screw. Either could start an underhood fire. Each campaign counted 27,942 vehicles.
• 87V168 (October 1987): a badly formed manual valve link in the transmission could give a gear other than the one selected, or let the car start in gear. 11,936 vehicles.
• 89V102 (June 1989): a nylon bushing in the cruise control servo could slip on 1984-1988 cars, raising engine speed or sticking the throttle. 1,755,897 vehicles in the whole campaign, with no split by model.
• 90V096 (May 1990): the plastic fuel filter could leak, with static charge a possible ignition source. Dealers fitted a metal filter and bracket. 21,415 vehicles.

Chevrolet built 221,199 Caprices for 1984 and 155,281 for 1987. The 1990 was the last year of this body.

1991-1996: the rounded car, police duty and loose fasteners

The rounded Caprice arrived in April 1990 as a 1991, and the Caprice Classic was Motor Trend's 1991 Domestic Car of the Year. It kept the old chassis and drivetrain but switched to a plastic (HDPE) fuel tank and made anti-lock brakes standard.

Brakes still lead the 1991 and 1992, with 28 complaints each. A 1992 owner said the ABS modulator failed, the warning light came on and the ABS quit. Recall 97V217 replaced modulators on 1992 cars that could corrode and leak fluid from the front brake circuit, on 56,701 passenger cars. Another early campaign, 91V186, replaced secondary hood latches on 1991-1992 cars that could corrode, so the hood might open and hit the windshield (224,588 cars).

The 1994 has the most complaints of any Caprice year, 161, and 27 of them are about latches, locks and linkages. Owners reported cracked striker plates on the rear doors. That same year GM recalled 130,581 cars because the fuel tank strap fasteners had not been tightened, so the tank could sag and scrape the road (94V210). Then came a run of fixes, most of them on the last cars:

• 95V082: at low temperatures, the accelerator pedal assembly could bind with too much friction. 87,039 cars, 1994-1995.
• 95V221: a badly adjusted shift linkage on 1995 cars could let the lever leave Park with the key out. 83,400 cars.
• 96V018: front lower ball joint nuts on 1995-1996 cars were not torqued properly and could work loose. 102,403 cars.
• 96V020: the rear lower control arms on 1991-1996 cars could crack where the stabilizer bar attaches, worse under severe duty. Dealers replaced both arms. 154,214 cars.

Police cars got their own campaigns. Recall 92V089 replaced steel wheels that cracked around the lug nut surface, mostly under police use (34,717 cars). Recall 93V018 added an insulating shield on 1991-1992 9C1 cars in salt-belt states, where the junction block could ground out, melt and smoke (20,000 cars).

Output fell from 104,297 cars for 1991 to 27,640 for 1996. Production stopped on December 13, 1996, and GM turned the Arlington plant over to the Tahoe and Suburban.

Year-by-year NHTSA counts

A recall shows in each year it names, and a grouped row lists it once. The Impala-filed complaints are spread over 1985, 1987 and 1993-1997, including 88 of the 153 on the 1996.

Repair it or sell it?

The youngest Caprice here is a 1996, so look past the one part that failed. Before you pay for a repair:

• Look up the VIN at NHTSA's recall page and ask a Chevrolet dealer whether anything is still open.
• Price the full list, not just the part that failed, and hold it against what a running Caprice of your year and mileage sells for.
• Check the floor and frame if the car sat outside in a salt state. Several of the recalls above came from corrosion.

For a car that has been parked for a long time, our guide on a car sitting for years walks through what usually goes wrong.

Selling the Caprice whole

• Before you ask: have the VIN and the mileage, and know whether it's a sedan or a wagon and which engine it has.
• Get the offer: online, or call (877) 421-6008.
• Where it sits: a garage, a carport, the curb out front. Say whether it rolls and whether the brakes hold.
• Keep it intact: wheels, battery and catalytic converter stay on the car. Tell us about anything already removed.
• At pickup: the driver needs the title and your ID; keys too, if you kept them. For plates and insurance, check after you sell.

Other big Chevrolets: the Impala, Lumina and Monte Carlo, or the full Chevrolet list.