Streetside Classics
Depending on how old you are, the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am nameplate occupies very different pop culture spaces. If you're a child of the '70s, the Screaming Chicken decorated the hero car of "Smokey and the Bandit;" if you grew up in the '80s, it could talk and was named KITT; and if you were born a bit later, you may know it as the '80s muscle car in which Dwight Schrute pulled up to Dunder Mifflin every morning.
The 1979 Trans Am definitely appeals to those on the older end of that spectrum, and Streetside Classics is offering up one with just 21,956 miles on the odometer and the hood decal you want. It's being sold out of Nashville, Tennessee, finished in Cameo White, and it features its presumably original 185-horsepower 403-cubic-inch V8, a three-speed TH350 automatic transmission, and power steering. Brakes are discs up front but drums in the back.
A fair price for a piece of Malaise era nostalgia?
Streetside Classics
As if it didn't look cool enough from the outside, this Trans Am has a red vinyl interior. And unlike some red interiors of modern cars that can often look like they were made by Fisher-Price, this is closer to burgundy. I'm also a sucker for that engine-turned aluminum dash trim — that's what you call it when the metal has those swirls in it.
The price for all this late-'70s flamboyance? $40,995. Whether that's worth it or not will likely depend on just how much you like Trans Ams, but for context, 40 grand doesn't quite buy that much when it comes to new cars. General Motors doesn't make Pontiacs anymore, let alone Trans Ams, but Ford does still build a Mustang, and as of this writing, the least expensive V8 version you can get costs $49,795 including destination, and if your budget is 41 grand, you're looking at the Premium version of the four-cylinder EcoBoost. Not nearly as cool or rowdy as a low-mileage, original red vinyl interior '79 Trans Am, I'd say.