The Term "COPO"

[Jim Mattison]

First off, when we were building these COPOs and "special" paint cars and trucks, we had no idea that some of these vehicles would become so collectible and valuable years later. If I had known, my garage would have been stuffed with a lot more cars than I have today!!!

We at Chevrolet never refered to a "special" paint order as being a COPO. Nor did we concider a car or truck with a non-recommended color/trim as being a COPO, although they would come through our office.

A COPO order was only issued on a car or truck that had "special" Chevrolet Engineering equipment installed on it. Most of these COPO orders were for taxis, police cars, the telephone companies and other municipalities. Does that make one of the many taxis that we built for New York City, or a telephone truck for Pacific Bell a collectible and valuable COPO vehicle???........Hardly!!!

Chevrolet never defined what the collectible COPOs were! The collector community did! It has always been my understanding that the definition of a collectible or valuable COPO car is a vehicle from one of the few "factory hot rod" programs that came through Chevrolet Engineering and Chevrolet Fleet & Special Order Departments in the 60's and early 70's.

Jim Mattison