A couple of years ago, this site featured an ’86 Chevette Sport under the heading “Is This The World’s Best Preserved Chevette?”. And it was indeed a clean machine.
But now, ladies and gentlemen, I present you with a new challenger! (And no, we’re not talking Mopars.)
My grandfather spent his entire career as a machinist for the Great Northern (later Burlington Northern) Railroad, turning out one-off and custom-made brass parts at a shop in St. Paul five days a week. As a result, trains have played a role in all our lives over the years. And so it was that a family tradition began: each of us grandkids were given the opportunity to take a short train trip. Now that my sister is old enough to appreciate such a trip, she got her turn – St. Paul to Winona, with me being the return shuttle.
The picture above was taken at Winona. I attempted to get one at St. Paul when they departed, but got chased off by an overly-excitable Amtrak employee. At least I got a few pics of a Beetle that was parked behind the depot… look for that to appear in a future post.
Anyways, back to the car at hand. It was on the way down that I spotted this tiny Chevy parked on a service road with a “FOR SALE” sign. Time was tight, and I had passed by several other tempting shots along the way – but this one was worth the stop.
If the sign – and my slim knowledge of Chevette trim details – is correct, this would be a 1980 (CC here). And it sure looks nice… condition-wise, relatively speaking.
It may not be my cup of tea, but if you had to own a Chevette, you could certainly do worse than this one. Whoever’s grandmother owned this one must have driven it sparingly, and always parked it in the garage when not in use.
The slushbox may be cringe-worthy to an enthusiast, but for a granny’s puttering-around-town needs, it probably did the job just fine. Not like she’d be worried about 0-60 times anyways… or even getting it up to 60, for that matter.
43,358 miles. That’s less than 1,400 miles per year. Even my own grandmother puts down more miles than that.
The old adage of “detail before retail” was clearly not lost on this car’s seller. Everything was shined up, even the dog dish wheelcovers (and yes, it had all four!).
At a glance, such as the one I took when photographing it, this ‘vette looks pretty mint. But perfection has its price: $3500, in this case.
Had it been anything $1200 or under, I would have been torn (what a deal… but what would I do with it?). But $3500? Sorry, Charlie. When it comes to Chevettes, I’m just not that hard-core.
From Goats, to museum tours, to Pintos, all in the same day. Where else but CC? As always, glad to be here!
I drove one of those turds from Cleveland to Philly way back in ’83 or ’84… gawd what a miserable experience! Since then I’ve been of the opinion that every Chevette in existence should crushed,including this one I’m sorry to say. The damn thing scarred me for life……
I can sympathize. Norfolk VA to Houghton, MI (actually Copper Harbor), August 1985, straight through in 24 hours. Horribly uncomfortable, though better than what followed. As soon as we arrived we got on the ferry to Isle Royale National Park – 5 hours of heavy following seas and vomiting, while my buddy hummed “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”… but it was a great trip!
WOW that’s a time capsule. Is it still for sale?
This is quite the nice Chevette – if that isn’t an oxymoronic statement. You are right about it being nice, but its audience is rather limited.
I knew a guy in college who thought a She-vette (as another buddy called it) was about the ultimate in comfort, economy, and practicality, with his ’86 Tempo coming in a close second.
This thing is a real time capsule.
Funny, I always heard it as ShitVette.
I used to call them Shove-its. As in “shove it up your ***”, I’m not driving that pile.
My grandmother had a ’79 ‘vette that she rarely ever got over 30mph. it was a 4 speed car though, and Dad would get in it once a month or so and do the Italian tune up on it to get the carbon blown out of it. I liked these cars, but after sitting in one recently at the junkyard, I realize that 12 year old me (at the time of her passing) was already too tall for it. 6’2″-180lb me is now like stuffing Shaq in a 1st gen Miata.
Hers seemed to be trouble-free the last 5 years of her life, more or less the same as her 69 Falcon that was replaced by the Chevy, save for clutches needing to replaced every 2-3 years due to her habit of riding it (she grew up driving Model T and As being born in 1905, and automatics made her nervous)
Ah yes, always gotta ‘clean the carbon’ out of the old folks’ cars. I wonder how many teenie-boppers have applied that excuse to grandma’s V8-powered whatever over the years 🙂
A guy I know had an elderly relative with a ’70 Skylark that seemed to have an extreme propensity for building up carbon. What a helpful grandson, though, coming over all those Saturday evenings and volunteering to keep the issue at bay!
LOL.. you just reminded me when Mom would complain about her 92 LeSabre running poorly and the brakes being soft. an afternoon of playing stoplight dragster with it, and wailing on the brakes ‘fixed’ it.
our neighbor had a 67 Mercury Caliente sedan that she would roll out of the garage and let idle on fast idle for about 3 hours. the furthest it ever went was to the corner gas station and back once a year for gas and inspection. She never trusted me to take it out on the road, but dad and other neighbors would take it out every 6 months because it’d get so carboned up that it’d barely idle. That car had 48,000 miles on it when she sold it. By the time I found it again it had 52,000 miles, and was no longer the cream-puff but a beat-up wreck that I could have bought for cheap had the guy that owned it, not started parting it out.
My inner communist tells me that we should all be driving these. Anything more is just frivolity. Forget hybrids, if 25% of unnecessary pickups and SUV’s were replaced by a ‘vette think of how much gas we’d save.
Heck just replace them with new Impalas, they get Chevette mileage:
1) 1984 Chevette with the 1.6 L four (70 hp, 82 lb-ft) and 3-speed automatic got 26 mpg combined (using today’s EPA numbers, it was listed as 29 mpg back then).
2) 2014 Impala with the 2.5 L four (195 hp, 187 lb-ft) and six-speed automatic gets 25 mpg combined.
21st Century technology.
(Link to figures)
It does make a compelling argument for taking the train, I have to admit.
I would say that’s rational thinking, I don’t see the link with communism.
Like in: what’s rational about a metro man driving a lifted pickup-truck with a 6 liter V8. Apparently it makes the feminized city slicker feel good !
You see, it’s all about emotion….
I will chime in here. I had a Chevette from 1998 to 2000. It was a white 1983 Chevette Scooter 2 door car. It was with the automatic trans. It was not the best car out there but it had been cheap to buy and insure and run and it got me everywhere I needed to go(not fast but it did keep up with traffic) and it never let me down with a repair. It started up right away and it ran well. It would get to 80 on the highway BUT if you turned on the A/C the top speed was 40 miles per hour before it bucked and kicked.
I regretted getting rid of it(I only got rid of it because I wanted a bigger car) especially since the replacement was such a piece of shit.(It was a Chrysler Lebaron coupe and it was such a POS that I have never bought, owned or even considered buying a Chrysler product ever again) If that was closer i might consider it as it would make a good backup/ beater car to drive.
Ah, the Scooter, when the regular Chevette was just too fancy…..
This thing needs bought by someone who rents to car to use in movies and TV. I can just imagine 100 different “struggling teacher” or similar characters this would be perfectly cast for.
Question. Why do people on this site and elsewhere refer to it as “Mopar?” Why not just say “Dodge” when talking about a Challenger.
This coming from a “GM guy” – but I’d always just known it as a general term for any Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, etc. product, same as GM covers any Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, etc.
I used to think it was used for lack of a generic heading for all of them, since not all Chryslers wear a Chrysler badge.
But then, I’ve always known Fords, Lincolns, Mercurys, etc. to just be grouped together as Fords. So I guess I don’t know. Force of habit mostly at this point, I ‘spose.
“Fomoco” used to get more use meaning “Ford vehicle(s) including but not limited to Ford Division products”, but it seems to have fallen away along with the withering of Lincoln-Mercury.
MoPar, capital P was what Chrysler branded their parts division back in the day. It was a contraction of Motor Parts. Somewhere along the line the P got turned into a lower case and it became the generic term for products from the Chrysler corporation.
I do love the color. Couldn’t find a Chevette brochure, but according to a 1980 Monza brochure, the color might be called “Light Camel Metallic.” It is SO of that era.
Man. I know these weren’t great cars but there’s just something about clean basic transportation like this that really appeals to me deeply.
I agree with you, Jim. I had to drive one of these for a college job and hated it. Ditto when I got one as a rental car in the mid 80s for an out of state wedding. But one of these with a stick, for some odd reason, appeals to me now. A little, simple, basic crapbox to take to the grocery store and back. The automatic would kill it for me, though.
This seems to be the color of early 80’s GM cars that show up around here in remarkable condition with stupid low miles…but not at all desirable.
I recently saw a 82 Regal custom with the only option being A/C with this color combo in the area for sale. Same shape as this, but not exactly t-type or GN material.
Having said that, I’d rock this ‘Vette just for the WTF factor and conversations you know it will create.
You can have the Chevette, I’ll take the Regal any day. As far as latter-year cars go (if anything from the ’80s can still pass as semi-modern), they’re at the top of my list. An article for another day.
I think I would take the Chevette verses the 82 regal. At least the auto trans in the ‘vette would work and be reliable, the 82 Regal would have the craptastic THM-200C which was designed to blow up just by looking at it.
As for modern, a 1989 Regal would still look modern but the 82 would look boxy and late 1970ish
+1, On the THM 180 in the Chevette. Very rare to hear of problems with those.
Guess I should have listed ‘so long as I can parts-swap’ as a caveat to the fictitious situation. There’s only two kinds of TH200s that I’ve encountered: those that are shot, and those that soon will be. (Good thing the world is full of TH350s!)
Not sure of the Chevette slushboxes’ reputation, as I’ve never owned one. But with three TH200 replacements under my belt before the ink on my driver’s license was even dry – not through abuse so much as plain bad luck – I know a little about how reliable they are(n’t).
the little four in the Chevette didn’t have any power to destroy one. the 200C (three speed) should have never been put behind any thing with more than six cylinders and even that was risky.
the 4 speed 200-4R shares almost nothing with the 200C except name and fluid.
Our 84 Delta 88 went through 3 200Cs in 120,000 miles. the 76 Chevelle that was to have been ‘replaced’ by the Olds… well a bad modulator sucked all the fluid out of it, and burned up the TH350 but that rebuild is now 20 years old and has more miles on it than the entire 84 Olds had when we junked the 84. That TH350 has been around the block in a few cars, and now back under the hood of my 77 Chevelle, doing what it does.
i love it, and I think recall they were good cars for the time. Had a friend who had one just like that with AC – we considered it a sweet car for a young guy. And think of the context, my sister had a 78 or so honda civic that was smaller, and slower (imagine) and my dad had a 76 toyota corolla that was similar in size and just as slow, noisy, rough running (and rusty).
I dont think until the early 80s hondas we saw a noticeable gap in quality US/Japanese. Then with the ’84 accord everything changed. Compared to an Chevy Citation, sigh…..
Knew a girl who had one of these. Used to brag about her vette to impress everyone until they saw it.
I remember wearing these cheap suits as punishment for not having enough money to drive a real car. Clean or not, these cars caused jock itch if you didn’t turn on the a/c.
These cars are awful.
They are America’s Yugo.
Amen.
Must be something about Chevettes. I recently saw this pristine 1978 model.
Wow, it’s in all original condition as well, including the hubcaps.
I’m not sure about the blacked out grille.
I remember that metallic green being a popular Chevrolet colour at the time including Malibus and Impalas. It takes lots of patience and perseverance to maintain a Chevette this long.
That’s a lovely color.
It would be too tempting to drop in a 5-speed stick and make it handle like a small, light RWD car should.
I love Grandma’s whitewalls!
Have had two of them over the years, turned a ’79 Scooter into a “real” Chevette via junkyard donor parts. next I bought a very clean ’82 with a burned-up engine for a song and proceeded to add all my junkyard parts to that one, including tilt wheel, pulse wipers, and the “gauge package” cluster (which had the only tach dial that IMHO correctly said “rpm/1000” as opposed to “rpmX1000” as so many do) The I made a center console, shift knob, and auxiliary gauge stack out of cherry (genuine wood, not wood grain, Oooo.) that also held the equalizer. Did a little body work and repainted it. Moved my Cibie headlamps from one Chevette to another (and then to my S10 when I bought it.)
Damn I put a lot of effort into that shitbox.
Took MANY trips in that thing, including a very memorable trip across the rocky mountains (I-80 one way, I-70 the other) in January…but that is a tale for another day.
Both my ‘Vettes were manuals with no air conditioning (thank goodness)
They were easy to fix, cheap to buy parts for, easy (in the eighties) to find in junk yards. Good basic transportation for a college student – and they kept me from driving my ’67 Malibu in the winter.
Whenever I am asked, “What was the worst car you have ever driven,” the Chevette invariably comes to mind.
Worst car I ever drove: A girlfriend’s ’74 Capri (2 Litre/Automatic/California Smogged) . . . . tortoise slow. 2nd worst: the above mentioned ’82 Chevette automatic (dealer loaner). An old Rambler American makes the old Chevette Automatics feel like a ’14 Mercedes SLS AMG.
Soft spot for these as my best friend freshman year of high school had one (he was a senior) – 4 speed, and he let me drive it. It was my first on road experience, and my first manual transmission. He drove the S!@# out of that car – at high speed, put over 200k miles on it over the years.
Remember the diesel Chevette? Or how Slow can you Go?
Car & Driver tested one, it went 0-60 in a blistering 21.2 seconds…
I do love this example simply for the fact that it is spotless. Just put around town with it and put it away. Yes – these cars were ‘marginal’ even when new. I had a loaner once (when my ’82 Camaro was beset with numerous warranty problems). Automatic Chevette and it was no fun to drive. Murderously slow. Then I had a stick Chevette to drive around. It was OK. Around 1983 there was a rumor that Chevy was going to introduce the 60 degree V-6 in the Chevette. That would’ve been a “cheap thrills” vehicle.
Chevettes served their place – cheap to buy, cheap to own and operate. They didn’t have the falling apart/warped head/rust in months aura the Vega projected. They were what they were – inexpensive starter cars or 2nd car grocery getters.
52+MPG with its Isuzu engine: I’ll take one, thank you.
My grandfather had one of the diesels with a 5-speed when I was very young (he also had a diesel Toronado. Yep.). That Chevette was slower than a turtle stampede through peanut butter, but he swore it got in the mid-50s MPG on a bad day. At some point, he welded a cross-brace between the front shock towers because the chassis was starting to bend and collapse the suspension.
His favorite story about that car was driving it on a long work trip shortly after he bought it. On his way home, he was entertaining himself trying to hypermile and started drafting an 18-wheeler. According to him, he got close enough that the little ‘Vette got stuck in the truck’s slipstream and he couldn’t escape until the truck slowed down for an exit. Possibly apocryphal or embellished, but a fun story.
My grandmother had a first-gen Chevette, kept in mint condition in a garage and driven around 50 miles a week to the store, the pool, and her weekly bridge game. It was absolutely the perfect car for puttering around in Pittsburgh, where parking is always at a premium and small cars can go where others cannot.
As appearance goes, I always liked the first generation over the second. My grandfather ditched his enormous Gold Duster for a Pontiac T-1000, which was essentially the second-gen Chevette. I never liked it as much as my grandmother’s car.
I remember the door closings on these being especially ‘tinny’.
Chevettes may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I had one and it turned out to be one of the best cars I’ve ever owned.
The ticket was to go with a later model like my ’84. Four speed, no A/C and power nothing. Performance was acceptable. It WOULD get out of its own way. Next, regular oil changes and front end lubrication. Then add a decent set of gas shocks and 13 x 185 radials.
I bought it used in ’86 with 37K on the clock. Drove it for another 100+ K until I traded it in in ’93. This car was my Energizer bunny. NEVER refused to run. Only normal maintenance items like brakes, a couple of water pumps, timing belts, batteries, tires, etc. NO rust, even though it was driven year-round in Ohio. Perfect car for me at the time. Reasonably priced to buy. Cheap to operate, insure and maintain. I did all of my own repairs and maintenance.
Would I own another one if it was in as good a condition as the subject car? Yes, but it would need to be slightly newer. I think a few bugs still needed to be worked out in the ’80 models. (But these were significantly better than the first-gen ones.) Also I would strongly prefer a stick shift. Junqueboi wrote a while back that the Borg Warner T50 5 speed is nearly a bolt-in for these.
And yes, I remember the diesel Chevettes. Never had the pleasure of a ride or drive, but a friend from work had one. He said that one time his wife took it to the gas station and pulled it up to the diesel pump. The attendant refused to turn on the pump, because “There’s no such thing as a Diesel Chevette.”
I had friends with Chevettes and Pont T-1000s. They were reliable enough beasts to withstand newly licensed drivers. Good training wheels for teenagers.
Perhaps in the Chevette’s defense, the 1980 Chevette and the 1980 Fiat Strada were the only small cars tested that year that passed the US Department of Transportation’s 35 mph frontal crash tests. At least according to this crash safety marketing film (link below) prepared by Fiat in 1980.
Ten small cars failed. They included: Toyota Corolla, Toyota Tercel, Honda Civic, Datsun 310 & 200SX, VW Rabbit Convertible, Audi 4000, Subaru GLF and the
Mazda 626.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dd8_1351657569
And here is the DOT crash test database including the Chevette:
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/database/aspx/vehdb/veh_catalog_by_mmy.aspx
There was a four-door 1980 Shoveit on the show field at Hershey a couple weeks ago. Whatever else you can say about these, they were not pretending to be something they weren’t. I’ll take one of these over an Iron Duke equipped Camaro any day.
I always liked these, stylistically speaking, and kinda got to drive one, one was a blue ’79 4 door used in 1983, it was too much, but I liked it, then my oldest sister had an 82 Chevette that I think served her well.
She’d gotten it used when it was 2-3 years old or so, I think, a lightly optioned red 2 door with the manual, had the AM radio, no AC and manual everything. I remember riding shotgun with her driving it as we drove from our youngest sister and her family’s place at an Army base west of Atlanta, and taking the back roads down past the city and most of the way south to Florida whereby we were heading west to Ft Walton Beach where my oldest lived with her family at the time (this being in the late 80’s). The weather was hot, and we drove those back roads with both windows open, and her then young daughters in the back seat. The previous owner had added extra speakers in the way back area, but with the stock radio, not enough power to hear over the wind noise.
I remember it being comfortable enough for the 5 hour or so trek south to Florida.
i distinctly recall these being much more reliable than the Vegas, and they generally didn’t rust like the Vega did either.
Thankfully, out this way, even a Vega could survive, though I don’t see them much anymore even here/ I think I see more Pintos, come to think of it, and even they are a rare sighting.
Was the undercarriage on the car as clean and rust free as the top? I have seen numerous elderly person’s car who look like new only to find them to have very rust undercarriages.
The last time I drove a Chevette, I felt like a circus bear with my knees under my chin. Not a pleasant experience to say the least. As much as I don’t like those cars, I am sure there must be someone out there who can preserve this one. Or donate to a museum so no one else has to suffer the fate of driving it.
I love it! Perfect color and interior combination too. I want to take it home!
It’s way too perfect to be molested. I hope whoever buys it keeps it that way, or it ends up in a museum.
I got one of those turds in 1980. 5 door hatch with all the goodies. Recently married, it was time to get a “responsible” car, so I traded in a perfectly good Fiat X1/9 on a total P.O.S. “Shove-it”. Auto transmission that routinely chewed itself to pieces, weird electronic carb setup that would intermittently shut off fuel to 2 of the cylinders, and an A/C unit that would cool less the hotter the day got (and it got hot in Mobile, Al. in the summer). Soon,even the wife wished we had kept the Fiat, it didn’t have the room, but it ran reliably and was a LOT more fun to drive. Never had a Chevy since.
I have a sickness to have something like this in my collection, a really well preserved crap car, it its an awesome conversation starter. I have a friend that has a mint Astre, it gathers more attention than a Chevelle SS.
Wow, now this is a Time Capsule!
I know they were crappy, but almost makes me want it-just because.
It just looks so honest.
When I saw this story, I instantly remembered this little song…
There’s an ’82 just like this one but in lighter tan color for sale just down the road from me. I think it had less than 50k on it too, I see it sitting on the guy’s flatbed when I drive past. Interesting but not something I’d really want.. I wonder what’s considered worse, these or the Citations..
Ah, you haven’t really lived until you drove one as a daily commuter…….in Sacramento, CA……..black…….no A/C………..(which I believe wasn’t available with)…….the diesel engine option……..and yes, the slushbox.
Did you ever drive it on the highway?
I didn’t think the diesel was available with the automatic.
The diesel was indeed available with the automatic. But A/C wasn’t. Yes, everyday (M-F) you’d find me on 99 heading up to Sac. Just floored it and hoped for the best. With the windows open, of course.
i wonder how old those tires are? It has been a while since I saw a tire that said steel belted radial on it. in 2013 it is a given that all tires are steel belted.
Wow, having driven a Chevette for more years than I care to admit (although in my defense it was my mom’s) that one is pretty clean.
Even the same color as ours. Although ours was a 1978 and a 4-door. More about it here:
https://www.facebook.com/JewelorJalopy
The only new car my parents ever bought was a 1980 or 1981 Chevette diesel with the four speed. They bought it in Texas, and a few years later moved back to Michigan. They had the car until 1995 when it was totaled. My parents loved that car and would have kept it until it completely fell apart. Seeing that dashboard picture brings back many memories of playing and riding in that car.
A familiar car as a Vauxhall Chevette.The British climate has seen off most of them by now,it was the last Vauxhall with a reputation for rusting badly
The first car I ever drove was my father’s 78 Chevette. All I can say is that the Escort that replaced it seemed absolutely incredible by comparison. It could be comfortably driven on the highway for example.
My brother and one of my sisters had Chevettes back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. My brother’s car was a four speed manual that he purchased new. I was only in it a few times before they realized that with having one child and then another one on the way, they needed a bigger vehicle. I vaguely remember it as being competent enough but compared to my Rabbit it was slower, didn’t handle nearly as well, and just felt odd. The one that my sister bought (used) was a two door with the automatic. This car was truly awful; it would “accelerate” up to about 57 mph and then it was as if a parachute had deployed. It would probably go 65 but wouldn’t be worth the effort to get there. My brother in law drove it back and forth to work for several years before someone ran into it and put it out of its misery.
I’ve had a pile of these cars & like them for beating around town in. Gearing was awful: 3.62 or 3.36 were the only axle ratios offered so even the tallest 13″ tire didn’t help much: these things were screaming at 60mph.
This one is in great shape although I think the color and option combo couldn’t be much worse. Some of the early Chevettes were available with turbine wheelcovers (nice!), tach cluster, clock, tilt wheel, and pulse wipers.
I kept one Chevette…a yellow ’85 2-door with 86K on it: 4-speed, radio delete, no a/c. I’ll eventually get it out of the barn & install the T5, tach, tilt, etc. so it’ll be a little more fun. The Chevette CS came standard with an AM radio (why?) so I’m correct by saying it’s a radio delete — not that it matters on something like this anyway.
Certain years…maybe it was the ’80 model… had a different exhaust manifold with dual outlets. The two pipes converged into one just before the converter. I saved a few of those “just because”. Not sure how much (if any) horsepower it added.
My parents traded in a Shove-It for their ’84 Plymouth Voyager and never looked back. I can’t remember what year it was but it was definitely the first generation of Shove-Its.
Before that, my dad drove a ’74 Matador.
Soon after I was born my parents bought a two-door 1983 base model Chevette in light grey with beige vinyl interior. Stick (I believe it was a 4-speed), no a/c, crank windows, no nothing. Did I mention we lived in South Florida? It was an immensely uncomfortable experience, and the car was also a royal POS. One time, my mother was shifting up to get on to I-75 and the top of the gear shift came off in her hand. The transmission blew at about 30K since it had apparently been constructed from rubber bands and sandpaper. The car repeatedly broke down, and perhaps the only thing that made it palatable was the alternative, my grandfather’s “spare” third car, a dark green early 70s Ford Maverick with, um, “iffy” brakes. At least you could stop the Chevette.
We returned to New England, where my family is from, when the car was about 5 years old for my parents’ new jobs. The car carried what it could up north, following the moving van. It lasted about 3 months in its new home. At 75K miles, the transmission went again. My parents threw up their hands, and bought two Asian cars…a peppy ’84 Civic base model hatchback (vinyl, 4-speed manual, no frills), and a slightly more comfortable but significantly less reliable new ’88 Hyundai Excel GL, Korea’s answer to the Chevette (thought it made it to almost 100K before it too was replaced by a Honda).
Spending ages 1-15 riding in the back of these hot, uncomfortable, and the “Vette” and Excel’s case, unreliable cars turned me decisively towards my grandfathers’ box Panther Grand Marquis LS sedans and a strong devotion to RWD, full frame, Brougham-dom.
On my daily morning commute from Ma’ili, Waianae into downtown Honolulu, an older gentleman is always seen on the H-1 freeway putting his ’86 or ’87 Pontiac T-1000 (1000 actually – with a replacement Chevette right taillight). This guy lives near my SIL/BIW’s in the Waianae Valley.
Pops, unfortunately has a bad habit (as do lots of driver out this way) of putting along in the fast lane. Chances are pretty good this car would have at least 150K on the clock. Ironically, at night he puts a car cover on it. Not real cherry, but cared well enough as it has very little salt-air rust.
Here’s a “nice” Canadian 1978 Chevrolet Chevette on sale for $8,000 with only 31,325 kms! Automatic but all original. Never Winter driven since cars here in Ontario rust with all the salt.
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Chevrolet/Chevette/MILTON/Ontario/19_7443553_/?showcpo=ShowCPO
@M.D. — that’s kinda cute. I’d happily buy it — for about $2500, though. But then I’d use it as a city car. What are the three triangles on the speedo dial? I was thinking shift points for the stick version, but not shifting into fourth till about 70 mph/110 kph seems nuts.
I think those arrows mark the recommended top speed in each gear, presuming a four speed manual and not the automatic. I have seen this in other low end cars; you might think of it as a (very) poor man’s tachometer. This would actually be useful in a Chevette as you would need to row pretty hard through the gears to keep up with traffic.
I found it amusing at the time, that both the Chevette and the Omni/Horizon offered the fake wood grained siding initially, to appeal to North American tastes. Hard to imagine seeing this on a Rabbit or Civic.
Correcting myself. Check out this VW Rabbit at the 1979 Chicago Auto Show.
One of these used to live down the street from me, in the garage of an elderly couple. The husband drove a Civic wagon, which was used pretty regularly. The woodie Omni (or Horizon, I forget) hardly ever moved. After the husband died, some relative got it. It was light metallic green.
Who exactly does fake wood siding appeal to?
I could never work this out. The same people who liked vinyl roofs?
In the 1960s and 70s, almost everybody liked vinyl roofs. The fake wood had a much smaller group of fans. Much smaller.
Ugh. Haven’t seen one of these in ages. But, like most cars, they have their defenders and detractors. I knew a schoolteacher who bought a brand new ’79 Chevette four-door, loaded as you could get a Chevette, that gave her nothing but trouble for the year she had till it blew a rod. But then there’s the Chevette Scooter my buddy’s older brother had that was his favorite car that he somehow drove 15 years (!) and 205,000 miles (!!). That one finally met its maker when the rusted frame cracked. He kept it that long I believe just to rub the haters’ faces in it, even though the final two years he had to carry a case of oil and add a quart everyday it seemed like, and the tin worm was so bad he had a yellow drivers door to go with the brown body. He did save a lot of money, though, and replaced it with a brand new loaded to the gills 1994 S-10 Blazer. A very sharp truck. Two years later the tranny blew at 21,000 miles.
Got a new ’81 that July. Four speed manual, no A/C. Unquestionably the worst car I’ve ever had. Stranded by a failed fuel pump at six thousand miles, and it only got worse from there. Even the Delco AM radio broke after a year! Struggled for four years and then got an ’85 Civic S hatchback…what a revelation! Put 128k on the Civic and still had original clutch when I sold it…Chevette needed a clutch at 22k.
I’ve never had those problems with my 81 Chevette. I still have it in 2014.
A Chevette has never failed to get me from point A to B. If only people were that reliable.
I used to have a 79 but my wife made me sell it, is this one still available.
The green four-door displayed above could be the same color as the Chevy Biscayne one-off we’ve been looking at. Not much else connects the two cars, other than the brand. Minimal cars are fun; check out the four prominent black Phillips-head screws holding the instrument cluster in place . . .