I was driving through downtown Moline this afternoon when a pristine, gunmetal gray circa-1990 Chevrolet Cavalier passed me. SInce most every pre-1995 Cavalier around here is pretty rusty, this was a startling find. Let’s face it, most Cavaliers got the bark beat off them years ago.
I managed to get off one shot as the light turned green. As I did, I couldn’t help but notice the Regal sedan of similar vintage right behind it (for you Regal fanciers, the CC on a ’96 model can be found here). It was almost like 1990 again; back then, my best friend’s mom had an otherwise identical navy blue Cavalier. I was hoping to get a couple more pictures, but unfortunately the Cavalier got away before I had the chance. Hopefully I’ll catch up with it again one of these days: The only 1990 model, rust-free Cavalier in the Quad Cities.
Very GM’ey intersection with a Malibu and Chevy truck to boot.
Time for new wipers!
I sold a few of those Cavys, they weren’t a bad little car. The small car market was starting to move uplevel in the early 90’s; the Civic was probably the head of the class at that time. The next several years proved interesting for that end of the market, with the redesigns of that class of car moving up in equipment levels and pricing, while gasoline prices simultaneously dropping to historically low levels. I’m sorry I wasn’t selling SUV’s in the mid to late 90’s, but it wasn’t really my game anyway.
Besides, the real cherry in this pie is the current model LTZ level Malibu… I love those things!
I still look at the 1995-2003 Cavalier coupes and think, thats a nice clean design, with that thin pillar roof and nice contours.
Carmine: I’ve got one of those out in the driveway right now. It’s a tough little beast, and it really has nice lines. FWIW, I really liked the refresh they did on it for the 2003-2005 model years, the front end was a lot cleaner.
But 15 years of the midwestern salt is destroying it, and it won’t be long before I will have to take it off the road. 254,000 miles and still going strong.
Here’s a pix from last year when I cranked over 250,000 miles.
The roofline reminds me of the 1961 models, it seems so light and airy. This is my favorite view of the car.
Funny how cars like that are everywhere for years, a ubiquitous part of the background. You don’t notice them til one day you realize there are hardly any of them around anymore.
The 95-03 Cav coupes always looked like an updated version of the Monza to me.