(first posted 11/11/2011)
OMG biggest POS ever!
Drove a twenty-year old one down to Tierra de la Fuega and back – never let us down.
The engine blew up at 30k miles.
Our Pizza delivery drivers couldn’t kill them
Craptastic
Simple as a Jeep, but twice as reliable
One of my favorite weekend activities was to toss the helmet into my Chevette and go Porsche-huntin’
I’ve been dreading writing the inevitable Chevette CC, but can put it off no longer. Which is ironic, because the Chevette is a favorite for automotive web site “writers”; all they have to do is show a picture of one in the junkyard or filched from the web, throw in a couple of predictable lines about its limited power, or it being the most malaise car ever, or a reference to the Scooter’s cardboard door trim, and a torrent of colorful comments are unleashed. Works every time, even here at CC.
Feelings run strong about this car. So am I going to throw gas on the fire, or get the extinguisher?
Neither.
Why try to changes folks experiences and memories? And it’s not like I ever had one. So let’s try to gain some insight into this poor misunderstood shitbox. Starting with its origins; a little DNA analysis.
Now to fully explore every member of the vast GM T Car would be quite the undertaking. It was made in the UK, Germany, Australia, Japan, Korea, Argentina, and of course the USA,; m favorite name for it being the Daewoo Maepsy. Yes, Deawoo too; it’s an old relationship. The T-Car represents the beginning of modern GM as a major global player, and was the first of its kind, being adapted to local conditions, as well as local components. At least four totally distinct engine families found their home under its hood. But it all started with this Opel Kadett C.
Strictly speaking, the first T Car to go into production was the Brazilian Chevrolet Chevette, which was the basis for the American version. It came out in 1973, six months before the Opel Kadett C. But the T-Car was designed and engineered in Germany by Opel, and the Kadett C has developed quite the cult following there. Especially the GT/E, which had a lusty fuel injected version of Opel’s 1.9 liter engine, and earned a deserved name for itself on the Rally circuits.
The Kadett C was the third generation of a long line of Opel compacts that started in 1962 and is still going with the Astra. The C was the last generation to be rear wheel drive, and solidly upheld Opel’s rep for building well-handling cars at the time, like the highly regarded Manta/1900. It also received an all-new suspension, shedding itself of the narrow-track front transverse leaf spring setup that Bob Lutz found wanting in the Kadett B, for an all-coil setup that resulted in an eminently tossable little car. Yes, there’s some of of Bob in the T-Car and Chevette, but then he spread his genes widely.
Steering was light and direct, and driving a Kadett or any T-Car was about as fun as it got for it’s kind, in that old school rwd way, as long as the fine tuning was up to snuff. Needless to say, our dear Chevette didn’t get the fine polish the GT/E did, but the basics were always there, more or less.
The Kadett initially didn’t have the hatchback body style that appeared from the start on the Brazilian Chevette and the Vauxhall Chevette. The British ‘Vett had its own engines handed down from the Viva, and included some serious pocket rockets like this HSR.
The third main branch was the Isuzu Gemini, whose offshoots included the Holden Gemini and the Korean Maepsy. They followed the Kadett’s body styles, but there’s no doubt that the Isuzu had some of the best quality components, and certainly the most durable engines, which were shared with their pickups.
Having read about the Kadett C’s fine manners in auto motor und sport, I was filled with a combination of anticipation and dread when it was announce that Chevrolet would build its own version of the Brazilian Chevette, beginning with the 1976 model year. After the Vega debacle, it certainly seemed like a major step in the right direction: leverage Opel’s experience with small cars. I’ll never understand why the Opel 1900 wasn’t used as the basis of their small car instead. Even “Americanized”, it would have saved GM at least a couple of Deadly Sins. But when the Chevette arrived with a woody version, I saw the writing on the wall.
And the ultimate-stripper mobile Scooter didn’t help. The early versions came without a back seat! And all just to undercut the almost-equally stripper Rabbit’s $2999 price by a hundred bucks. Brilliant! So where’s the damn GTE? No such luck. In fact, the first year Chevette engine line up is particularly anemic; a 52 hp 1.4, or the 60 hp 1.6.
So for an extra hundred bucks, the 1975 Rabbit delivers an ultra-modern body, fwd, great handling, and a 75 hp engine, as well as a back seat! You think maybe VW advertising the Rabbit’s top speed was a dig at the Chevette?
Yes, the Rabbit upset the apple cart, even for Opel back home. The VW’s package and dynamic qualities quickly made even the best of the T-cars look a bit obsolete, and the next generation Kadett had a very Rabbit-like configuration. But that came too late for the Chevette, which I strongly doubt GM ever had any intention of building in the US until the 1973-1974 energy crisis hit, as well as its offspring, the CAFE regs.
Well, necessity pretty much defines the Chevette. There certainly wasn’t any inspiration involved, which when it comes to GM, may just have been the Chevette’s redemption. Everything is relative, and although the Chevette may have been found wanting compared the the Rabbit, most Americans were still smarting from GM’s Vega debacle. Actually, 1975 – 1976 were the height of that disaster, and its likely that the the Chevette’s modest sales to start with were a reflection of that. Maybe the Chevette’s marketing wasn’t exactly in sync either. As if…
In addition to being suitable to mixing it up with vintage Rollers, the Chevette also needed to compensate for the Vega’s lingering stink. Well, the Rabbit was no paragon in that respect, so the real competition here were the Japanese, which made huge headway in the seventies. Toyota and Datsun were on a roll with their Corolla and B-210.
And Mazda even paid the Chevette tribute with their GLC. We ought keep in mind that the Japanese competition then were all rwd, and pretty primitive in terms of their chassis and packaging, the little Civic excepted. So in terms of what the Chevette was up against was not exactly dramatically better, dynamically speaking. Dramatically, I said. A GLC may have looked like the Chevette, and was sized like one, but there were too many fine details of execution as well as material and build quality to be ignored.
We’re slipping too deeply into negative territory here, so let’s find something good to say. The Chevette came with a refreshingly attractive dash and steering wheel. It may not look like much today, but for 1976, for an “American” car, this was practically revolutionary. Clean, clear, simple, functional, and even cheerful. Now if only it had a bit more go under the hood to keep the smile going. That was a particularly acute problem with the automatic. Turn on the A/C, and watch the speed drop by five mph.
No, the way to go was with the essentials. Really, the Scooter made the most sense, perhaps, as long as it came with the rear seat. Bare bones, like this veteran, whose hardboard door panels have long been recycled into Chinese cardboard boxes. Third world motoring, at its finest, and no thanks on the Woody!
I’m rather proud about finding this Scooter still hard at work a couple of blocks down the street. And I assure you, it’s far from the only Chevette still pounding the pavement in Eugene. I’m familiar with a good half dozen or so, although they do tend to be the later ones, from 1980 on. That may have as much or more to do with the Chevette’s sales spike during 1980 and 1981, when almost a million of these roach-ettes were eagerly sold to Americans flipping out about the gas spike those years.
That spike soon drooped, and Chevette sales withered away, down to a mere 46k in its last year, 1987. That was way too late to be selling this car, which was hardly fresh when it arrived. But this ad from 1984 ad proudly claims that 97% of Chevettes built in the previous nine years are still on the road! Build them long enough, and they will become…institutions.
Yes, the Chevette created a new class of car: the pizza delivery mobile. Cheap and easy to fix. And the drivers could have their modest amusements at mostly safe speeds. Yes, we deliver handbrake U-turns too.
The Chevette would have been a minor player if it hadn’t been for the second energy crisis. Nobody really wanted a Chevette. People bought them because they were foolishly freaking out about gas prices that would inevitably rise to $10 within a few years. Or they needed a cheap scooter to buy for their kids, and had a thing about it being American. Or owned a Domino’s franchise.
Anybody who was half-way serious about small cars did their homework, and bought a Toyota, Datsun, Honda, Mazda or the excellent new fwd Colt/Champ. Although the sticker prices were fairly similar (a Chevette or Civic both started at about $11k in today’s dollars), buyers often paid list or even above for the Japanese cars, and there was usually money stuffed into the glovebox of the Chevette.
These later Chevettes had 65 hp engines, and in a lightly equipped two door with a stick, could provide a certain type of honest entertainment. It helped if you were into small and simple machinery, and not too picky about the fine details. And didn’t live in the mountains. And didn’t mind fixing things that fell off randomly. And avoided catastrophic self destruction of various sorts that were inevitably experience by a certain percentage of owners. Hey, the ad didn’t say 100% were still on the road.
Makes me wonder how many are still, today. Well, from the shape of one or two I’ve seen, it might be a while before the very last Chevette disappears from the streets here. And to tell the truth, I’ll be sad when it finally happens. Who will we have to kick around?
I don’t know why, but I’ve always liked the Chevette. My favourites have always been the 1980 and later models. If nothing else, they would be perfect commuter cars, or cars for driving surface streets, if not freeway driving. I’d buy a Diesel model, with a 1.8 litre diesel engine.
My gas-engine Chevette tale is below.
A couple of years after i traded it in, I worked with a guy who had an ’82 or ’83 Chevette diesel with a hatch. The only bad thing he ever said about it was that it was slow. His was a manual, too, but it may have been a 5-speed. His commute was about 80 miles per day, so the MPG from the diesel was a good fit for him.
IIRC, those were 1.8L Isuzu diesel engines, which have an excellent reputation for durability. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to find out personally, as his was taken out of service by an accident. (No injuries, though.)
How GM takes a good Opel design and totally ruins it. To be followed at oce more with the Cavalier. Sigh.
Pintos and Vegas were more popular on campus than Chevettes when I was in college. Also, Toyotas and Nissans (aka Datsuns) were picking up steam with an occasional Mazda in the mix. Seemed word was already out that GM just didn’t understand small cars at all. At least in the USA….
I always liked these little cars. My best friend in high school drove his mom’s sometimes, and I’d ride along. It wasn’t fast, but it was sure.
My ’84 “Vette” 2-door hatch was one of the best cars I ever owned.
Bought it in ’86 with 35K on the odometer to replace a terminally rusted ’74 Datsun B210 hatchback. Although there weren’t any Scooter logos, it might have been. The previous owner had jazzed it up a bit by adding some tape striping.
The secret to happy Chevette ownership is to go with a later model, 4-speed and power nothing, as mine was. This car would start every time and go anywhere… rain, snow or shine. Handled pretty well on the RWL BFG radials that were slightly wider than the stock ones. I also added gas shocks to all 4 corners and halogen sealed beams.
Drove it to ’93 and about 140K miles with pretty much normal maintenance, carried out religiously. Never had to replace the master cylinder, but it did require 2 water pumps. On this engine, the WP is driven by the timing belt, and the adjustment is a little touchy to get just right. I probably overtightened the belt on the first replacement.
I ended up trading my Chevette in on a 51K ’89 Beretta with 2.8, AT and AC, which I also loved dearly. Let’s just say that the ownership experience on that one was… ahem, not quite so economical. 😉
At trade-in time, the ‘Vette still looked good, had no visible rust, and still ran like a top. There’d be room in my lotto garage for another Chevette.
I wonder if the fact that the Chevette hung around so long could have been used to Chevy and Pontiac’s advantage the way the 84-87 RWD Corolla coupes were. There was a real nostalgia for small RWDs that began with the pony car horsepower war of 82-85. We know at the time GM was playing around with the 2.8 V6 in the Chevette, probably mainly coming out of the Fiero program.
Young pony car lovers would have to get over there aversion for V8 free cars. They would also had to do something about axle tramp. And many of the Corolla fans would have found them crude. But the 85 Camaro with the MPFI 2.8 and the t-5 five speed was a nice package. Subtracting 400 pounds and cutting the Camaro’s price by 30% might have filled the increasingly underutilized mid eighties American Chevette factory. If they had, I know we would have been seeing even more of them in high school parking lots, probably to this day.
It’s been a few months, but I used to see a Chevette 4 door whenever I visited my favorite Target.
When I lived in Memphis I would deliver pizzas to an apartment complex that had a diesel I-Mark 2 door parked out front.
These cars might have been a bit more memorable if GM in the U.S. hadn’t been deluded with that idea “….75% are still on the road” and had instead added steady refinement instead of idiotic trim packages. Like every other Chevy sold, there had to be several engines and trim levels.
A co-worker had one of the 1.4 liter, base models, and living in Florida he had the dealer add A.C. as the dealer here in Jacksonville received the car totally stripped.
GM sold a lot of Aveos that way. I saw several on one lot without AC but the set up for a dealer installed system was standard according to the sticker.
Lots of comments from 2011 referring to Car and Driver and it’s trashing of the Chevette in later years. When it came out C&D ran a cover story on it calling it “The Most Important Car Detroit Has Ever Built”.
The actual article by Brock Yates is a little more cynical and he uses the term “shitbox” at least twice.
In the text it’s explained that the T for the US was heavily re-worked and no sheetmetal is interchangeable with T Cars built in other parts of the world. It was also introduced in 1971, likely developed in the late 60s, so by 1976 the Chevette was a very improved 71 model.
Yates claimed the ones on hand for preview had “superior interior finish and detailing contrasting with the Rabbit’s aura of a Wehrmacht light reconnaissance vehicle”.
Patrick Bedard claimed ” an uncommon amount of money and effort have been directed towards rustproofing, including the use of galvanized steel and zincrometal in various parts of the unit body”. It appears GM was well aware of it’s competitors [and it’s own Vega’s ] propensity to rust and at least made some effort to address this problem.
However, in Motor Trend’s test, their Chevette was sidelined at the track because the steering wheel locked and couldn’t be taken out of park, rendering the whole car immobile until they disassembled the column. [ I saw the same thing happen to a then new 82 Celebrity…. , experienced it with my 05 ION….. a GM tradition, perhaps? ].
The Chevette is the sort of minimalist motoring that appeals to me. Had I been buying a new car at the time, I’d have chosen one of these, perhaps. The Vega was a disaster. The Nova too big and bloated. The Chevette must have made a lot of sense to a lot of people at the time.
And the attitude of the salesmen wasn’t great either. Because of his experience with one of the Quad Cities Chevy dealers [ “The Chevette? There’s one over there” ], and at Ford [ Fairmont base 2 door, 4 cyl. manual trans, same dismissive attitude], my Father drove to Moline and bought his first and only foreign car: a 1978 Subaru DL.
That domestic dealers still had that attitude toward small car buyers two years after the Chevette’s introduction and as the import’s market share continued to grow, just added fuel to the number of people who sought out the Japanese brands.
So many of the above comments reference buying these cars for $2-300 and then trashing them for being shitboxes. Most $2-300 cars are. Not exactly an objective reference point.
Both my brother and one of my sisters owned Chevettes, at least for awhile, back in the late seventies/early eighties. My brother and his wife bought a 1978 Chevette four door, I’m pretty sure it was the first new car they ever purchased. It had the four speed stick and was reasonably peppy, at least it felt quick because it was so light. My sister in law drove it back and forth to work for a year or so without any problems but when my niece was born, and they had two children, it was decided that the Chevette had to go in favor of something with more room.
My sister bought her two door Chevette, used, when she decided to return to school to become a nurse. This Chevette was an automatic and it was a turd; I drove it on several occasions and it would struggle to get past 58 MPH. With enough road you could coax it up to 64 or maybe even 65, but it wasn’t really worth the effort. It was just as well the car wasn’t any faster because the brakes didn’t inspire much confidence. All of this was likely a quirk of this particular vehicle, but my sister hasn’t purchased another GM vehicle since. As soon as she went back to work full-time the Chevette was traded off for a Toyota.
Is that a young Walter Rohrl in the Opel Kadett GT/E Advert?
My experience with the Chevette was a 1979 Scooter, light green over tan, no options, no back seat and rubber floor mats. It was a company car for a small weekly paper where I worked. Two of its peculiar traits forever soured me on Chevettes forever. The shift lever periodically detached itself from the linkage on the 2-3 shift; the air pressure caused by shutting the hatch was sufficient to pop open the driver and passenger-side doors.
I drove one hard in my first job ever making deliveries for a local bank. I don’t know how many drove it before me, let’s just say it was well-broken in. It was a step above the Scooter having chrome (or aluminum?) bumpers, automatic and ac. I would drive ac off as much as possible in No Va. It never got washed or cleaned out, drove like a Ferrari 🙂 and kept me entertained daily!
My first car bought brand new in 1987 was the Canadian version – Pontiac Acadian. 2 door, two tone paint – grey & silver. It was an automatic, had dual mirrors, cloth interior, cargo area cover and am/fm stereo radio with rear speakers in the hatchback area. Enthusiasts can laugh all you want, but it was a great little car, with decent tires and rear wheel drive it was fun to drive. Always started in the harsh Canadian winters and with regular maintenance it lasted me until 1995 with over 400,000 km`s on the original engine and transmission – no rebuilds. I only let it go due to undercarriage rust. Would I want to drive some so simple now, not likely. But, whenever I see a Chevette or Acadian still out there it makes me fondly remember my 1st car. Also, I still see 2 late model Chevette Scooters around town – either 1986 or 1987 models as they have the 3rd brake light. One is in near mint condition driven by a little old lady, likely the original owner and the other parked on the street near a local college, in decent original condition for a 30 year old car.
I once drove a Chevette from Chicago to Bozeman, MT with three friends.
It was a design quirk of the car that no matter what a person over 6′ did, no matter what seat he was in, no matter how it was adjusted, it was impossible for him to straighten out his left leg. It became excruciating after long hours of driving.
I have a seething hatred for these little sh*tboxes. In my young and poor days in the early Eighties I ran dealer trades for a Chevy dealer where a close friend worked. One day I had to take a Chevette all the way to Philly… the dealer was located in suburban Cleveland, so I was to spend quite a few hours in that car. And a miserable many hours it was… it was one of only two vehicles I’ve ever driven that actually scared me, and I mean scared me about to death. Every time a semi passed me (and being as underpowered as that deathtrap was more trucks passed me than vise-versa). I’ve never been so relieved to get to a destination than I was that day. Fortunately I got to drive an S10 Blazer back, much, MUCH better vehicle.
I fondly remember going to a debate tournament in the early 80’s in college – me and my partner had a Chevette 4 door silver with red interior thing rented for us – we had a great idea to time this slug from a full stop at a toll booth.
20 seconds transpired before this thing hit 60 mph.
It was an automatic transmission equipped torture chamber that wasn’t really that good on gas. It was misery on four rubber bands attached to steel wheels and the seats were licensed from some medieval torture chamber.
My own car at that time was a 1964 Ford Falcon with 170 cid engine with a delightful 2 speed automatic transmission. And my falcon could beat that Chevette.
There are few cars that truly deserve to be given the Porcelain Throne Award for outstanding contributions to toilet water, but the Chevette is a five flush finalist.
How ’bout a comparison test.. between one of these Chevettes.. and a Subaru Justy??
That is, if you can find a Justy.. in 2016.
1989 Subaru Justy GL ECVT
0-60 mph 14.3 | Quarter mile 19.6
1980 Chevrolet Chevette
0-60 mph 15.7 | Quarter mile 20.0
http://www.zeroto60times.com/body-style/classic/
Having owned a 80 Rabbit–be verrry verry careful when road is wet understeer if too much or too little throttle is an OF moment. Rabbit also had many electrical issues and the diesel rabbit had head gasket issues. Rabbit was worst car I ever owned–never again VW. Had an 82 Chevette with the 1.4 and Auto for a county car. Slowest pig I ever drove–got too many one fingered salutes after pulling out of stop signs and holding up traffic even with cutting AC off before pulling out. Was last GM product I have driven regular another never again. The 82 subcompact I currently own will do 0-60 in half the time of course they only built 703 of them over 3 years and when new could have bought 20 Chevettes for the price of a Mondial 8.
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I used to see a drag racing Chevette on the local car show circuit. He started with a Grand National 3.8 turbo and then switched to a 4.3 with a HUGE shot of nitrous. I never saw it race just at shows. The parachute was a nice touch.
AS the Vega debacle imploded in public, the Chevette seemed like an attempt by Chevrolet to quickly find a temporary replacement for it. Anyone with a radio, magazine or television knew that small cars were to be soon FWD and designed to fit a human comfortably, and clearly the Chevette wasn’t one of those cars. I remember expecting GM to unveil a real Vega replacement before 1976 that would be in keeping of the GM legacy. Instead, Chrysler unveiled a modern FWD/Rabbit designed vehicle while both GM and Ford kept selling Vega/Monza/Chevettes and Pinto/Bobcats, which were obsolete the moment the Rabbits and Omni-rizons were seen on the roads. GM and Ford fans had to wait another four years before their brands released the X-Cars and the Escort.
So, the idea that GM would keep making the Chevette instead of a modern small car was frustrating. There was no reason to buy one. GM yanked the Vega name, reworked the body, and renamed it the Monza, but everyone knew it was just a Vega, not a new car.
Worse, the Chevette just wasn’t a decent car. It reeked of cheap inside and out. It looked like a modern King Midget kit car, or a Crosley updated to meet government standards. Ziploc sandwich bags, new to the market during this same era – had higher quality than the Chevette. The Chevette made the Datsun B-210 look substantial in comparison.
I lived in Denver during this time and the Chevette was a joke when it attempted to leave the Front Range into the mountains. Gas mileage or not, taking a Chevette onto I-70 West was a fool’s errand. VW Beetles were more robust when charging up the foothills. When I drove or rode in my cousin’s Chevette, the first thing I did was roll the window all the way down so that I could have room for my arm and shoulder. The interior was too narrow for two healthy males to sit abreast without rubbing shoulders. (This was also a problem for many early Japanese rides as well, btw). When we had friends in the back seat, you could feel the Chevette struggle to accelerate with the extra weight.
Finally – GM unloaded thousands of Chevette onto the US Post Office and living in Chicago, I saw them used on walking routes in our neighborhoods. The mail delivery guy would use the hatch for the male to be delivered and they used these cars for a few years. I thought that considered their purpose in life, this was a good job for these sad little tin cars.
“GM and Ford fans had to wait another four years before their brands released the X-Cars and the Escort.”
And even then they weren’t ready for prime time. An avid reader of C&D, Motor Trend and Consumer Reports, I really tried to give the domestics a fair shake when I went shopping for my first new car in 1981. But the comparisons just weren’t there – the most acceptable decently built domestic was the Omni/Horizon; the Citation, Monza, Escort, Alliance and even Fairmont were all ruled out for indifferent build quality. Since I was going to be paying for this car for 4 years, I had to go with ‘near flawless’ Japanese build. Ultimately I went with a Corolla SR5 Sport Roof; I really loved the Accord but they were nearly unobtainium at that time.
Ford sold the FWD Fiesta here, starting in the late ’70s, before replacing it with the domestically-built Escort in 1981.
Ah memories! Back in the day when I worked for Bell Tel, they gave me a company car, a Chevette Scooter. Lucky you, you might say.
No. What an absolute cheesy POS. It actually had cardboard door panels. I stuck it out for a while until they “upgraded” me to a Monza. Tiny bit better, not by much.
I’d forgotten the “Scooter” model was still being made in 1980.
The car everyone loves to hate, or at least make fun of (in the US at least, but judging by the comments elsewhere as well). But when it was first launched here, it seemed very significant as the first truly global car with an American nameplate, several years before the FWD Escort or Omnirizon. As such, the precursor of generations of Focus, J Car, Epsilon etc. Of course, as with many of these, the “Americanization” seemed to lead to an inferior product. And I respectfully disagree with VanillaDude’s comment that everyone knew that small cars would go FWD. Sure we car buffs who worshipped Alec Issigonis and Dante Giacosa, and perhaps Soichiro Honda, knew FWD but the US was pretty much RWD then except for Rabbits, Civics and Fiats, and I think even LeCar was launched here after the Chevette.
A friend whose Dad had a nice big comfy Olds 88, bought his daughter a ’77 Chevette, to go with the stripper Nova he got for his wife. He was a GM guy all the way.
The daughter had nothing good to say about the Chevette, and called it a “Shove-it.”
Another friend got a ’79 Chevette in blue. They used it to drive 30 miles each way to and from work each day. It did the job well enough, but when I rode in it, and drove it a few times, I found it uncomfortable. The seats seemed unnaturally upright to me, and the acceleration was lacking.
They did get pretty good gas mileage from it though.
I think around that time, in the early ’80s, alot of people around here began to get more and more into Civics and Corollas. Ponys were a decade yet to come.
Pizza delivery cars that I can recall were more in the Pinto/Bobcat realm, and later, REliants and Aries’.
According to this webpage. Chevy did make a 2.8L V-6 Chevette prototype. I would have bought one!
https://hooniverse.com/chevy-enthusiast-via-hooniverse-the-1982-chevette-the-gm-dropped-a-v6-into-4/
It’s a little baffling why GM didn’t put a 2.8L Chevette into production, particularly considering how the Rabbit GTI was introduced a scant two years later to great success. It might have energized Chevette sales in its final years and seems like another missed opportunity.
The theory I heard is they didn’t want to cannibalize Camaro sales. *shrug* It would have been a fun ride so long at the awful brakes were improved. So much time I spent working on the brakes on my Chevettes – yes, I had more than one. I liked ’em. Honest, basic transportation. Mine were reliable and when they did break I could easily fix them in the driveway.
When my wife and I were first dating, I had a ’79 Accord LX. She once mentioned that it kind of looked like a Chevette. I was offended by that but I never told her. I knew right then she was not a “car” person.
She was the easiest person to teach to drive a manual, though. Except for me, she was the smoothest shifter I’d driven with.
Like butter.
We did later briefly have a Chevette.
It was cheap to buy and run.
It was in very good shape with low miles.
I hated it, but it was slightly more comfy than riding my CB360 in the winter.
Slightly.
I was dumb enough to buy a new 1976 CHUVette…….TOTAL PO$! Just about the WORST car I’ve ever owned, altho curiously the other 2 candidates I’d have for that “honor” were GM products, too! Go figure… 🙁
Guess I am a slow learner, and the “bulletproof” 250 c.i. 6 banger 3 on the tree ’79 Nova I traded it for……well: it ATE camshafts!! Finally after 2 failed tries a new short block was put in the Nova. After that I ran up @75K trouble free miles! 🙂 DFO
For a period of about 20 years, I had rented a home located on a large farm. The farmer/landlord had a 1962 Chevrolet Biscayne that he had purchased new. In 1980, after the youngest son obtained a driver’s license, he did a panic stop and separated the body from the chassis of the ’62. Not sure how they got that car through safety inspections. PA. still had required inspections every six months at the time. Right down to having precisely the correct diameter resonator pipe, tires, etc., etc.
The farmer purchased a new 1980 Chevette to replace the family car. I don’t think it was a Scooter, but it was bare bones with a 1.4 and an auto. The only use the car saw was short trips to church and choir practice and perhaps a monthly trip to market. When the gentleman sadly passed about 19 years later, his widow wasted very little time in being rid of it. I wasn’t living on the farm for some years, so I don’t recall what she bought. Other than the muffler falling off a couple of times I don’t recall many problems with that Chevette. I would guess that the car likely had 30-40k miles on it and about the second set of tires. Two new car purchases had covered 37 years of auto needs.
I feel that at least a good portion of the sales and longevity on the Chevette was due to the low cost and perhaps more importantly, it was RWD. My farmer friend could have afforded any car. The second oil embargo had tweaked interest among the unconverted in small high fuel mileage vehicles, but they were still not ready to commit to a new-fangled FWD vehicle. But it had to be a Chevy.
Considering the number of Vauxhall and Isuzu/Holden T cars that sold here new I havent seen one of either in years except at car shows they simply dont exist anymore in traffic and people do drive classics over here, I ran my Hillman for a week recently while I hunted for a starter motor for my Citroen eventually the correct Mitsubishi item came and was installed. On a run north to move parts I saw two Triumph Heralds and hour apart nut no T cars anywhere
The woman I married brought a 1980 Chevette to the union. Wasn’t long and she was driving my ’78 Fairmont Futura V8 auto and all the options. The Chevette was a 2dr auto with A/C. It was eating alternators at a fairly regular rate. Bad battery was the cause. Then one day the crankshaft pulley and cam drive sprocket checked out leaving a trail of bouncing parts behind the car as it rolled to a stop. The was only the one crank bolt and some “nubs” and the cam drive piece to properly locate the pulley. Typical bean counter move. The pulley needed to be located as it also was notched for setting the ignition timing. The problem was the Cycling A/C compressor. On-Off-On-Off and you were cycling a significant load and eventually the bolt fatigues and fails. New crankshaft and some shitty work by the dealer and it was back on the road, a year later I discovered how shitty the dealer work was, timing was off and dist. couldn’t be rotated any further. Took to dealer and they “fixed” it by torching the A/C bracket to advance the dist. some more but still not enough. Fixed it my self. I was a GM employee at the time so that really made my day.
The failed wiring in the distributors was very common back then. Most prevalent in manual transmission cars and trucks. The distributors for manual transmission cars and trucks usually use a different vacuum advance with a great stroke than a vehicle with an automatic trans. So that little pickup coil moves farther and it cycles back and forth more often and eventually one of the two little wires gives up and breaks and you are sitting on the side of the road. With the manual trans every time you shift the vacuum advance does a full stroke cycle. However the person who paid for a new distributor was screwed because the part that failed was replaceable. This was around the time it started to become fashionable to replace assemblies rather than fix something. A new or certain rebuilt parts carried a warranty so the shop was off the hook if it failed and also less time spent repairing said truck therefore you could service more vehicles. Good theory but a lot of minor repairs that would have been just as effective and cost the customer less were not done.
The one Chevette that really got me was a stranger’s car. I was driving home one grand day when I came up behind another Chevette and I could smell gas. As it pulled away from the light I could see gas pouring out of the car. I managed to get the lady pulled over. I popped the hood and knew immediately it had either a bad needle and seat or a sunk float. My “vette” had done the same thing earlier in its life.
She said she just picked it up and the shop said they couldn’t get the part to fix it and she should bring it back tomorrow! WOW!
I drove my vette for about five more years, gave it to the kids and eventually it went away. It was an OK beater, being a mechanic helped keep it repaired and useable.
Always generates a good laugh when someone says “remember when the “vette”…..
Chevette was based on the GM global T body, which was also an Opel Kadette.
So, if GM had used the pre-T Body Opel Kadette for the Vega, the Chevette shows how that may have panned out, 😉
Though I understand the negative comments about the Chevette, especially now that I have experienced Japanese cars, I have some fond memories of the Chevettes that have crossed my path over the years.
The father of one of my childhood friends worked for GM and bought a bright yellow one when they first came out. I don’t know how good or bad the car was, but remembered thinking it was cool, likely because it was new and yellow. My friend eventually crashed that car.
As part of a cool class I had in high school, we took a trip to the GM plant in Delaware to see Chevettes being made. I remember watching in awe as entire bodies were dipped into tanks of primer, and also that the workers seemed pretty bored.
Around that time my father worked for a Chevy dealer. He sold wreckers, so usually had trucks as company cars, but brought home a “deluxe” Chevette a few times. It was pretty fancy in comparison to our more typical family cars. My siblings and I wanted Dad to buy one, but his preference was for worn out old cars.
A few years later, in college, I bought a used Chevette Scooter, the newest car I had owned up to that point. It replaced a worn out Duster, which replaced a worn out Pacer, so seemed pretty good to me by comparison. It was the least expensive car on the dealer’s lot, and had all of the Scooter amenities and driving characteristics already described. My job at the time was food delivery driver, and I drove the Scooter pretty hard; lots of stop and go, fast gunning and hard braking. It served me well, with the only major repair being the need for a timing belt, the cost of which was covered by the dealer warranty. Otherwise it needed a starter or two, and later, a clutch, and likely an alternator or two as well. It met my needs and served me well. It also served as a rolling den of iniquity for me and my girlfriend at the time. Oh, to be that flexible again. My last sight of it, a year or two after selling it, was seeing it on the road, in the livery of a small church. It made me chuckle a little to think that my Chevette would spend its twilight years in the service of the Lord.
As they wore out they were the successor to the dumpy low trim Nova.
Pizza’s here!