1978 Chevrolet Chevette

Young drivers today have the advantage of buying inexpensive 10, 20 and even 30-year old Toyotas and knowing that their cars will likely be safe and reliable despite their age. Kids of my generation were not so lucky. The old Detroit-built cars we had were pretty much junk when they were new. And once they were 10 years old and we got hold of them, well, any time you got behind the wheel you knew there was some chance you were not going anywhere due to the possibility of a busted water, oil or fuel pump or leaky radiator, or something wrong with the ignition, or the transmission, or the brakes... you get the idea.

But even those among us driving Ford Mavericks or old Chrysler K-cars with cracked CV joints had pity on any poor soul forced to drive a Chevy Chevette. Everything about the Chevette screamed, "You are trapped in a terrible car!" It appears on any list of the cars that most damaged the reputation of General Motors. From Popular Mechanics:

"The Chevrolet Chevette was already outdated when it appeared in 1976. Based on GM's "T" platform, it was a primitive, front-engine, rear-drive subcompact in a small-car world that was busy being revolutionized by front-drive cars such as the Honda Civic and Accord, Volkswagen Rabbit and Ford Fiesta. It was underpowered too, originally being offered with a 1.4-liter Four making 53 hp or a 1.6-liter version of the same engine rated at 70 hp.

Chevrolet saved itself a lot of development time and money by picking up the Chevette design from GM Brazil. The Georgia-built small car was a solid sales success too, selling almost 450,000 units in 1980 alone. But it was always a car that sold strictly on price, with no real virtues of its own. And it was a huge help to Chevrolet in sneaking in under the federally mandated CAFE standards. But it also meant that for 11 years GM didn't bother developing an advanced small car specifically for the American market."

 

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