Chevrolet's 'Vette celebrates 30 years
No, not that one ... think Chevette, General Motors' thrifty little import fighter known for being long on mileage yet somewhat short on charisma. Pre-production examples of the General Motors hatchback started rolling off the line at GM's Flint, Mich. plant back in May 1975. And for those thinking that the only things the Chevette and Corvette share are a suffix and a bowtie badge, take note: The former was actually assembled at the same plant that originally birthed the latter more than 20 years earlier. Want more? Both were available as two-door, two-seaters (one for the sport of it, the other for cost-saving reasons).
Interestingly, the Sloan Museum in Flint has retained Chevette No. 00001, which has accrued a grand total of 14.4 miles on its odometer -- and the historic hatch is available for viewing.
Click on the link for more details on the history of Chevrolet's other 'Vette.
[Sources: The Flint Journal; McLellansautomotive.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)
David 1:23PM (4/24/2006)
Man was that thing ever a pile of junk. That car caused me to buy my first Toyota Corolla. My friend had the Pontiac version the Astra we called it the Ashtray. Wow memories.
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DJA 1:24PM (4/24/2006)
The Chevette/T1000 combo was GM badge engineering at it's best. (Worst?) With an Iron Duke 4 is it any wonder GM failed to take market share from the imports?
Now, maybe if you stuffed an SLR motor in there....
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dude 1:29PM (4/24/2006)
No other car better symbolizes the total crap that GM foisted upon us for decades than this POS!!!
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hj 1:35PM (4/24/2006)
#2 The Chevette didn't have the iron duke. The duke was a 2.5l pushrod 4; not the motor in the chevette.
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GM basher for today 1:39PM (4/24/2006)
This is the 2nd worst GM product of all time behind the full-size GM hatchbacks (aka "Cars that were sat on by an elephant") of a few years later. They must have the V8-6-4 or a diesel engine for the full effect.
Maybe with $50K Boyd Coddington could turn one into something overpriced and still ugly. [If you watch his show its obvious that most of his employees are as clueless as a GM union worker.]
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Noah 1:39PM (4/24/2006)
Some of the latter Chevettes weren't horrible looking, they were still pretty mechanicaly sub-par but hey, it's a compact car. Plus small block V8s shoehorned nicely into them.
--Noah
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Richard Warren 1:50PM (4/24/2006)
#1 Astre (not Astra)=Vega not Chevette which was the T1000.
For those that giggle about this car keep in mind this: At one time it was Chevrolet's biggest seller.
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Damian P. 1:51PM (4/24/2006)
My friend had the Pontiac version the Astra we called it the Ashtray. Wow memories.
You're thinking of the Pontiac Astre - that's not a typo, that really was the name - which was a rebadged Vega, not a Chevette.
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cowboy bob 1:58PM (4/24/2006)
I had two of these. A used '76, and a new '84. The '76 went down the road as a trade after I put in a junkyard engine, and the '84 gone after only 18 months of ownership, (caused me to by Fords). Posts #1,#3 and #4 are quite correct. Ahhh, the memories. I still suffer from post trematic stress syndrome.
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Adam Singer 2:22PM (4/24/2006)
Awful out of the box, but boy do they make the best sleepers!
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Bill 2:27PM (4/24/2006)
Ugh. My parents had a 78 strippo "Scooter" model and that's what I learned to drive on. A wheezy noisebox, but many people in my un-affluent rural town had them, and many are still on the road- driven by little old ladies.
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David 2:32PM (4/24/2006)
I stand corrected.
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DJA 2:37PM (4/24/2006)
4. #2 The Chevette didn't have the iron duke. The duke was a 2.5l pushrod 4; not the motor in the chevette.
Yep. It was a 1.6. (or Diesel later on)
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GCH 2:46PM (4/24/2006)
My aunt got a 78 Chevette in 84.....back in Puerto Rico.
I remember that for some reason it could not climb hilly roads. It was sooo underpowered, especially with the auto stick. It was embarrassing to see VW Beetles from the early 70s just passing us as if in a race.
Then I saw the new ones (1984-5 models) in Texas delivering pizzas for Domino on a visit to the state in 1985.
Perhaps they were better suited for this kind of "task" than in a tropical location.
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GCH 2:49PM (4/24/2006)
My aunt got a 78 Chevette in 84.....back in Puerto Rico.
I remember that for some reason it could not climb hilly roads. It was sooo underpowered, especially with the auto stick. It was embarrassing to see VW Beetles from the early 70s just passing us as if in a race.
Then I saw the new ones (1984-5 models) in Texas delivering for Pizza Hut on a visit to the state in 1985.
Perhaps they were better suited for this kind of "task" rather than climbing roads in a tropical location.
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gbh 2:53PM (4/24/2006)
"It's deja-vu all over again"
Then, just like now, GM puts out crap that is miles behind what the rest of the market builds. It then tells us that the pile of crap is "a world class car, competitive with any other product". The GM faithful (who other rely on GM for money, have never driven a different car, or aren't capable of knowing better) proclaim that GM cars are great and those of us who have compared and know them to be junk hate GM.
The Chevette was just a horrible turd - but it was no surprise from the company that brought you the Vega.
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Adam 3:00PM (4/24/2006)
My first car ride (from the hospital where I was born) was in a tan Chevette with the tan vinyl interior. For some reason my family held on to that car for way too long. I have pictures of me washing it (I think the water was worth more than the car) with my dad. Can't remember what happened to it though. Think we sold it at a garage sale for a couple hundred bucks. As you can tell, I grew real attached to that thing. It's successor was an almighty Celebrity sedan (not even EuroSport, bummer)... again with vinyl interior. I don't think I'll ever miss either of those cars.
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Howard Kerr 3:21PM (4/24/2006)
For those folks arguing over whether the Chevette (shove-it?) had the Iron Duke, or not, did you know that GM built Chevettes under it's various brand names around the world? There was a Brazilian-built Chevette and a (Vauxhall) British-built Chevette. ALL were like the U.S. built Chevette...slow and unexciting.
By the way, Isuzu used the Chevette "chassis" for the RWD Impulse.
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Dave-in-pa 3:49PM (4/24/2006)
I admit it. I bought one too. A '78 silver 4-door that cost $3700 with tax. (That's not counting all the money in repairs and poor gas mileage that added greatly to the overall cost) I could never decide who ripped me off more, GM or the Chevy dealer, but the experience was enough to convince me to never go back. When I finally got rid of it, (I say finally like I had it a long time. 3 years is all) it had only 54,000 miles on it. It ran so badly by then I was worried I wouldn't even make it to the dealer where I was trading it in, for a lousy $500. I learned a lesson though. The Datsun B-210 my friend bought at the same time was $800 more than my Chevette, but when he traded it 4 years later, he got over $2000 in trade. (4 happy years I might add)
I have purchased or leased 11 different vehicles since then. I have not returned to ANY GM showroom. I still hold out that some day GM will apologize for this piece of crap. Maybe then I'll forgive them and actually consider one of their cars again. Until I get that letter though...GM is not an option.
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GCH 3:56PM (4/24/2006)
Wow: it seems that this "Chevette in museum" post is causing PTSD in some of the bloggers.
Perhaps Autoblog did not see this coming huh? Good thing it was not the Citation. I cannot imagine this one in a museum!!!!!
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