The Carchive has its fair share of spangly, high-buck automobiles accounted for amid its dusty, cobwebbed shelves. But it’s the down-to-earth, blue-collar, working guy’s everyday transport that’s, in so many ways, more interesting. These are the cars that litter the streets one week, and are all gone the next. There’s no mourning, no sadness, just out with the old, in with the new. This brochure has out-lived the vast majority of the cars it represents.
Last week we peered at Ford’s economy champion of the 70’s, and now it’s the turn of The General. It’s the rapid-selling Chevy Chevette.
Click on the images to make ’em bigger.
“You can show your best friend how roomy the Chevette is. Even if he’s 6’3″”
Well, that’s me out, then. However, smaller folk would find plenty of space inside Chevy’s smallest car – because it really wasn’t very small at all. At just over 4 metres long, it’s not far short of a first-generation Ford Focus. It took a Mk1 Fiesta to show people how small the Chevette wasn’t.
Its low price came from its simplicity, not its size. The Chevette was as conventional as they came, with coil springs all round and a torque-tube live axle at the back. All you needed to get you down the road.
“If you know somebody who likes getting compliments for his efficiency, tell him about Chevette. They’re made for each other”
Do people like that exist? You don’t get catchy crossheads like that any more.
Anyway, you got a choice of a 1.4-litre or an Isuzu-sourced 1.6-litre OHC motor. 57hp for the former, 63hp from the latter. Not a ball of fire, the Chevette, but that’s not what it was about. Mechanical inertness was the deal here.
That and practicality. It may only have had three doors, but it wanted to be a wagon.
“There are a lot of reasons for recommending Chevette as a wise buy. One very good one is the people you bought it from”
Again, unless you’re shopping for domestic insurance or a mortgage, you just don’t find advertising copy like that any more. Chevy knew it would be futile to convince anybody that Chevette was a lifestyle product. There was little fantasy that your humble hatchback was an aspirational machine.
It didn’t have to be miserably basic, though.
“Some final, friendly persuasion from Chevy dealers everywhere, who have all these 1977 Chevette choices and options available for you.”
Oh, so there was a little hard sell. And why not?! Check out the choice! You could opt for anything from the bare-bones Scooter to a jaunty Rally Sport with a front passenger assist grip (a grab handle?), a volt meter and a rev counter! Or, there was the Sandpiper special edition, in Cream Gold or Antique White.
It’s funny how dissimilar the Chevy Chevette was to its T Platform cousins elsewhere on the globe. And I’ve never really understood why the uniquely-styled British interpretation of the model (which looked totally different to the rather more square-cut Opel Kadett), was also called Chevette. In the USA, the name had traction, being close to Chevelle, Corvette and translating to “Baby Chevrolet”. In the UK, it really didn’t mean much at all. But this didn’t prevent it from selling very well indeed.
Anybody have any Chevette tales of note?
(All images are of original manufacturer publicity materials, photographed by me on my doorstep, in between thunderstorms. Copyright remains property of General Motors)
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