c. 2025 Rod Ice
All rights reserved
(3-25)
Internet sources provided lots of useful information for this book, specifically when trying to assess how the Chevette helped to reshape automotive life in North America. Here between the oceans, we conveniently became numb to environmental forces and market conditions that affected how drivers in other countries chose their vehicles. But with the boxy hatchback from Chevrolet, that familiar paradigm was upended, temporarily. Consumers in the United States have normally liked big, powerful cars. Or at least they did until such products became scarce on showroom floors. Now, our citizens tilt toward pickup trucks and SUV varieties. We are not a nation that has ever favored downsizing for long. Products like the Henry J from Kaiser, Nash Rambler, Ford Falcon, Chevy Corvair, and others, always gave way eventually to an evolutionary curve toward growth and greater girth. When government mandates for fuel economy finally forced regular people-movers to shrink, the reaction was swift. In modern times, doctors, lawyers, and corporate leaders roll around in big rigs better suited for plowing through mud and snow. Or hauling trailers loaded with cargo.
What we once considered beasts of burden are now symbols of American rebelliousness. It is a sign of our cowboy psychology.
But the T-car from General Motors managed to earn a spot in our folklore that has endured long after being discontinued. Perhaps not with the colorful, hippie vibe of A VW Beetle or loaf-of-bread Microbus, yet carrying vibrant echoes of a simpler age. When a generation of our populace boasted the youth and exuberance of a group rising from cultural ashes deposited by Watergate, the Oil Embargo, and our exit from Vietnam.
I pondered this lingering affection while reading an article by Daniel Rufiange on the Auto123 website. Its headline alone made me pause and take a deep breath, reflectively.
“Someone Paid $30,000 USD for a 1987 Chevrolet Chevette.”
I had to bow my head for a moment, while remembering that once, long ago, a new-issue of that make and year almost entered our household driveway. I had considered plunking down the bargain price on a second little Chevy, even after cursing the collapse of my first.
“It is hard to consider the Chevrolet Chevette a car that made automotive history. It served many owners to the best of its workmanlike abilities, but nothing more. The Chevette was on the market for a decade, but chances are that many who owned one may have already forgotten about it. Be that as it may, as always, some old copy of even the most mundane car is bound to pop up in good condition. And sometimes even with super-low mileage on it. Take, for instance, this 1987 Chevette that recently went up for sale at a Mecum Group auction. The odometer of the car reads just 48.4 miles, or 77.9 km. This model sold new for $4995 back in 1987. In Canada, it sold for around $7000 CAD. For any car enthusiast, it’s interesting to see such a car re-emerge and be offered at auction. But what really drew a double take in this case was the sale price at auction of $30,000 USD, not counting the 10-percent fee that took the total to $33,000 USD...”
Viewed with hindsight, my stomach aches when thinking that I once almost paid the initial $4995 amount for a similar mule. That near-miss seemed indefensible at the time. But to drop a much greater sum, long after the fact? That would appear to tempt a diagnosis of mental deficiency. Yet apparently, news of this surreal transaction quickly spread around the world. Somewhere, there is a satisfied buyer drooling happily over their acquisition. Meanwhile, the carcass of my own 1981 model is rusting away in a local scrapyard. A fate less glorious, and far more common, perhaps. Though in memory, it remains a mile marker of roads traveled and memories made.
Searching for Chevette clues also uncovered another, older post on the Motor Trend site. The magazine had once been a staple item in our household, during my childhood days. Writer Aaron Gold had penned an article just as puzzling to behold. One that had me lost in a yesterdaze of sentimental wonder.
“Chevrolet Chevette: Awful Car or Unappreciated Revolutionary?”
The candid tone of his missive struck me right between my eyes.
“Thirty-five years after it was mercifully euthanized, the Chevrolet Chevette remains synonymous with crappy motoring. The Chevette may have been humble and horrible, but it was also one of the most significant cars in General Motors history. It marked a major turning point in GM’s fortunes, the company’s first acknowledgement that the world was changing in ways it didn’t yet understand.”
He concluded this bare-knuckled retrospective with lines of text that had my eyes going wide open, at the monitor.
“The Chevette was never supposed to be a great car. It was designed with mediocrity in mind, and mediocrity is exactly what it reliably delivered – for far too long, unfortunately... It was a major change for a company that seemed unchangeable and a harbinger of the industry’s future. Too bad it was such a lousy car.”
I remembered that friends, neighbors, and co-workers all had similar amounts of disappointment to my own, after buying their own editions of the Chevy Chevette. Bodies rusted, transmissions failed, and miles ticked away while fighting pervasive episodes of roadgoing ennui. Yet owning one of these bland and boring appliances provided common ground for our generation.
Almost everyone, it seemed, had one of these cars or knew someone who did, closely.
My Shove-It had languished at the bottom of a roster filled with better, roomier, more stylish choices that came along as my own options expanded over time. I nearly forgot about it, while crowing with praise over vehicles like my 1987 Ford Crown Victoria, a lost love that I never should have sold.
But revisiting stories of how the lowball sedan came into my life evoked sappy, saccharine emotions I never knew existed. Suddenly, I was wallowing in a sort of fondness for the car that I hadn’t felt when holding its thin-rimmed steering wheel in my fingers. Having reached the final chapter of my personal tale, I was somewhat perplexed by this unexpected development. And I faced a quizzical challenge without a clear answer.
Was it possible that I actually missed my cheap Chevrolet?
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