Anyone still drivin' a Chevette???

**Magnatomicflux** · February-12-11, 08:36 PM

I'm asking cause I need a cheap car and I found an 84' Chevette for $500 CDN.
She's the standard grey/blue, Automatic[[blech!), with only 120,000 kms but I don't know the engine size. I still have to go see it.

Do ya love it? Do you hate it?
What have/are your experiences been like?
How are they in the snow? Like a boat anchor?

How easy can I toss in an equally old S-10 V6 with a 5-speed? Expensive?

How easy will it be for me to die in a moderate collision? lol

My wifes uncle swears by them...at one point, apparently he had 6....at the same time!
Two now remain on his property for whatever reason, but I can salvage parts from them assuming they arn't monuments to past Vettes.

I figure if I get two or three months outta the ol' girl then it's money well spent.

I'd like to hear your stories if ya got'em! Don't be ashamed to admit it. I know......they've been the butt of jokes since time immortal, but I kinda like them. I'm just worried about the easy death, and frequent breakdowns. My buddy used to drive Chevettes all the time and they were fun little cars. Of course...I didn't own them, so I don't know the difficulties involved in owning one.

Thanks!

**Philbo** · February-12-11, 10:21 PM

I had one back in the early 80s and I liked it. I put about 50,000 miles on it and about the only thing that broke was the gear shift lever. Try to get one with the H.O [[ high output ) motor otherwise they are slow. Its fun to drive though.

**Magnatomicflux** · February-12-11, 10:24 PM

I've read that a couple times, that the shifter broke. Do you know which engine was the H.O?

**Gannon** · February-13-11, 08:38 AM

I never KNEW they made one that could be considered high output...LOL.

This was the car I learned to drive in...my father had a tan one for a while.

It nearly had negative acceleration. Made EVERY freeway ramp a horror story.

I think it was THE vehicle that finally made me consider Volkswagen. I've never gone back.

For $500, I'd find an old Rabbit or Jetta. SO much safer, competent at speed. Real interior room. Actual brakes. No comparison.

Except you won't have two mules in the family for parts scavenging.

Next to the Vega, the Chevette is what probably killed GM. It was the best they could muster when the Japanese came in and tromped their asses...while the Europeans were steadily creating monsters that car enthusiasts STILL love, with their advanced taxation per liter of engine size.

<sigh>

**GOAT** · February-13-11, 09:53 AM

As long as it isn't rusted to shit you should buy it quick. I know one thing of the Chevette; the transmissions were impossible to destroy! As for the engine, it could smoke all day and still get you where you needed to go.

For $500 I would buy it.

I want to add that the shifter breaking issue was usually a pin that connected the gear shift to the transmission that eitehr fell out or broke. Once it was replaced there was no issue.

**GOAT** · February-13-11, 09:57 AM

Gannon, GM sold a ton of those cars I don't see how the Chevette killed GM. What killed GM was bland design [[the chevette being a low cost fuel sipper doesn't count) for higher luxury vehicles plus that horrible 2.5L engine that wasn't worth it's weight in scrap metal.

**East Detroit** · February-13-11, 10:57 AM

Gannon, maybe check out a Detroit car from this century before you keep trying to sell our competition.

**canuck** · February-13-11, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by Gannon

I never KNEW they made one that could be considered high output...LOL.

This was the car I learned to drive in...my father had a tan one for a while.

It nearly had negative acceleration. Made EVERY freeway ramp a horror story.

I think it was THE vehicle that finally made me consider Volkswagen. I've never gone back.

For $500, I'd find an old Rabbit or Jetta. SO much safer, competent at speed. Real interior room. Actual brakes. No comparison.

Except you won't have two mules in the family for parts scavenging.

Next to the Vega, the Chevette is what probably killed GM. It was the best they could muster when the Japanese came in and tromped their asses...while the Europeans were steadily creating monsters that car enthusiasts STILL love, with their advanced taxation per liter of engine size.

<sigh>

I had a Volkswagen Westphalia van for awhile when my dad fell ill and couldnt drive anymore. My dad had bought it new in 88 and the thing had so little power for the weight it hauled. It was also the most unreliable thing I have ever driven.
The parts were extremely expensive in the early nineties the complete exhaust system was worth 2500$ in Canada. Every year for 3 years I spent at least 500$
on a pipe or muffler even though the thing had low mileage. One morning, 2 jailbird brothers stole it and rammed into 3 cars before leaving the city for northern Ontario, where they got caught in a ditch. It was in bad shape, I had it fixed and sold it to a nurse who had a work permit for Florida and used it for travel later. I wouldnt touch a Volkswagen, although the Golfs and Jettas were fun to drive, the reliability and the service issues were awful.

Then I bought some used Volvo wagons [[my 3 vulvawagons). I liked them, and their sturdy no nonsense appeal in details like car doors that would close with a slight push. But they proved expensive to repair. I wouldnt buy anymore Volvos.

I drive a Mazda 3GT and it has been problem free for the past 3 years. My lease is up in june, and I maybe looking at an Escape or something more spacious but easy on the juice. My 15 year old son is 6ft 3" and the Mazda is kinda tight.

**Gannon** · February-13-11, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

Gannon, maybe check out a Detroit car from this century before you keep trying to sell our competition.

Run and jump into the river. WHO'S competition?! For a $500 beater that will get him a couple of months of basic transportation!

If you read from my commentary of what happened through the seventies and eighties into the same from today, you are dimmer than most. It has nothing to do with what you so quickly want to bash me with.

Heck, VW had two distinct periods of bad product, too. Oddly both when they first tried to grow beyond their comfort zone. First with that Pennsylvania debacle, then with the initial Mexican manufacturing mess. There may be more, I stopped paying attention to them when they got fat and flashy.

Cheers

**Gannon** · February-13-11, 01:33 PM

The water-cooled van was another issue with them...and that 4-wheel drive version was a joke too. I think the top speed of that thing was 70mph!

You cannot equate any of the van issues in VW with the rest of their lineup. That engineering always seemed like a series of kluges upon kluges.

When I learned you had to refill the coolant with the first of their water-cooled vans at a 30-degree angle in order to properly 'burp' the system...I realized that any used purchase of pre-Eurovan, post-MicroBus VWs...especially ANYTHING in the Vanagon series...was suspect.

I was ONLY talking the 4-cylinder Rabbits and Jettas for the perfect $500 beater...compared with the Chevette. The Chevette as the answer to the small-car desires of the buying public WAS one of the major death knells of GM, nobody can convince me otherwise. The same data MAY indicate that it was just one of the major symptoms or indicators of their corporate myopia...but the results are still the same.

It took DECADES for any American car maker to figure out the small-car marketplace. Period. They've always resisted it, and it has been to the foreign car makers extreme benefit.

**Searay215** · February-13-11, 01:39 PM

FYI....some of the running gear on the Fiero's was Chevette, it wasn't until the last year 1988 that the Fiero got its own gear [[Stering, suspension and alike)

**Magnatomicflux** · February-13-11, 01:43 PM

A friend of mine found an 81' Scirocco sitting behind some old guys garage for years and years. We put a gallon of gas in it and it fired right up with little hesitation. That was a cool little car and I thought it was neat that it came with a single massive windsheild wiper. What was the bitch was changing a tire! Who the hell designs a car where YOU put the lugs thru the wheel into the hub instead of just mounting the wheel like most normal cars?? That stupid design got just busted by the cops after we crashed into a bush and popped the tire and it took so long to change we couldn't flee in time! lol

I did find an early 80's Jetta, but it's $1000....and someone painted it Teal. I know it's the probably better choice I suppose but I don't know how expensive repairs would be. I guess I could grab pats out of almost any same time frame VW.

GOAT - You're right, if I'm gonna get it it should be soon. Pizza King will snap that thing up in a second, paint it taxicab yellow and put a big red crown on top!
If I get it I'll have maybe 1 of 4 non-Pizza King Chevettes in the city!

Searay215 - do you think post-1988 Fiero suspension would work in a Chevette? Would it....er, enhance....the Chevettes handling? lol

**Gannon** · February-14-11, 02:47 AM

Best place to get replacement parts for VWs hasn't changed in over thirty years, since my old boss at Laviolette's Mobil on Warren Avenue west of Wyoming drove me out to Pontiac to witness the insanity of what used to be called Recycled Bugs, now the Parts Place. They moved from Pontiac to Auburn Hills [[I think) just off I-75 south of the Palace.

Great story on that Scirocco. The underpinnings of all the '74 to '84 VWs were nearly identical and are interchangeable. Another great reason they are the best beaters to buy. Plus they are incredibly easy to work on...but you'll get lots of practise, they were designed with shade-tree mechanics in mind, it seems!

I had forgotten that GM used the front suspension from the Chevette in 'reverse' in the back end of the Fiero...but I'm pretty certain the improved rear suspension in later Fiero's could NOT be then reverse-engineered into a Chevette! The original design was a kluge.

I DO remember talking with a GM engineer on the sales floor at the Gramophone back in the day excited about the project he was working on...a little two-seater Pontiac that could barely keep its front wheels on the ground during acceleration at the Proving Grounds. He boasted of a turbo-6 they were going to bring out.

Alas, the high-output six-cylinder Fiero was a L-O-N-G time coming...at least after they'd basically killed their potential market with that lame-ass 4-banger...tamed to not compete with the Corvette. What did they call that initial model? The 2M4? Uh-huh. Pure genius.

I seriously looked at the Fiero when it came out...it was highly ranked by Car & Driver its first year...but it was a fiercely screwed up car. No interior room. Big-hump between the seats [[so basically NO humping potential, LOL). Stupidly little cargo space. Impractical to the extreme...only beat in the Pontiac division with that latest convertible they made this past decade. That one didn't have room for a SPARE TIRE!

GM had a long-standing policy of not letting any of their vehicles out-perform the Corvette, which was only broken by that scary Buick T-Type, if I remember correctly. If ONLY that car could actually turn corners, it would've been on my short list back then. My Livonia Friend had a few of 'em...only one of three vehicles I was ever frightened of...the acceleration was incredible.

I could get both GM and Ford vehicles on the family discount plan...but they could never actually make a driver's car affordable. Nor efficient.

**Gannon** · February-14-11, 02:51 AM

Oh, and as far as I know...ALL German cars use lug bolts instead of nuts.

I think Saabs do, too.

**Meddle** · February-14-11, 04:17 AM

Nickname for Chevette >> ShoveIt

VW

'Nuff said.

I did have a Citation for a while when I just needed a beater for transportation. It wasn't the worst car I ever had.

I wouldn't mind having a '75 Nova again either, but I don't understand the wild pricing now.

**Magnatomicflux** · February-14-11, 06:49 PM

Gannon, I was just reading that some guys are putting GNX 3.8 turbos in their Chevettes! How crazy would that be? lol And I think Hot Rod magazine put a Cadillac 500 V8 in one.

Since I know that I have to go old, this Chevette or a VW are probably going to be the choice. Cheap parts are also key. With that Scirocco we needed rotors on the front.....$10 a peice, brand new. I need something I can work on that's as basic as a CJ. Little to no computers. Any wires under the hood only serve to make the motor run and nothing else.

**JTistle1** · February-14-11, 10:10 PM

I had two Chevettes. I had a 1980 Chevette with the gas engine, actually ran pretty good until the timing belt went. After I replaced it, it never quite ran the same. I also had a 1981 or 1982 with the diesel engine in it. Never got that running, it was towed away before I had a chance to do much with it. I worked at Montgomery Wards Auto Express at the time and had it in the parking lot there, but it was towed away when I was off on vacation.I wish I still had that car. Recently, I had seen a Pontiac T1000 on the road that looked pretty nice.

GUSHI · February-15-11, 12:19 AM

I would advise you getting a grand prix or another GM product with a 3.8 v6, I put 300,000 on my camaro then my trans went so I let go. That engine took such a beating from me, I neglected it and it kept. on going and going and going.

**Gannon** · February-15-11, 07:07 AM

Yeah, that engine is pretty efficient for the fun quotient it provides.

Step-mother had one in her old mid-sized Buick or Olds...it really kicked ass, although I don't think she ever really exercised it fully!

**Zacha341** · February-23-11, 11:59 AM

LOL! Back in the day I owned and drove two cruddy white Chevettes. Learned how to drive stick-shift in one them. Did not know driving as stick was actually a nice experience until I drove other brands of cars, where the gears actually meshed smoothly. Duh! I thought all that hard shifting was normal. Ugh. Parts literally fell off in your hand... faded interior, sewing machine sounding and acting motors, rotting floor boards, I could go on.

Swore off all Chevy products for a years behind that experience! LOL! Then drove a Cavalier and that was almost as bad. Great heat though in all those cars. GM not all bad... drove someones Buick Lacross recently... nice car... poor visibility with the small windows and three feet tall doors. Otherwise what a wonderful car! A far cry from a Chevette, thankfully!

Wanna a decent running snow clobbering Chevy? Get a good running old Chevy Corsica. I had two. The thing can roll over any snow mound as they are very high off the ground and they are easy to work on and easy to find parts used or new. Very dull looking but a real trooper for Michigan winter driving. Great heat too. Weeee!

**Planner3357** · February-23-11, 01:53 PM

Im selling one of my two Alfa Romeo 164s. The one for sale is a 164 L manual with no compression in #1 cylinder..it's like driving on 5 cylinders. $1000.00

**rb336** · February-23-11, 03:30 PM

I saw a Gremlin, a Pinto and a Vega the other day

**Zacha341** · February-23-11, 04:32 PM

LOL! I saw a horrid Dodge Horizon on the road recently. The thing was still going strong as was not blowing any smoke! Incredible!

Originally Posted by rb336

I saw a Gremlin, a Pinto and a Vega the other day

**Zacha341** · February-23-11, 04:44 PM

I'm selling my old 'beater' Toyota Camry XLE soon [[181,000+ original engine and tranny). Engine valve/ lifter ticking noise from overheating one too many times but still hauls, but little heat comes from the heater, and you have to pour power steering fluid in it every two weeks as there's a permenant leak in the system that can't be completely fixed. Or for parts..... LOL! Great cars relative to collision ratings - up there with Volvo's without all the hassle you have with trying to find parts... I wanna a Ford Fusion!

Originally Posted by Planner3357

Im selling one of my two Alfa Romeo 164s. The one for sale is a 164 L manual with no compression in #1 cylinder..it's like driving on 5 cylinders. $1000.00

**Zacha341** · February-23-11, 04:51 PM

I had a '70-something' Chevy Nova. My first car! Rust color with plenty of rust. Very little compression but it ran well... and had plenty of heat for winter. All Chevy's have great heat. Even my horrid two Chevette's did!

Originally Posted by Meddle

...I wouldn't mind having a '75 Nova again either, but I don't understand the wild pricing now.