Hemmings Motor News Blog

LAWD ! 16,700 miles on that 'ol aluminum block...

Let's see - at 20K it'll start leaking viscous fluids

at 25K the rings will score & the oil will start burning off....

Too late - I remember those motors well....Aloha

You are thinking about a Vega, those things had the terrible aluminum blocks. The chevette had an iron block and very little power. We had two of these things when I was a kid. A 76 and an 81. Both ran well enough and provided a long life. They had NO power. Driving up the mountain to Boone, NC was terrible. You had to drop the car into second gear and poke up the hill. There was always a long line of cars behind you when you went there.

The car had all the typical GM foibles. The shift knob came off in your hand, if you got too frisky, the whole shifter would come out of the transmission. It rattled, it creaked, the windows were constantly turning yellow on the inside from all the cheap plastic de-gassing, the headliner fell down, and so on. Despite the cheap build of the car it did just keep on running and running. Try as my teenage siblings and I did, you could not kill these cars.

You are right & my too-quick response.....keep this 'ol country boy straight!

...and the brakes needed replacing under the first ten thousand; and the lifters needed machining within the first 20,000; and vibration damper fell off within the first 20,000; and...so on. For Honda and Toyota this was one of GM's best, as it began the irreversible decline in GM market share that has led to the demise of GM today...in spite of greatly improved quality and reliability. GM would have been smarter to treat the Chevette just as the Vega and kill it after the first few years.

Well, like P.T. Barnum, once said any publicity is better than no publicity.

I would like to point out a couple things on this car. One, it really is the nicest Chevette I have ever seen. And two, when was the last time you saw one anyplace this nice at any price? Third, all of our prices are set to allow for the obligatory negociation, trade-ins etc. etc.

Getting back to Chevettes in general. They are the econoboxes of the
80's. They are bullet proof little cars, get great mileage and in some sort of shrunken Citation sort of way stylish in their day. B.T.W., when was the last time you saw a Citation in any condition?

After being at Hemmings, I worked for Old Cars Weekly and Price Guides for about 10 years and while living in Iola, I bought my wife a new Chevette Scooter in the late 1970's. The car proved to be indistructable, got over 32 mpg, and started everyday in those bitter Wisconsin winters.

Getting back to this Chevette, also a Wisconsin car. I drove it for about a week before bringing it into the showroom and it brought back a lot of memories…..as in, I sure am glad it isn't the '80's anymore. This car has gotten a lot of attention and I am sure it will sell to some one soon, who just misses the "80's (?). Probly has a leisure suit still in the closest also. The great color, flawless original paint and interior is enough. Bob Lichty

Hi Bob & greetings - pretty sure you're going to sell at a good price, as you say there will be someone wanting what you have...

Heck, even with the high fuel prices & all, I am still amazed at how much we can get for full-size restored Broncos

Best of Luck!

Welcome to CR4, Bob! Great to have you with us. It's not everyday that the person a story is about joins the conversation. Hope to have you back for more car talk.

- Moose

I grew up in a garage and worked on a lot of these things as a kid. I would hesitate to use the word "bulletproof" with a Chevette.

One, I learned cylinder head welding practicing on Chevette heads. Very often found cracks in the combustion chambers and ports. Also, sometimes on the top of the head. Lifters could be a (^$@& to remove as well.

Starters! There was a pain. Extremely difficult to access. Fully optioned models (with A/C, for example) were difficult to tune; difficult to access the distributor, for example.

Often saw some porosity problems with carb housings which required some "down home" repairs with liquid steel or a similar product.

Ah, the good ol' days...

Ya, I guess you are right, I am old enough to compare the old days of Chevette ownership to others cars, like the Vega, CUTiger was talking about. Those aluminum enginers were really bad. I remember having an Isuzu Trooper, a car I really enjoyed driving but, whew, you want to see a car that eats up cylinder heads, there is one. I went to the salvage yard in hopes of finding one for mine once, and in a row of about 20 Troopers not one had a head left on it.

When my wife and I bought the Chevette Scooter I mentioned in the first post, we traded in a 75 Pinto Squire station wagon. A cute car, fun to drive and O.M.G. did it get horrible m.p.g. I mean, nothing you could do to that car would get it past 15 m.p.g. The Chevette performed like a dream in comparison. The one we are selling is a delight to drive, but at that low of miles it should be. Thanks for the post.

I also remember rebuilding those bullet proof carbs by first putting them in the vice and hacksawing Vs in the base plate to knock out the plugs so you could get to the jets. GM wanted over $200. for a new carb and a rebuild kit was about $15.

If any of the big three wanted to save their buts they would remove the planned obsolescent and put cars on the road without the planned failure built in. Gee I drive American because I can give it to my grandkids. Oh yeah the Stockholders and Union workers would make less because they would be selling a durable product that maintained its value.

They have low mileage for a reason they were a throw away car. Some who loves his Chevette will have 300,000 miles on it. But they could have built another car for the cost of maintaining it that long.

Worked on to many of them that had less than 80K miles for things that should never have failed.

Brad