Chevette

im looking at a 1982 Chevette. I want it. i love the shape and engine swap potential.

How hard is it to obtain parts (OEM?)??

Im itching to buy it. 2 door. looks really clean. manual tranny....

Talk me out of it

Biggest problems with a Chevette? Rusted shock towers (fairly common small car problem...but look over closely) tie with the sagging front suspension due to a weak chassis cross support.

You are swapping out the engine and transmission...why do you care about OEM support? BTW, stock engine output is all of 65 horsepower.

Here's what a Consumer's GUIDE (NOT Consumer's Report) used car guide said:

"this simple rear-drive subcompact has unsophisticated suspension and a buzzy, low-powered 4 cylinder engine" (it was considered to be unsophisticated 15 years ago)....

"Steering is quick, handling mediocre, road manners safe if dull".

An Isuzu I-mark (a chevette with a different body) almost won FSP at the SCCA nationals a few years ago. If you were willing to put alot of $$$ into one you could make it handle well. But, the chevette doesnt have alot of room for non hack job engine swaps, and there isnt much you can do to the chevette engine. A I-mark or RWD impluse would probably be more interesting.

CarKid1989 wrote: Talk me out of it

OK, I will help you out. A good friend of mine from college had a Chevette and to this day it ranks right along with my sister's Vega as the all time biggest rolling S***box. I'm talking a blue ribbon, first class crapster. And he bought it new so we knew the history of it.

It was slow, noisy, handled poorly, hard to get in and out of, didn't stop well, rattled and after a few years both passenger and driver floor boards rotted completely through so you couldn't put your feet in the center or the mat would fall onto the road. Did I mention reverse gave out or the starter quitting right after the warranty ran out? Since we were in college and couldn't afford a new one that meant always parking on a slight hill so you could get a good push start and pop the clutch. You could literally watch it rusting before your eyes. I think it eventually just became dust in the wind.

In summary, it's hard for me to imagine a worse choice in cars. Unless of course you were looking at a Vega. And GM wonders why a whole generation of car buyers switched to imports.

Well, sorry. You wanted someone to try and talk you out of it.

About 15 years ago I saw a chevette racing against bugeyes and spridgets and doing quite well, at a vintage race day at PIR and thought "How Awesome! I gotta get me one of those. Drove back to eugene, picked up the "Money saver" and found a good runner for under $300. I got all excited went and test drove it with cash in my pocket. I left it with the owner. Underwhelming to say the least. I have never disliked a car that much in that short a period of time.

Honestly, I think you would be better off just buying the 86 Mustang that's over in the classifieds. It looks like it's already to go and the price seems right. Why don't you just save yourself the trouble and snag it?

92dxman wrote: Honestly, I think you would be better off just buying the 86 Mustang that's over in the classifieds.

Or anything else.

Sorry again. Just trying to help you out.

What happened to your miata?

jdmae92 wrote: What happened to your miata?

Still have it. LOVE IT! drive it everday race it almost every weekend. it makes me smile:)

I need a winter car

You need a winter car? If it were me, I'd get something with a great heater and plenty of good, solid sheetmetal...for those times when you hit a patch of ice and slide into a mailbox, tree, or "random" minivan. A 20 year old Chevette has none of those features...well, maybe, maybe not, a decent heater.

If you are looking for something 20 to 25 years old, I wouldn't think you could do all that badly if you went with the Fox-body Mustang.

Chevetes can be made to run extemly well but like they said above it takes ither $$ or time in the shop.

I used most of the front end of chevettes in my Dwarf car. Rack, spindels, calipers, tie rod ends, ball joints, brake hoses.

You can even find droped spindels from one of the Fireo companys.

44

I saw a 'Vette on the road yesterday. I don't think I've seen one in a couple of years, of course, I've never thought about it before either.

I was in a relatives Chevette Scooter (base model) once. I remember that the passenger's seat wasn't even adjustable.

I also remember seeing a guy with one at an autocross. The course had a long straightaway and when the Chevette was out there, he looked like someone who had just accidentally wandered out onto the course.

I knew a girl BITD who had a 4-speed one & whenever we would go out cruising in the country, she'd let me drive. After growing up driving big American iron, hopping into that Chevette was akin to the first time I climbed into a Miata - your butt felt like it was on the pavement & there was the overwhelming feeling of "This can't be safe?!?". Although, in the case of the Chevette, that feeling is reasonably justified.

I will say, 60mph never felt so fast, nor have I ever driven anything else that took so long to get there.

This year, an '82 Chevette will qualify for historic license plates in Ohio (25 years old.) As a "winter car" a Chevette will offer you plenty of "drifting" and traction-less moments with its light rear wheel drive layout.

One quirk that I remember from a friends. The heater fan never stops running. The blower's lowest setting is low, There was no off.

Go for it. If it is cheap what is the worse that can happen?

Don't a lot of ice racing clubs have chevette classes?

jrw1621 wrote: Go for it. If it is cheap what is the worse that can happen?

From what I have read (this thred) you could die in it.

so its a draw about getting it....

If it is cheap, get it

In the early '80s a friend of mine and I drove his Dad's 1976 Chevette (Bicentennial Editon no less...) from Southern Wisconsin to Thunder Bay, Canada and back with no problems so they can't be all that bad. Can they? Granted, we'd had some beer along the way so that probably eased the pain somewhat...

Can't remember how much longer the car lasted after that trip.

In ’88 I had an ’80 Chevette Scooter. The glove box door was an option and this car didn’t have it. The noise in the car was awful and it was bone stock. It was a 4-speed so you could pretend you were fast. It would spin the tires on pea gravel. One day as the car hit 55 MPH the vents in the center of the dash blew out the 8 years of leaves that collected in the cowl. It was like driving inside a mulcher. Those were the good points to the car.

It really wasn’t any good in the snow, the rear was too light. It was a handful in the rain. I spun it on a back road and put it on its side. It did land on its feet but I knocked the two passenger tires off their bead. Decided then and there two things: 1. Never buy cheap (quality) tires, 2. Chevettes are death traps. At least out in the country.

I picked up a ’78 Malibu 2-door after that (before they were cool, but made a great sleeper). That car did great in the snow with a little weight in the trunk. Replaced that with a Turbo 2.2 Daytona a couple years later and have been all Mopar since.

The moral of the story, get something else for a winter beater so you can make it to spring to enjoy the Miata.

FWD FTW in winter. Come on. They're just a better idea.

Xceler8x wrote: FWD FTW in winter. Come on. They're just a better idea.

Yes, but carkids young and stupid. Which is probably why it seems like such a good idea to me.

If it weren't for insurance, I would have already bought a beater now that I'm down here at college.

Wait.... I just realized something.... This is GRM!! I know the answer! A cheaper Miata!!!!!!!

I usualy don't comment on stuff like this - but I have such bad memories of the Chevette that I have to.

At the risk of dating myself, I had several friends whose parents had brand new Chevettes as a small family car while in high school. Absolutely the worst car I ever road in - only car I felt less safe riding in than a Chevette was another of my friends Pinto's.

I think Car and Driver (might have been Motor Trend) did an interesting comparison in the day. They got a Chevy Caprice and a Chevette, and set off on a road trip to see which one turned out to be the "more econimical car". Even without foreshadowing, I am sure you can guess the surprise answer. The Chevette really didn't get that much better gas mileage than the Caprice. On top of that it was cramped, noisy, and down right uncomfortable in comparison to the Caprice. Considering the ability to take the family and more stuff on the trip, the Caprice won the comparison.

Do youself a favor. Buy something larger and safer for driving in the snow. Don't throw money at a Chevette - They don't get better with age.

Mark

Buy a 1966 Pontiac Catalina with the 389. Nothing like 5,000 pounds of steel to keep you planted in the snow. And 4-wheel drums don't stop fast enough to lock up the wheels on ice. 10mpg isn't a problem, is it?