76 Chevette LOL!

[Xman]

Where do I start? First, I must say that this was not a car. It was a locomotion device. My wife bought one used before we were married while in college. The thing had ZERO pick up! One day, my buds and I were at our friendly watering hole when she comes in with the key and says, "Here are the keys, it's still running". We go outside and sure enough itsa stilla runnin. She drove home and did a battery disconnect. What an f'ing POS that car was! Any other lemon gallery stories?


2K4 G35x/Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Premium/Wood
Stillen Hi-Flow/ Z tube/ Ground Kit

[Mooser]

LMAO Xman! Now, I'm guessing that you and I are "approximate" in age. I can remember when those POS things ruled our highways. They were a dime-a-dozen. You have to realize the "era" those cars were made in. We, the USA, were coming off of 2 oil embargo's, and the EPA had sooo many restrictions on what our car makers could make.
IMO, the "Big 3" ( after American Motors went tits-up,) were simply making junk. How about the Baretta, the Corsica, the Celebrity? Ford had the stinkin' Granada (The one that could pass for a Mercedes, in their minds) and the Fairmont. OMG! Do we suck that bad? Yeah, we did! Chrysler had the "K" cars, and their flagship, "Imperial" which used to have a mega-hp/size was no bigger than the Chevette, with a 4-banger!
I lived through that "depression." I think, finally, our car makers are going in the right direction. The old saying, and I continue to live by is; "There's no replacement for displacement." Sorry. I went off on a tangent.

2003-G35C-5AT Laser Red/Black/Prem/XM/Tint/Chrome 17's/Black Badged

[Xman]

No, you're not off on a tangent. You reminded me of the context. There's some ugly names you mentioned. Remember "Corinthian Leather?" Also Pinto and Vega comes to mind (BOOM!). One of my friends owned an early Datsun that was a POS too, sorry to say in this forum.

More recently I've experienced POS from Ford Taurus in the tranny dept. '82 and '94. The big 3 lost me after that. Now I own a Subaru and Infiniti with no regrets (my Dad would turnover in his grave after putting in 30 years in at GM).


2K4 G35x/Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Premium/Wood
Stillen Hi-Flow/ Z tube/ Ground Kit

[Mooser]

Ahh yes. Ricardo Mantalban, with his Chrysler Cordoba and it's rich Corinthian leather! What's that? 1975 thru 1977? At least they came with a some-what respectable 360-ci, unlike the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare, Geez! BTW, Do you remember the Dodge St. Regis? That was our CHP cruiser in 1979 & 1980. They are quoted as saying, "That car wouldn't get out of it's own way."
I still feel the same way about the current Cavalier, Impala ( what a freakin' joke) and the Malibu. Ford? The Focus, which I call "The F*&%-Us." Why? Because that will be what happens to you when you buy one. Oh, and the Fiesta and the Aspire, and the Famous Tempo that had a serious history of over-heating all of the time. OH God, I need to stop! Add that with the Disco era ( Bee-Gee's) and everything else, the bottom line is, I guess I'm getting too old. If only I could go back and change a few things..... Thanks Xman for taking me back.

2003-G35C-5AT Laser Red/Black/Prem/XM/Tint/Chrome 17's/Black Badged

[ryoken]

I had a buddy in high school that had a Chevette. He and another guy both had them, called them their 'vettes, and would occassionally race each other. The thing about racing 'vettes is that the top speed is not limited by horsepower, but by the chassis vibrating wildly around 65-70mph.

Actually, come to think of it, of all my buddy's high school cars, the most reliable was a '74 Karman Ghia convertible Beetle. Everybody else had an American POS. (Well, except for the Triumph TR-7.. it was an English POS. It would have at least looked cool, if it weren't for the brown paint.)

[G4Teej]

Your dad may not turnover too much, GM owns part of Subaru. In fact, GM will use the Subaru WRX as the base for its Saab 9-2x.

2003.5 Garnet Fire 5AT

[Xman]

G4Teej,

Forgot about that, thanks. They can learn something from Subaru.

and

Ryo,

Thanks for reminding me about the vibrating chassis![img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img][img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img][img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img]


2K4 G35x/Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Premium/Wood
Stillen Hi-Flow/ Z tube/ Ground Kit

[ABQ_G35]

LOL, I always thought the name Chevette was hilarious anyway, we used to call Chevrolet "Shove it or leave it" so, the name went to the the "Shove-it" That car fit the bill well, and I can't remember the name of another small Chevy in the early 80's, it was a Japanese car, and the brand had an identical model with their nameplate on it? That was a real POS! Not the Nova, that was a Toyolet, LOL!


Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Chrome Wheels '04 Sedan/5AT

[Xman]

I think that was the Prizm, basically part Corolla ?


2K4 G35x/Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Premium/Wood
Stillen Hi-Flow/ Z tube/ Ground Kit

[ABQ_G35]

It may have been as well since GEO was a seperate division which no longer exists, but the Chevy was definitely the Nova! Okay, the car was a Chevy (Geo) Spectrum, and I believe it was built by Izuzu, they also made their own model, that was almost identical.................can't think of that name off hand! Those were more or less "disposable" cars!
[img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img]


Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Chrome Wheels '04 Sedan/5AT

[Z06ified]

Yeah, I had a buddy in high school who had a 1980 Chevette too. It was the SPORT model too! [img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img] It had racing stripes from the factory, and a pleather shift boot for the shifter (it was a 5 speed). It was really sporty - lol It did 0-60 in about 20 seconds and you could stop better by putting your feet out the door fred flinstone style. We called it the "****vette".

Then there's was the kid in high school who took his mom's mustard yellow '75 Pinto station wagon and stuffed a highly modified 5.0 Mustang engine into it [img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img] That car was FAST and a real sleeper, except for the loud V-8 rumble it made (uh, that doesn't SOUND like a Pinto!). I remember he had a bumper sticker that read "Old Fords never die, they just go faster" LOL

Let's see some other gems: My mom had a 1972 Pinto which she kept from when I was born until I was 12. So I grew up with a Pinto!! [img]/w3timages/icons/shocked.gif[/img] It's amazing I have such a passion for cars after that! She actually bought a fully loaded Pinto that even had A/C! I remember if you turned the A/C on going up a hill or a bridge, the car didn't have enough power to make it over the hill, so you had to turn the A/C off - LMAO. But amazingly the A/C worked for the entire 12 years she had the car.

My friend's mom had a '71 Dodge Dart with the Slant-6 motor, another POS. She later 'upgraded' to a '76 Nova she called "Bessie" [img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img] She often had to talk to Bessie nicely to get her to start - she was very tempermental.

I used to carpool to elementary school with 2 other kids, one of their parents had a '73 AMC Pacer (the bubble car), and the other had a vomit green AMC Gremlin. So we were stylin in the carpool with a Pinto, Pacer, and Gremlin. [img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

In high school, one friend got a '81 Chevy Citation (a slight upgrade from a Chevette) from his parents, which was a complete POS. This same friend later switched to an '83 VW Rabbit (another POS), then a '78 Ford LTD (actually a decent car but got stolen), then a '81 Audi (biggest POS of them all)Another friend got a 1980 Dodge Omni from his parents. Major POS.

Wow, thinking back on it, there were a lot of crappy cars in my life as a kid! Kids these days don't know how lucky they have it - LOL.

Fortunately, I never owned a POS myself. My first car was a 1983 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, which was 5 years old when I got it. It was great car (still miss it *sniff* *sniff*). The cars I've owned only got better from there.

2003 G35C, 6MT, DG/G, Aero/Nav/Premium
2002 Corvette Z06, Electron Blue/Black

[Xman]

Wow! You hit on some good POSs. I hope you're not too traumatized.[img]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/img]


Laser-enhanced
2K4 G35x/Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Premium/Wood
Stillen Hi-Flow/ Z tube/ Ground Kit

[ABQ_G35]

Did the Chevette really do 0-60 in 20 seconds, or was it 20 minutes? LOL!

One car a friend had that I remember well, was a Triumph Herald Coupe, geez, he put a Chevy 283, 3spd in that car, no engineering at all, just did it, he couldn't figure out how to get the Chevy rearend in with the springs, so he just welded it to the subframe, that damned car took off like a bullet, no dipping on torque, just went, and went fast, LOL, rode a tad rough though, also didn't last very long, the front end kept braking axles, LOL, hmmm.....wonder why! [img]/w3timages/icons/crazy.gif[/img]


Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Chrome Wheels '04 Sedan/5AT

[lllee]

My dad was dirt poor and needed a car for his right-out-of-college job, so he went to the local dealership in Atlanta and straight up said "Give me the cheapest car you've got on the lot."

76? Chevy Nova. Banana Yellow.

Whenever my sister and I reminisce about the car, she only brings up how bad it smelled because I always got too hot and puked in the backseat (no A/C).