Starter
Alternator
Brake master cylinder
Brake calipers
Water pump.
My first car was a white '83 Chevette 2 door automatic. My parents bought it for my brother, he drove it about 4 years. I got it when he got a newer car, it had 120,000 when I got it. I drove it about 2 years, never once let me down. Some of the kids at school made fun of it, but it went when there cars were broke down.
Too bad Chevrolet doesn't bring back the Chevette. Imagine a modern rear wheel drive compact. More power, but keep the simplicity and reliability. Down with flimsy front wheel drive crap. Chevrolet should have put fuel injection on the Chevette, and revamped the body a little. They should have brought it back with these changes for '88, and keep selling them.
I bought it back, 3 years after selling it, but it had been abused. The motor had been severely overheated, and the rings collapsed. It had blow-by bad.
It was one of the best vehicles I have ever had, second only to my '96 chevy c-1500. My dad bought an '81 4 door four speed chevette new, it was a pretty good car also. I am currently looking at buying another, to drive and save money on gas over my truck.
Bring back the Chevette?
That's like wishing a migraine would come back!
How could the Chevette be the best compact ever built if it's really a subcompact car? But either way, there are many cars that were/are way better than the Chevette. The Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla in the same model years were superior. The VW Rabbit/Golf were better too. I would even pick a Chevy Cavalier as being better than a Chevette. Same or better reliability, more interior space, more power, better traction and a more modern chasis.
Knock it all that you like, but the Chevette is a pretty darn bullet proof car. I still see them driving around today. And the difference between them and a Corolla or Rabbit? The fact that the body on the chevettes still looks great. Try finding a 20+ year old civic that isn't rusted to hell. I live in Ontario, and we use an unbelievable amount of road salt. Trust me, the Chevette is a solid little buggy.
I think that the Chevette's were good little cars that were easy to fix and I wish they can build cars as simple as the Chevette w/rear wheel drive and steel body vehicles instead of the flimsy plastic cars they make today, to admit it I would rather own a Chevette over a Citation anyday due to better reliability and that the car is easier to fix, I see about a third more Chevette's than I do with the Citation's.
The people who miss the Chevette probably miss the Pinto, Vega & Gremlin too.
Actually, you'll find less 1982-86 Chevrolet Cavaliers out there than you'll find Chevettes. Cavaliers were less reliable, though they were better than Citations or Celebrities. Chevettes are a simple, robust platform, and actually variations of them were sold here later.
The 1985-89 Isuzu I-Mark/Chevrolet Spectrum/Geo Spectrum/Pontiac Sunburst was a 2nd generation Chevette from Japan. Good quality there, too.
The 1988-93 Pontiac LeMans/Passport Optima/Asuna LeMans was another Chevette derivative from Korea. Not so good, but some people get good mileage out of them.
Chevettes themselves could have been a viable platform for expansion and update, but Chevrolet was already betting with the updated Cavalier and new Sprint by 1987, and the Sprint and Spectrum that I mentioned before took a big bite out of the Chevette's market, so instead of coming out with a car that would compete with no less than eight of its own cars at the time, GM just put the old dog down.
The Chevette was a very very basic automobile.
The original Rabbit was a much better (albeit more expensive) vehicle, especially for us in the Northeast.
Great informative comment. I use to be picked up in a Chevette when my Datsun, now Nissan, broke down a lot.
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