Meet the 1976 Chevette, a basic rear-drive subcompact that would somehow remain in the Chevrolet lineup through 1987.
It’s not hard to identify the purpose behind the 1976 Chevrolet Chevette: First, to meet the steadily growing demand for small cars in the American market. Second, and more importantly for General Motors, it would help the automaker meet the U.S. government’s new CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) requirements. Just as the new federal standards were coming into view, engineers were at work adapting GM’s global T-car platform for domestic car buyers. But when they were done, the new Chevy shared surprisingly little with the other T-cars, especially in the exterior sheet metal and styling.
While the ad people called it “Chevrolet’s New Kind of American Car,” the Chevette was remarkably conventional in design with a unit construction platform on a 94.3-in wheelbase. There was an Isuzu-designed 1.4-liter overhead-cam inline four in the front, driving the rear wheels via an Opel-style hybrid torque-tube arrangement. (A 1.6 liter four was optional). With 52 SAE net hp, the smaller four was EPA-rated at 40 mpg highway, 28 city with a four-speed manual transmission.
With an overall width of just 61.8 inches and a fat driveline tunnel running down the middle, the Chevette wasn’t exceptionally roomy on the inside, but it was comfortable enough for two occupants. Nicely styled but nothing fancy, the cabin featured a fold-down rear seat to provide 26 cubic feet of cargo volume, according to Chevrolet. While the rack-and-pinion steering’s turning circle was a mere 30.2 feet, the steering column and wheel were installed at funny angles due to packaging constraints, which could take some getting used to.
For the 1976 introduction, there was a single body style, a two-door hatchback, but it could be purchased in multiple trim levels, including Coupe, Sport Coupe, Rally Coupe, and the deluxe Woody with woodgrain-vinyl exterior panels. The bare-bones Scooter offered painted bumpers, no rear seat or glovebox door, a cheap black interior with cardboard door panels, and a price of $2,899. The more conventional Chevette models started at $3.098. In 1978 a four-door hatchback was introduced, and soon it would account for half the sales.
On the cover of its October 1975 issue, Car and Driver magazine (below) declared the Chevette “the most important car Detroit has ever produced.” Well, no, it was never that. But the Chevy subcompact did prove to be a surprisingly durable (if unrefined) little product and it would remain in the Chevrolet ineup through 1987, despite competition from more advanced front-drive subcompacts from Japan and the USA. When production finally ended on December 23, 1986, nearly 2.8 million Chevettes had been sold.
I had a few friends doing the science fiction convention circuit back then who owned Chevettes. Something that never seems to come up regarding the car is that it was a really nice Interstate cruiser, comfortable and handled very well at 70-75mph. Of course, this assumes you got a manual transmission when you bought the car.
It really shouldn’t be all that surprising, as it was originally an Opel design, and anything the Germans design are at least competent on the autobahn.
The Chevette has gotten kind of a bad rap which I think is undeserved. It did what it was designed to do well. It was inexpensive and for the time pretty reliable. The ones powered by the Isuzu Diesel got amazing mileage, well over 50 mpg. GM must have done something right when you look at the sales figures and that it was sold not just in the US but all over the world.
I was working as a tech at a Chevy dealership when the Chevette came out. It wasn’t a great car, but it wasn’t bad for basic transportation as long as you had a stick shift. I don’t think I ever drove one with the 1.4 liter engine, the 1.6 was slow enough. At least the Chevette was built better than the horrible Vega.
The Chevette was proof that GM would have done much better back in 1971 if they had just repurposed the next larger size Opel (Rekord?) and sold it as a Chevrolet rather than design the Vega.
They were durable little cars. I think of all the 16 year-olds who tried to kill them and couldn’t.
true, a Chevette was the cheapest car you could rent in the early 80s and I can confirm that my friends and I beat on a few of them as mercilessly as we could. I bought one in ’87 to save money on gas and it was a good little cat that was much improved with a set of wider and higher quality tires.
Irénée du Pont Jr. purchased one new, and still had it in his car collection when he passed away in `23 at age 103.
My dad Had a 77 Chevette Sandpiper. Since he knew it was based on an Opel design and I had an Opel Ascona at the time, he had me come with to custom order it. I spotted two options that I considered essential, power brakes and U56, rear anti-sway bar. Dad ordered the 1.6 engine and automatic on his own. He had a 120 mile daily commute so decent gas mileage was essential . He put nearly 190,000 miles on it with zero mechanical repairs. Unfortunately by that time the floorboards were history.
The engine was based on the Brazilian Chevette engine that was based on an Opel engine. Nothing to do with Isuzu in the least bit
Designed by Isuzu.
Everybody I know who had one complained they were hard on brakes. They all drove in suburbs. If you put on more aggressive brake blocks, the rotors went.
This is the automotive equivalent of a hair shirt. When you’re in one you are reminded that you are broke. The Ford Fiesta felt like and Audi compared to this.
Rented one back in 1976. What a POS! Noisy and bog-slow with our family of 3 in the car. Heck, my MG Midget seemed peppier.
I remember driving the original Toyota Corona 10 years earlier – it was far more advanced that the Chevette was a decade later.
With crap like this car, no wonder GM had trouble competing with the Japanese, and later the other Asian automakers.