[AT] OT: Chevy Chevette (was Re: Yellow Farmall now cold starting

Mike Sloane mikesloane at verizon.net
Mon Jan 3 08:22:45 PST 2011


I don't know about your terrain, but when I worked for NJ Bell back 
about then, we quickly found out that a Chevette with auto transmission 
and 4 people in the car wouldn't make it up the steep hills. Drivers had 
to either plan different routes or drop off two people, top the hill, 
discharge the passenger, and then go back to fetch the other two! For a 
single driver just going around town they were OK but taking them out on 
the Interstates was always a challenge. When there were Chevettes in the 
vehicle pools, employees would cheat, bribe, and lie to avoid having to 
take one out. Bell used to keep cars and trucks almost forever, but the 
Chevettes' life cycle was the shortest I ever saw. :-) That is not to 
say that the other cars Bell bought were perfect - there were Chevy 
Vega's that died on the side of the road, Ford Pinto's, Rambler 
American's, and some other rolling disasters that time has kindly erased 
from my memory. And people wonder why the Japanese car companies ended 
up with 55% US market share after a while...

Mike

On 1/3/2011 8:36 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> That should have read '80 Chevette.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: charlie hill
> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 8:10 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Yellow Farmall now cold starting
>
> Rob I had an 8- Chevette.  It was the standard gasoline version, 2 door and
> stripped down.  I bought it to commute to a construction project.  People
> laugh at them but that was one tough little car.  I hauled 3 other guys with
> me every day.  All but one of us over 200 lbs and a lot of times we had
> heavy tool boxes in the back.  It wasn't unusual for someone to be late
> coming out of the house and I'd have to hustle because if you didn't get
> through the "brass" gate by 7 am you had to go back home and miss a day of
> work.  It would cruise along at 80 mph or better with all that load and
> never complained.



More information about the AT mailing list