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

charlie hill charliehill at embarqmail.com
Mon Jan 3 08:39:16 PST 2011


Mike mine had a 4 speed manual and I promise you I drove it like I stole it. 
I didn't buy it because I liked it but because I needed something that would 
run cheap for a 100 mile a day commute.  I was charging the other 3 guys to 
ride with me and the car was basically paying for it's self.  All I wanted 
it to do was last until it was paid for and it did that with room to spare. 
I had so little regard for it that when it got about 120,000 on it I stopped 
changing the oil in it.  It had gotten to the point by then that it burned a 
quart about every 1000 miles or so.  I figured just replacing what it burned 
and occasionally replacing the filter was good enough.  Maybe I got the best 
one ever made but mine had plenty of power for what it was.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike Sloane
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 11:22 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: [AT] OT: Chevy Chevette (was Re: Yellow Farmall now cold starting

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.
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