Junkyard Find: 1977 Chevrolet Chevette
The ’79 Monza wagon we saw last week was a choice specimen of Malaise Era misery, to be sure, but how did the Vega Monza compare to the Chevette?
Let’s say it’s 1977, you’re a Chevrolet shopper, and you want something that doesn’t gulp the fuel like a Caprice or Chevelle. The Chevette Scooter listed for a staggeringly cheap $2,999, while the cheapest possible Vega sold for $3,249. The Chevette had a 57 (!) horsepower engine, while the four-cylinder Vega/Monza packed a somewhat mightier 84 horses under the hood.
The Vega handled better, the Chevette got better fuel economy, and both looked most appropriate in 70s brown paint.
I’m just shocked that an early Chevette stayed on the street long enough to see the second decade of the 21st century before getting crushed.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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The Chevette is european in origin as early as '72 IIRC. Vauxhall had their own hot hatch versions that were quite the rally beast the HSR and HS. I've also owned about half a dozen chevettes over the years as winter beaters.
Why can't any of the junkyard near me have anything like this? Where are these junkyards?!