Junkyard Find: 1990 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24
We saw a 1990 Cavalier Z24 just a few months ago, but lately I’ve developed a sick fascination with the allegedly high-performance versions of the very popular Chevrolet Cavalier. Maybe it’s the wretchedness of the breed in the 24 Hours of LeMons, or maybe it’s the vivid purple paint job. Whatever the reason, here’s another ’90 that I found in a Denver-area yard not long ago.
Are these tape stripes factory-installed? The early 1990s were the heyday of hideous stick-on graphics, but there’s a certain level of Manny, Moe, and Jackness on display here.
The previous Colorado Z24 Junkyard Find had a Heisenberg air freshener hanging from the rear-view mirror, and this one has a “Breaking Bad” DVD inside. Coincidence?
How many acres of this blue velour-ish material did The General consume during the 1980s and 1990s?
The first car more people bring home… is a Chevy Cavalier.
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, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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Love the pinstriping. In the EKG of life, it looks like the Heartbeat of America pulsed once, then flatlined.
The first car that people trade in on a Toyota Corolla is... a Cavalier.