As a lover of unusual – some would say oddball – vehicles, I love the idea of a four-door Chevette. This 1985 Chevrolet Chevette CS can be found on craigslist in Omaha, Nebraska, or here on the CL archive. The seller is asking $1,985 for this 1985 Chevette, unless that’s a joke. The price, I mean..
The first thing that jumps out at me on this car is how big this car looks, at least for a Chevette. Although this four-door hatchback is really only about 3-inches longer than a two-door hatchback is. The second thing is how white it is! This is one white car. The third thing is the front passenger door is sort of off-white which is either some sort of eclectic artistic statement or maybe it’s just been repainted. Yeah, that’s probably it. The front spoiler, too.
The ad is a little cryptic, I’m not quite sure what the story is but it sounds like a “grandma’s car” sort of situation. They say that this Chevette is from a “farm in Waverly, she passed. it was the grocery getter the farmer said.” So, maybe a farmer’s wife’s car? A farmer’s grandma’s car? The farmer’s grandma passed a farm in Waverly and she saw this Chevette and bought it and then resold it to the current owner? I need a drink… It does look good, though.
For $1,985 you didn’t think that there would be an engine photo I hope because there isn’t one. This white lightning’mobile would have had Chevy’s 1.6L inline-four with 65 hp and to top that off this car has an automatic. You didn’t expect grandma to heel-and-toe it to church on Sundays, did you? I didn’t think so. If this thing would have had Isuzu’s 51 hp diesel and a 5-speed I’d be on a Greyhound to Omaha with a pocket full of $100s. They say that this car has “air conditioning. automatic, AM/FM, all options except roof rack! $400.00 tune-up in spring.” The seats have a really interesting pattern, almost anything and everything in Chevy’s house-o-style went into those seats. There is no mention of how things work or even if they work. I’m assuming that this car at least runs and drives since they list the condition as being excellent. Have any of you ever owned a “big” four-door Chevette?
In 1990 I worked for a company that had a fleet of these and older ones. Stripped ones. They had no power, and were difficult to get started after sitting over night. It may be neat to see one, but I can’t see anyone getting any pleasure from driving one.
Must have been a fleet of lemons. I drive the identical car to this daily, only mine is the 4 speed. Starts instantly no matter what, plenty of power even at 6,500 ft. elevation, cruises fine at 70, will go 80 if I want to. Really fun to drive, out handles most anything else due to rear wheel drive. Sophisticated SLA front suspension, torque tube drive so no vibrations. My part time job is defending Chevettes LOL.
I think you mean your part time job is defending one Chevette.
I owned an 86 Pontiac T1000 CS , basically meant it had a cloth interior in the same white, as for the front spoiler being a different white, that spoiler would drag on the ground, esp. when entering and exiting a parking lot , so they took a lot of abuse either this one was replaced, or repainted to cover up the blacktop that got scraped up , mine was a 4 spd. very underpowered, but it was my first new one ( I had used crap mobiles until then ) I was pickled tink about my first new car the interior wore like iron but, alas the great north east took it’s toll on the body and frame
I like it! I actually like Chevettes, I think they are the absolute best for buzzing around town running errands and, although I’ve never had a four door, I think it would be best and most useful of all. Looks like a good car and a good deal at that price but I don’t need it.
the space under the hatch wasn’t good for grocery getting, most bags were too tall
I’ve owned 3 of these, all 4 doors, all 4 speeds, one a diesel. They were a good car for a teen. Gutless and slow. They’re tiny, cramped, and pretty much not fun. The seats were comfy though.
I don’t know where all the “cramped” people were, unless they all weigh 300 lbs. At 6’1″ no cramping in my Chevette. Real cramping, all VW beetles and rabbits, most small FWD cars.
Sure wish it was closer. I have a heart for odd ball cars!❤️
These were awesome cars to drive at the limit. Of course, “the limit” was under the speed limit and could only score you a reckless driving citation in a retirement community.
For what it’s worth, they drift very nicely on dirt fire roads.
Unfortunately these are no longer appropriate daily driver student cars. They do not offer any crash protection vs. Modern cars.
I have always liked Chevettes for some reason. A friend in school had a 4- door, we went everywhere in that car, an automatic, and you couldn’t be in a hurry. This one in “You Would Even Say It Glows White” would be fun. Slow fun.
I’ve always liked Chevettes too. Just something about cheap transportation, tho I prefer the earlier models. But yes, knowing what I know now, I could never get on the road in one of these… too scary! They crunch up like tinfoil.
With this car I was always concerned about the angle of the steering column.
If there wasn’t room to put the steering column in straight, then there wasn’t room for my legs either.
In my foreign car garage days we had a friend with one of these and we would take care of it. They put a north south engine in east to west and the distributor was facing the firewall. There was about an eight of an inch clearance and it was a ROYAL PAIN IN THE you know what to try do something as simple as change the distributor cap. I had a friend that had a diesel version; you could hire out in spring as a mosquito killer but you could do it at 50 mpg.
North south engine swap? East n West? Explain.
(What is the east west to north south engines)
Was successful in Pa always bought the biggest and the best. So we went to Dallas expecting JR to get us connected to the big time. Turns out he’s all talk. After many one way 24 hour drives to Dallas With my Corvettes and equipment only a few months in the Big D they went for wholesale for rent money and plane tickets home. Had enough cash to buy a new 80 Chevett for Shirley to go back to teaching. She loved it but wasn’t two years and back to El Do.
My mom had the ’84 version of one of these. As a child of the Great Depression, this was the only car she ever bought new. White with blue interior, four door, same as this one. With the exception of a different pattern on the seats this could be a clone.
When mom quit driving I drove it for a few years.
It Was a heavy little car. It was like someone had cut the four corners off a Malibu and welded it together. For all of that, the doors had a bit of that ‘tin can’ feel to them when you shut them (compared to larger cars). You were instructed from new to shut the hood by dropping the lead edge from about eight inches in the air instead of closing it with downward pressure. The hood developed two odd little rust holes about where you would put hood pins, that I covered with aluminum tape. The hood cable release had also frozen, so the only way to open it was to reach into the grille with a screwdriver–easier than using the hood release on any of these, actually.
It always had super cold air conditioning, which is important in the south in summer– but you made the choice of whether to have the air on or be able to accelerate.
Late in its days, someone once pulled out in front of me CLOSE and I laid on the horn. The horn, in response, was doing a weak beeep-da-da-beeep-da….morse code style. When I let go, the horn cap fell off. The T-bar automatic shifter was black. Because they broke so often, Chevrolet just brought in all the ’84s to have them changed out for a warranty repair. The plastic interior had gotten to that chalky, waxy consistency that they do when left out in the sun, and the panels in the hatchback were scarred up from use. Of course the hatchback pistons quit.
Got rid of it in ’04 when it started being a real PITA, throwing emission codes yearly that meant the mechanic had to take it through MARTA instead of me. My brother in law lectured me about the car, because my sister was concerned about me driving something ‘so old’. So I got rid of it. Had something like forty thousand miles on it when I sold it, to a piker that a high school friend had married, for three hundred. They drove it out in the country for a few years until the collective misery of all the little design shortcomings got to them and they moved on to collecting their deer strikes on the front of an old minivan.
Wouldn’t the bumper be either tin foil or duct tape, with unpainted end caps?
Bumper is heavy steel, end caps are plastic, painted to match car. Has shock absorbers supporting bumper
“Enduraflex”, maybe, for the bumper caps? The front and rear bumpers are the same on these cars iirc, like those on the Studebaker Larks.
This is what I sold them for back in the ’90s.
I don’t know if that is good or bad.
I can go on craigslist right now and buy a $750 civic that’ll bury 3 of these things. Not to mention, more power,way more reliable, way better handling and not an embarrassment to be seen in!
How gm sold these things is beyond me and $1975 is about $1900 overpriced.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. No manufacturer has ever been able to drive the front wheels and steer them both at the same time, and achieve maximum handling. (Let me know when they build the first FWD Corvette). Chevettes have always been awesome rally cars, although mostly in Europe. Rear wheel drive is better balanced as well, your Civic has all the weight in the front. During their hay day, 400 thousand were sold per year, way more popular than Honda. Car and Driver also reported in their new car test Chevette was the most dependable car tested ever, “slam the hood shut and forget it”.
You have to give the popularity to it’s price.
Hondas at the time were getting over sticker and this was just a cheap throw away entry level car.
How many Chevettes are on the road today and how many Hondas from the same era are still around?
Lovely looking Chevette. I’ve always liked 1981 and later Chevettes. I find them more attractive than earlier models. Given its condition, I think it’s well worth the $1,985 asking price.
I had a couple of these cars back in the early 90’s.One auto and one 4 speed they always started and really well in the snow up here in central vt.
My brother had an 84 Pontiac Acadian. Slow, but reliable and handled very well. My “technically advanced” 78 VW Wabbit, on the other hand, as a Demon Possessed POS.
I talked a girlfriend into buying one of these new in 1981. Shortly afterward she dumped me. I’d like to think it was revenge for her and karma for me.
Bought a used four door auto with close to 100k miles after getting rid of my shiny new 87 Shelby GLHS. The Chevette never left me stranded once and was driven several 10’s of thousands of miles further than the Shelby was. Nuff said!
i had a 84 vette, 4 speed, 4 door, worked at tonawonda engine plant and drove 27 miles to work, 6-7 days a week. mine had almost 100,000 miles on it when i bought it. this was a great car during the buffalo winters. i put all season radials on it and you couldn’t stop it in the snow. only real problem was starter solenoids. it was after about 3-4 times of changing them a different parts guy told me use a heavyy duty one, that was the last time i had to change it.
I had 2 chevettes one was a drag car with smallblock 4 speed and I showed my nephew at 10 years old how to do a burnout , the other one was a street driven diesel I paid 25$ for, it had a hatch so I could put a floor jack in it all my tools, and it got great mileage , one day on rt 2 I said fill it diesel and some bonehead put 4 gallons of regular gas in before I could stop him ( now I’m the bonehead)anyway the performance on that day was greatly increased , about 3 months later the timing belt went so I went to the local parts guy( Ronnie) he looked it up and said nope your all done , I said what do you mean ? He said it’s an interference motor, you throw the car away, so I said oh, and scrapped the rig.
Yes I have 2 chevettes 4 doors and manual trans.
With iron duke engine – perfect engines.
One problem – front shocks calapsed after 145.000 miles but I fixed and driven another 45000.
Very interesting- never recalled or have any problems. American made car
Mark
Yes I have 2 chevettes 4 doors and manual trans.
With iron duke engine – perfect engines.
One problem – front shocks calapsed after 145.000 miles but I fixed and driven another 45000.
Very interesting- never recalled or have any problems. American made car
Mark