Rare is the Cavalier that wasn’t driven straight to the salvage yard with 300,000 miles on the clock, but there’s an exception to everything. Here is the sportiest of Cavaliers, the Z24; freshly rounded-off for 1988, you have to admit that it wasn’t a bad looking little car for having started life as a penalty box. I think we all know someone who owned a Cavalier, Z24 or otherwise. My wife would probably still be driving the ’92 she had when we got married, but one 15-degree evening, as I replaced the labyrinthian drive belt tensioner a week after I replaced the cylinder head, I politely asked if she would consider a new car. It had 190,000 miles on it, and she still misses it. This Z24, sent to us by Barn Finds reader Mitchell G., is on craigslist in Massachusetts, and its low-mileage and one-owner status means that you probably won’t be spending dark winter weeknights in the garage just yet should you fall victim to its spell.
As the Cavalier’s performance upgrade, the Z24 was not saddled with the two-liter pushrod four, but rather Chevy’s ubiquitous 60-degree 2.8, making the same 130 horsepower it made in a lot of applications. With the standard five-speed stick, Hot Rod Magazine thrashed a Z24 to an 8.8-second zero-to-60 time and a 16-second quarter mile, which was actually fair going for a cheap factory hot rod in 1988. They pointed out that it was as brisk as a base V8 Camaro, which must have been embarrassing for the owners of base V8 Camaros. Our featured convertible has the optional three-speed automatic (just like my wife’s ’92!), which was saddled with a taller axle ratio of 3.18:1 compared to the five speed’s 3.61:1.
Most opinions of the Chevy 60-degree V6 seem to be unprintable, but I’ve had a few cars with 3100s and 3400s, and I never had many problems with them. But that’s just one guy and a couple cars, and your experience may vary. At the very least, they sounded nice and throaty; the growl of a 2.8/3.1 is a noise that anyone growing up in the late ’80s and early ’90s will never forget. It’s stuck in our memories from constant repetition, not necessarily because we like it.
Of course, you’d be nowhere without digital instrumentation, although its heyday was quickly waning by 1988. Notice the odometer reading; the car certainly looks nice enough to suggest its accuracy.
Winter is a bad time to sell a convertible, even if it’s a nice driving original with new tires. This one’s been for sale for a while at an asking price of $13,995, and that’s a big ask. Be that as it may, how many clean Cavaliers do you come across in 2025? They haven’t been made in 20 years, and nostalgia eventually catches up with most of us. What’s a fair price for this little slice of it?
Nice inclusion of final drive ratio’s Toth. 🤝
My dad bought a coupe Z only because it was almost the fastest midsize car that didn’t seem to be effected by the smog equipment. I got to drive the car a couple times and it was very quick. No problems while he owned it.
Gone
Pic of that 2.8 gave flashbacks,work for over 30 years as straight commission mechanic/tech made lot of money on them.
Posting expired unfortunately Craigslist doesn’t give you the opportunity to reach out to the seller after it expired. My opinion its NOT selling because they are asking about $4k over value and they are posting on the wrong website but paying $5 bucks instead of $100+ shows where you get results this could make someone a nice little toy when it gets listed again.
Nice little ride. Not nearly as common as the coupe and earlier Type 10. Seemed to me that they picked up the sweet spot where the Nova SS left off. My association with the 2.8 V6 was in a Celebrity Estate. Quite trouble free and after replacing the intake gaskets I nolonger referred to the car as “Spot”. The exhaust note was distinctive and actually sounded good for a six.
The best to tow behind your RV to use when you get there. Dolly under front wheels if an automatic like this. Top down in the south in the winter and the north in the summer, except for rainy days. Old friends did this with the Pontiac version.
Never a fan of the Cavalier, and never personally owned one; but had experience with this generation and the following iteration. Dumb cars perhaps, but these cars were durable, reliable, tough little turds. Excellent in the snow due to balance and lack of power.
I scored a1987 z24 beautiful black convertible with the gray interior five-speed had a lot of fun with that car going between Palm Springs and San Diego in the summertime never had a problem got it from the original owner with 128,000 miles on it I won’t tell you how low the price was because it just drive people crazy but when I saw it sitting on the side of the road for sale sign the top down looking all hot and sexy then I had to chase the other two people that were hanging around the car away by telling them that I’d already bought it before the owner came to show me the car. It unfortunately came to its demise two years later when a friend driving it turned in front of an oncoming car fortunately my friend survived thankfully for seat belts cuz he had the top down, to this day I still miss that car! But I’d rather miss the car then miss my friend who could have been killed or seriously hurt.
I bought a 2000 sunfire gt for my gf as her first convertible , it was a low km car and she loved it , never a huge problem , sold it to get a z3 !
She never reslly used the z3 , a sportier car and much nicer looking , she says she would take back the sunfire anytime , never know but this one is way too expensive with the crazy exchange rates and they are also cheaper in canada
YOLO
I had a 1985 chevy Cavalier Type 10 for a couple of years and didn’t have any trouble with it at all I believe mine had a 2.2 in it and an automatic it was great on gas. I was stationed at Ft. Knox KY, and I could drive to where my parents lived in Michigan on 3/4 tank of gas
I had an x-11 Citation with the 2.8 standard trans, I beat the heck out of it and it kept on going, For what it was it surprised a lot of people it was quick and the sound was great because the muffler. Tried a stock Citation muffler lost all it’s rumble, the muffler that went with the X-11 was expensive. Just had to have that rumble. Like the 727 Chrysler trains the 2.8 was rock solid. I work in a bone yard for 38 years and we had a lot of the 2.8 kicking around because they didn’t break.
Bought wife a 1994 with just 2500 miles red convertible Z24 great little car no issues