That title is a bit of clickbait, but the seller of this 1980 Chevrolet Chevette is pretty enthusiastic about it, and probably for a good reason. It does look like a nice example but is it “AWESOME”? Maybe, given that it’s now forty-two years old now and it appears to be in nice shape. They have it posted here on craigslist in Sarasota, Florida and they’re asking $5,800 for it. Thanks to the awesome Pat L. for sending in this tip!
I like enthusiastic people, they’re much more fun than bitter, angry people. I’m not naming names, Todd, but… (ha, just kidding!) If I had a nice 1980 Chevette in snow white with a red interior I may be as happy as the seller seems to be. The Chevette was made for model years 1976 through 1987 and we have seen oodles of them here. They’re always interesting to see, and even more interesting are the comments, so give us your best stuff!
There is a decent amount of room in that rear cargo storage area especially with the back seat folded down. Subtle changes for the 1980 model year included new wraparound taillights and a round gas filler door. I know, crazy. I can see some rust in the crevasses with the hatch door open, hopefully it isn’t anything too serious. The seller doesn’t mention the body condition at all other than to say that the overall condition is “FANTASTIC”.
I’m surprised to see seat covers on the seats. I know, where else would they be?! I mean, I would rather see the original seats no matter what condition they’re in. There are no back seat photos which is a little unusual even for a small car, and there appears to be a crack on the top of the padded dash. But, they did include an engine photo and two other partial engine photos (!) so for once you don’t have to listen to me gripe about that with a craigslist seller. This one has a three-speed automatic as you can see here and it also has air-conditioning.
Other than being a little dusty, the 1.6L inline-four engine looks good or as good as a jam-packed engine compartment can be. It would have had 70 horsepower and this car has had an incredible amount of work done to it. Check out the seller’s enthusiastic listing here if the ad goes away when someone grabs this good-looking Chevette.
Sorry,but I’m holding out for the “Scooter” model.
Lol, I holding out for the Scooter Diesel.
There was a diesel Scooter…..now I’m really excited!
“Chevette – for when you want to enjoy the scenery”
Sandpiper.
Yes, lots of thumbs ups, I’m sure. Maybe other fingers too if they are stuck behind your Chevette on the highway?
Back around 1987, my wife was a ballerina in Columbus, and one of her lovely ballerina girlfriends had a Chevette, which wasn’t running right. She bought a new carburetor from Nationwise Auto Parts, and asked me if I’d swap it out.
When I pulled the old carb off, there was a pre-heater thingy between the carb and the intake manifold, and when I touched it, it disintegrated. We took the carb back and got a new heater thingy, and the car ran as well again as a Chevette could. My ballerina and I celebrated 35 years on New Years Eve, our anniversary. My Chevette story!
Great story and even better photo! Happy Anniversary to you two kids!
Great story, and that sure don’t look like Columbus!
Cheers!
Well, so much for bashing Rex, now that we have a face. Just kidding, any news on the wifes ballerina girlfriend?
BTW, the “face” makes all the difference and adds a new dimension to “our” site”. Just so you know who is doing all the complaining, this is me in a train engineers seat on a train ride in Leadville, Co.( It was kind of a dream come true, even though it was remarkably simple looking to operate) Has nothing to do with Chevettes or balerinas, but just so everybody knows, I’m not some punk in granny’s basement. Let’s start the new year with a bang, and include a picture of who you are. Since we’re bringing out the violins, I celebrated my 67th birthday yesterday, dag nabit,,
I don’t have a Chevette story, not sure that’s good or bad, I DO know, fixing a gals car was always a shoe-in, but now they all drive Hoondas and Subaruses that never need anything,,nice to meet ya’, Rex, even though I’ve doubted that to be your real name since the get go,,
Lookin good howard
Congrats on the 67th
I will try to follow the picture trend
Keep the comments coming
Happy new year to all of us funky car guys
I bought a 81 Chevy Chevette for $500.00 and two extra engines from my Stepsons Grandfather It had some engine parts missing and the wheels were all different, so I figured out which ones were the correct ones, and I went to a local junk yard and bought two and then I went to a local scrap yard a friend told me about that he saw some small beauty rings, so I went there and bought the four of them and polished them up took all the rims to my cousin and had him dip and strip them in his acid vat then I prepped the rims for re-painting got them all painted black and then I went and bought some chrome Lugnut’s put everything back together and the way the wheels look on my Gray Chevette made it really Pop
Happy Birthday, you young son of a gun you!
Happy belated birthday Howard!
Happy anniversary Rex!
The upper radiator hose should be replaced with one of proper length.
Looks to have been red-on-red originally and repainted at some point. Beware of what’s under the seat covers, most upholstery options for ’80 were one-year-only.
Excellent. I see we have another Chevette connoisseur here. My guess is it’s the standard vinyl interior in Carmine. Carmine was not available with the standard cloth interior in ’80 and I doubt it’s the rare Carmine/Oyster Custom Interior, otherwise the price would be much higher. At least by $100.
http://oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Chevrolet/1980-Chevrolet/1980-Chevrolet-Chevette-Brochure/slides/1980_Chevrolet_Chevette-10-11.html
The 1980 standard vinyl had a unique pattern which can be seen in the brochure above, though in real life it wasn’t as exaggerated as in that rendering. Still, it’d be hard to replicate that and this was the only year to use it.
I don’t know what’s going on with those door panels. Those are not 1980 door panels. That would be another very hard item to source as they got brittle over time and I do not think any of the Chevette aftermarket suppliers reproduce them yet. In other words, your concourse dreams might be dashed with this one.
Bick, you and nlpnt are onto something. I was wondering about the red inner hatch color and the door panels which didn’t seem to be from 1980. Very good eyes, you two. That’s the best part of Barn Finds, readers who know the different vehicles and can point out things that look a little off.
Thanks Scottie. I was being a little bit tongue and cheek there. I don’t think there is any Chevette after market supplier, and the only Concours you’re gonna see in this is a concourse parking deck, I bet a true original 1980 Chevette would be a huge hit at a Radwood event though.
A friend’s former hippie parents who were very liberal, educated and green bought a brand new ’80 during a time when our parents drove us everywhere so that’s why I know a lot about them. I can still almost smell it how new it was. It was a yellow 4 door with a black vinyl standard interior, so I’m familiar with the pattern that way.
They actually ordered a light blue one but these were in such high demand at the time (high gas prices, inflation, Carter, Iran, it was this car’s time) that they just took the yellow one when they couldn’t get the blue one.
That’s the Custom Interior in Carmine and Oyster. The two tone door panels were only offered on the Custom Interior. The Oyster seat inserts could have been cloth or vinyl, I’m betting cloth because they didn’t wear as well as the vinyl. Don’t be fooled by the door panels, two doors had different styling than the four door in the brochure. The red low-gloss paint would have been applied inside the hatch and inner door sills regardless of exterior color.
Jeff I think you’re right. After I posted the above, I saw an ’80 2-door on YouTube with the custom interior. And it had the same door panels as this! Very odd that the 2-door would use different door panels but that appears to be the case. I stand corrected, and my Chevette knowledge has been further enhanced.
WorldOJeff: that’s some PhD-level Chevette info there, thanks! I was wondering if it might be a two-door compared to a four-door door panel change. Thanks very much for that information.
Except that the engine compartment is white. I think the rear hatch is red to match the interior. It would look odd from the inside if it was white.
It must be a real speed demon with automatic transmission and air conditioning – sit down, shut up, and hold on!
LOL. On a good it would be slower than molasses.
Its quart mile time is measured not with a stop watch, but a sun dial.
Don’t forget to shut off the AC too.
Especially if you are trying to pass the donkey cart that is loaded with potatoes. LOL
Actually, we had a 86 Chevette and by that time they had it setup to shut off that a/c compressor whenever you kicked it in to passing gear.
“What do you drive ? ”
“A Vette “
That’s exactly what I used to say when I used to drive my Chevette diesel . . .
You rarely (or least I haven’t) see these with a manual transmissions.
Congratulations Rex to you and your wife. Great picture! I was celebrating my birthday New Years Eve, but all I did was eat too much.
Happy birthday, RD!
That’s mine too – “Amateur Night”.
Happy b-day, belated, Roughdiamond!
My friend had one as his first car. I remember his father painting it blue, in his driveway with some JC Whitney paint gun contraption. It actually came out pretty good except for a few flies lol.
Beauty only a mother can see …
Craigs List: This posting has been deleted by its author.
Perhaps it sold at a Barrett-Jackson auto auction.
Perhaps it’s excitement that this thing is still on the road? I haven’t seen a Chevette in the wild since a girlfriend had one back in the 80’s! From ubiquitous appliance to conversation piece in 30 years.
Well if nothing else you can pull the drive train out and cram it into a Nash metropolitan. But in this case the posting has been deleted so hopefully the seller got what they needed
My friend Thunder Thornton had one in about ’85 (He was 16, I was 15). We drove that thing all over the DC metro area, usually late at night, when we should’ve been home doing our homework. He delivered pizzas in it in the evenings for PTA (Pizza Transit Authority) in Herndon. It fit five of us, fairly comfortably. The cargo area would hold over 200 empty Milwaukee’s Best cans.
Scotty! Danger! Red heater hose! Did you even notice?!
Ha, my new year’s resolution is to try to not mention the dreaded red heater hoses as much as I’ve done the last few years. Good catch, sir.
Wellwell another hot candidate for an LS6 swap…
I love “concourse dreams”. Just godawful cars, you could measure 0 to 60 with a grandfather clock. Buy a used Civic.
And I’ve had two of them!
Bought mine in the winter. Summer comes and the smell begins. Probably dog vomit soaked into the carpet in the back storage area. Oh my did it stink. Driving one day the clutch cable snapped. Oh well continued journey with clutch fully engaged. It didn’t break.
I owned an 80 model She-vette back when I was much younger. I logged over 150K miles on that car, it having the 4 speed and no A/C. Overall the only complaint I have about that car is that it had a healthy appetite for clutch cables, the aluminum adjuster kept breaking. Other than that the little car never left me stranded
I bought one of these in the mid 1980’s from a buddy of mine. It was 4 years old (1984), I paid $75.00 for it. It was already spray painted because the original paint was scratched up, it had 2 mini spare tires on it, massive alignment & front end issues. My buddy was rather hard on cars lol.
Yeah, that vinyl had an interesting “patchwork” type pattern to it. I liked it!
I was 14 when I bought it. I drove the heck out of it, even though no plates. Good times!
Since we are showing faces, attached is my mug. Enjoy!
Thanks for the birthday wishes, Sg!
Notta problem buddy!
And…I am sideways!
If someone knows how to straighten that out, I would appreciate it. I don’t know how to do that type of stuff lol.
Stevie , looking good
You remind me of a long lost work buddy – pierre –
Anyway ,as a young 18 yo , my first car was a 1968 camaro ss 327 powerglide, custom quad headlight from a 75 chevy monza and custom molded front chin spoiler, cant forget the chrome surround and gold center wheels with good year wingfoot tires
Had to pay it all before i got to drive it , i worked and paid for the dream machine
That was 1980 , i had no help but no one to bring me down !
I had no mullet but a LOT of curly hair
Car crazy, girl crazy and a deep love for life…
Nowadays , the hair is flying away and the women …but i still have the love of life
I work less and desperately try to enjoy more
Stay safe