The seller says this 1981 Chevrolet Chevette is originally from Oregon and that’s my personal favorite area to find vehicles that aren’t rusty from road salt or burnt to a crisp by endless sunshine and 100-degree temperatures for months on end. Here is a better, more accurate photo of the driver’s side, the one shown above is a screenshot from the seller’s video. Let’s check out this Burnt Orange Chevette!
As with almost any photo, having the subject in the sun is often the way to go to show its true colors, literally. The photo above really pops compared to the other two photos of the driver’s side. You can see a few dings and dents in this Chevette and the bumper filler material is missing both front and back, so there’s work to do here for the next owner if they want to really turn heads, or at least draw a gawking crowd at Cars & Coffee-type shows.
More dings, rash, nicks, and scratches, but hey, this is a 1981 Chevette, not a Bugatti Royale. This car has been driven and used by actual humans, it hasn’t been sitting on a velvet turntable in someone’s living room. The seller has owned it for a decade, moving it to Pennsylvania from Oregon and they say it’s rock solid underneath. The provided underside photos seem to prove that point with some heavy surface rust but no visible holes.
I don’t see this interesting diamond pattern seat design in brochures and I think it’s a replacement for what would have been factory. The interior looks great in this photo and the four-speed is nice to see here. Zooming in on some details, though, uncovers a few issues. Kudos to the seller for providing a fairly wide range of photos and that video. The back seat looks good but the top of the seatback may have some issues on the cargo area side, which we don’t see in the photos.
The engine is Chevrolet’s 1.6-liter OHC inline-four with 70 horsepower and 82 lb-ft of torque when new. Sending power through the four-speed manual to the rear wheels is a nice configuration for most of us. This one runs well and there are new brakes, a new battery, a new starter, a new intake manifold gasket, and the clutch was adjusted. There’s still some tinkering to do, but it’s listed here on eBay in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania with no reserve and a current price of $405. Any thoughts on this Burnt Orange Chevette?
One of the HS kids in a youth group in my hometown had the twin to one of these. He found he could garner the interest from any girl he wanted to meet by saying “Hey, my orange ‘Vette is out in the parking lot if you need a ride home after the meeting..”
Lol Nevada..4sp Vette’💋💄💅🏁😲
Ride in and drove a many
Had a blue/blue ’80 Hatchback with automatic for ten years from 1987 to 1997 and had enough of it’s mechanical issues even at only 102,500 miles so sold it to my aunt’s husband as they need a secondary vehicle. I bought a brand new ’97 Ford Escort LX at that point.
C’mon, at 100,000 miles then most cars were completely used up.
There’s a reason why Chevette has the nick-name “shove it”. They were crap when they were new and are crap now.
We used to call them Sh*tVettes.
Sorry, I beg to differ. While the “shove-it” moniker got a lot of laughs, the Chevette was not what you describe. Its biggest hurdle was living in the shadow of the Vega, like the Escort and the Pinto. The Chevette was probably more foreign made than US, had some of the best mechanicals from around the globe, it was NOT a piece of crap. The 2nd biggest problem, was people that ignored the Vega, and were still whining about losing their full sized cars. The Vega was more of an experiment, the Chevette told America, small cars are here to stay. 3rd, and most importantly, was those pesky imports. These offered everything the Asians puked out, and a grand cheaper to boot. The base 1981 Chevette( the Scooter?) cost $5381 new. An ’81 Corolla was almost $6500, and for what? Okay, too early to go there, but an admirable argument. The Chevette was a good car. Anyone that knows anything about cars will agree.
I bleed GM blue, Howard. But Corolla owners don’t bother to enter into the frey. They’re busy driving around in their Asian pukes.
Howard, I was lucky enough to buy and own a new ’81 SR-5 Corolla liftback for nine years. I drove it hard. Even wrecked it a couple of times. Probably the best made car I have owned. By comparison, a Chevette was, well a Chevette. And as for blue-bleeding-bub, bleed on.
I have been misconstrued 370zpp.
I would transport myself back and buy a Nova badged Corolla in a heartbeat. Pop the hood on that Chevy and it’s all Japanese nomenclature. Maybe the best car ever over the course of time was the Corolla.
Bub, Let me apologize if I misinterpreted your previous comments. Also, I have a friend who bought one of those Nova badged Corollas new, way back when. 200K and many years later he finally traded it.
Mine had a clutch cable, not hydraulic, and of course it broke. Got a Turbo Colt and it was like going from a riding lawn mower to a Ferrari. Chevettes are absolute dogs.
Was selling Chevy’s in the late 70’s. Sold a new cherry red ‘78 to my girlfriend at the time. Also a used ‘76 in this same copper color to my sister. For young ladies and just tooling around town they were fine and served their purpose. Sis was just talking about it last week and how it got her back and forth to college, what a good car it was.
looks like the speedometer needle’s broken
Back in the 80’s, more often than not, the slowest vehicle on the freeway was a Chevette, especially a diesel Chevette. Maybe not a POS, but definitely a turd! 😁
Whoo-whee, that one thar’s got yer tilt wheel and four on the floor! Still no power steering…
Auction update: this Chevette sold for $3,000!