Remember when the Pork industry had a massive advertising campaign a couple of decades ago with the slogan, “Pork. The Other White Meat.”? You can just think of this 1987 Chevrolet Nova as “Chevyota. The Other Nova.”. This unusual and rarely-seen-anymore car can be found here on craigslist in Tigard, Oregon. The seller is asking $1,999 for this almost-showroom-condition Chevy/Toyota conglomeration.
I know, a rebadged Toyota with a Nova badge on it?! Well, the Chevrolet Nova started out as basically an economy car of sorts, although it did have rear-wheel-drive and the ability to modify it into a rubber-burning beast. I can’t imagine anyone modifying a NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.) Nova, but this thing is already 33 years old and it’s amazing that it has survived this long.
NUMMI was a joint partnership between GM and Toyota and as you probably already know, they actually produced some great vehicles. No really. Remember the Pontiac Vibe, related to the Toyota Matrix? Yes, great. Remember the Geo Prizm and/or Chevy Prizm? Great cars. They also made Toyota models but we’re laser-focused on the fifth-generation Nova, in particular, this Nova.
For any of you who are still with us here, hey, no sneaking out, Howard… This is seriously not a car that most humans would be passionate about at all unless they had one or their parents had one back in the Reagan era. But it’s a blast from the mid-late-1980s and most of us haven’t seen one in decades. Some of us never wanted to see another one, maybe that’s more like it. They were made from 1985 to 1988, which was the last year that Chevy used the Nova name on a car. This example is maybe as close to new as possible, inside, outside, and underneath.
This isn’t a Nova engine of yore, as no Nova owner said, ever. This is actually – gasp – a Toyota 1.6L inline-four with 76 hp. In 1962, a Chevy II Nova could have had a 90-hp inline-four and it was 2 seconds faster to 60 mph than this Chevyota Nova is. And, I admit, it was a hell of a lot cooler. In any case, we’re all about survivor cars that are 25 or 30+ years old or older here even if they aren’t muscle cars. Any thoughts on this “Nova”?
In high school auto tech shop in the mid nineties one of these rolled in from a customer requesting some work to be done. We were in awe of it because it had well over 200k on the original motor. That’s very common now, but back then it wasn’t seen too often. 100k was still thought of as near the end for a car. I guess 300k is the new 200k now a days. I always thought they were ugly, the hatchbacks in particular.
Oh Nova, look what they reduced you to. Like the Mitsubishi Challenger, we thought the end of the world had truly come. And in some ways, it did. I had a neighbor that had a car like this, it was one of his best cars. A guy came by to look at my GW last year with one, he said he had 325K miles on it. If they don’t rust out, which claimed most, it’s entirely possible. You can always fix the tranny, but when the shock towers cave in, it’s toast. Nice car.
For $2K, someone who needs a car could hardly do much better.
Buy it, DD it, and ask forgiveness for not trying to preserve a humdrum car just because there aren’t many left. And sleep well at night, while you save $.
But be very aware while you drive, and keep track of other vehicles around you. Compared to cars ten years newer, these will not fare well in a serious crash, and the likelihood of personal injury is substantial.
You can do far far far better for 2k than this. Not saying it’s a bad price tho.
I disagree, these were wonderful cars. Stylish too. And @DaydreaB, just because there is no air bag doesn’t make it a death trap. For that, look at your basic 1970 396 Nova. I drove a 1979 Omni for years, know what? I’m still here. A little car handles well, gets you out of a lot of trouble because it is nimble. Plus, reliability like no other “Chevy” before it, too.
My parents had one that was bulletproof until New York state roads won. Dad use to call it the Toyolet for the combination of Toyota and Chevrolet.
I had a friend who worked for a while in the GM Plant in Fremont CA when they built them there and he called them a Toylet also. This was my psychotic, Friend, a total mechanical Genius who could do or fix anything mechanical but himself.
I had one like this, only blue with a 5 speed. It was my winter beater, over 250k on the clock, and looked like Swiss cheese, couldn’t kill that car. I would love to have this so bad, unfortunately too far away. I would weekend drive it, take it to a show or two just to hear the comments. Most of them would probably be negative, but would still draw a crowd nonetheless. Decent price for sitting on a dealer lot!
No, I think they would be great, fun comments. People like what they remember, not what their local rich kid in town got to drive. Too many over restored cloned muscle cars, people love regular well kept cars!
They are not exciting cars. They are not inspiring. They insulted the Nova name.
But they WERE reliable, and had they been named anything else, I think we would remember them differently.
Vegaman, you’re right. Both GM and Chrysler did that frequently. Take the GTO from our friends down under, (Holden Monero). The car itself was very nice, but had GM slapped any other name on it than a US icon, they would of sold tons more than what they did.
A friend of mine had one in the late 90s. He had no idea it was actually a re badged Corolla until I explained to him about the NUMMI partnership. And yes, they were good 80s cars.
I seem to remember an upscale twin-cam version…
They only made about 3000 of the Nova Twin Cam.
They were all Black with Red accents.They were also faster
than the FX16,which was also Imported From Fremont,CA.
I looked for one for years,but the only two I came
across were automatics.
They were very nice cars when they were on the lot. The Twin cam was even better.
Chevrolet badged import just like Chevy LUV back when
Yes Jay, but the LUV wasn’t a previously used name from an American model, they should of continued to use the Prizm name, for it too was a rebadged Corolla.
The NUMMI Nova predated the Prizm.
I don’t think you can call this NUMMI Nova an import if it’s made here in the United States, Jay.
It was assembled here, but its parts are all from overseas, except maybe the tires.
4 door only gens was when i stopped buying any model car made as such.
If this doesn’t come with a copy of “Collision Course” Starring Jay Leno and Pat Morita it’s a hard pass.
“This is seriously not a car that most humans would be passionate about at all unless they had one or their parents had one back in the Reagan era.”
Actually, if your parents had one you will very likely Not be passionate about this car.
We know the distinction between, and these were capable little machines.
I had a red one with a 5 speed after high school. I beat the ever loving s*** out of that car for years. It never gave me a problem other than balding front tires and charred brakes. Cant blame it for that. Gave it to my brother when i got an rx7 and he did the same. He sold it with some rust and 300000 miles, still running and driving fine. A clutch was done somewhere in there. Ugly and mis-named but a great car all around.
Nice looking car. I remember when this Chevy Nova was introduced. I found it more attractive than the Toyota Corolla of the same generation.
NOVA, OMG what happened?
Bought my wife a new dark blue one right off the showroom floor. She drove it for years until we traded it in on a new G20. It was trouble-free and looked almost as good as new. The Infiniti dealership owner liked it so much that he used it at his home at the Outer Banks for years. Great little car. Not much on looks, but totally reliable.
Fun Fact: the NUMMI plant is now owned by Tesla and is where the Model S is made. It sat idle for several years after GM and Toyota had a parting of their ways; many of the original workers came back and are now making Teslas. I had a Pontiac Vibe built on that line in 2003 and it was a great little car (in a pukey shade of green).
Absolutely no excuse for there not being a less expensive 2 door version!!
Nice interior – no tach?
I bet Chevy service depts HATED when you bought this car in!
Even worse, i would LOVE to have brought this into a Toyota dealer service dept! lol
A Mercury service dept was very surprised when i brought a Falcon in to replace a speedo cable.
Does the roof really have to be that high?
Take it – you couldn’t kill these things, they just kept running…the body would eventually rot off, but it’s short cash. It is not as safe as today’s cars, that’s the only downside…
That’s a FWD car not rear wheel drive, earlier ones were RWD
The article doesn’t say THIS one is rear-wheel drive. It says the old ones were.
This is hardly a Nova. America went candy ass on us. I’ve walk before and would rather walk than own one of these off the wall American cars during this time period. Trucks were still trucks.
We bought one new in 1987. My husband drove it to work for 23 years. My husband passed away and I want to sell it, but really don’t know what to ask for it. It has been a great car
Go to KBB value on line. Have one of your kids or grandkids look it up.. milage and shape it’s in are what count.