Hello, everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. I’d like some words of wisdom on a car I’ve been looking at. Its a 1986 chevette with 47000 miles. 2 owners and from what I’m told it runs like a top. No rust on it. Where I run into a problem is the owner wants $5400. That seems a bit high to me but I can’t find any pricing data online so I don’t know if that’s fair or not. I’m looking to get a second car to drive around town so its not like I NEED it. Any advice would be appreciated.
That is an absurd price for a car that was garbage when it was built 35 years ago.
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What do you think a good price would be?
Maybe a couple hundred bucks.
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Wow. Are they that bad?
They were that bad. When I said garbage, I was using a euphemism, if I said what they really were i’d be flagged for profanity.
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That is a fair price for a Chevette if you need one for your museum or for a Hollywood producer that needs weird cars for a film.
For transportation, if the car were free it would still be impractical, I don’t think you will enjoy working on the engine or carburetor.
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Someone could offer you money to drive the car and it would still be impractical. These cars are rear wheel drive which makes them handle quite well but they are cramped and noisy inside.
Especially not since replacing the starter requires removing the brake master cylinder.
Most of the reviews I’ve read speak pretty highly of the car. Other than a rust problem many have shared, what are the most common issues they’ve been known to have?
And just WHO are the authors of these reviews . . . ?
The guys that are trying to sell you THEIR Chevette(s) . . . ?
I’m honestly surprised you found ANY favourable reviews of the Chevette . . .
They were very basic transportation when they were introduced, and were actually kind of obsolete even then. At the time they were introduced, most of the other manufacturer’s small cars were going to front-wheel drive
You may want to check out Hemmings. If you’re lucky, they’ll have profiled the Chevette in one of their past issues, and maybe they have a few Chevettes for sale in their classifieds section. You might get an idea what they typically sell for. $5400 seems kind of high. Even if the car is pristine, it’s still a Chevette, there’s no overcoming that . . .
By the way, just how and why did you develop this interest in a vehicle that was considered a poor quality car when it was new, and is considered even worse than that now . . . ?!
The reviews I found were just people online reminiscing about the car so I’m not really sure " review" would be the right word.
My interest in the chevette goes as far as seeing it for sale in someones driveway and thinking “I’ve been looking for a second car to drive around.” That’s it.
If you need a back-up car, look for a Civic or Corolla instead . . .
They were cheaply built, underpowered, noisy, and rode like buckboards. The front suspensions didn’t hold up well on bad pavement, the interior hardware frequently broke. There was a lot of rear axle hop when making a turn on bad pavement. I think they are completely unsafe ( no airbags, no stability control, etc, and they fold up like a tin can in a crash).
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Some how those reviews might be in the Fiction section at your local library.
I would not take this thing if it was ’ Free '.
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I don’t recall any specific problems but in general oil leaks, electrical problems, poor body hardware (widow cranks and outside door handles break).
This car was introduced in 1975, in the '80’s it was outdated.
The last one that I worked on was in 1995, I bought a 1987 Chevette at an auction for about $200. The body and interior was in excellent condition, I believe the timing belt was broken. I made the necessary repairs, detailed the car and sold it for $900.
They sold millions of these cars, they were common at the time but if you need an odd part for one today you can’t just drive to the nearest salvage yard and buy it, these cars were recycled 20 years ago.
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The car was an obsolete design from GMs Opel division. Opel stopped making it and GM built the Chevette in Atlanta GA.
At one point, Car and Driver magazime called it the best car from a 3rd world country.
Bad in the day. Cheap and built to remind you of that every time you drive it. A buddy collected them for his kids to drive when they were teens. People gave him running cars (meaning free) and that was 25 years ago.
Has anyone trying to sell a vehicle ever said it runs like garbage ?
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These are probably the worst cars ever built.Consider buying a younger Japanese car in this price range.
A co-worker got stranded on an extremely busy bridge when the differential of his 3 year old Chevette self-destructed. Somehow, I don’t think that these bombs improve as they age.
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Hard to believe a car that couldn’t pull the skin off a boiled tomato could break a diff!
Right! These bombs do not get better with age!