THE CHEVETTE SYNDROME—WHEN UNLOVED CARS GET POPULAR

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I watched a guy on YouTube go through a major auction recently to assess what kind of entries they had in the docket.

The car was a Chevette, and it really bothered the host because he couldn’t get a good shot of the car. There were too many people around it so he had to wait before he could show his viewers this humble little refugee from the 80s.

He was amazed there was that much interest in the Chevette, but in my opinion he missed the point. I’m not going to call a Chevette a high point in GM history, but they did build millions of them from 1976 to 1987.

There was a big demand for conventional, simple little cars like the Chevette in the 70s and 80s because most families needed an affordable second car. The Chevette fit that role like lack of credibility fits a politician.

Those guys hanging around that Chevette at the auction were celebrating their past. Many of them were shuttled around in cars like a Chevette, because a Corvette makes no sense as a family car. The kid in the back seat of the family Chevette may have wished it was a Vette, but a Chevette was Family Economics 101in the 1970s and 80s.

It didn’t have to be a Chevette.

It could easily have been a Plymouth Voyager ‘Magic Wagon’ minivan or a Ford Fairmont station wagon because those were the default choice for growing families. Soccer moms needed the perfect space and size to wheel kids to soccer games, so a Fox-body Mustang wasn’t on the table.

The bigger point is this. Stuff from the past eventually becomes nostalgia, so the Chevette is just part of a bigger pattern. I know this from personal experience because anyone who owns an old 1960s or 70s four-door sedan learns this—you’re going to go down Memory Lane with a lot of people at gas stations or in parking lots.

This happens all the time because, while two-door hardtops are the first-round draft choice of car guys across the universe, sedans outsold them four to one. There’s simple answer for that—when you load and unload screaming kids ten times a day you want more than two doors.

History has taught us most more-door cars went straight to the shredder when their days were done. Some lived on as donor cars, but most ended up as extras in a wrecking yard until that fateful day the crusher fired up.

The Chevette was a disposable car that very few people kept for decades. Most ended up in the hands of maniacal high school kids who wanted to punish them through their last days as a functional vehicle.

Suddenly, the Chevettes and all other cars like them were gone—and so went a reference point for Gen X. The Chevette at the auction was a unicorn, a link to a warm and fuzzy past that will never come again.

By: Jerry Sutherland

Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post,  Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.

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