A $33K Chevette?

Someone bought a Chebbie Chevette for $33K.

Would you pay $33,000 for a 1987 Chevy Chevette? Apparently, someone just did. It’s got low miles – just 47 – so it’s basically a brand-new 1987 Chevette.

But nonetheless, a 1987 Chevette.

It weighed about 2,000 lbs. because it came with not much more than a very basic 1.6 liter four cylinder engine with a carburetor (one of the last of them) rather than a turbocharger paired up with a manual four speed transmission rather than a continuously variable (CVT) automatic that sent power to – wait for it – the rear wheels. As opposed to a sideways-mounted transaxle powering the front wheels. It does not have ABS or traction control or any other form of control. – Eric Peters

Wow. Brought me back.

Way back in olden times, my parents bought a Chevette to replace our ’65 Caprice that an old lady ran intro and destroyed whilst it was parked in front of our house. It looked just like this one.

It had a 4 speed manual, vinyl seats, an am radio. Basic transportation like my old man would say.

It was about as simple as a butter churn.

And reasonably tough too. It lasted through a number of teenage kids. Hell, I drove it halfway around the Lake Accotink on the bike trails. Couldn’t make it all the way because the trail split. Both halves dumped into a neighborhood. And the one I was on, which starts by a railroad trestle, had no way I could exit the trail in a car. The car was muddy as hell afterward. So we took it to my friend Tim’s and washed it. Got an attaboy from the old man for washing the car.

I can only remember it breaking once. It had a busted clutch cable. Pretty chinzy considering the other car we could drive was a ’72 Toyota Carina that sported a hydraulic clutch. When it hit 54K miles, I decided to tune it up. All the plugs were perfect light brown, and worn. Never seen such a thing. Most cars I worked on the plugs were carboned up or burnt white.

When I was at college, I took it to the parts store to get parts for my hoopty and got T-Boned by an older Asian gentleman in a Plymouth Duster. The drinker seat was 1/2 the width. Not wearing a seatbelt, I wound up in the passenger seat staring out the driver door window. I broke the door glass with my head. Screwit. I had finals that week, so headache or not, I had to fix my ride and get to school after the weekend.

Instead of upgrading with the insurance money, my mom took the cash and bought the exact same car, same year, only red. It had an automatic, though, so where the blue one was ok enough, the red one was pitiful. Still, it did was it was bought to do. That one blew a timing belt on the way to school. A friend saw me walking and picked me up. After class he took me to a parts store and home. One of my other friends brought me back with my tools, and I fixed it right there on the street in a couple hours, if that.

Eric Peters makes a great point. You simply can’t buy simple, rugged, cheap cars here anymore. Other countries can have them, we can’t. Hell, Toyota has a HiLux we can’t get that is in the $13K range.

Can’t get it. SAAAAAAAAFETEEEEEE!. Gotta have the playschool bumpers, airbags and all manner of crap you don’t really need.

This is why I’ll be buying beaters.

But a Chebbie Chevette, nope. I’m guessing parts for that thing, as well as any other small American car of that vintage are unobtanium.

I’m contemplating a second car, since my primary driver is 25 years old. Still runs beautifully. But it would be nice to have a highway cruiser for when I need to get to North Dallas. Still on the fence with that, TBH.