I remember Chevettes pretty well from when I was a kid, and I kind of always liked them despite being quite aware that they were, charitably, kind of crap. When almost every other economy car of the era was moving to new transverse-engine, front-wheel drive designs, the little Chevette was stuck with an old longitudinal front engine/rear drive setup and as a result was less space efficient than its rivals, among other things.
They gamely did their best to sell these things, and Canada even got their own specially-badged version, the Pontiac Acadian. “Acadian” is, of course, referring to a set of French settlers in Canada, and I suppose this made the car more appealing? Maybe the word “Chevette” means something offensive in Canada?
You know, I was just making a sort of half-assed joke there, but I decided to check on if the word chevette has any meaning in French, because it kind of, you know, sounds French. Check this out:
Bedside table? That’s not offensive, but not what I expected. Plus, it’s not so bad! I’m pretty sure I had a cousin who drove a Honda Nightstand, and she seemed fine with that.
Anyway, let’s see how they were trying to move these things in Canada. They claim the Acadian has “twice the cargo space of an average mid-size car,” but I think what they’re not telling you is that’s only with the rear seat down. Or, removed entirely, which was an option, if you were really cheap:
The rear seatless option was called the Chevette Scooter in the US, but I guess Canada didn’t get a special name for that. I also like that supremely dickheaded parking job right in front of that building’s stairs in the upper right picture, and the grand, decadent fantasy of a “two-Acadian family” at the bottom.
The “Rally” option was sort of fun, in a very mild way, with a 1.6-liter engine making 63-ish horsepower instead of the 1.4’s 57 hp. You also get a lower body stripe and a passenger grab handle over the passenger’s door, just like a real rally car!
I don’t think they’re going to be able to get that horse in there, but I’d sure like to watch them try.
Calling that dash “cluster-designed” is pretty hilarious, too. What does that mean, exactly? The instruments are all in one binnacle? As opposed to being just sort of scattered all over the place? Those instruments also include one of those fuel gauges that is 80% empty space.
Some of these “features” feel so desperate, too. A “removable load floor panel with a rubber mat?” Who is this car for, an Emperor? That column-mounted “smart switch” is just a stalk that controls indicators, high beams, and wipers. Not sure what makes that particularly “smart” but I suppose it sounds better than “idiot stalk” or something.
“Full-length drip rails?” What is this, a Rolls-Royce? Body-mounted weatherstrip? Did someone win the lottery?
I couldn’t find any Acadian-specific ads, but here’s some commercials for Chevettes of the same year. Like one that touted how bad Chevettes were for locally-owned businesses:
They had more upbeat ones, too, complete with singing!
Good times! Everyone loved those Chevy Bedside Tables.
Top image: GM
j’avais une chevette – I had a one nightstand maybe that was the issue ? Then there was the Buick Lacrosse,
Methinks the Acadian “S” package was sold in the states as the “Chevette Scooter.”
Let us not forget the Pontiac Firefly! A rebadged Geo Metro.
Decades ago when the Chevette was still “new”, we had one in my shop. Barely a year old various interior parts had broken or fallen off. It didn’t “run”. It wheezed….especially with the automatic! Customer complaint was poor braking. Inspection showed when you stepped on the brake pedal, the firewall flexed back and forth! Told customer get rid of it! Get another car before ?….
Poor braking AND poor breaking
A lose ..lose situation!!
The “Magic Mirror Lacquer Finish” in the brochure is brilliant. If you looked into it did it show you someone who made better life choices?
It showed non existent vehicles behind you as if you were the leader of the pack. Also, you could glance up and quickly see what part just fell off your car.
It showed someone who ate “Magic” mushrooms…
A friend of mine had one of these in high school. He broke the Che off and told everyone he drove a vette.
These were common in my high school auto shop class, mostly as clapped out cheap cars for kids. We got one as an engine donorwith struct towers risted completely away, the hood was the only stop for the struts, with it open the bumper would nearly hit the floor. Another project was converting the woodshop teachers manual red Chevette to an automatic for his daughter (or wife) to drive.
“I don’t think they’re going to be able to get that horse in there, but I’d sure like to watch them try.”
Plot twist: the horse is the driver.
My mind just goes to all those pictures of cars in places like Romania being towed by horses. So many of them are other T-body variations of this vehicle too!
The reason Canada got so many weird off-brand cars (Pontiacs and Mercurys, mostly) is because in the pre-internet era a lot of small town folks might only have access to one dealership, be it Pontiac or Mercury or Lincoln or whatever. That’s why we got the Pontiac Parisienne (basically a Pontiacified Chevy Impala) and the Mercury M-series (rebadged Ford F-series).
The Parisienne was sold in the US, not in large numbers but I knew one guy who had one; it came with a diesel that he dumped for a 350.
We got it from 1959 to 1986- you guys only got the last generation. My friend had a ’64!
Yeah I only remeber the 80s one, so TIL.
Buddy’s had the 283 V8 and the 2-speed automatic. That thing was a barge, y’all were *not* missing out. Lol. Looked sick, though.
Saw a beautiful early-60s Mercury pickup driving south on I-5 last year and admired the dedication of the couple who were already 6 hours from the border. I’d love to have a Mercury just to confuse the locals here.
We have a gold 50s one that shows up at our Cars & Coffee regularly.
The Pontiac story in Canada is far more long and complex than that. And it’s a story that’s delicate to raise now, but a lot of it involves trade policy (from decades ago).
I may or may not be able to remember ripping perfect donuts in one of these in a snowy school parking lot in 1990. It depends as to whether or not Mike’s mom reads this site
“Cluster designed” makes about as much as sense as my giant bag of Costco coffee declaring that it’s “specialty grade.” Made up nonsense phrases.
Thoughts to ponder while sitting on your office chair upholstered with soft Corinthian leather.
Round dials instead of horizon wide bars like the big sedans.
When all your warning lights come on and dials get pinned to one end or another of their sweep, you’re cluster fucked.
Ha! Very fitting for this cluster fuck of a car
Looking at old newspaper ads, a bunch of ads were for the Chevette and Acadian as a single entity, basically admitting they’re the same car. Really, that was the point – there’s a long history of Canadian Pontiacs that exist so both streams of Canadian GM dealers (Chev-Olds and Buick-Pontiac-GMC) would have something cheap to sell to remain competitive.
From the few early Acadian-only ads I found, the two main selling points were that it was cheaper than an import, and as fuel efficient.
Yup the first instance of the use of Acadian was for the Chevy II clone sold at Pontiac dealers. It was because of the sparse population that they didn’t have high dealer density so a given market may have a Chevy dealer or a Pontiac dealer but not both. So both were in the “low priced field” and were actually the same company as they were both under the direction of CPC, Chevrolet Pontiac Canada and that is what was found on the bottom of their ads until at least the 80’s.
I would love to see one of the S models with the prop rod (vs. gas struts) for the rear hatch. That is a level of cheapness I’ve never seen on a hatch.
I’d just like to see a factory-supplied prop rod.
My dad had the Vauxhall version of this in 1977 in New Zealand. It was one of those “company car” tactics that employers would use to help the employee avoid the 40%-ish income tax rate by making part of their income into a car allowance with more favorable tax treatment.
He remembers it being pretty miserable, but not lacking for power — since he was coming from mostly Beetles and Ghias, just for reference. The bar for speed was pretty low, but he didn’t need much around town.
The “drive you happy” jingle! It’s been occupying a tiny snip of the magnetic tape in my brain for 48 years. Of course, owning a Chevette was almost a rite of passage for drivers of a certain generation.
Bedside table? Sure. It would put you to sleep. Until you hit the first bump. I’ve driven cars with a quarter million miles that felt better screwed together than my Chevette did when I drove it off the lot. Yes, I bought a new one. The used ones had to come from somewhere!
More like:
“Drive you…miserable”
“Drive you…insane”
“Drive you…off a cliff”
I was on a roadtrip with a work friend. For some reason, he had a switch to control the alternator in the cabin. There was an impressive boost in speed when we disabled the alternator.
“ There was an impressive boost in speed when we disabled the alternator.”
THAT was the reason. I had a friend who owned an early ‘70s Fiat that was so gutless, in order to get over the tall arched bridge to the island he lived on, he had to turn off all the accessories and get it up to top speed (55ish). And if he had a passenger, they had to get out and push when they got close to the peak of the bridge. And then, on the way down, the terrible brakes were “fun” to deal with. He would have gladly traded that thing for a Chevette.
Somewhere in the depths of a warehouse in Michigan – way in the back – are a cluster of neon signs: “43/31”, a smiling bowtie, “1977 Chevette”, and a dozen baggy yellow jumpsuits with matching caps…
We get some odd market-specific stuff up here.
One that I’m sad is gone now, is the Nissan Micra. We even had a whole spec-racing series for them!
You could buy a fully prepped race car for $20k CAD, including the car itself.
“Honda Nightstand” sounds like the JDM name for the Accord or similar.
“Dom’s right. The Nightstand Excelsior isn’t exported here.” “Yeah, b/c it’s for da fambly but it’s sick fast with da right parts.”
Tabernac!
My first car was an ’84 Chevette I purchased in 1987 with 24k miles on it in for $1200. It was a very boring car in the best possible way. It needed a total of $35 in repairs over 20k miles. It was miles better than the X-body cars like the Citation, my parents made the error of buying in 1982, or the new Escorts or K-cars in showrooms. Dated and slow, yes, but solid.
According to my universal translator, Chevette is offensive in all languages.
How dare you insult the name of my Vette?!
If I ever have a kid, I’m naming them Che
He’s gonna get in trouble. Ask me how we know.
Eheeem…it’s pronounced…SHITvette
But always with love.
We had the Chevette in the Great White North – the Acadian was a re-badged version sold at Pontiac/Buick dealers; the name had previously been used on a Chevy II clone for the same reason. A girlfriend bought one at the insistence of her father who didn’t like imports; It wasn’t a bad car, and that is not litotes as it was far more durable than most other cheap and even many more expensive cars. For some reason they were rust-resistant by the standard of the day and remarkably there many of the warthogs still running more than twenty years later.
Indeed, in 1976 the Corolla and Datsun B210 were still rear-drive and rusted much worse than the Chevette.
I had an ’86 in the mid-90s when my girlfriend had a Yugo, even then the Yugo was a bear to find parts for, even consumables were getting scarce while every junkyard and parts store had anything you’d possibly need to keep a Chevette running.
So when she found a part for it, did you yell “Yugo girl!”
Nice Name! We had too many ‘Vettes. One cold winter morning we had the hood partially open in case it needed a jump start. As my sister was driving it, the secondary latch let loose and the hood wrapped around the roof, breaking the windshield. We replaced the glass and bent the hood back straight but it never did close right after that. What miserable cars, a Nissan Sentra was a step up!
I saw quite a few Acadians growing up. Not so many around now for some reason…
One of my high-school English teachers had a Chevette. He always said he and his wife going to take “the Vette” on a given trip.
The only time I rode in a Chevette, I was mind-boggled by cheap it seemed. And I used to drive around in an ex-police Ford Ranch Wagon.
I knew a guy with a T1000 back in the 80’s. Even when new they felt obsolete.
We joked about that after Terminator 2 came out. The Pontiac T-1000 is unstoppable!
It can take on any form and it chooses a Canadian Chevette?
Ha ha! That’s because it’s brakes are…broken. Skynet is coming for us all!
This is to much driving excitement after a three day weekend.