The reason the cars price got so high with addons is because GM considered the Air Conditioning system dual purpose. If the brakes ever failed, turning on the AC would quickly bring the car to a stop.
pbfloyd13 lol my best friend's uncle had one of these and he ran it out of gas. We pushed him to a gas station with my friend's 66 300ci skylark and my friend gave it hell. I think it was briefly the fastest chevette ever made :D
Like 1000 times slow. The 80's were murder on cars due to emissions and CAFE regulations. The 80's was a bad time without technology. There was an actual Chevy and not a bitchin' Camaro sold in the early 80's with a 4 cylinder engine with 90 HP! 0 to 60 in 20 seconds!
Jalani Wilson Best I can describe it is, is it's like not accelerating at all. I knew someone who had a four door Chevette with auto back in 1993. We had to get into traffic and I told her to "Floor it!!", she said it already was, I couldn't believe it!!!!!! Absolutely the slowest car I had ever been in....
My first car was a brand new 1986 Chevette. It was very reliable, and always delivered 35 miles per gallon. The odometer rolled over twice. There was a factory build sheet we found under the seat. On the build sheet was the VIN number, and it said the car line was Pontiac. My Chevette was supposed to have been the Pontiac 1000. I checked the VIN number recently, and have discovered it is still registered. My old Chevette which was sold many years ago is still on the road.
My Dad sold our 70 Chevy Impala with a 350 4Bbl for a 1976 Chevy Chevette. The worst car ever made. No power. The maroon plastic faded to pink and started disintegrating within 2 years. The red carpet turned pink and rotted. The stick shift handle broke off and my Dad drilled a piece of deer antler to make a shifter knob. The worst.
@@sickheadache9903The Pontiac version was heavier, and had more soundproofing than the Chevette. Also back when these cars were on the road there was a different form of gas in the state where I live. When the gas was reformulated to burn cleaner for emissions people everywhere complained their gas mileage dropped. Many people also thought with the reformulated gas there was a hole in their gas tank.
I had a 1984 Pontiac 1000 when I was a teen. It was my first car purchase. Yes, it was the most basic car you could get at the time, but it was reliable and easy to work on. Great first car.
I just about died in laughter at 3:43 where they were giving each other pep talk to achieve the 1/4 mile and he hit the top of the car hoping that would some how make the car go faster. Do you really need those helmets at this point driving this bucket? Lol
My wife and I had a Chevette, we were poor, but our lil Blue Chevette was such a good little car, no air and a manual shifter. 138 a month in payments, felt like a lot back then.
$138 a month for a Chevette payment was indeed a lot. My monthly payment on my 1983 Cavalier was under $100 a month, and I thought that was outrageous. Of course, I was 18 years old and that was a week's pay for me. But a Cavalier was like a Cadillac compared to the Chevette lol
@@RockandrollNegro I bought a 2 year old 86 Chevy Cavalier Z24 in early 88 when I was 17 and my payments were barely $100 and I remember thinking that was steep even with the 13-14% interest I was paying smh - $138 even for a brand new Chevette was robbery lol.
The pontiac 1000 was the pinnacle of automobile engineering ,the clever use of plastic badging and the sporty "1000" nomenclature really enhanced the luxury experienced at a reasonable price. My 1000 had an ashtray and headlights as standard equipment. Did I mention lugnuts? They were made of metal!
@@TheAllMightyGodofCod uh, yeah it is. It is the previous generation Opel Kadette, just rebadged as a Chevrolet&Pontiac, as in Europe, by the time the Chevette and T-1000 were released, the Kadette had been updated and switched to front wheel drive
@@davidp2707 Just getting started?, Hell, I could point to the 1930s damaging the auto industry. I'm a blue collar worker who has been fucked over by unions my whole life. Maybe they had a reason to exist once, But NOT in my 56 years on this planet.
This was the nightmare vehicle Alamo Rent A Car would force on you if you didn’t upgrade to the full size Buick LeSabre and pay the extra insurance premiums.
+itsmegp46 no comparison really, the Beetle (1976 1600, 0-60 18.4sec, Q-mile 20sec) was out of production for the US market five years before this test and was a car designed in the 1930s. Best comparison would be VW Golf/Rabbit, Ford Escort and Jap hatches. But 0-60 at 30secs is atrocious for a small light car with a 1.6 65hp engine.
+dcanmore The Pontiac 1000 was a corporate clone of the Chevrolet Chevette which first went on sale in 1976. So, I think my point is still valid. As for the Escort, if there was a worse car than the Chevette/1000, this piece of crap was it.
I remember my mom's best friend got a Chevette to replace her aging Oldsmobile Cutless and boy did she regret it. It had no room and was an automatic too and she had to haul three of us to elementary school and I remember even as a little kid I thought "what a piece of utter JUNK" as she floored it to go up a hill, it downshifted and then decelerated in THAT gear. LMAO! And 25 mpg? My 4000 lb '98 Crown Vic gets that for crying out loud!
Crown vics are pretty good on gas as far as V8s go PROVIDED that the spark plugs aren’t worn out to hell I learned that the hard way paying out the ass for gas until someone on CVN said check your spark plugs and if you bought an ex cop one they idle a lot and the plugs will need replacing before 100,000 miles if they haven’t been done yet
That would put my midsize 2008 Pontiac grand prix to shame. It only gets 21 mph with a 3.8 liter 6. Poor transmission design is why. Always was that way.
At $7,200, that is almost $19,000 in today's money. You can get a very nice, low mileage mid-size for that, or less. The future is not so terrible, folks.
Hadn't seen one of these in years, then I got word someone had one of for sale in their yard near where I live. It had been repainted and looked decent from 50 feet away. Since I learned to drive stick and over steer in one and recall numerous beer runs in college in another, I was intrigued. I was shocked that it sold in a day. That afternoon (or the next) I saw the new owner merging onto I-75 with a smile on his face and a temp tag on the back. Never saw it again.
When I was young/in school I went through these like Kleenex...never paid more than $500 and they were dead reliable, started at -30°c and were pretty good in winter w snow tires. I had three of them where the seat fell through the floor from rust but man they were cheaper to own than a bus pass
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 Concentration had the sporty 2 door Chevette in the late 1970s and The All New Let's Make a Deal had them in their car prize rotation during 1980s.
+XenomorphLV426 A 1982 Tercel would leave this hunk-o-shit its rear view mirror by a wide margin. (For hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles, by the way).
I had an 82 Pontiac back in the early 1990's. At the time the Brooks and Dunn song "I'm In a Hurry to Get Things Done" was a big hit, so I stenciled in "0-60 in 30.2 sec" on the hatch, and people thought I was being hyperbolic. As it turns out, I made a good guess on it's potential stats.
@@GeeEm1313 You are absolutely right. I should have known that too because they are my all time favorite country band. I've spent several years detached from music while I raise my family, but I've been making more of an effort to start listening again. Thanks.
I can't hate this car. I learned how to drive in a blue one. The heater switch broke off in the HOT position and had only one wheel with a working brake. I would slide up to every red light. Sold it for $200.
I worked valet parking back in like 2005 and this old lady pulled up in a pristine Chevette dark grey with red interior. I got to drive it and it was quite memorable. So slow that it felt like something was wrong with it.lol😅
In the early 80s I worked in the Pontiac Zone office in Houston. I had never seen a 1000 so one day I ordered one. When it showed up to the office they made me drive it. Didn’t really seem that bad.
We bought an '85 Plymouth Horizon new and drove it for 100K plus. The only repair was the voltage regulator for the alternator and a battery. It had the 2.2L big-block four with a 5-speed manual. It was MUCH bigger in every dimension, especially width, over the competition. We were newlyweds and we really got our moneys worth out of that one. Bill Bryson wrote a book about touring the USA in his mom's Chevy Chevette. Hilarious! Must read.
Vauxhall and Opel's were not sold in America idiot. Why the hell would I compare a car made in America to one that is not even available in America...DUH?
A few variants of the Opel (Kadett A of GM's T-platform) version of this platform (Opel by Buick, Isuzu I-Mark OG) were sold in USDM and most / all were better in almost every way than the Chevette / 1000 POS... Even the (~ 55hp) Isuzu I-Mark 1.8L Diesel could outrun the gas 65hp 1.6L Chevette / 1000, even if both's lack of acceleration could almost be "measured on a calendar".
This is proof that woefully underpowering a car doesn't work because you constantly have to have the motor on full burn just to get you down the road. A slightly more powerful motor with a small bump in cost would've made the driveability and MPG far better.
I had a friend in high school that had a 1985 Chevy Chevette 4 door hatch. It was the slowest car I ever drove. Amazing to think these did 0-60 in half a minute. Try finding one of these today, though. This entire generation of disposable era cars is sad because not many survive today.
The 0-60 is wrong on here as it did 23 sec 1/4 mile !! They ran 18-22 0-60 like any Toyota,Honda,Datsun,VW of the day ! Imports of the day were complete junk,they rusted out in 1 year,were slower or same speed as these....The media was paid money to say Asian Imports were reliable and idiots bought them,its like today they say open borders it will be fine..Have 250,000 million people from anywhere come here,it will be fine..You believe that ??? Back in the day they gave then new Asian cars and or money if they reported they were good !
'86 5 speed was my 1st car. Followed my father's recommendation to buy GM. He drove Chevys for 70 years but his last car was a Honda. He couldn't believe how much better his last car was.
My dad was the opposite. I grew up in Saudi Arabia in the 70s and 80s where gas was a lot cheaper than water. He loved the American land yachts but everyone was telling him how great the Japanese and European cars were. So he bought a new 83 Accord. He hated its small buzzy engine, road feel and firm ride and seats. He said he needed his cars to completely isolate him from the road. So he traded the Accord to a friend at a huge loss for a used Caprice Classic. He later came to Canada and worked for Chrysler. Went from New Yorker to LHS to 300 until he passed away. Never drove another non-American car.
When I met my wife she had an '82 Chevette. I think it had the same engine as the Pontiac 1000. When pulling away from a stop it made a lot of noise but did not go anywhere. Also, in the winter the thing was difficult to start. It got totaled the month after her last car payment. She then made the mistake of buying an '85 Buick Skyhawk. Another small car disaster from GM.
I love it at 1:49 where they stuck those two people in the car, told them to look like they are "testing the seats" and then turned the camera on as they started doing those little bounces, as if they are seeing how they feel for the first time!
My first car in 1996 LOL , she had snow tires which were illegal in my state at the time, I would fish tail like crazy at intersections, poor thing only went 60 miles an hour tops...
I had an'87 chevette scooter, stick, and it was the most fun thing I have ever had. You just had to keep the 2bbl secondary open, in other words run it everywhere wide open to valve float and it's a blast
Actually, there had been a Pontiac version of the Chevette since the very beginning in 1976. It was the Pontiac Acadian and was sold in Canada all the way through 1987.
Chevettes and 1000s littered the student parking lot at the high school I attended. A safe choice as a hand-me-down car from parents because there was no way anyone was going to get busted for street racing in one of these.
Great choice for a young driver on your insurance policy. I don't even think these cars could complete a 1/4 mile if you got one with an auto trans and A/C.
We had a Chevette diesel in driver's ed... talk about slow. We had a maneuver to do where we were required to get the car to 35 mph and do a panic stop. With three in the car, we couldn't get the car to 35 in the stretch required in the parking lot.
Car & Driver reviewed a Chevette with a 2.8 liter V6 transplant and I remember the review that it was a fairly entertaining and good performing car and looked decent with nice aluminum wheels and good tires.
I drove this car 1 time,way back in 82/83. I was so surprised at how FAST it was. Not being my car, I floored it all day, and it seemed to me to fly! It only have so few horsepower...I am shocked. it seemed to be quite,fast,and well put together. But then, I didn't own it, and it was probably crap after the first month of owning:)
They also built a dustbuster minivan. I guess it was 'exciting' to look at... Kind of looked like a space shuttle to my eyes when it came out. But it was SLLLLoooW.
I remember being 7 years old and traveling from Houston, Tx to Wilmington Beach, NC in one of these cars.. My dad wanted to rent a Chevy Caprice for our family vacation, but when we got to the rental place, all they had was a handful of Pontiac 1000s.. To add insult to injury, they gave us a brown one.. My dad cussed that car every time we had to go up a hill or mountain.. lol!
This is what I learned to drive on! I had the white car and it was a stickshift! The reverse was in the upper right and you had to push the lever down to move it to reverse. It did burn oil though...
When I was a little kid, my babysitter had a Chevy Chevette. Even at that young I thought it was a scary POS. I hated riding in her car. It made my sister's 1994 Hyundai Excel seem really nice in comparison.
This brings back memories of my first car which was a 1983 Pontiac 1000. Damn, that car had NO power! Some would probably argue that the car was the perfect match for me considering I was also considered one of the weakest kids of the school during my middle and high school years! lol
I really enjoyed when the guy in the front and girl in the back were thrashing around in their seats like they were sitting on fire ants and then slam sum luggage in the back ! all that woeful engine\trans combination deserves really with pathetic, unsafe slowness like that!
I had one. I paid 4,000. For it. No ac. Stick. It was a tough car. I had it for many years. I put 265,000 miles on it. I felt it was one of the best cars I ever owned.
I used to have one of these and I have to tell you that they are tough as hell!! Great durability and economy and reliability and the only reasons that they aren't around is because they were awesome at the time and inexpensive to own and therefore were bought, driven, destroyed, or retired and recycled and also because of the recycle a clunker program where you were bribed to sell your car for recycling. In the 70s and 80s cars were a lot different then today, don't forget that kids.
I can agree with you on that! I owned one myself, and that thing would not die. Just oil changes, and although it needed new front struts. I totally got my money out of that car. Great on gas, cheap to maintain, and the only reason I couldn't drive it any longer was because I ran over something, and knocked a hole in the gas tank. I know quite a few others whom have gotten their money's worth as well out of the old chevettes.
Yes my mother in law had a /84 back in 1990. It did suck on the on ramps, and if it was uphill 😂. It worked well and tough,so much she bought a 1986 couple years later.
My dad bought my mom a new Chevette in 1979 for Christmas.He made up for it a year later and bought her her dream home.Haha I grew up there and my mom still lives there after my dad died in 2020.
6:58 motorweek car guy checks engine for loose parts and removes cap from reservoir, attempts to replace cap by tightening opposite way, then you have him driving the obstacle coarse and time trials. Was he drunk?
I had a 1986 Chevy Spectrum for my second car, in college. That must have been faster than this 1000, was only 75 HP I think, but with 5 speed manual it seemed ok.
I bought a brand new 84' 1000 four door with a 4 speed manual for I believe about $7000. That thing would barely do 60mph downhill on the interstate. Passing on a two lane road was scary. Many times I ended up unable to pass and had to abort maneuver.
What do you think those people were saying at 5:23 to 5:27? I'm guessing: Driver: I can't wait to get out of this piece of garbage. Woman: Yeah, and I'm freezing out here.
pbfloyd13 True today but the maximum speed limit in America was 55 when this came out. Penny pinching GM designed the car to go exactly 55mph with 1 adult.
Ha ha, I wonder if there's something about that in the owner's manual. I would honestly consider the 1000 unsafe for highway use today. If it was barely adequate then, imagine what it would be like now, with even most compacts able to reach 100mph.
I always like Motorweek as they are essentially advocates of the auto industry in general, I like watching them try to contort themselves in some of these reviews.
I use to have a 1988 Chevrolet Nova which is a Toyota Corolla underneath the sheet metal. It had a small Toyota 1.6L 4 cylinder engine which produced like 74 HP with a 5-speed manual transmission. It was good on gas but climbing mountain grades was slow, even the 3-cylinder Geo Metro were passing me like nothing up mountain grades lol. I know how one would feel driving a slow compact car like the Chevette and the Pontiac 1000.
This was my very first new car…being a teenager I loved it’s practically but soon was jealous of those guys who drove trans ams! Today I drive sports cars so hardly anyone can smoke me on the streets! Lessons learned from a kid in the 80’s!
I've been a professional auto tech for the last 30 years. I have seen ONE of these still functional. That was 20 years ago and it was a farm vehicle at an apple orchard in Peru, NY.
Yeah can you imagine that-- its a time for a 50's VW beetle with 36 hp- that was some TERRIBLE times for GM then- My 1980 Ford Fiesta would walk on that, not sure if you remember those??
1980 Ford Fiesta was my first car. Bought it brand new July 1980. Mint green metallic/$5300.00 out the door/That car was my pride & joy/ Took it to show my grandma and she wanted to drive it! Idid not know she could drive a 4 speed manual! I can still remember her telling me their were no automatics when she started driving. Just wanted to share a great memory of my Fiesta/Thanks
The reason the cars price got so high with addons is because GM considered the Air Conditioning system dual purpose. If the brakes ever failed, turning on the AC would quickly bring the car to a stop.
Almost anything you did to that car brought it to a stop.
HA!! Now *that* was funny!!!
Good one. LMAO
Opening the windows does the same thing.
This is true, I had one as my first car...lol. turning the AC on was like an anchor.
When the 0-60 time is slow enough to make a early 80s journalist disappointed you know your car is slow
pbfloyd13 most grandmother's would be fine with this
pbfloyd13 lol my best friend's uncle had one of these and he ran it out of gas.
We pushed him to a gas station with my friend's 66 300ci skylark and my friend gave it hell. I think it was briefly the fastest chevette ever made :D
This car was effectively slower than all communist cars with an engine capacity of 1.0 liter or higher that were produced at the time.
@@piotrmalewski8178 a 1.0 3cyl geo metro would blow the doors off this bucket
Like 1000 times slow. The 80's were murder on cars due to emissions and CAFE regulations. The 80's was a bad time without technology. There was an actual Chevy and not a bitchin' Camaro sold in the early 80's with a 4 cylinder engine with 90 HP! 0 to 60 in 20 seconds!
I love how he just throws the suit cases in the back like man this shit....
jerroud mitchell funny
Man dee harper 😂😂 for real gotta love the 80's man back then we didn't care😂
Those suitcases just made the 0-60 time 30 minutes.
that is just pure SAVAGE...😁
I remember suitcases like that
Stopping from 55mph takes 140 feet which is horrible, but the real tragedy is it destroys all that work and time you had to do to get it there.
I cant stop watching this! 0-60 in 30 seconds lol.....he was like I cant even describe what that feels like
SLOW DOWN SON
SLOW IT DOWN
Jalani Wilson Best I can describe it is, is it's like not accelerating at all. I knew someone who had a four door Chevette with auto back in 1993. We had to get into traffic and I told her to "Floor it!!", she said it already was, I couldn't believe it!!!!!! Absolutely the slowest car I had ever been in....
Jalani Wilson 59mph quarter mile speed.. XD
bliglum this cracked me up!
0-60 in 30 seconds but runs the quarter mile in 23.3 seconds at 59 mph. Thats one hell of a 59-60 mph sprint...
Yeah, that sounds a bit fishy...
electriclight99 So, this thing had a top speed in the mid 60s.
Hell a Citroen 2CV is faster even with a 602 CID with 29 Hp . The 2CV is still better on gas with over 40+ mpg
Low power but GREAT mpg from a massive 602cid...Must be nose heavy..
dodge demon is is shaking his head in shame 0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds
My first car was a brand new 1986 Chevette. It was very reliable, and always delivered 35 miles per gallon. The odometer rolled over twice. There was a factory build sheet we found under the seat. On the build sheet was the VIN number, and it said the car line was Pontiac. My Chevette was supposed to have been the Pontiac 1000. I checked the VIN number recently, and have discovered it is still registered. My old Chevette which was sold many years ago is still on the road.
That is so great to hear ..not many of these exist ..and are somehow getting pricey
My Dad sold our 70 Chevy Impala with a 350 4Bbl for a 1976 Chevy Chevette. The worst car ever made. No power. The maroon plastic faded to pink and started disintegrating within 2 years. The red carpet turned pink and rotted. The stick shift handle broke off and my Dad drilled a piece of deer antler to make a shifter knob. The worst.
35? When the same car only got reported here 25mpg ..🥴🤔
@@sickheadache9903The Pontiac version was heavier, and had more soundproofing than the Chevette. Also back when these cars were on the road there was a different form of gas in the state where I live. When the gas was reformulated to burn cleaner for emissions people everywhere complained their gas mileage dropped. Many people also thought with the reformulated gas there was a hole in their gas tank.
I had a 1984 Pontiac 1000 when I was a teen. It was my first car purchase. Yes, it was the most basic car you could get at the time, but it was reliable and easy to work on. Great first car.
I just about died in laughter at 3:43 where they were giving each other pep talk to achieve the 1/4 mile and he hit the top of the car hoping that would some how make the car go faster. Do you really need those helmets at this point driving this bucket? Lol
The helmet is to hide your identity
@@PF_ROB classic response 🤣
@@chrispycritters123 lol I couldn't help myself! Thanks for the set up! 🤣
@@PF_ROB Thanks for the response! We all need a good laugh during these challenging times.
They were trying to find a turbo for it...
could you picture a cop laughing hysterically and asking how fast you were going
Yes
My wife and I had a Chevette, we were poor, but our lil Blue Chevette was such a good little car, no air and a manual shifter. 138 a month in payments, felt like a lot back then.
If it did the job it was a good car
$138 a month for a Chevette payment was indeed a lot. My monthly payment on my 1983 Cavalier was under $100 a month, and I thought that was outrageous. Of course, I was 18 years old and that was a week's pay for me. But a Cavalier was like a Cadillac compared to the Chevette lol
That Was a lot back then!
@@RockandrollNegro I bought a 2 year old 86 Chevy Cavalier Z24 in early 88 when I was 17 and my payments were barely $100 and I remember thinking that was steep even with the 13-14% interest I was paying smh - $138 even for a brand new Chevette was robbery lol.
That would be $446/month now with inflation factored in.
The pontiac 1000 was the pinnacle of automobile engineering ,the clever use of plastic badging and the sporty "1000" nomenclature really enhanced the luxury experienced at a reasonable price. My 1000 had an ashtray and headlights as standard equipment. Did I mention lugnuts? They were made of metal!
You could sit and literally watch the outside hardware discolor and fall/peel off.
@@habu027wait u guys had hardware
It's like designers said "Hey guys, how can we lose market share to the Japanese?"
The car is actually German (it's a rebadged Opel)
Hey blacked out chrome
An embarrassing time in American cars. They just didn’t get it.
@@FirebirdCamaro1220 no. Not by any means.
@@TheAllMightyGodofCod uh, yeah it is. It is the previous generation Opel Kadette, just rebadged as a Chevrolet&Pontiac, as in Europe, by the time the Chevette and T-1000 were released, the Kadette had been updated and switched to front wheel drive
Hilarious. These were truly dark days for American cars.
dbc1dc Yeah, When their economy cars were designed by the Europeans (This car WAS a German design.)
@@jamesslick4790 yep, Opel Kadette
@@jamesslick4790 the unions were just get started ruining the industry
@@davidp2707 Just getting started?, Hell, I could point to the 1930s damaging the auto industry. I'm a blue collar worker who has been fucked over by unions my whole life. Maybe they had a reason to exist once, But NOT in my 56 years on this planet.
Crap on four wheels
1:46 John: No more frayed carpet edges around the hand brake! LOL
David Aubin - Yet the 0-60 is 30 seconds doesn't seem to bother him.
And a headliner that fits flush! What awesome features!
And seals that don't leak.. Was pure luxury
They didn't bother to trim around the handbrake, just tucked the carpet in!
1990s cavaliers have entered the chat
This was the nightmare vehicle Alamo Rent A Car would force on you if you didn’t upgrade to the full size Buick LeSabre and pay the extra insurance premiums.
0-60 in 30 sec & it was the 2nd best selling small car line in the US! How the Hell could you blame anybody for buying an import!
+garyt The Beetle wasn't any better, if anything, it was worse.
+itsmegp46 no comparison really, the Beetle (1976 1600, 0-60 18.4sec, Q-mile 20sec) was out of production for the US market five years before this test and was a car designed in the 1930s. Best comparison would be VW Golf/Rabbit, Ford Escort and Jap hatches. But 0-60 at 30secs is atrocious for a small light car with a 1.6 65hp engine.
+dcanmore The Pontiac 1000 was a corporate clone of the Chevrolet Chevette which first went on sale in 1976. So, I think my point is still valid. As for the Escort, if there was a worse car than the Chevette/1000, this piece of crap was it.
I think in "78 or ' 79 Dodge came out w/ the Omni which was a decent car!
+garyt or for abandoning GM in droves, the 1980s saw the biggest decline in market share in the company's history,
It should have been called the "Pontiac Dungheap". If you turned on the HP sapping A/C compressor, it would probably start going backwards...
I don't know which is funnier, yours, or the other commenter who thinks you're serious.
It looked like the ac compressor and alternator are bigger than the engine!
I owed on bran new. Loved it, very simple and great on gas. Never noticed the lack of power but I was very happy to have had it.
I had an 81 Chevette. It felt like a race car compared to the 66 VW I had before that. Plus it had heat.
I remember my mom's best friend got a Chevette to replace her aging Oldsmobile Cutless and boy did she regret it. It had no room and was an automatic too and she had to haul three of us to elementary school and I remember even as a little kid I thought "what a piece of utter JUNK" as she floored it to go up a hill, it downshifted and then decelerated in THAT gear. LMAO!
And 25 mpg? My 4000 lb '98 Crown Vic gets that for crying out loud!
@Arm South Philly He's not joking. Those 4.6L Modular V8s are friendly on gas.
Crown vics are pretty good on gas as far as V8s go PROVIDED that the spark plugs aren’t worn out to hell I learned that the hard way paying out the ass for gas until someone on CVN said check your spark plugs and if you bought an ex cop one they idle a lot and the plugs will need replacing before 100,000 miles if they haven’t been done yet
I hear you, I grew up with a Chevette. My parents called it a Shove-It.
That would put my midsize 2008 Pontiac grand prix to shame. It only gets
21 mph with a 3.8 liter 6. Poor transmission design is why. Always was that
way.
These chevettes were crap.
At $7,200, that is almost $19,000 in today's money. You can get a very nice, low mileage mid-size for that, or less. The future is not so terrible, folks.
Faux Craig Singhaus Hell, I can get a nice used car for $4,000.
The future? You realize this car is from 1982 right?
My dad paid 8 grand for a Mazda 626, in 1981
Faux Craig Singhaus it was pretty much expensive
Yeah it is terrible. Inflation sucks
Hadn't seen one of these in years, then I got word someone had one of for sale in their yard near where I live. It had been repainted and looked decent from 50 feet away. Since I learned to drive stick and over steer in one and recall numerous beer runs in college in another, I was intrigued. I was shocked that it sold in a day. That afternoon (or the next) I saw the new owner merging onto I-75 with a smile on his face and a temp tag on the back. Never saw it again.
It BLEW UP after the merging onto I-75......
@@TheOzthewiz
L M F A O
When I was young/in school I went through these like Kleenex...never paid more than $500 and they were dead reliable, started at -30°c and were pretty good in winter w snow tires. I had three of them where the seat fell through the floor from rust but man they were cheaper to own than a bus pass
30 seconds for 0-60 is dangerously slow.
Not in 1981 when the highest speed limIT was 55 mph
Then too, the maximum speed limit was 55 mph ANYWHERE in the early 80's.
A car that slow would get run off the road today.
Ok that 0 to 60 mess is bullshit! If that car can do 60mph or more then no problem. Now if it can't do that then its a problem.
Did the guy really need the helmet?
+StoneCold75 Try to have an accident in that thing....
Yes. Did you see how much body roll there was? Damn thing looked like it was about to flip.
+MaxTheKanuck CRX had worse
+AE86 of Mt. Akina Please don't compare a CRX with a Chevette...
Audioquest56 Same shit man.
As a rookie Chevrolet salesman in 1982 I drove a Chevette as my dealer demo. For a guy who loved classic American cars, that was a bitter pill. 😅
holy crap, no fraying around emergency brakes? this is what they were happy about? LOL
I assume these were all just given away on game shows of the era like, "Let's Make a Deal."
Joe Williston 😂😂😂😂
i know the price is right gave out tons of them lol
They offered Datsun Z cars in the early days. To huck one of these off as a prize would leave me feeling either insulted or pity for them.
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 Concentration had the sporty 2 door Chevette in the late 1970s and The All New Let's Make a Deal had them in their car prize rotation during 1980s.
@@4jp oof, the prizes must’ve really taken a hit in quality then, hadn’t they
A Tercel is a damn luxury/performance car compared to this.
+XenomorphLV426 A 1982 Tercel would leave this hunk-o-shit its rear view mirror by a wide margin. (For hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles, by the way).
i had an 81 starlet. Yes, yes it would. the starlet depending on wind conditions and how the car was running had a top speed of 75-90 mph.
Hell a Citroen 2 CV is a hot rod and luxurious compared to this
A Trabant(commie car) will blow the doors off this thing.
XenomorphLV426, not back in 1981!
In Canada the Pontiac version of the Chevette was marketed as the "Acadian". My wife had one and it was an excellent city car.
I had an 82 Pontiac back in the early 1990's. At the time the Brooks and Dunn song "I'm In a Hurry to Get Things Done" was a big hit, so I stenciled in "0-60 in 30.2 sec" on the hatch, and people thought I was being hyperbolic. As it turns out, I made a good guess on it's potential stats.
Alabama sang that song.
@@GeeEm1313 You are absolutely right. I should have known that too because they are my all time favorite country band. I've spent several years detached from music while I raise my family, but I've been making more of an effort to start listening again. Thanks.
I can't hate this car. I learned how to drive in a blue one. The heater switch broke off in the HOT position and had only one wheel with a working brake. I would slide up to every red light. Sold it for $200.
Same! I had a white one. Stick shift. Dad got me a Dodge Aries wagon after that...(And that's another story..HAHA!)
I had one, my first car I actually owned. She drove like a shopping cart.
But, with LESS space inside....
Road legal golf cart.
I worked valet parking back in like 2005 and this old lady pulled up in a pristine Chevette dark grey with red interior. I got to drive it and it was quite memorable. So slow that it felt like something was wrong with it.lol😅
What was wrong with it was GM. A road legal golf cart.
Every once in awhile I come back to this review when I'm having a bad day. Because no day is as bad as the day you'd have to drive this hunk of shit.
My next door neighbor had one. at 17, 18, 19, 20 we drove the piss out of that thing. It never broke.
In the early 80s I worked in the Pontiac Zone office in Houston. I had never seen a 1000 so one day I ordered one. When it showed up to the office they made me drive it. Didn’t really seem that bad.
Right, it all depends on how one looks at things in life. 🚗 👓 👨
I remember Michael Douglas drove a Chevette in Falling Down lol
Yeah, no wonder he snapped and went into a killing spree...
We bought an '85 Plymouth Horizon new and drove it for 100K plus. The only repair was the voltage regulator for the alternator and a battery. It had the 2.2L big-block four with a 5-speed manual. It was MUCH bigger in every dimension, especially width, over the competition. We were newlyweds and we really got our moneys worth out of that one. Bill Bryson wrote a book about touring the USA in his mom's Chevy Chevette. Hilarious! Must read.
0-60 in 30 seconds?!?
25 m.p.g.?
For a subcompact car?
What a complete piece of junk.
+McRocket try looking at the Vauxhall and Opel versions and then come back to me with your dumb ass comments.
Vauxhall and Opel's were not sold in America idiot. Why the hell would I compare a car made in America to one that is not even available in America...DUH?
+Pax Humana Opel was not very good in those days, but this thing, although based on it, was even worse. Much, much worse.
A few variants of the Opel (Kadett A of GM's T-platform) version of this platform (Opel by Buick, Isuzu I-Mark OG) were sold in USDM and most / all were better in almost every way than the Chevette / 1000 POS...
Even the (~ 55hp) Isuzu I-Mark 1.8L Diesel could outrun the gas 65hp 1.6L Chevette / 1000, even if both's lack of acceleration could almost be "measured on a calendar".
This is proof that woefully underpowering a car doesn't work because you constantly have to have the motor on full burn just to get you down the road. A slightly more powerful motor with a small bump in cost would've made the driveability and MPG far better.
3:41 Was all that hype supposed to make the car go faster? Because it didn't work lmfao!!!!
lowbudgetmotorsport it was way over the top.
I think he dented the roof with all that ridiculous slapping
@@bbcowboy39 😂🤦🏿♂️
I had a friend in high school that had a 1985 Chevy Chevette 4 door hatch. It was the slowest car I ever drove. Amazing to think these did 0-60 in half a minute. Try finding one of these today, though. This entire generation of disposable era cars is sad because not many survive today.
And THIS is why the Japanese (Toyota, Datsun/ Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Mazda) automakers kicked our tails in the 70's, 80's, and 90's!!
The 0-60 is wrong on here as it did 23 sec 1/4 mile !! They ran 18-22 0-60 like any Toyota,Honda,Datsun,VW of the day !
Imports of the day were complete junk,they rusted out in 1 year,were slower or same speed as these....The media was paid money to say Asian Imports were reliable and idiots bought them,its like today they say open borders it will be fine..Have 250,000 million people from anywhere come here,it will be fine..You believe that ??? Back in the day they gave then new Asian cars and or money if they reported they were good !
My dad had a 1979 Toyota Corolla and it was far better than the 1977 Plymouth Volare that he owned.
@@skylinefever the Volare was more similar in size to the Toyota Corona (the car that the Camry replaced), it was bigger than the Corolla
@@01trsmar It's odd then that you see tons of old imports running around and I've never seen a 1000 or chevette in my life. And trust me, I've looked.
My 86 Mirage was almost as bad as this.
'86 5 speed was my 1st car. Followed my father's recommendation to buy GM. He drove Chevys for 70 years but his last car was a Honda. He couldn't believe how much better his last car was.
My dad was the opposite. I grew up in Saudi Arabia in the 70s and 80s where gas was a lot cheaper than water. He loved the American land yachts but everyone was telling him how great the Japanese and European cars were. So he bought a new 83 Accord. He hated its small buzzy engine, road feel and firm ride and seats. He said he needed his cars to completely isolate him from the road.
So he traded the Accord to a friend at a huge loss for a used Caprice Classic. He later came to Canada and worked for Chrysler. Went from New Yorker to LHS to 300 until he passed away. Never drove another non-American car.
When I met my wife she had an '82 Chevette. I think it had the same engine as the Pontiac 1000. When pulling away from a stop it made a lot of noise but did not go anywhere. Also, in the winter the thing was difficult to start. It got totaled the month after her last car payment. She then made the mistake of buying an '85 Buick Skyhawk. Another small car disaster from GM.
I love it at 1:49 where they stuck those two people in the car, told them to look like they are "testing the seats" and then turned the camera on as they started doing those little bounces, as if they are seeing how they feel for the first time!
I pegged my '83 Chevette at 80mph...I mashed the accelerator while I was going downhill on I-15 south in San Diego one summer night.
My first car in 1996 LOL , she had snow tires which were illegal in my state at the time, I would fish tail like crazy at intersections, poor thing only went 60 miles an hour tops...
I just bought one. Love it.
Lol! Good luck with your purchase!
@Roscoe Dogg Sure is. Couldn't kill the thing even if I tried.
I had an'87 chevette scooter, stick, and it was the most fun thing I have ever had. You just had to keep the 2bbl secondary open, in other words run it everywhere wide open to valve float and it's a blast
Actually, there had been a Pontiac version of the Chevette since the very beginning in 1976. It was the Pontiac Acadian and was sold in Canada all the way through 1987.
My wife had one of these when I first met her back in 1991. :)
I know you didn't choose her for her taste in cars.
Same here, I met my ex in 1991 and she had the 4 door chevette. lol
Chevettes and 1000s littered the student parking lot at the high school I attended. A safe choice as a hand-me-down car from parents because there was no way anyone was going to get busted for street racing in one of these.
Great choice for a young driver on your insurance policy. I don't even think these cars could complete a 1/4 mile if you got one with an auto trans and A/C.
I loved those little cars. They were tough as nails.
I had a 1985 chevy chevette as my first car...my dad and I fitted a webber carb...man i felt like it added 100hp back then...lol
The way he threw the empty luggages 😂😂😂😂
Not like you’re getting anywhere in one of those things
We had a Chevette diesel in driver's ed... talk about slow. We had a maneuver to do where we were required to get the car to 35 mph and do a panic stop. With three in the car, we couldn't get the car to 35 in the stretch required in the parking lot.
"I'm givin her all she's got cap'n, if I push her any harder she'll blow!"
Car & Driver reviewed a Chevette with a 2.8 liter V6 transplant and I remember the review that it was a fairly entertaining and good performing car and looked decent with nice aluminum wheels and good tires.
I drove this car 1 time,way back in 82/83. I was so surprised at how FAST it was. Not being my car, I floored it all day, and it seemed to me to fly! It only have so few horsepower...I am shocked. it seemed to be quite,fast,and well put together. But then, I didn't own it, and it was probably crap after the first month of owning:)
I had an '82 Chevette with an Isuzu 1.9L diesel, and, it was EXCELLENT. Reliable as could be, and, 40+ MPG.
"We build excitement!" Except for the 1000. We built excrement on that one.
They also built a dustbuster minivan. I guess it was 'exciting' to look at... Kind of looked like a space shuttle to my eyes when it came out. But it was SLLLLoooW.
I remember being 7 years old and traveling from Houston, Tx to Wilmington Beach, NC in one of these cars.. My dad wanted to rent a Chevy Caprice for our family vacation, but when we got to the rental place, all they had was a handful of Pontiac 1000s.. To add insult to injury, they gave us a brown one.. My dad cussed that car every time we had to go up a hill or mountain.. lol!
This is what I learned to drive on! I had the white car and it was a stickshift! The reverse was in the upper right and you had to push the lever down to move it to reverse. It did burn oil though...
It was sold in Canada as the Pontiac Acadian
shnorth888 Exactly! I remember seeing these, and the Chevy, when I was a kid
Yep. A friend of mine had one... two tone light and dark blue with a Canadian flag. I had no idea it was so much worse than my ‘86 Skyhawk.
Yeah well Canada is better than the US so suck on that.
@@steveespinola7652 lul
When I was a little kid, my babysitter had a Chevy Chevette. Even at that young I thought it was a scary POS. I hated riding in her car. It made my sister's 1994 Hyundai Excel seem really nice in comparison.
This truly is my favorite MW review.
Back before John discovered tanning booths. Now he's pumpkin orange. 🎃
This brings back memories of my first car which was a 1983 Pontiac 1000. Damn, that car had NO power! Some would probably argue that the car was the perfect match for me considering I was also considered one of the weakest kids of the school during my middle and high school years! lol
did you at least have the made in USA sticker on it?
I'm pretty sure it did as I remember there were quite a few stickers placed on the bumper before it was handed to me from my dad.
I really enjoyed when the guy in the front and girl in the back were thrashing around in their seats like they were sitting on fire ants and then slam sum luggage in the back ! all that woeful engine\trans combination deserves really with pathetic, unsafe slowness like that!
My fist car. Loved it. Terrible breaks. Wouldnt die! Fond memories of my lower expectations.
I had one. I paid 4,000. For it. No ac. Stick. It was a tough car. I had it for many years. I put 265,000 miles on it. I felt it was one of the best cars I ever owned.
I used to have one of these and I have to tell you that they are tough as hell!! Great durability and economy and reliability and the only reasons that they aren't around is because they were awesome at the time and inexpensive to own and therefore were bought, driven, destroyed, or retired and recycled and also because of the recycle a clunker program where you were bribed to sell your car for recycling. In the 70s and 80s cars were a lot different then today, don't forget that kids.
I'll have a Ford Aspire to that ugly mess any day
I can agree with you on that! I owned one myself, and that thing would not die. Just oil changes, and although it needed new front struts. I totally got my money out of that car. Great on gas, cheap to maintain, and the only reason I couldn't drive it any longer was because I ran over something, and knocked a hole in the gas tank. I know quite a few others whom have gotten their money's worth as well out of the old chevettes.
I had a 83 just like the one in the vid, best danm car in the snow I ever had. Could go through two feet of snow like nothing.
Hey take it easy on the luggage buddy.
Back when they could give honest reviews. Weird to hear the negative feedback in this day and age. I like it!
Yes my mother in law had a /84 back in 1990. It did suck on the on ramps, and if it was uphill 😂. It worked well and tough,so much she bought a 1986 couple years later.
Why did Americans switch to Japanese cars? Here's your answer.
churchofmarcus yep. I had a 84 Corolla. Light years ahead of that Pontiac
11second69nickeynova your craxy
Why did GM need a Gov bailout? Here's also your answer!
Why is the Camry and Corolla best selling. Here’s why.
Ironically, this was by far the best GM economy car of that era.
My friend had one with a 350 dropped inside and we would jump railroad tracks all day, boy those were the days!
My dad bought my mom a new Chevette in 1979 for Christmas.He made up for it a year later and bought her her dream home.Haha I grew up there and my mom still lives there after my dad died in 2020.
I love watching reviews of old POS cars. They even knew it at the time. As a kid in the 90s, these things felt ancient, but it was only 10 yrs old.
At 4:09, the brown truck tries to merge into the lane, but the Pontiac 1000 is a slouch, whenever it accelerates.
Tim Joseph First thing I thought of was the highway scene with the burnt out car in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
6:58 motorweek car guy checks engine for loose parts and removes cap from reservoir, attempts to replace cap by tightening opposite way, then you have him driving the obstacle coarse and time trials. Was he drunk?
I had a 1986 Chevy Spectrum for my second car, in college. That must have been faster than this 1000, was only 75 HP I think, but with 5 speed manual it seemed ok.
I bought a brand new 84' 1000 four door with a 4 speed manual for I believe about $7000. That thing would barely do 60mph downhill on the interstate. Passing on a two lane road was scary. Many times I ended up unable to pass and had to abort maneuver.
What do you think those people were saying at 5:23 to 5:27? I'm guessing:
Driver: I can't wait to get out of this piece of garbage.
Woman: Yeah, and I'm freezing out here.
Mitchell Pak they were saying this wouldn't be bad with a mower deck !!!
UNSAFE FOR HIGHWAY USE.
pbfloyd13 True today but the maximum speed limit in America was 55 when this came out. Penny pinching GM designed the car to go exactly 55mph with 1 adult.
Ha ha, I wonder if there's something about that in the owner's manual. I would honestly consider the 1000 unsafe for highway use today. If it was barely adequate then, imagine what it would be like now, with even most compacts able to reach 100mph.
Jurassic0Al
There is!
+pbfloyd13
So is there actually mention of the 1000 being unsafe for highway use in its owner's manual?
Jurassic0Al
At least according to "regular car reviews"...
I always like Motorweek as they are essentially advocates of the auto industry in general, I like watching them try to contort themselves in some of these reviews.
I use to have a 1988 Chevrolet Nova which is a Toyota Corolla underneath the sheet metal. It had a small Toyota 1.6L 4 cylinder engine which produced like 74 HP with a 5-speed manual transmission. It was good on gas but climbing mountain grades was slow, even the 3-cylinder Geo Metro were passing me like nothing up mountain grades lol. I know how one would feel driving a slow compact car like the Chevette and the Pontiac 1000.
That is one big ass fuel gage. 65hp? O_O
this is so awesome!
This was my very first new car…being a teenager I loved it’s practically but soon was jealous of those guys who drove trans ams! Today I drive sports cars so hardly anyone can smoke me on the streets! Lessons learned from a kid in the 80’s!
I'm from Canada and when I was a kid I used to see this cars all the time now it's very rare that I see them anymore lol 😁.
So To Sum up this car, 0-60 in 30 seconds!!! The only part I cared about, that's just EPIC!!! :)
That was back when cars were absolutely slow
asts3196 that was abysmal even back then
The only car in the World to lose speed going downhill with a tail wind
The 0-60 is wrong on here as it did 23 sec 1/4 mile !! They ran 18-22 0-60 like any Toyota,Honda,Datsun,VW of the day !
0-60 mph in 30 seconds!! This most be the most sluggish car in the last 50 years!
I've been a professional auto tech for the last 30 years. I have seen ONE of these still functional. That was 20 years ago and it was a farm vehicle at an apple orchard in Peru, NY.
We used to own one of these-maybe an older year-but that thing was tough as nails-good little commuter car to zip around in.
This was truly the Dark Ages for automobiles.
They say 30 seconds to 60mph then post a 1/4 mile of 59mph @ 23 seconds???????
+Ray c S, That last 1 mph was a real bitch!
Yeah can you imagine that-- its a time for a 50's VW beetle with 36 hp- that was some TERRIBLE times for GM then- My 1980 Ford Fiesta would walk on that, not sure if you remember those??
1980 Ford Fiesta was my first car.
Bought it brand new July 1980. Mint green metallic/$5300.00 out the door/That car was my pride & joy/
Took it to show my grandma and she wanted to drive it! Idid not know she could drive a 4 speed manual!
I can still remember her telling me their were no automatics when she started driving.
Just wanted to share a great memory of my Fiesta/Thanks
C Moore nothing wrong with fiestas
The 0-60 is wrong on here as it did 23 sec 1/4 mile !! They ran 18-22 0-60 like any Toyota,Honda,Datsun,VW of the day !
I had one of these, got me around, and was pretty reliable.
My whole young adult life was spent watching Detroit crank out this junkyard fodder. This video is 6 minutes, 50 seconds longer than it needs to be.
did a T1000 kill your family or something?