What comes to mind when we say Chevy? A Corvette, sure. Camaro, Impala, Malibu, Volt, Bolt, Spark, Silverado... The list of good and reliable Chevrolet nameplates is a long one. But now and then, every carmaker tends to mess up in ways both big and small.
And Chevrolet is no different. Frankly, we may be calling these cars bad or disappointing in hindsight today, but at the time of their launch, many of these did sell well. Some of these were brand new concepts that the world hadn’t seen. Some tided over bad sales periods with ease, keeping Chevrolet afloat for as long as they existed. Still, others could be attributed to bad timing or pricing.
There isn’t a carmaker in the world who would deliberately float a bad nameplate in the market. Everybody wants to make and drive good cars. To err is human, so the people making these cars were all too human when they ended up with a bad design, bad parts or even a poor power mill. That said; here go 15 cars Chevrolet messed up big with…
15 1953 Chevrolet Corvette: The Very First Vette
This is where the Corvette’s life story began. The 1953 Vette was the first one in the Corvette stable and while it said that the firstborns are trailblazers, this wasn’t quite the case here. The initial lot was produced in the Flint, Michigan facility, and they all turned out crudely made and a tad weak as well. Saleswise, these were duds. However, they did set the path for the Vette to take as it later began to soar in sales and popularity.
14 1960 Chevrolet Corvair: Unsafe But Not At Any Speed
In the late 50s, there was an influx of imported nameplates in the car bazaar. Mostly European in origin, these brands and the very successful VW Beetle began to eat into GM’s market share. So in 1960, Chevrolet unveiled the Corvair to take its rivals head-on. However, these first Corvairs were armed with a rather notorious rear suspension that coupled with a rear-wheel drive, made the car oversteer pretty often.
13 1971 Chevrolet Vega: What Stays In Vega?
In its debut year, the Chevy Vega was honored with the Motor Trend Car of the Year. And that is where the honor stopped. There are stories about DeLorean influencing this award for the Vega tended to overheat a little too often. Safety, reliability, and engineering issues cropped up soon after and its seven-year journey was filled with recalls and upgrades. Surprisingly, GM was still able to sell close to two million of these.
12 1975 Chevrolet Monza: Plagued With An Anemic Mill
GM had an in-house Wankel rotary engine planned for the Monza. Sadly for the Monza, this was not to be and anemic engine-options were put in instead. These engines could thrash out a mere 115 horses with a 4.3-liter V8 and 125 ponies with a 5.7-liter V8. The Monza, born to the Oil Embargo era, was effectively over even before it began.
11 1975 Chevrolet Corvette: All Looks, No Power
Yes, we have added yet another Vette to this list. The late seventies saw a 165-horsepower Corvette sporting a V8 mill that was all thunder and no glory. The catalytic converters in these models resulted in a massive fall in the power output. From a thundering 270 horses in a Big-Block V8 in 1974, to just 165 horses the next year is a huge drop. This was the lowest point for Corvettes and their almost-cheated owners.
10 1976 Chevrolet Chevette: Not A Vette At All
The Chevette was meant to be the Vega’s replacement. Which technically means it should have been better. Sadly, they took out the bad and replaced it with the worse. Dubbed as an affordable and cheap car for the malaise era of the 70s, the Chevette managed to sell okay. Many publications that hailed it as the car to buy in the seventies called it unimaginative, underpowered and poorly made in later years.
9 1978 Chevrolet C/K Diesel: The Worst Diesel Engine
The 78 C/K Diesel had everything going good except for its engine. The infamous Oldsmobile diesel powerplant was, to put it politely, incompetent for the gigantic dimensions of the truck. The lackluster mill blew a gasket every time you started the ignition. A peak output of 125 horses was just not enough to give it any semblance of power.
8 1980 Chevrolet Citation: Recalled Aplenty
In its debut year, the 1980 Citation was hailed as groundbreaking. It sold 800,000 units turning it into an instant bestseller. So how could a car this good become reviled enough to shrivel up and die? By 1983, the Citation was fast becoming the topmost recalled car of the 80s, with plenty of issues around the rear brakes. Redesigns and upgrades could not save its fast dropping demand.
7 1982 Chevrolet Cavalier: The Honda Accord Rival
The Chevy Cavalier did pretty well for itself 1983 onwards but had a bit of a damp sale in its debut 1982 year. Frankly, this was no Camaro or Corvette. For people still recovering for the oil restrictions of the 70s and with carmakers struggling to keep fuel economy high, the Cavalier fit the bill. And no, it could not compete with the Honda Accord, as was the original plan.
6 1983 Chevrolet Camaro "Iron Duke": The Prank's On You
Did you just read the headline as 1983 Chevrolet Camaro Iron Duke? Well, you should read it as the slowest Camaro ever made. The Iron Duke four-cylinder engine in this made a sickly 92 ponies, or should we say mules? But yes, people did buy it, and they were sorry soon enough. Had this come out in the 90s, MTV would not have said “you’ve been pranked” – they would have said, “you’ve been Iron-Duked”.
5 1989 Chevrolet Lumina APV: Wait, Is That A Hoover On Wheels?
Ah, the memories this dust-buster van brings back. Why dust-buster? No, it did not eat up dust, or even throw it out – its front looked like a vacuum cleaner. Or rather, the Hoover. They looked terrible enough for no one to bother to check if they ran well. And that dashboard never seemed to end either.
4 1997 Chevrolet Malibu: The Import Fighter
Yet another import-fighting sedan from Chevy’s stable, the Malibu was an okay car, but could not hold a candle to the Toyotas and Hondas of that time. Frankly, we don’t know why Chevy has to go down the competing-with-the-imports road again. As we said, it was an average car with average everything. Certainly not something to sing praises of.
3 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo: NASCAR Disconnect
Enough plastic to make a plastic-hungry Hippo happy, and an inept forward-wheel-drive made this a below-average car. The design was boring and unimaginative to the extreme and the NASCAR connect was simply too far-fetched for the Monte Carlo. Yet another highly-touted car that was average to the extreme.
2 2003 Chevrolet SSR: The Identity Crisis Chevy
A custom hot-rod should be left to the experts – these are not the kind of cars you can mass produce. Before the SSR and its eventual disastrous reception, Chevy probably did not know that. At $40,000 for a 390-horse V8, this was not a truck, nor a roadster and so not a hot rod either. What it was, was a bad Chevy car.
1 2005 Chevrolet Uplander: Not Very Uplifting
Where do we begin? First, we are thankful this lasted only four years, and that not many were sold. The steering was inept, the comfort non-existent and the noisy huff-puffing engine just could not pull it with any semblance of power. The Uplander is Chevrolet at its utter worst, and we only hope its all smooth riding from this car on.