Tim Wescott wrote:

J. Clarke wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:
--snip--
I can just imagine the Vega team at Chevrolet asking themselves "what
did we do wrong the last time?".

"Well, it kinda looks good and with a bit of work it can be made to go
fast."

Then they made the Chevette.


Just a minor nit but the Vega was foisted on Chevy from On High.

I have a theory that GM did market research and found that folks wanted
an inexpensive car, so some executive said "Oh, they want a car that's
cheap -- we can do that!"

Who was On High that foisted it on Chevy -- are there any histories that
I can read?

I think you'd have to find some old car magazines from when the Vega was
new. The design was developed by a team at GM Corporate, not in-house by
Chevy--among other things the first time they actually ran it on the track
it broke in half.

To me, the Vega was frustratingly near miss -- they could have spent
5-10% more on the thing and had something that really was a good,
inexpensive car. Instead they made a cheap piece of stuff that has some
good ideas (suspension geometry, the overhead cam, has a front-hinged
hood so it must be sporty), but just didn't add up to a good car in the
end.

Ditto for the Pinto, except I think Ford came closer to the mark than
Chevy, particularly in the engine compartment (but the styling sucks,
IMHO).

And then there was that annoying bolt next to the gas tank.

--
--John
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(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)