The Chevrolet Chevette is a front-engine, rear-drive subcompact manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet for model years β as a three-door or five-door hatchback. Introduced in North America in September , the Chevette superseded the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact.
Production reached 2. It was the first American car built to metric measurements, and was the first American car to feature a diagnostic plug for pinpointing service issues. The first to use the T plaform was the Brazilian Chevrolet Chevette released in Six months later the Opel Kadett C was released in Europe.
Worldwide, GM manufactured and marketed more than 7 million [ 1 ] T-cars β either as rebadged models or locally-built versions in different countries. A T-platform variant remained in production in South America through Introduced with a full-color nationwide campaign in β of the country's largest daily papers, [ 3 ] the New York Times said the "little American car holds its own with the foreigners. Looking back on the Chevette in , the New York Times called the Chevette "haphazardly made, sparsely trimmed and underpowered.
Under the direction of chief engineer John Mowrey, [ 7 ] Chevrolet began developing the Chevette on December 24, It was a response to the federal CAFE standards and the oil crisis. The Chevette was prompted by GM's Energy Task Force, which arose out of the crisis and the resultant shift in consumer demand to smaller, foreign vehicles boasting greater fuel efficiency.
With the well-known problems of its predecessor, the Vega , including production, reliability and corrosion issues, the team reworked the international platform for the Chevette, ultimately sharing no actual body panels with other T-platform variants. The underbody was reworked extensively to enhance corrosion protection. The first North American Chevette, a low level trim two-door hatchback marketed as the Chevette Scooter , was assembled on August 18, [ 9 ] and officially introduced on September 16, in Washington, DC, with the first models going on sale on October 2, [ 10 ] just after new legislation-mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economy CAFE standards.
