The Chevy Vega: the Worst Detroit Car Ever?

Well, I liked it...

I was in college and got a new 1975 Vega hatchback for about $2,700. I really enjoyed it. It had the standard four-banger but a two-barrel carb and a three-on-the-floor you-shift-it. The styling was decent and handling was good. You could haul an amazing amount of stuff in it with the back seat folded down. It did start to rust, of course, and after six years I got it repainted ($200) and then drove it four more years, for a total of 92,000 miles without any other, uh, particularly inconvenient problems except for a new clutch. After a while, all you had to do was put a 59-cent quart of K-mart oil in it every 10 days or so and it kept running. My favorite feature was the little holder in the center console -- it perfectly held a pack of Kent 100s and you could strike the match on the side of the parking brake!

Hoyt Clagwell of VA @ Nov 06, 2009 22:45:19 PM

Bopco

There I was, out of High School, with my first "Real Job"... I was working in NYC and thought I was the Cat's Meow... That Blue, that Beautiful Blue!!! I bought my Vega, becasue I loved that color, on that particular car???

After driving Clunkers all of my short life before, I shortly missed even the worst of the lot, after owning that Peice of Crap for less then six months...

One, from the Get Go, it would empty it's crankcase of oil, in about 600 miles. The Dealership insisted Nothing was wrong with it, even after my friends and family came to call me James Bond, becasue of the Car's ablity to become invisable, under it's own smoke screen... In three months, that Beautiful Blue began to just fall off, replaced by big patches of rust??? Mind You, this was a three month old car!!!

Not once, but twice, the transmission let go on the queensboro bridge... The Dealership did admit that something was wrong, when a tow truck deposited it on their door step...

The last straw was when a Cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket for a smoking vehicle... He was driving behind me and my Vega had spewed oil all over his windshield...

With the Help of the Better Business association and the newly developing Department of Consumer Affairs, the Dealership, again, told me there was nothing wrong with the car...

Fed up and betrayed, there was only one thing to do... My bank insisted I had to have comprehensive insurance of the car. Both Chevy and my insurance company told me that they weren't responsible for repairing a vehicle that had nothing wrong with it... The car misteriously vanished one night... I am now a 60 year old man, retired and reasonably sucessful in life, who never bought another "New" car...

Bopco of NY @ Oct 21, 2009 14:54:42 PM

whats wrong with the vega

people i own a 72 vega wagon with a 355 smallblock in it and all of the people in these articals need to do some research. oh and any time you all want to line them up just call ill put alll your ricers to shame. GO VEGAS.

CHASE WILSON of IN @ Oct 19, 2009 13:44:28 PM

Vega vs Pinto

I had a '72 vega that was mecrifully destroyed in a hailstorm when it was 2 years old. Although the Pinto was strongly critized, my '74 and '80 Pinto wagons each went over 100,000 miles with little unusual repair. The '80 was traded for an '85 Cutlass that was an even worse lemon than the Vega. I swore off GM products and haven't owned one since early '87.

Will Hobart of KY @ Oct 18, 2009 17:27:49 PM

GM in the 70's

The Vega as bad as it was crossed over into all GM divisions in the form of the H-body platform. After the Vega created such a bad name for itself Chevy just morphed it into the Monza, Buick Skyhawk, Pontiac Astre and Sunbird and kept on trucking until 1981. Historically the H-body platform was one of the best selling designs for GM but the real legacy is when you speak of really poor GM crafting you think of the seventies and this car. The result of course GM ran off customers in droves and ironically achieved the exact opposite result upon which the Vegas were invented and oddly enough the H-body platform was created by John Delorean who was at the time somewhat of a wonder boy for GM.

Phil kennedy of TX @ Oct 08, 2009 00:44:16 AM

The Vega Manual Automatic

My Mom had a Vega, she couldn't drive it though. Never actually got anyone to tell me what was wrong with it, but the car had to be driven like it had a clutch.

You Revved up the engine and then took your foot of the brake and took off. When you needed to stop you threw it into neutral and while reving up the engine hit the brake. Then started all over again when you needed to go. When it over heated you sat by the side of the road and waved to your friends that had cars that went. Made for quite the interesting journey though.

deb of NY @ Oct 05, 2009 15:48:50 PM

Pinto

I had a 73 Pinto. The car was a piece of ____! That car did more to turn me against Ford than any othe car I owned.

Ray Hawkins of MD @ Sep 17, 2009 09:41:27 AM

pjkPA

I owned a Pinto for 6 years .. best small car on the road at the time.

Best selling car in the world in 1975.

Worst vehicle ever.... Toyota trucks with frames that completely rust out in 6 years.

pkravec of PA @ Sep 11, 2009 18:06:31 PM