A little spare time to think. Remembering my Chevy Vega..

Over the years, the inevitable subject of worst cars ever comes up,
and the Vega
is always at or near the top of the list. I've seen it a hundred
times. I feel I should
put in a good word for the little car.

My sister got a new Vega in early 1973 (a stripped-down one at that,
about as basic
as was available). I then inherited it in late '74 and drove it
merrily for another full
year. That little car was never ONE ounce of trouble. It cruised at
75 mph like
a charm, never burped or coughed, and I actually don't know that the
oil was
ever changed!!!! Maybe the car was serviced when my sister had it,
but I know
it wasn't during the time I had it (young and car stupid I guess).
When
I traded it in for my dream car at the time (the dreamy '75 Toyota
Celica GT),
it had about 42k miles on it and still performed like a trooper.
Maybe it
was a rare gem off the assembly line I don't know, but I had three
friends
who also had Vegas and I don't remember any of them being lemons; one
did have notoriously squeally brakes though IIRC.

 

I never had a Vega, but I've owned several Corvair which is also on
that list. I drove one everyday for 6 years until 2003 when I sold it.
A very good car.

 

A bit of trivia: the Vega was based on the Fiat 124 Sports Coupe. GM
bought a few examples to take apart and tried to copy it's design. I
think they succeeded all too well. As far as the 124 Sports Coupe goes,
I owned 3 of those and loved those things.

 

That is, I believe, the car with the silicon/aluminum alloy engine...That
thing
went out for most people very quickly.

Now, believe it or not, I have seen Yugos still on the road. Even the worst
automaker allows a good one to slip out occasionally.

 

Yugo = Fiat 128

 

Maybe the equality is not quite right, but similar.
Fiat also put Russia into the car business, IIRC.

We have owned three Fiats...a 131 Mirafiore, a 128, and another I cant
remember. The engines were okay, but the bodies tended to rust out
very badly on some of them.

 

My guess is that they were pretty similar. I was thinking at the time
that it might be possible to bolt-on a Yugo engine and maybe the entire
drivetrain of a Yugo into a Fiat X1/9 although I've not heard of anybody
doing this.

The engine on the 124 sports models were fine. It was the first
belt-driven double overhead cam design engine used in a mass production
car. Rust was a big problem in the states. I'm guessing that it doesn't
rain or snow in Italy and Europe.

 

Well, seeing as a Yugo is basically a reheated FIAT, they theoretically
can be made more reliable by replacing all the broken mechanical bits
with FIAT bits.

Now whether they figured out rustproofing or not, I don't know - I
haven't seen a Yugo in years. I don't remember seeing one old enough to
have rust on it.

It's a shame that FIAT didn't fine tune their cars a little better. I
remember a neighbor having one as a little kid and it was a neat little
car and darn near indestructable - I think he eventually passed it on to
his daughter when she went to college (a few years older than I.) Owner
was a car guy though, so undoubtedly salt wasn't allowed to linger on
the body, explaining its unusual longevity.

nate

 

Wait... wait.... say that again...
you replace parts _with_ Fiat parts and it becomes more reliable.

This implies that the original parts are actually _less_ reliable than
Fiat parts. Is such a thing actually possible?

I see one every once in a while on Rt. 64. It's tiny and yellow, and has
a huge man with a walrus moustache driving it.

Okay.... I have to understand this. You're saying somehow that someone
has made a car which is _less reliable than a Fiat_?
--scott

 

Somewhat wrong. Rust was a problem with all Fiats made in Italia.

Fiat is a bit of a joke, even in Europe. I lived there for many many years.

 

Anybody ever read the Wiki page on the Vega? It's a pretty good read.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Vega>

Maybe I'm weird, but I always thought the Vega was a good-looking car. But
then I liked the Plymouth Duster as well.

The Yugo was never sold in Canada, for some odd reason. Around the same
time as the Yugo was being imported to the US, we DID get all manner of
other, highly-unusual, Soviet-bloc machinery.

Off the top of my head:
Lada 1600 (Russian Fiat 124 derivative)
Lada Niva (small Russian SUV)
Dacia (Romanian sedan; looks like a Renault 11, but dumpier)
Skoda (Czech sedan; had rear engine and side-opening hood)
ARO (Romanian 4WD; about the size of a Range Rover, but impossibly crude)

We also got the Hyundai Pony, a truly, truly, awful car.

The Lada 1600 actually drove pretty well. The new example I test-drove had
an impressively precise shifter. The salesman kept yammering on about how
the car's carburetor was "the closest thing you can get to a Weber" without
actually having a Weber, as though that was the vehicle's only selling
point.

I never see ANY of the above anymore, EVER. And I drive a lot.

 

My Vega was a sporty bright color, but a plain Jane set of wheels.
One of my friends had a GT which was very cool; a sturdy-looking
and very sporty ride. Another had one of the "Millionth Vegas."

I turned a little green with envy when he got that orange babe.

from http://h-body.org/library/vegabob/vega-history-complete.html

"In May 1973, the Millionth Vega was produced; a bright orange GT
hatchback coupe, with white sport stripes, "Millionth Vega" door
handle
inserts, and power steering. interior featured neutral custom vinyl,
including exclusive vinyl door panels, and orange accent color
carpeting.

"-A limited edition "Millionth Vega" option-ZM5 was offered..one per
dealer."

Another buddy of mine got one of the "Spirit of America" models.
It was flashier than mine, but couldn't hold a candle to the GT
models.
This one ended up sitting in the carport of his parents' house till
just
recently!

 

I'm with ya there. sure wouldn't mind having either a Duster 340 or a
Cosworth Vega. nothing wrong with the styling of either car.
(actually, there's very little wrong with any duster, even the humble
Slant Six models.)

nate

 

I'm guessing it's partially because they're such a big force in Europe,
the same as GM is in the states.

 

Too bad the car had a well deserved reputation as an oil burner - and I
don't mean diesel. As I recall, the valve stem seals were no good.

OTOH, an all-alloy engine block is a pretty exotic feature even today
and the car was bitching looking - a big departure from the cars of the
day. The 1970 Camaro look-alike front end was kinda cool too. The
dashboard seems to be directly lifted from a Fiat.

I only had 1 chance to check out a Vega and it seemed to me that the car
felt like a big clunky GM product. Somehow the engineers had managed to
reproduce that lousy GM, ponderous, and loosey fit feeling in small car.
Oh well, it looked good anyway.

I like the looks of a Duster too. My boss had a Duster. It had big tires
and a "340" decal on the rear flanks. I remember coming up to a stop a
little fast and when I stepped on the brakes, nothing much happened. I
panicked and really stepped on it and that thing went
EerrRrrrrrrrrrrrccch! I stopped in time but looked like a big dufus.
Those 70s car sure had crappy brakes.

 

That car had more problems than just valve stem seals. The aftermarket
"cure" for this car was to re-sleeve it.
After that, the engine was actually pretty good from an economic point
of view.
If they had stuck with the 4 cylinder motor that had been used in the
Chevy II, history would have said that
the Vega would have been an excellent econo box.

 

They also had a reputation for rusting out on the way home from the
dealer. Besides that, they were a typical GM car of the 1970s, which
is to say not very good and really awful by today's standards.

 

I assume that you'd need special cutters to rebore the cylinder walls
and perhaps a lot of shops didn't understand the wall finishing process.

Oh well, my guess is that the time for sleeveless alloy blocks in cars
has come and gone. It's likely that soon we won't be using pistons and
cylinders.

 

I still have mine ('71 Kammback), although it's been waiting for over ten
years for it's engine transplant.

Great looking car. Good basic design. Pile-o-crap execution.

If anyone asks you the difference between "inexpensive" and "cheap", just
park a VW Bug next to a Vega and give them a quick tour of the essential
differences.

For that matter, if anyone asks you why GM went down the tubes, just park
a Vega next to something just off the assembly line and start pointing
out the essential similarities...

 

on HONDA matters...;

I used to own a 90 Prelude SI (not the 2.0SI)that had the all-aluminum
engine with the silicon/aluminum bore.It was a great car until two
hailstorms ruined it.Traded it in for a 94 Integra GS-R.(which got
stolen,stripped,and torched in 2007...)

I believe that many Hondas have gone over 200K miles without needing their
cylinder walls rebored.

Until electrics get their range and recharge time issues solved,internal
combustion motors will be the major motivator for autos.
(unless Obama gets his wishes for energy prices...)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
..com