At $5,995, Is This Buick-Powered 1979 Chevy Chevette A Sleeper That Could Keep You Up?

While it looks mild-mannered and comes from an era when cars elicited yawns, not ya-hoos, today's Nice Price or No Dice Chevette has some tricks up its sleeve. We'll have to decide what all those might be worth.

Yesterday was the last Monday in May, which means that here in the U.S., it was Memorial Day, honoring those who have fallen in service to the country. For many of us, that honoring took the form of watching the Indy 500 and barbecuing in the backyard.

We celebrated Summer's official kickoff by looking at a 1986 Volkswagen GTI with over 290,000 miles on the chassis. Such a wild number of miles meant that it was a veteran of a different kind, and, while in some ways tired, it wasn't quite ready for Arlington yet. Unfortunately for its seller, few of you were willing to fete the GTI at its $4,500 asking price. The comments called out on those miles and the car's rough-in-places shape, which made even that much seem high. When the dust settled, and the barbecue was finished, that asking fell in a 78% "No Dice" loss.

If you ask someone what kind of car they own and their response is to dip a shoulder, give you both finger guns, and respond with "ayyyy, I drive a 'Vette," you're likely to picture some form of Chevy two-seater sports car along with some jorts and chunky white sneakers. Don't fall for that trap, however. Chevy built another car that could be nicknamed the 'Vette, and which was available in a version that only had two seats.

That was the Chevette Scooter, a model that made the back seat an added-cost option and eliminated the glovebox door, armrests, and any exterior chrome trim as cost-saving measures. Fortunately, today's 1979 Chevy Chevette is the more common mainstream model with all those elements intact, including a back seat, armrests, and a door on the glove box. Oh, and it has a Buick V6 under the hood and a T5 five-speed manual behind that, feeding a 10-bolt rear end. The best thing? Nobody would know any of that just by looking at it.

That Buick mill is a 231-cubic-inch-displacement "Odd-Fire" V6, so called because it was derived from a V8 engine, which gave it a non-optimal 90° angle between the banks. That results in a weird firing order, which Buick later addressed with a 'split crank' that offset the journals by 30°, creating an "Even-Firing" version.

This earlier engine has been imbued with a hot cam and roller rockers, both apparently from the house of Kenne Bell Racing. The engine fits nicely in the Chevette's engine bay and, while not the cleanest install, it doesn't look half-assed in any way. There's no A/C, and any power steering is of the Armstrong variety, so aside from the alternator, there's little to clutter up the space in there. Other updates include new front brakes and a set of fresh Hankook tires. According to the seller, this Chevette "will surprise unsuspecting GTIs" like the car we looked at yesterday.

It all looks to be in solid, if unremarkable, shape too. The Buick has a set of Kenne Bell aluminum valve covers bracketing a chromed air intake to spruce things up, although the whole engine could stand a good cleaning.

Outside of that, there's a decent respray in the factory red, straight bodywork, and all the chrome and badging still intact. A set of aftermarket turbine alloys with color-matched insets adds a nice bit of bling. 

Popping open a door reveals an interior with high-backed bucket seats, some craptacular Chevrolet-branded rubber floormats, and a bit of missing trim on the driver's seat that likely doesn't affect its function. That seat upholstery also looks a bit too jaunty for a Chevy built in the '70s, so those may have been reupholstered at some time, or may come from a different car. Regardless, the car comes with a clean title. It also has its mileage listed as 123,456, so who knows how many miles it's actually turned.

The seller promotes the Chevette as being "fun to drive," and claims that "The hot hatch kids really like this thing." There's no word on opinions from the Sour Patch Kids, however. For more utilitarian use, the ad advises, "If you want to add some excitement to your commute this is the car for you!"

Whether it's the car for any of us will be determined by how much value it is perceived to have at its asking price. That's $5,995, which gets a sleeper or a car, and the boast that can be made of driving a 'Vette. Shorts and shoes not included.

What's your take on this hidden gem of a car and that $5,995 price tag? Does that seem like a deal to get in good with this fabled Hot Hatch Kid crowd? Or does that price make you want to tell the seller to take this car and Chevette?

You decide!

Portland, Oregon, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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