The Infamous Chevy Vega
The Star That Faded
Chosen as Motor Trend’s Car of the Year in 1971, GM’s Chevrolet Vega was named after constellation Lyra’s brightest star and started off strong—but its reputation plummeted by the time production ended with its 1977 model, with the vehicle and GM’s reputation in tatters.
Choices Made And Offered
This subcompact automobile first went on sale in September 1970, and came with a lot of body options: two-door hatchback, notchback, wagon, and sedan delivery. But there was only one lightweight motor designed just for the Vega: a four-cylinder engine made out of aluminum.
Plans Set In Motion
In 1967, a vice-president at GM, Ed Cole, successfully lobbied for his version of a small car that the company could use to enter this potentially lucrative market. Rejecting Chevrolet engineers’ own design, GM Chairman James Roche announced in 1968 that the car would be on sale by 1970.
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Early Hype
Roche claimed “stylists, researchers, and engineers” were already working on this car with a code name of XP-877, though GM executive John DeLorean later said little had been done to that point, aside from collecting blueprints of various models made overseas.
Team Effort
A design team led by James G Musser Jr started work, with Musser later saying never before had a single team led by one person designed a whole vehicle, which included testing their concept of a reasonably large displacement engine the equivalent of 6 million miles.
