Chevrolet

From Classic Car Life

Chevrolet is a brand of automobile produced by General Motors Company (GM). Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 8, 1911, Chevrolet was acquired by General Motors in 1917. Chevrolet was positioned by Alfred Sloan to sell a lineup of mainstream vehicles to directly compete against Henry Ford's Model T in the 1920s, and continues to hold its position as General Motors' highest-selling brand to the present day, with "Chevrolet" or "Chevy" being at times synonymous with GM. In North America, Chevrolet offers a full range of automobiles, from subcompact cars to medium-duty commercial trucks.

History

1933 Chevrolet trucks. Photo: George A. Grant [edit] North America

Chevrolet

was founded by Louis Chevrolet, a race-car driver, and William Durant founder of (GM),who had been forced from the management of GM in 1910. He wanted to use Chevrolet's designs to rebuild his own reputation. As head of Buick Motor Company, prior to founding GM, Durant had hired Chevrolet to drive Buicks in promotional races.[2]

Chevrolet first used its "bowtie"[3] logo in 1913. It is said to have been designed from wallpaper Durant once saw in a French hotel. More recent research by historian Ken Kaufmann presents a compelling case that the logo is based upon a logo for "Coalettes".[4] Others claim that the design was a stylized Swiss cross, in honor of the homeland of Chevrolet's parents.[5]

In control, Durant was in the process of setting up Chevrolet production facilities in Toronto, Canada. Later that year, during a luncheon meeting in New York with "Colonel Sam" McLaughlin, whose McLaughlin Motor Car Company manufactured McLaughlin-Buick cars, it was agreed that Chevrolets with McLaughlin-designed bodies would be added to the Canadian company's product line. Three years later, the two Canadian operations (Chevrolet was by then a part of GM in the United States) were bought by GM to become General Motors of Canada Ltd.[6]

By 1916, Chevrolet was profitable enough to allow Durant to buy a majority of shares in GM. After the deal was completed in 1917, Durant was president of General Motors, and Chevrolet was merged into GM, becoming a separate division. In the 1918 model year, Chevrolet introduced the Model D, a V8-powered model in four-passenger roadster and five-passenger tourer models. It also started production of a overhead valve in-line six. Most cars of the era had only low compression flat head engines. These cars had 288in3 55 hp (41 kW) engines with Zenith carburetors and three-speed transmissions. Chevrolet Camaro 2010

Chevrolet had a great influence on the American automobile market during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1957, Chevy made the first fuel injected engine. In 1963, one out of every ten cars sold in the United States was a Chevrolet.[7]

The basic Chevrolet small-block V-8 design has remained in continuous production since its debut in 1955, longer than any other mass-produced engine in the world, although current versions share few if any parts interchangeable with the original. Descendants of the basic small-block OHV V-8 design platform in production today have been much modified with advances such as aluminium block and heads, electronic engine management and sequential port fuel injection, to name but a few. Descendants of the small-block V-8 in the form of the LT V-8s, and had influence in the design of the LS V-8s, both of which are still installed in Chevrolet vehicles. The original small-block design is simplistic compared to the overhead-cam V-8 that Ford Motor Company used and continues to use in its line of larger cars and light trucks. Depending on the vehicle type, Chevrolet V-8s are built in displacements from 4.8 to 8.1 litres with outputs ranging from 295 horsepower (220 kW) to 638 horsepower (476 kW) as installed at the factory. The engine design has also been used over the years in GM products built and sold under the Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Opel (Germany),Hummer and Holden (Australia) nameplates. [edit] Mexico

Mexico

has a mix of Chevrolet models from different GM brands and platforms but branded as Chevrolet. The variety of models comes from Chevrolet USA, Opel Europe, and other origins. Examples of Opel Sourced vehicles are the Vectra, the Astra, the Meriva and the Captiva. Mexico also has some cars of its own, such as the Chevy C2, which is a reworked previous generation Corsa. Vehicles based on US platforms are the Avalanche, the Suburban, the Equinox, the Tahoe, the Cheyenne (which is similar to the Silverado but with minor differences), the Aveo, the HHR, the Traverse, the Malibu and the Corvette. The Chevrolet Optra, assembled in South Korea by GM Daewoo, is also sold in Mexico. The European Epica is sold as a Business only vehicle. [edit] Outside North America [edit] South Africa

In South Africa, Chevrolet was GM's main brand name until 1982, with a number of Vauxhall Motors and Holden derivatives being built under the Chevy name from 1964. In the 1970s, the advertising jingle "braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet"[8] (adapted from the US "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pies and Chevrolet") came to epitomise the ideal lifestyle of white male South Africans. Holden in Australia used the jingle "Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden cars". Originally, Chevrolets were CKD kits of US models assembled in their plant in Port Elizabeth. However, since South Africa was right-hand drive and the US was left-hand drive, along with encouragement by the South African government to use local content, Chevrolets such as the Biscayne were eventually made entirely in South Africa, along with GM's "own car for South Africa": the Ranger.

By the 1970s, larger South African Chevrolets were based on Holden models, the Kommando being based on the Kingswood[9] and the Constantia on the Premier,[10] while the smaller Firenza was based on the Vauxhall Viva. The Chevrolet Nomad sold in South Africa was entirely different from the Nomad sold in America; whereas the American Nomad was originally conceived as a station wagon version of the Corvette and eventually became the station wagon version of the Bel Air, the South African Nomad was an SUV of truck proportions before SUVs were popular.

However, these were replaced by Opel models like the Rekord, Commodore, and Senator, and in 1982 the Chevrolet brand name was dropped in favour of Opel. Because of the political climate at the time, GM decided to divest from South Africa in 1986, and a local group eventually bought out GM's South African operations (including the Port Elizabeth plant) and renamed the company as the Delta Motor Corporation, which concentrated on Opels, Isuzus, and Suzukis, built under licence.

However, thanks to an improved political climate in the 1990s, GM decided to reenter South Africa, eventually buying out the whole of Delta. In 2001, the Chevrolet name made a comeback, used on the Lumina, a rebadged Holden Commodore, and later on, on the Daewoo range of cars. Current Chevrolets include the Spark (a rebadged Daewoo Matiz), Aveo, Optra, the Lumina (including the Ute model), and the Vivant, an MPV that is a rebadged version of the Daewoo Tacuma. [edit] India

Chevrolet is among the newest brands in India launched by GM's India operations. Until June 6, 2003 (the official birthday of Chevrolet), GM India (which was originally a joint venture with Hindustan Motors) sold the Opel Corsa, Opel Astra, and the Opel Vectra. The Corsa and Astra were built at a plant in Halol, Gujarat.

Since then, Chevrolet currently sells the Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Optra, Chevrolet Aveo, Chevrolet Tavera, Chevrolet SRV , Chevrolet Spark and Chevrolet Aveo U-VA. The Chevrolet Forester, a rebadged Subaru, was imported directly from Fuji Heavy Industries in Japan until 2005. The Optra and Tavera are built at the Halol plant. The Chevrolet launched in India the Chevrolet Captiva SUV. The latest model launched by Chevrolet is the Chevrolet Cruze

Chevrolet also is the sole Engine supplier for the Formula Rolon single seater series in India.