Do you enjoy contrasts? I sure do. Extremes, contrasts, oppositions, they’re all inherently kind of exciting, full of tension and looming possibility. The Chevy Chevette generally wasn’t a car that caused you to think a lot about contrasts – it wasn’t like it was a mix of fantastic qualities and also horrible qualities, it was just generally regarded as pretty crappy. But this brochure for the Brazil-market 1981 Chevette contains a page with a contrast I find really and strangely appealing, so I’m going to share it with you. Because I care. Not like the rest of them. I’m different.
The contrast is in those two cutaways up there that appear on the same page of the brochure: one of the whole, wagon-version of the car, nice and detailed, showing the drivetrain, seats, suspension, fuel tank, and more. The other is a cutaway of a seat from the car, its black vinyl revealing the creamy, smooth foam rubber within.
I like these two cutaways together because, really, they couldn’t be any more different. One shows a complex machine with all of its various systems on display, the other shows that the seats are full of normal, unsurprising foam rubber. Or possibly pound cake, though I think that’s unlikely.
What I don’t get is why it was thought that a seat needed a cutaway at all? I mean, with no springs or other internal seat components, what the hell is there to show? A seat full of foam rubber isn’t really compelling to look at, as it’s just a re-colored version of the exterior of the seat itself. What is being learned here via this cutaway? If you have a Chevette and have problems with your seat will looking at this help? Will you be able to assess it and go “ooooohhhhhh! I bet the problem is with this (points) one and only thing inside the seat! We should check on that! The foam! Maybe we need to, um, calibrate it?
That seat cutaway reminds me of what the opposite of this fantastic B. Kliban shows regarding the internal design of a modern, belt-driven balloon:
Man, it’s really incredible to see inside one of these. I guess most of that equipment is for neutralizing mass and gravity for the hover feature. Fascinating.
Automakers back then were really in to pushing completely ordinary, basic, mundane seats as luxury and hoping their buyers wouldn’t notice. I remember that Buick Somerset commercial where they zoomed in on the very thinly padded, flat passenger seat covered in rough-looking cloth and held on it for a decent length right at the “gimmie the feel” line in the jingle, like we were all supposed to be impressed by the “sumptuousness”
I suppose it’s not all that different from the way that today’s consumers have been bamboozled into believing that leather is a “premium” material. A high-quality fabric is cooler in the Summer, warmer in the Winter, and subjectively nicer to the touch. Leather is easier to clean, but cleaning ability isn’t really a quality that’s associated with a luxury experience. As one Top Gear presenter once said: “You’ll never meet someone who selected his wife because she was easy to wipe down.”
I guess they cant all be winners Torch? Have you thought of getting parts suppliers for advertisers? I cant find affordable parts for my 78 fiat spider. Hell seat and carpet cost more than the car with no labour.
That seat is clearly filled with Bavarian Cream.
Or as one customer said when I worked at Dunkin, “Bejoovian Cream”.
The contrast is actually all about Brazil. That country has simultaneously had to endure some of the worst banal crap box cars and some of the most interesting.
As for the balloon, I like that some cartoonist/illustrator has taken the time to demystify state of the art Chinese espionage technology.
I’m no seat expert, but I know that earlier cars had box-spring seats with thin coverings. This may have been done to differentiate that they used thick foam / pound-cake.
Based on how uncomfortable I remember the ride being in these awful little cars, “pound” cake would be completely appropriate for the seats.
Most boring cutaway ever? Maybe it shows their modern seat safety technology that eliminated those deadly metal springs. They could have gone one step further and done a cutaway of the seat back adjuster mechanism.
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It’s nice to know that there’s a funky yellow inside, instead of for instance that prostetic limb brown/beige/pink/grey colour, if you should decide to rip off the black vinyl. Which I suppose could get really hot and sticky in South America..
The other whole car cutaway looks pretty quality and traditional, for a moment there I thought I was looking at a Mercedes-Benz 114 or 123 wagon, with the classic outer shape and that spare wheel taking up a lot of luggage space.
Chevy was just showing the second owner of the car what their seats would look like after the vinyl tore away.
Mmmmmmmm, I can eat lemon pound cake while I wait for the tow truck!
Maybe they had an artist who was paid by the piece and was extremely influential? “C’mon man! You NEED another cross-section drawing right THERE!”
I can’t help but point out that the wagon was called a Marajó, after an island in the Amazon river.
“[…]the seats are full of normal, unsurprising foam rubber. Or possibly pound cake, though I think that’s unlikely.”
We had a Chevette. I don’t think pound cake is unlikely at all, unless sponge cake was cheaper.
Saves me the trouble of cutting into my seat to see what secrets it contains. “I wonder if my seat has springs, foam, feathers, or if it’s just layers of vinyl all the way down. I guess I need to cut into–wait! This says it has a yellowcake uranium, poundcake, or foam interior. Better not cut in for fear of radiation or letting the cake go stale.”
Seat looks like it was packed with butter.
Maybe they were trying to show that they weren’t going all cheap-O and stuffing the seats with old newspaper?
Sort of like the opposite of Trabant, who would have boasted proudly of seats stuffed with old newspaper.
Just great, now I want pound cake.
Is that actually a seat cutaway view or just a depiction of a typical Chevette seat cover after six months of routine use?
A friend of mine in HS had a ‘vette.
Were we friends in high school? I learned to drive stick in my shit-brown 1984 ‘vette.
We always pronounced it Shitvette. Always seemed appropriate.
Looks like the Brazilian Chevette got nicer seats than my American one did.
Also, imagine a world in which Americans got a Chevette wagon, and it was competently built instead of, you know, how Chevettes were actually built.