I’m not really sure why I ended up thinking about this, but I couldn’t get out of my head that there have been at least two times in American car history where a super-cheap version of an already cheap car was offered without a rear seat, because cheap. The two cars I was thinking of that fit this exclusive and dazzling category of skinflintery were the 1970 AMC Gremlin and the 1976 Chevrolet Chevette Scooter. Both were designed to be the entriest of entry-level cars, and both, I think, accomplished their task well. But if you were buying these, things probably weren’t going super-fantastic for you, at least financially. So let’s compare these two, and see what may have been your best use of your scarce dollars!
Man, I do some important work here. I hope people appreciate it.
Of course, six years separate these two cars, so you’d never have been in a position to cross-shop these two at these prices when new. Sure, you could have gotten a Gremlin in 1976, but the base-base-base model with no rear seat or opening rear window was only available until 1972, and that’s the model I’m really interested in.
I suppose if you were someone who blew almost all of their money on a time machine and only had a limited amount of cash for a car, and were determined to buy American, then perhaps this comparison makes sense for you. Let’s say that’s my target reader for this: broke-ass patriotic American time-travelers in need of basic transportation. It’s important to know your audience.
Okay, let’s see how these two shitboxen stack up:
Wow, this is a trickier choice than I would have guessed! Each car has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Gremlin’s strength I think comes from the fact that it started out as a larger car that was truncated, brutally, aft of the B-pillar. As a result, it has a much larger and more powerful engine than the Chevette (a 128 hp straight-six as opposed to a 52 hp-four) so it has better performance, even when you factor in the power-soaking three-speed slushbox.
But, that also means fuel economy suffers, pretty significantly; highway mileage is about half that of the Chevette. Interestingly, both are still RWD, understandable for the Gremlin, given it’s minimal-development origins from the AMC Hornet, but a bit more inexcusable for the Chevette, existing well within the era of FWD subcompacts like the Volkswagen Rabbit and Honda Civic.
Price-wise, both are pretty damn close, with the Gremlin being about a grand cheaper, but both would be absolute bargains in the modern car market, at between $15-$16,000. Of course, both were austere stripper models without rear seats and all the luxury of a tollbooth, but cheap is cheap.
The Chevette did have one pretty significant advantage over the Gremlin, though: a rear hatch. On the more decadent four-seat Gremlins, the rear window opened like a hatch, but for the two-seater, that window remained sealed, so any luggage you crammed in there either had to go through the doors and behind the front seats, or through the rear window, destructively.
Of course, the Chevette lacked a glove box door, which the Gremlin generously gave you, and the Chevette’s passenger seat wasn’t adjustable, so there’s that. Man, that’s some penny-pinching! GM was so good at that.
You can see the four-seat one with its opening window in this old commercial, if you want a glimpse of real decadence:
The Chevette just let you load stuff in through a hatch into the pretty good-sized void where no rear bench seat resided.
You can see that hatch open in this commercial, which also claims MPG of 31 city/43 highway, but I think those were kind of unrealistic 70s-era numbers. I’m sticking with the ones I put in the chart, which are still impressive.
So which car would I pick, were I this broke-ass time traveling American? That’s tricky. I think the Chevette definitely wins on practicality, but even though I drive a 52 hp car as a daily now, and firmly believe that’s adequate, I have always liked that AMC straight-six. But with a slushbox? Hm. That would really sap the fun out of the thing.
I prefer the weird look of the Gremlin, and, yes, I adore the weird badge:
Is that enough to pick it over the Chevette? Honestly, I’m just not sure. Hey! Why don’t we do a little poll? This is the internet, not some magazine, we can be interactive!
I think the Gremlin has much more charm and character, but is less practical. I’d love to know what you’re all thinking, so please, vote away, and then explain your thinking in the comments! I’m dreadfully curious.
I’m pretty sure CR was doing it’s own mileage tests then as now. If you can find their reviews of these cars, you can get more realistic mileage numbers than the EPA ones which were way optimistic.
I had no clue that there were early 2 seat versions of these.
My brother had a mid 80’s manual transmission Pontiac version of the Chevette, and it was a light-weight car that was fun to drive, provided that you drove it at 9/10ths or more all the time.
Definitely good at drifting in the snow.
4 speed and a hatch? Chevette for the win. The cute ‘Scooter’ name is a bonus.
Before I vote, Which one is the easier LS swap?
The Gremlin. It was available from the factory with a 304. LS drops right in.
I was all ready to go for the Gremlin, until I realized that the glass didn’t open on this version. I (unfortunately) had to go with the Chevette. A friend in highschool had a ’70 Hornet, and it was pretty fun.
How is this for an alternative… The first night I had my Yugo, I flipped the back seats forward to see if it was any less useless that way. I realized that the back seats were held in by four bolts, there was ‘carpeting’ going underneath, and if you removed them there was a surprisingly useful amount of space. I drove a two-seat Yugo for a few years. Torch, try it. You won’t be disappointed.
I like the Gremlin. I’ve always had a soft spot for them. My older brother, an “independent” thinker, bought a used Chevette Scooter. For some reason he removed the passenger seat and thought this was a stroke of genius.
I don’t how many among us have actually driven both of these, but I have. The Gremlin was, IMHO, a real car. The Chevette was less good than the average riding lawnmower. Just horrendous! No offense to any riding lawnmowers, living or dead.
When I was a kid my dad had a Chevette that only technically kept the rain off of your head. It leaked somewhere, so on rainy days he drive home from work with his shoes on the passenger seat and his pants rolled up while water sloshed back and forth with use of the gas and brake. He called it the “Chitvette” – and yes, that is with the ‘S’ sound. Much like Jason’s Pao, it had an affinity for deer.
As much as I wanted to vote for gremmie, you can’t beat the usability of a back hatch out the box
Way I see to it, once the crap can 4 dies, I’d just slap a buick 3.8 with a huffer on it and probably still hit those mpg targets
I voted Chevette because I had a 78 Chevette in that light blue you always see and it had blue vinyl. It was a crapbox, but there was 3 in the HS Chevette crew, mine being one of them. I believe mine was the oldest too as the other guys had the square headlights and revised grille.
The standard transmission on a Gremlin was a 3-speed manual (mostly on the floor, although some early cars may have had 3-on-the-tree which Hornets did), the auto was an option.
The real hatch makes the Chevette Scooter a decent small delivery van. It should be noted that Chevette sales were disappointing by Chevy standards the first couple years, they took off in 1978 when the four-door was added, along with additional standard equipment while holding the line on price of the existing 2-doors. Part of that equipment was a back seat on Scooters along with dropping the 1.4 and making the 65hp 1.6 standard across the board. There was also a high-output model with a blistering 70hp.
My stepmother has the distinction of owning both of these, though in not in the sans rear seat form. The Gremlin was white (not an X, unfortunately), and I was so young I barely remember it. The Chevette was a red four door. All I remember of it was the plaid seat fabric. Well, that and it all around sucked.
Can I choose from either of her two prior cars instead (a Sunbeam and a late 60’s Mustang notch back with a flower decal on the trunk lid)? Pretty sure neither had a V8, but both were far more desirable cars than the later vehicles she ended up with.
Otto…there’s a Gremlin on the side of the bus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7qHFxfRHtI
I love the German-style modded Opel Kadett Cs that I used to see when I lived there. I’ve often wondered about doing something similar with a Chevette (same platform).
Well shit. Do we vote on the specific cars, or the best experience in either car?
This is a hard choice. Damn it.
The Gremlin is interesting and quirky and has some personality. The Chevette is just crap. It has no redeeming values whatsoever.
I took drivers ed in a yellow 1982 Chevette 4-door. It was the worst car I’ve ever driven.
Call me crazy – I like the honesty of basic cars like these in a way that you will never get with, say, a base-spec 911 with it’s plethora of plastic blanks where buttons would be if you’d only ordered $35,000 worth of options on top of the $100,000 you had to spend for the base white or black over black car.
Make mine the Chevette so I can easily load big things in back.
My vote is for the Gremlin. Also note that the Gremlin’s rear glass could be opened for trunk access.
And I’m pretty sure it could be had with a 3 speed manual. And by 1976, a 4 speed manual was available.
Have look at this retro review of a Gremlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITWHVmWlTWA&t=10s
If you wanted a small/cheap car in the 1970s that was also decently reliable and had some decent power for the time, the Gremlin was a popular choice.
I think they’re specifically talking about the early base version of the Gremlin, which had 2 seats, which had rear glass that couldn’t be opened, and was before the 4-speed was available.
Question: What speed was used to determine hwy mileage prior to 1974? I believe 70 was most common on highways at the time, but is that what they used? 60 would result in better numbers. Obviously, the Chevette’s mileage is based on 55, which skews the numbers in its favor compared to the Gremlin.
IIRC the EPA test was set as a steady 45-50mph. The double-nickel wasn’t an issue, the limiting factor was the mechanical limits of dyno technology along with the fact it couldn’t be done on an open road or even an outdoor test track since that would introduce too many variables (temp, wind speed and direction etc).
I can’t see the point of a cheap car that sucks too much gas and is so impractical. It’s engineering laziness at its finest, a vortex of mediocrity.
The Chevette is boring, but makes a lot of sense with its frugality and practicality.
Both are gonna be slow, but one has a valid excuse for it.
I vote Gremlin because a friend of mine had one in highschool…in the late 90s.
It wasn’t this model, his had the worst back seat you could inagine and was a manual with a clutch that required the force of a bulldozer to push that pedal about 1200 miles before it disengage. It would constantly overheat in the California, not usually crazy hot summer, and the steering wheel was more of a navigation suggestion then an actual controlled input.
We redid the entire interior in crushed red velvet and installed some POS flea market special stereo in it as the original was long gone.
Fond memories of cruising around in that thing with Nirvana blasting out of it. The badge was super cool.
I’ve experienced both of these cars in the past and chose the Gremlin. The Chevette had tight footwells and was quite uncomfortable on a 5 hour trip.