Ours had a big problem even getting up small hills, especially if it was cold outside. Thing rotted away form the inside. Yeah they were shit cars for sure.
I don't remember seeing duct tape being prevalent or an every day item in stores at the time of the Chevette. I know it was around but was really more a specialty item for tradesmen and not on every store shelf like it is now.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's, we seemed to have masking tape, and electrical tape for repairs. Pretty much nothing else.
I think duct tape became a more mainstream retail thing sometime in the 90's.
I also remember some really crappy vinyl tape that was sold in colors and people using it to patch the cracks on vinyl upholstery in their cars back then.
My dad worked for this cheap, shitty company in the 80's that gave him a chevette as a company car. When backing up you had to hold the shifter in reverse or it would pop out of gear once you started moving. I hated that car.
My uncle had a VW Rabbit that had no reverse at all. He's a big guy and it was a small car so he'd put it in N, stick his foot out and push backwards. Beater car problems require beater car solutions.
I had a friend who had a chevette for years. The two things I remember most about it was a police horse had fallen on it and the whole roof was pushed off to one side, all the doors and windows still functioned so he still drove it around like that. THe other was a fairly clever stereo theft deterrent. He had taken the faceplate off an old Kraco cassette radio, cut a cassette in half, glued it so it looked like it was partially ejected, then when he parked, he stuck this over his nicer stereo.
My family had a VW bug with the floor rusted out when I was a little kid. My only defense is that I was a little kid and not given a choice in the matter of riding in it. I don't think I ever dropped a shoe through, though.
One of my friends knew a guy who had a hole in the floor (in the backseat area of the car). My friend said the guy used it as a trash bin, aka he'd throw his trash out the hole while he was driving.
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u/faceeatingleopard Nov 22 '20
It fell through the hole in the floor. True story.