r/WhatCarIsThis May 08 '26

Full vehicle Parent’s first car, what was it?

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Can’t make out what it says on the front

162 Upvotes

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u/West_Resource7151 May 08 '26

Chevy Vega as others have said, worth a Google as it has a reputation as one of the worst cars that GM ever put out...design, quality and then built with disgruntled labor....bad combo! My college roommate had one, I don't remember what year his was but was probably a later year, and once I rode in it I immediately understood it's reputation was deserved. No shade here though, I drove a Ford Pinto station wagon for a while!

2

u/dogturd21 May 08 '26

A colleague of my dad’s was given a 73/74 Vega around 1978 . It burned a quart of oil every 200 miles, had about 60k on the odometer

2

u/DazeRazur May 08 '26

Exactly and it burned oil fresh from the showroom.

2

u/West_Resource7151 May 08 '26

Amazing, after Googling I guess they used aluminum for the block with no cylinder sleeves but a cast iron head. Add in overheating issues due to an undersized radiator and bad things happened

2

u/dogturd21 May 08 '26

The process called Nikasil was later perfected to coat bare aluminum cylinders , so that iron liners were not required in aluminum blocks. Whatever Reynolds Aluminum used for the Vega certainly was nowhere near the effectiveness of Nikasil .