The Chevrolet Vega won Car of the Year and then became a cautionary tale
Motor Trend named the Chevrolet Vega its 1971 Car of the Year. Within a few years the same subcompact was notorious for rust, overheating engines and a stream of recalls, all traced to a rush to reach showrooms roughly two years after GM chairman James Roche publicly promised it in 1968.
The car came from Ed Cole, a GM executive whose small-car plan beat rival proposals from Chevrolet and Pontiac in 1967. He wanted a world-beater on sale within 24 months. Roche claimed engineers had worked on the project, code-named XP-877, for years, but John DeLorean later said no prototypes existed at the time of the announcement, only blueprints borrowed from overseas subcompacts. Early drivetrain testing used a Fiat 124 and several Opel sedans.
Plans shifted constantly as the market changed. The October 1968 design had one body, one engine and no glove box or air conditioning. Buyers ended up choosing the optional performance engine 75% of the time, against a forecast of 20%, and air conditioning 45% of the time rather than the expected 10%. The Vega also became the first GM product with an electric fuel pump inside the tank.
At its heart sat a 2.3-litre four-cylinder with a die-cast aluminium block, developed with Reynolds Metals and Sealed Power. Cole, by then GM president, spent Saturdays in the drafting room ordering changes and insisted the engine could shed enough heat through the heater core alone; after repeated prototype failures a small radiator went in. Engineers nicknamed it the world's tallest, smallest engine for its towering cylinder head. Vibration, noise and overheating were not fully cured until 1974.
It was not all bad: a low centre of mass and near-balanced weight gave handling good for 0.90 g of cornering grip, and the hatchback accounted for nearly half of sales. Production began on 26 June 1970, the car went on sale that September, and it was dropped after the 1977 model year. Its name came from the brightest star in Lyra.
Source: Chevrolet Vega
