1/43 Scale Chevrolet Chevette Auto Escola Diecast Model Car

The Chevrolet Chevette is a front-engine, rear-drive subcompact manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet for model years 1976–1987 as a three-door or five-door hatchback. Introduced in North America in September 1975, the Chevette superseded the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact.

Production reached 2.8 million over 12 years, and the Chevette was the best-selling small car in the U.S. for model years 1979-1980. It was the first American car built to metric measurements, and was the first American car to feature a diagnostic plug for pinpointing service issues.

The Chevette used General Motors' global rear-drive T platform which was co-developed by Opel and Isuzu in 1973. The first to use the T plaform was the Brazilian Chevrolet Chevette released in 1973. Six months later the Opel Kadett C was released in Europe. Worldwide, GM manufactured and marketed more than 7 million T-cars – either as rebadged models or locally-built versions in different countries. T-platform variants were marketed internationally as the Pontiac Acadian in Canada; Pontiac T1000/1000 in the United States (1981–1987); K-180 in Argentina; Vauxhall Chevette in the United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, and Uruguay; Opel Kadett C in Germany; Isuzu Gemini in Japan, Holden Gemini in Australia; AYMESA Cóndor in Ecuador (from 1978); Saehan Gemini and Daewoo Maepsy in South Korea; and as a coupe utility (pickup), the Chevy (or GMC) 500 in Brazil and South America. A T-platform variant remained in production in South America through 1998.

Introduced with a full-color nationwide campaign in 140–150 of the country's largest daily papers, the New York Times said the "little American car holds its own with the foreigners."

Marketed as “Chevrolet’s New Kind of American Car,” the Chevette was of a conventional design: featuring unibody construction, rear-drive and a live rear axle. Looking back on the Chevette in 2011, the New York Times called the Chevette "haphazardly made, sparsely trimmed and underpowered." Consumer Guide described the Chevette as “unimaginative to an extreme.”

--copied from Wikipedia