The cleanest and most original first-gen Chevrolet Cavalier on the market? It could be this ’82 Type 10 Hatchback for sale.
The seller–who is also the original and only owner of the car–notes that the Cavalier has always been stored inside and has never been driven in winter.
In addition to being fitted with the F41 suspension package, the Chevy …
It seems rare to find any Cavalier in good shape. I had a friend that loved his first-gen Cavalier.
It would look great in 14 inch four spoke Cragar mag wheels. This particular car is by far the best looking Cavalier I have seen to date. And yes, I would definitely hot rod the little sucker 
I remember these back in the '80s, and hadn't thought of them (or seen one) for decades. Then at Radwood Philly last year there were 3 of them! And frankly I assumed those were the last 3 in existence!
So now you're saying there are 4 survivors...
AND it's a stick?!? Hmmm... wonder what it costs to ship these days...
I just had a flash of ptsd.
Not as toxic as when I see a Chevette, but close.
Garbage, with no redeeming features, other than it being slightly less horrible than the Ford Econobox of the day. They made an Omni seem good.
Wow, thats one rare little car. Even has the gauge package. The Cavailer got better each year with big engine improvements in 84 and 87.
Brings back memories. The single most attractive girl at my high school had that exact same car in a different shade of blue. She always parked in the same place and almost every male would check the parking lot to gauge whether or not she was at school that day.
I bought a brand new notchback with a stick back in 1985. MSRP was $7777.
That car was absolutely made of Suck.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I have no negative feelings about those, Omnis on the other hand...
Good friend of my new girlfriend's family had one of those Cavaliers. They bought it new, it was getting a little ragged and wanted it to last til retirement. They knew my buddy and I dabbled in body and paint and asked if we could look at it. We did it up on a budget, and it turned out great. Three years later they were retiring, it was surplus, and they gave it to me in appreciation. I gave it to my sister and she got a few good years out of it.
When mine was three years old, it was rear ended by a drunk driver with insurance, and I thanked him.
Do you collect other kinds of garbage? Or just J-bodies?
ShawnG said:Do you collect other kinds of garbage? Or just J-bodies?
Well, it is pictured amongst its herd (four of a kind "dumpsters")
This was the first car with louvers I ever rode in. I was amazed the view out the rear wasn't obstructed, except by the snow. It's also when I learned how long the stripes of paint on the highway are. Those are the only 2 remarkable memories of this car. (It was also on the way back from my first crowd surfing, that Clark's concert was awesome!)
I had a Cavalier for the first five years of driving, my dad bought it new as a commuter to get to work and back on his 70 mile round trip daily. HOW that car survived me for five years, I'll never know. I've seen planes with less air time...
It had been in four separate accidents over the years, the first two were absolutely my fault for driver inexperience, the third a case of "wrong place wrong time" and the fourth was when a new driver decided to try to shoot a gap in traffic and drove straight into the right rear corner of my car. That one finally did it in.
My high school friends all drove similar cars. Cavalier, Ford Econobox (and EXP), Omni, Celebrity. It was obvious even when they were fairly new that they were crappy cars. I mean, they weren't total garbage like say a Yugo, but compared to a 1988 Honda Accord they were very poor.
The Cavalier (one friend had 3 in a row) 4 cylinder had a very distinct wheeze / cough / rattle when it would start. I would recognize that sad sound for years after when I'd hear it in random parking lots.
But one that stood out to me was the HO 2.8L V6 in a buddy's Celebrity Eurosport. The engine had a decent sound, and it could just about get out of it's own way.
I once rode in a Z24 Cavalier with the same HO 2.8 and manual transmission. It was actually relatively cool. After that I always thought that if a manual V6 Z24 hatchback ever presented itself, I wouldn't mind driving it.
Of course, if I had to choose between 1987 Z24 and say a 1987 Toyota Corolla FX16, the Z24 wouldn't stand a chance.
Right after my wife and I started dating, she bought an 88 Z24. I know there were faster better handling cars, even back then, but we more fun in that thing. Always liked the way it looked and drove. Only got rid of it because after we got married we had our first kid and traded it in on a new Lumina. Not even the Z Lumina. I'd love to have that Cav again just for grins
Best man in my wedding had an 87 Z24 with a manual transmission. Black with red cloth interior. We could get up to about 60 MPH on my 1100' driveway (as teens). I think it returned to the earth a long time ago because rust belt.
Aftermarket sunroof, so a car you can't ever have outside in the rain. Guaranteed that seal is hard as a rock.
My wife had a Cavalier RS when we first met. She bought it new. By 50,000 miles the power windows were starting to fail. Clearcoat was full of cracks. Door bottoms were rusting out. Getting to the oil filter demanded removal or butchering of a plastic splash shield. And it was slow, with the 4 cylinder auto. Sold it and bought her a Jetta GLI 16v with twice the miles that was twice the car and she never missed the Crapalier.
No clue if it would actually fit, but I bet this would be a bunch of fun with a 3500 or 3900 swap.
I always thought the name was an apt description of the general attitude of Chevrolet's management, engineering, and production of these cars.
This is one of those cars that was objectively horrible as a reliable car in its time, but would be an interesting, kinda fun curiosity to drive every once in a while today. I loathed J-Bodies back in the day, but they were good looking cars and this would be cool to own and preserve as-is. They were everywhere when I was a kid, and seeing them makes me happy.
I had to check out the HVAC in the office at work yesterday and got caught in the GM's office for about an hour. He likes to chat, and he's a good guy so I don't mind. He was showing me pics of his new ZL1 Camaro, and as we chatted it came out that he was quite the backyard mechanic and motorhead in his day. We had a number of the same cars, and he told me that he became a GM guy early on because his first new car, an 80's Z24, was so good. He sold it to an employee with well over 200k on it, who got over 450k out of it before he ended up scrapping it. And it was still running, just tired
J.A. Ackley said:It seems rare to find any Cavalier in good shape. I had a friend that loved his first-gen Cavalier.
That's because every wannabe meth dealer on both sides of the Mississippi acquired one for use in their logistics operations.
My car had the digital dash, which caught a ton of flack at the time, but I actually liked it. It was very easy to read, even the tach. It was the first car I'd ever seen that had an outside temperature gauge, which I thought was brilliant. Unfortunately, when you hit 85 mph, the speedometer would just stop there and blink.
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