1971 Chevrolet Vega Development & Manufacturing video
Chevy hoped to stem a rising new tide of import-sales with the innovative 1971 Vega 2300. this $2196 hatchback coupe was one of three models (wagon: $2328). total sales were good: 269,905. At $2090, the two door notchback was the most affordable 1971 Chevy Vega, but didn’t come with many frills. All Vegas carried a new advanced all-aluminum four-cylinder engine rated at either 90 or 110 horses. The headline on the announcement ad for Chevy’s 1971 Vega hatchback coupe would prove predictive, but in a negative sense. Engine troubles and heavy rusting tendencies surfaced early,leading to many unhappy owners and badly tarnishing Chevy’s reputation for high quality.
Then, GMAD (General Motors Assembly Division) directly caused a massive strike, when it took over the Lordstown, Ohio Vega plant, a highly automated assembly plant that Chevrolet general manager John DeLorean had publicly touted as the acme of American workmanship, and a place where the assembly line rank and file had a high degree of pride in their product. GMAD took control of Lordstown on October 1st 1971, and immediately fired 700 workers, including most of the plant’s quality control staff. Four months later after being subjected to brutal speedups producing 102 cars per hour, the remaining Lordstown workers struck. The resulting publicity highlighted product defects wrought by the production of one car every 36 seconds in combination with welding robots that knew not when they misfired and when they didn’t. While the strike was settled in three weeks, the Vega’s reputation was shattered.
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All this, and the car was still a total POS… Amazing!
I LIKE 1971 CHEVROLET VEGA WAS NAME MOTOR TREND ’71 CAR OF THE YEAR AWESOME 😀
That says more about MT than it does GM.
Chevy Vega was produced from 1971 to 1977. Its competitor, Ford Pinto, started the same year, but kept going until 1980.
Ive owned 4 Vegas in my life 72, 73,76, 77…Im now 59 yrs old..in H.S. in the late 70s a guy could pick one up for $300…I never had any problems with any of my Vegas..now you cannot find a decent one…
they are definitely a love hate. I love.
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