50 Fun Facts About Chevrolet

In what year was the Chevrolet Motor Car Company founded?

Louis and Arthur Chevrolet started it with William C. Durant on November 3, 1911; Durant had founded General Motors in 1908 and been forced out in 1910.

In which country was Louis Chevrolet born?

He was born on Christmas Day 1878 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a watchmaking town in French-speaking Switzerland, and moved to France as a boy.

What was Louis Chevrolet's profession before lending his name to the company?

Durant had hired him to race Buicks and planned to build the new brand on his reputation; Chevrolet drove the Indianapolis 500 four times.

How did William C. Durant use the Chevrolet company in 1918?

Profits from the cheap Series 490 let Durant buy GM stock; after a reverse merger on May 2, 1918, he was GM president again — briefly.

In which Michigan city was Chevrolet's first factory located?

The site at Wilcox and Kearsley streets is now 'Chevy Commons'; Durant's Buick and carriage businesses were also Flint-based.

What was the first Chevrolet automobile called?

Designed by Etienne Planche under Louis Chevrolet's direction, it could do 65 mph and was pricier than Durant wanted; the 1913 model was the first sold.

According to the most-repeated legend, where did Durant get the idea for the bowtie logo?

A rival theory traces it to a 1911 newspaper ad for 'Coalettes' fuel; others say it is a stylized Swiss cross. It first appeared on 1914 models.

In what year did Chevrolet unify all its models under the gold bowtie?

Before that, cars used blue bowties, trucks gold and performance models a red outline; gold set Chevy apart from Ford's blue oval and Dodge's red.

Which GM chief's maxim 'a car for every purse and purpose' made Chevrolet the corporation's volume brand?

A 1921 management survey had actually recommended killing the Chevrolet division; Sloan saved it and hired ex-Ford man Knudsen to run operations.

By what year had Chevrolet overtaken Ford as America's best-selling car?

The Chevrolet International did it, helped by a new overhead-valve six sold as 'A Six at the price of a Four' while Ford still offered a flathead four.

What nickname did Chevrolet's famous 1929 overhead-valve inline six acquire?

It gave Chevy a marketing edge over Ford's four; the Blue Flame and Turbo-Thrift were later Chevrolet sixes.

In what year did the Chevrolet small-block V8 debut?

Descendants are still built in displacements from 4.3 to 9.4 litres, and the design has powered Pontiacs, Buicks, Hummers, Opels and Holdens.

The Corvette was named after what?

PR assistant director Myron Scott suggested the naval name in 1953; the car debuted as a Motorama show car at New York's Waldorf-Astoria.

What color were all 300 hand-built 1953 Corvettes?

All were six-cylinder convertibles with red interiors and hand-laid fiberglass bodies; the V8 did not arrive until 1955.

In which Kentucky city has the Corvette been built since 1981?

The National Corvette Museum is next door; earlier Corvettes were built in Flint and St. Louis.

Which Corvette generation was the first to move the engine behind the driver?

Seven generations kept a front mid-engine layout through 2019; the C8 finally went rear mid-engined, an idea the car's chief engineer had pushed for decades.

Which engineer is nicknamed the 'Father of the Corvette', though Harley Earl created the car?

The Belgian-born racer took class wins at Le Mans in 1954 and 1955 and spent decades turning Earl's show car into a genuine sports car.

The Camaro was launched in 1966 to compete with which car?

It shared its platform with Pontiac's Firebird; the pony-car pair both arrived for the 1967 model year.

What was the Camaro's codename during development, before GM staged a mock 'society' to eradicate it?

Journalists got telegrams about the 'Society for the Eradication of Panthers from the Automotive World' before the June 1966 unveiling.

When reporters asked 'What is a Camaro?', what did Chevrolet product managers famously answer?

The name was reportedly found in a 1936 French-English dictionary by merchandising manager Bob Lund and GM VP Ed Rollett.

Which Transformers character has taken the form of a Camaro since the 2007 film?

He starts as a beat-up 1976 Camaro, then a fifth-generation concept; Age of Extinction switched him to a modified 1967 model.

When did production of the sixth-generation Camaro end?

Four generations ran to 2002, then a fifth (2010) and sixth revived it; the last one was a 2024 model year car.

The Bel Air was named after a wealthy neighborhood in which city?

From 1950 to 1952 only two-door hardtops carried the name; the 1955–57 'Tri-Five' Bel Airs became the icons.

The Impala is named after what?

The graceful antelope became the car's logo; the 1958 debut model stood out with symmetrical triple taillights.

In what year did the Impala debut, as part of GM's 50th-anniversary lineup?

It began as a top-line Bel Air and became one of America's best-selling car lines in the 1960s; the Caprice grew out of it in 1965.

Which Chevrolet holds the record as the longest-produced automobile nameplate in the world?

It is now in its twelfth generation; GMC sells it as the Yukon XL and Cadillac as the Escalade ESV.

What was unusual about the Corvair's engine layout when it launched for 1960?

The compact was Chevy's answer to imports like the VW Beetle, and its early swing-axle handling made it a target for Ralph Nader.

Which 1965 book by Ralph Nader attacked the early Corvair's handling?

A 1972 Texas A&M report for the highway safety agency later tempered the criticism, but the Corvair's reputation never recovered.

The El Camino was introduced in 1959 in response to which rival's success?

The first run lasted just two years; it returned in 1964 on the Chevelle platform and ran through 1987.

Which top-of-the-line Chevelle model fully replaced the Chevelle name in 1978?

The Chevelle ran from 1964 to 1977 on GM's A-body and was one of Chevy's most successful nameplates.

Under what name was the Nova originally sold when it launched in 1962?

Nova was the top trim of the Chevy II line until 1968, when it became the name for the whole car; the Camaro was based on it.

The Silverado, launched for 1999, took its name from what?

It succeeded the long-running C/K line and shares its mechanicals with the GMC Sierra; high-trim Mexican versions are called Cheyenne.

The Chevrolet Volt was sold in Europe under which name?

The plug-in hybrid won 2012 North American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year and World Green Car of the Year — a rare sweep.

When did Volt production end?

Over 157,000 were sold in the U.S., and it was still the country's best-selling plug-in hybrid when GM pulled the plug.

The 2017 Bolt EV was billed as the first affordable mass-market electric car with a range over what?

It won Motor Trend Car of the Year and North American Car of the Year for 2017 and was developed with LG.

Which singer's 1950s NBC variety show ended with the 'See the USA in Your Chevrolet' sign-off?

The full-color spectaculars started as part of NBC's The Chevy Show in 1956; her 'See the USA in Your Chevrolet' sign-off became legendary.

Chevrolet's famous 1970s jingle grouped the brand with baseball, hot dogs and what?

South Africa adapted it as 'braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet.'

In 1963, what share of all cars sold in the United States were Chevrolets?

The Impala led the way; the Chevelle, Nova and Camaro all followed in the same decade.

Which company did William C. Durant found besides General Motors and Chevrolet?

He also built the Durant-Dort Carriage Company into the largest horse-drawn vehicle maker in the U.S. — and ended his days running a bowling alley in Flint.

In 1916, Louis Chevrolet and his brothers founded which company to build racing cars?

He had sold his Chevrolet shares to Durant in 1914 after disagreements over design; his best Indy 500 finish was seventh in 1919.

In 2005 GM relaunched Chevrolet in Europe selling cars built by which company?

The tagline was 'Daewoo has grown up enough to become Chevrolet.' GM reversed course in 2013 and withdrew the brand from Europe except for the Camaro and Corvette.

Which two vehicles led Chevrolet's 2018 return to Australia and New Zealand after 50 years?

Holden Special Vehicles handled the launch and remanufactured the imported Silverados as right-hand drive.

What did Chevrolet introduce in 1957 as a $484 option on the Corvette and Bel Air?

The Rochester Ramjet system was a big deal for the era; air conditioning had arrived on V8 Bel Airs in 1955.

Which Chevrolet nameplate was a rebadged Suzuki imported in the 1980s to fight the Corolla and Civic?

The Isuzu-built Spectrum was the other import; Cavalier, Celebrity and Citation were homegrown front-drive Chevys.

From the 2014–15 season, Chevrolet became principal shirt sponsor of which English football club?

The seven-year deal was worth a world-record $560 million; a separate Liverpool partnership had ended two years early.

Which cheap Chevrolet model's strong sales let Durant repurchase control of General Motors by 1916?

Louis Chevrolet had already sold Durant his share in 1914 after disagreements over design.

How many NASCAR manufacturer's titles has Chevrolet won, the most of any carmaker?

Hendrick Motorsports alone has twelve championships and Richard Childress Racing six, all in Chevrolets.

In the 1990s, Chevrolet's partnership with Toyota produced which Geo-branded compact?

It sat alongside the domestically built Corsica as the division sought competitive small cars against Japanese imports.

Which 1933 Chevrolet was advertised as the cheapest six-cylinder car on sale in the United States?

Chevrolet had leaned on 'A Six at the price of a Four' since 1929, when Ford still offered only a flathead four.

In 2009, which country became Chevrolet's third-largest market, behind the US and Brazil?

Sales there hit 332,774 that year and topped half a million by 2010, led by the Cruze.