One winter day, more than a few years back, my grandmother, on her way to visit her son for the holidays, ran her bright yellow car off the road. She was injured, but not badly. For the car, however, that was the end of the road. Soon a new car was in the offing. The new car, was a Chevy Chevette, a dismal blue color. A 1985 Chevy Chevette.
This Chevy Chevette served my grandmother well for more than a few years. After she gave up driving the Chevette was relegated to an occasionally car used in the summer by my Uncle and Aunt. Also folks visiting folks that didn’t have a vehicle could sometimes use it to take a run to the grocery store.
Let step forward in time:
Here we are in 2022. The Chevette is still running. It’s a small car and so, this will come as a shock to the younger drivers, had no power steering. While the car is moving speedily along this causes no issues. But when the car is stopped, or going slowly, as it is being maneuvered into a parking space for example, the steering wheel, and thus tires, are very hard to turn.
Power steering, Car and Driver informs me, came about in 1951. Wikipedia counters with a possible date of 1876. Oh no. Turns out Car and Driver was not concerned with when it was invented but instead when is became a part of production cars, so all is right with the world. The basic idea behind power steering is that the turn of the steering wheel is assisted by hydraulic power allowing a tiny amount of effort to be converted into a much larger amount of force to turn the wheels. There are some cars that still do not have power steering. Light weight sports cars, one being the Alfa Romeo 4C.
But I digress. The Chevette, did I mention this, does not have power steering, and, this beauty, has only 53 thousand miles on it. It is a rear wheel drive car, with 52 horsepower. Make an offer.
The Chevette was manufactured from 1976 until 1987. It was built in response to the oil crisis of the time which caused folks to want more fuel efficient cars. This beast got up to 48 miles to the gallon on the highway…woooooo. I think the one we are talking about may not be that efficient anymore.
The engine of this ole car does propel it down the road, mostly. The top speed these days is around 40 mph. It is still used as a go to town and get groceries car, mostly in the summer, and it is typical for problems to occur every year.
It looks something like this: