Otis wrote:
> Over the years, the inevitable subject of worst cars ever comes up,
> and the Vega
> is always at or near the top of the list. I've seen it a hundred
> times. I feel I should
> put in a good word for the little car.
>
> My sister got a new Vega in early 1973 (a stripped-down one at that,
> about as basic
> as was available). I then inherited it in late '74 and drove it
> merrily for another full
> year. That little car was never ONE ounce of trouble. It cruised at
> 75 mph like
> a charm, never burped or coughed, and I actually don't know that the
> oil was
> ever changed!!!! Maybe the car was serviced when my sister had it,
> but I know
> it wasn't during the time I had it (young and car stupid I guess).
> When
> I traded it in for my dream car at the time (the dreamy '75 Toyota
> Celica GT),
> it had about 42k miles on it and still performed like a trooper.
> Maybe it
> was a rare gem off the assembly line I don't know, but I had three
> friends
> who also had Vegas and I don't remember any of them being lemons; one
> did have notoriously squeally brakes though IIRC.
>

A bit of trivia: the Vega was based on the Fiat 124 Sports Coupe. GM
bought a few examples to take apart and tried to copy it's design. I
think they succeeded all too well. As far as the 124 Sports Coupe goes,
I owned 3 of those and loved those things.