CHEVROLET “Space. Spirit. Splendor. ’60 Chevrolet!”
For 1960, Chevrolet entered the compact car market, as did its key competitors. However, the marketing strategy resulted in a different car from the others. While Fordand Chrysler went very much the conventional route, witha front engine (inline six-cylinder), rear wheel drive auto-mobile, Chevrolet chose to combat the main competitivethreat, Volkswagen, head-on. An all aluminum, air-cooled,horizontally-opposed six-cylinder engine was chosen to power the small, rear wheel drive car that featured full “Quadri-Flex” independent suspension. Interiors were generally sparse, but did offer sporty features like bucket seats, gauges, and vinyl upholstery.
While styling was more conventional than the VW, the sporting connotation implied by the Corvair style was appealing to buyers. Initially, 4-Door Sedans were the only of-
ferings, with 2-Doors coming on board at mid-year. However, a 4-Door was something that VW didn’t offer, and as a result nearly three-quarters of all Corvairs sold were 4-Door models. The chosen strategy worked, as first year sales of over 250,000 were recorded. The best news for GM was that unlike its competition, the Corvair did not take away very manysales from the maker’s traditional line of cars. With the Valiant and Falcon being essentially smaller versions of their manufacturers’ big cars, they cannibalized sales of those full size models. The Corvair was distinctive enough to generally pull sales away from those who would have bought imported cars or smaller domestic models like the Rambler. In that respect General Motors and Chevrolet had a success.
