Chevrolet. The best friend and the American icon
Chevrolet is an American brand that clearly marked a place for itself in the history of cars. Chevrolet or as it is gently called ‘Chevy’ is the most popular car brand, produced by General Motors, abbreviated as GM. The demand for Chevrolet cars and the all-American love for the brand has made Chevrolet one of the iconic symbols of the US, just as baseball, hotdogs, and Christmas turkey. Even if such statements belong to GM marketers, this wording is not far from reality.
Chevrolet or as it is gently called ‘Chevy’ is just one of the brands produced by GM. They also own Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Holden. And earlier GM owned Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, etc. One of the largest US companies, General Motors has been the worldwide mega-manufacturer of cars for 77 years. Afterward, it yielded the palm to Toyota and Volkswagen. GM has factories in 35 countries and sells cars in 192 countries all over the world. The best-selling car of this giant corporation is Chevrolet.
General Motors considers Chevrolet it’s best-selling brand.
Fearless Bumblebee from the ‘Transformers’, a fighter against evil for justice and peaceful world, powerful and fast, funny and good-natured, the very best friend. This is the image of Chevrolet Camaro, the legend, which came off the GM assembly line in 1966. Camaro is a well-known American ‘muscle car’, the steel friend and the main character of the movie ‘Transformers’. Along with Ford Mustang and Pontiac Firebird, Chevrolet Camaro became the most recognizable and revered car in the US, not only in the past years but also in our days.
Chevrolet Camaro is a world-famous car and popular movie hero often starring in movies: ‘Fast forward’, ‘Jack Reacher’, ‘Hero’s Return’ with steel Arnie, and the famous movie about the killer car “Christina” - this is not a complete list of the movies. After the “Transformers” movie was filmed, Chevrolet Camaro has been associated only with Bumblebee. Yellow body with black stripes has gained such popularity that GM even introduced a package called Transformers Special Edition for Camaro with a special Rally Yellow color.
By the way, the history of the ‘Camaro’ name worth mentioning. This Chevy was created as a challenger to the powerful Ford Mustang willing to capture the market. In order not to let Ford get ahead of them, Chevrolet released a real ‘friend’ of all car enthusiasts - Camaro. ‘Camaro’ is just an interpretation of the French word ‘camarade’, meaning ‘pal’ or ‘comrade’. Soon the car became so popular that almost everyone wanted this steel buddy. GM itself answered questions about the origin of the name as follows: ‘It is the name of a small but very dangerous animal that eats Mustangs " :). Ford, of course, came up with his own explanation for the name ‘Camaro is such a small shrimp, translated from Spanish’. But the jokes ended as soon as Camaro has beaten Ford Mustang sales several times.
Note that the competition with Ford was held from the very beginning of the company’s history. But already during the Great Depression Chevrolet has finally beaten Ford in terms of production volume.
Famous representatives
Chevy was the first to introduce SUV on the market back in 1935. It was the Suburban Carryall. Since then and until now, Suburban is nicknamed ‘Texas Limo’, is one of the most popular SUVs in the US market. But besides it, there is also a 4WD K-series Blazer. This is a real ‘all-terrain vehicle’ from Chevrolet! It managed to surpass all the competing SUVs and even surpassed Suburban in maneuverability. Today, modern representatives of Blazer 4WD full-size SUVs, along with spacious Chevrolet Venture, are in constant demand. And not just in the US but all over the world. And Tahoe full-size SUV breaks all records in terms of torque.
Impala has been first in the rating of the American automobile fans for years. The record on the volume of production and sales, reached by Impala, has not been beaten so far.
And in the history of Chevy Bel Air, released in 1950, and immediately became a surprisingly popular, and even an iconic car. After all, it was the first two-door convertible with a rigid roof in its time! Bel Air became creative and elegant ‘know-how’ from Chevrolet in the mid-50s. In 1953, another legendary car appeared – the first production sports car in the USA – Chevrolet Corvette with an 8-cylinder engine and a revolutionary Rochester fuel supply. The power of Corvette engines reached 300 hp, and in a couple of years exceeded 400! In 1958, the most popular Impala, characterized by the spaciousness of Cadillac and democratic value of Chevrolet, began to roll out of GM conveyors. Impala has been first in the rating of the American automobile fans for years. The record on the volume of production and sales, reached by Impala, has not been beaten so far.
Chevy Cruze is not a glamorous and not too luxurious car but it is one of the sales leaders in the modern history of Chevrolet. It is one of the top 10 best-selling cars in its segment. Recently released by GM, Chevy Corvette ZR1 2019 is simply a speedy demon, the fastest Chevy ever made. This supercar is equipped with a 6.2-L 755-hp engine, manual gearbox with seven speeds, or automatic 8-gear gearbox. Corvette is said to reach up to 210 mph.
The birth of the brand
The history of Chevrolet is not ordinary. Unlike numerous automobile brands, bearing the name of the founders, Chevrolet brand was named Louis Joseph Chevrolet - the well-known American auto mechanic and professional racer of Swiss origin, who was at the top of the best auto racers of the USA before the beginning of the First World War. He was a former official racer of Buick and favorite racer of David Buick himself. The owner and founder of General Motors, William C. Durant, proposed Louis Chevrolet to launch a new car. According to one version, Durant designed and assembled the car almost alone, according to the second one – he only owned the general concept of design.
The new brand received the name of a famous sportsman, and the technical side of the engineering aspects was implemented in GM for Durant’s money. Durant’s expectations of the popularity of cars named after the star racer were completely justified. Nowadays, Chevrolet is known to the whole world. In 1917, Chevrolet became a part of GM, and cars under a new brand became the basic production of concern. Since the 20s of the 20th century, about one million Chevrolet cars per year rolled out of GM conveyors.
The demand for Chevrolet cars and the all-American love for the brand has made Chevrolet one of the iconic symbols of the US, just as baseball, hot dogs, and Christmas turkey. Even if such statements belong to GM marketers, this wording is not far from reality!
The origin of the logo
The history of the Chevrolet logo is no less interesting. There are as many as 3 versions of its origin! According to the first version, the founder of the company, William C. Durant saw a similar picture on the walls of the hotel where he lived in Paris. The infinity sign on the wallpaper of his room became a prototype of the legendary Chevrolet logo. Some people say that Durant even ripped off a piece of wallpaper to bring it to the United States and show it to his partners…
The second version belongs to the daughter of the entrepreneur, Margaery Durant. She wrote that in 1929 her father invented the Chevy emblem at lunchtime. He usually thought of new names and logos during lunch. He drew his sketches on napkins, and sometimes right on tablecloths.
The third version was proposed by Duran’s wife. She claimed that during one of her travels across the US, she stayed in a small town in Virginia with her husband. In the morning, during breakfast, her husband asked for the local newspaper to read. And, reading the business news, the GM owner accidentally noticed an advertisement of a coal-mining company with the image of a “bow necktie”.
Whichever is true, in 1914, the Chevrolet brand got its logo, and today the branded cross-shaped Chevrolet sign, as well as the car itself, has already reliably ‘registered’ in the history of the world automobile industry and became one of the iconic symbols of ‘the automotive America’.
