In a shotgun-spray ad campaign that ran during the late ’70s gas crunch, GM insisted its Chevrolet Chevette would, “drive you happy.” I last drove a Chevette sometime in the late ’90s. It was an angry little sky-blue job that, for a reason unknown to me, carried a sombrero and a beachball in the hatchback. I had to white-knuckle it along a winding, rolling secondary road in the New York suburbs during a snowstorm. Pulling into the driveway, I signaled for a vodka the size of a Janitor in a Drum canister just so I might peel myself down off the ceiling.

Still, having a survivor like this one would probably augment a nice, sunny day spent singing along with Jonathan Richman on the AM band, crackling from that community college radio station three towns over, and taking long pulls on a bottle of diet Dr. Pepper.

[via ebay]