{"id":2017,"date":"2011-11-02T14:27:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T19:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:36:02","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:36:02","slug":"i-used-to-own-one-of-chevrolets-biggest-flops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2011\/11\/02\/i-used-to-own-one-of-chevrolets-biggest-flops\/","title":{"rendered":"I Used to Own One of Chevrolet&#8217;s Biggest Flops!"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/money\/autos\/story\/2011-10-28\/chevy-100-years\/51007820\/1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">recent article in <em>USA Today<\/em><\/a> celebrates the 100-year birthday of Chevrolet. It contains a few surprises. For example, did you know that the first Chevy Suburban was sold in 1935? That makes Suburban the \u201clongest-lived automotive nameplate in continual use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What I found most ironic, however, was the list of Chevy\u2019s biggest losers. According to <em>USA Today\u2019s <\/em>auto team, there are three cars that constitute Chevrolet\u2019s \u201cterrible trio\u201d: Vega, Chevette, and Citation. I never had the privilege of owning a Vega or a Chevette, but I did drive a Citation for a couple of years. Actually, I had two of them. But, before you judge my taste (or lack thereof), please allow me to explain.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2019\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2019\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/44\/2011\/11\/chevrolet-citation-wc-5.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2019\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/44\/2011\/11\/chevrolet-citation-wc-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"202\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2019\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Chevrolet Citation, care of WikiCommons. I wasn't privileged to have one of those nifty two-tone models. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When the Citation came out in 1980, I though it was the ugliest car on the road. No joke and no exaggeration. I hated the look of the Citation, and couldn\u2019t figure out why anyone would buy one. Then, in 1984, I joined the staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. As a full-time member of the ministry team, I was given a \u201ccompany\u201d car (in lieu of additional pay). My first care as a nifty Honda Prelude, complete with a sunroof. But, alas, I only drove this car for a couple of weeks before the lease was up. Then, I became the proud driver of . . . yes, you guessed it . . . a Chevy Citation. My first one was reddish brown. Then, a year later, that was swapped out for a white one. I must say that I had relatively good luck with these cars, if you don\u2019t count their appearance.<\/p>\n<p>In retrospect, I had a pretty darn good deal with those church cars. I never had to think about buying, leasing, or fixing a car. All of my expenses were paid. We had an excellent garage just a short walk from the church, and I never once worried about the bill. Plus, the fact that I drove what I considered to be an ugly car was probably good for me from a \u201clearn to be humble and grateful\u201d point of view. Besides, before I was given a Citation to drive, I owned two other cars: a 1964 Rambler American with \u201cthree on the tree\u201d and no radio, and a 1964 VW Bug with no radio and windows that rattled like an old subway car. So, in a way, I moved up in the world when I was provided with one of Chevrolet\u2019s biggest flops.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent article in USA Today celebrates the 100-year birthday of Chevrolet. It contains a few surprises. For example, did you know that the first Chevy Suburban was sold in 1935? That makes Suburban the \u201clongest-lived automotive nameplate in continual use.\u201d What I found most ironic, however, was the list of Chevy\u2019s biggest losers. According [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9565,8681],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-commentary","category-a-bit-of-fun"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I Used to Own One of Chevrolet&#039;s Biggest Flops!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent article in USA Today celebrates the 100-year birthday of Chevrolet. It contains a few surprises. For example, did you know that the first Chevy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2011\/11\/02\/i-used-to-own-one-of-chevrolets-biggest-flops\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Used to Own One of Chevrolet&#039;s Biggest Flops!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent article in USA Today celebrates the 100-year birthday of Chevrolet. It contains a few surprises. For example, did you know that the first Chevy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2011\/11\/02\/i-used-to-own-one-of-chevrolets-biggest-flops\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark D. 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