(by savageatl) Atlanta does not boast the variety of aged cars that Eugene does; blame it on emissions or profligacy. People say in Savannah, people ask you what you want to eat; in New Orleans, they ask you what you want to drink; in Atlanta, they ask you what kind of car you have. There are very few vehicles running around which are older than 20 years old. The ones that are still around are largely ’90-93 Accords and then some of the GM RWD cars like Caprices and Cutlasses.
Behold, then, a real rarity; the 1985 (does not have a third brake light) Chevrolet Sprint, next to my Caravan, which deserves its own COAL and a very rare first generation Sunbird.
This brave little toaster has survived THIRTY ONE YEARS of driving, hence the “brave.” It survived Chernobyl, Reagan’s second administration, the fall of the Wall, the Rodney King riots, the O.J. Verdict, things that happened in 1996-2001 ish when I was busy, September 11, several Gulf wars, and then everything that happened from 2001 to . . . 2016 when I was busy again. Madonna was relevant. Michael Jackson had a nose. People made phone calls from pay phones and hated to talk to machines. Straight men used lots of hairspray, makeup, and wore tights for rock music. This car was made when the Islamic terrorists were the HEROES in a Tom Clancy book. People still thought in the year 2000 we would be flying to the moon, if we hadn’t all been blown up by nuclear war.
Who, in 1985, would have chosen this brave little toaster to pilot for THIRTY ONE YEARS? Assuming its first owner wasn’t Hertz or Avis, who thought, I intend to drive something for that long, and rather than pick something like a Caprice, Dodge Minivan, or Cutlass Ciera/Supreme, I pick . . . this tinkertoy?
In 1985, the Sprint (née Suzuki Cultus) went out the door for around $5,300. It weighed about 1600 pounds and went from 0-60 in about 15 seconds. It achieved 44/53 mileage, in old, inflated EPA numbers according to the Interwebs. It came with a 993 cc 3 cylinder carbureted engine, and if that wasn’t enough, there was a Turbo Sprint, packing 73 hp. This was intended to be an improvement over the Chevette. GM had decided that it could not replace the Chevette with anything in its own product lines at a price that it could sell the car for. In addition, GM probably decided that the market for mini cars was highly dependent on the price of gasoline and GM would be better off outsourcing production rather than tooling up a plant and developing a car and domestic supply chain for a car with highly unpredictable and fickle demand.
The dirty little secret is that it costs GM almost as much to develop, engineer, source, and manufacture a little car like this as it does something like a Caprice, but no one will pay Caprice money for this brave little toaster, so in many ways it made sense for GM to outsource this to a company which specialised in small, high quality, high efficiency cars, and let GM go back to screwing things up royally for the rest of the ‘80’s, and ‘90’s, and ‘00’s, until we are where we are now.
Whoever bought this Brave Little Toaster back in 1985 picked it over a slew of frugal to purchase and run brethren; the aforementioned Chevette; Renault Alliances and Encores, the Toyota Tercel, Nissan Sentra, a very base Civic, a Colt/Mirage, a very base Omnirizon, or a very base Escort. The Hyundai and Yugo were yet to appear. This has a couple of things in common with the Chevette; it is unreasonably slow and, unlike something like an Omnirizon, Escort, Sentra, or Civic, no amount of spending on options would really get you a better version of it. An Escort, Sentra, Civic, or Omnirizon could be significantly upgraded with power steering, a better engine, cloth seats, air conditioning, and radio to be a fairly plush little car (at a high cost of course). This is not plush; it is a humble, frugal, purposeful appliance, hence the toaster sobriquet; also, it is toaster shaped. Unlike my mom’s ’86 Sentra, it doesn’t appear to be a hair shirt version which constantly reminds you of a better version which could have been purchased for a few bucks more. I do think anything that had a Japanese Nameplate in the ’80’s went for list price if not more due to voluntary import restrictions and demand factors; as recently as ’05 I was told by a Honda dealer, “We don’t discount Hondas.” So the Brave Little Toaster may have had something of a price edge over its foreign nameplate competition.
If I had been in the $6,000 range in 1985, I probably would have still gone with a new car because of our bad luck with a succession of awful used cars. I probably would have figures oud how to swing the payment for a more expensive car, like a Cutlass Supreme or a Ciera or something. If I really only had $6,000 and had to choose a new car, I probably would have gone with the Omnirizon, which had been around since ’78 and were pretty solid cars by then, especially with the 2.2 liter engine. 0-60 in a reasonable amount of time, although not as thrifty on gas, and much roomier with four doors (no, a hatchback is NOT a door) and available with cloth seats. I am very likely to have chosen the Encore also, because I have a Thing for French Cars.
However, there are no more Omnirizons around in Atlanta, and no more Encores ANYWHERE, so the owner of this Brave Little Toaster has been vindicated. May it continue brave for thirty one more years.
Wow, this really does look like the Brave Little Toaster…got socked in the eye.
My neighbor bought one new in 1986. Daily driver, with subsequent paint fade, until 1993, it went up on blocks. It stayed until getting donated to Purple Heart in 1994. Seven years of constant use was not bad for such a vehicle, IMHO.
A friend of my mom’s had a blue one, as I recall. I haven’t seen one of these in years – our salt-encrusted Ontario roads took them out a long time ago.
Rarely seen these days. Great find. Just proof that if you don’t treat a “throw away car” like it was a throw away car it will provide service for a very long time.
BTW: that’s 2nd Gen Sunbird, longer than the first 2000/Sunbird with a revised rear clip.
My BIL had one of these, the Canadian-badged Pontiac Firefly, a 4-dr, in the early/mid ’90s. Only kept it 3-4 months because it was too small and uncomfortable for my 300lb sister. Gee, ya think?
I remember riding in it and thinking how cheap and tinny it was with a thrashing 3-pot engine and labored even more by the automatic tranny. It was about on the same par as the Hyundai Pony the BIL had a year or two earlier. Cute to look at but not much else.
Hmm…reminds me of a scene I witnessed not long ago. A couple year old Smart was at the pump, full of what Iwould think of as younger girl car doodads (beads, fuzzy steering wheel cover, zebra print seat covers, etc). I look back over a few minutes later and I see this rather stout young lady shoehorning herself in there. I’m thinking, “Hmm…betcha she trades that thing in on a at least a midsize in about a month..”
Did not look comfortable at all!
Nice find! That car is in great shape. A friend of mine’s brother had one. He named it The Road Wort because he could not kill it. Well built, tough little cars. My prediction? It will outlive the Sunbird.
One of the greatest-ever CC headlines!
The most recognition the 1985 Sprint had was when one was pulled out of the collapsed Cypress Street Viaduct after the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. The driver was the last survivor accounted for.
“WEAVERVILLE, Calif., Oct. 22— Today, the name Buck Alvin Helm is synonymous with hope. ”Lucky Bucky,” they are already calling the man who was pulled from the wreckage of the Nimitz Freeway on Saturday after being trapped for 89 hours in a sandwich of concrete that has entombed at least 38 people.
But in this lumber town high in the Klamath Mountains of Northern California, Mr. Helm, a 57-year-old longshoreman weighing about 240 pounds, has long been known for his tenacity. Almost every weekend, he drove the 1985 Chevrolet Sprint, the car in which he was trapped, on a round trip of more than 500 miles to be with his two children in this isolated village.
The measure of the man can be found, in part, in the odometer of his flattened silver Sprint; it had more than 200,000 miles on it.
After working all week as a checking clerk at the Port of Oakland, where he slept in a van not far from the job site, he would drive north and then west over a 3,000-foot pass to be with a daughter, 11-year-old Desiree, whom he called Princess, and a 16-year-old son, Jeffery. Condition: Critical but Stable” -Timothy Egan, New York Times.
Here’s a documentary about the earthquake if anyone is interested:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvTCNgZwygg
My aunt had one of these for the longest time, then bought whatever the heck Chevy had to offer in the same class after this car. She always seems to favor the smallest Chevy that gets the best gas mileage in their line-up. Her current ride is a Chevy Spark. She either likes awesome gas mileage, doesn’t want to spend a lot for a car, or to her, a car truly is just an appliance and nothing more, so why not just get the cheap toaster available. Personally, I am not a fan, but wow! What an amazing find. I had no idea these still existed in the wild. I truly thought my aunt’s was the last one to roam the highways.
Minimalist small cars like this really call out to me. This car is in amazing condition; I haven’t seen one like this in years, even here in the Bay Area.
I had a neighbor in the ’90s with a 1984 Sprint that looked identical to this. He said it returned 53 mpg for him, but it was slower than grass growing. Of course, anything might be slow compared to the turbocharged (yes, he put a turbo on a 350 V8) 1970 Z/28 he had at that time.
Most Hoon for the dollar ever!
The little 3 cylinder with that turbo was quickish. That turbo was pretty
cheap too. Pocket change would be all you needed to make the suspension
feel like a good little sports car.
So easy to work on, a stout 6 year old could lift the engine out. CHEAP parts,
and they are still available.
Great writing! I hope we do get treated to the COAL on your Caravan.
About 25 years ago, I was car shopping and was interested in a red one identical to the featured car. I was strangely drawn to it especially when I sat in it, I was fascinated by the miniaturized interior; especially the gas pedals. In the end, its diminutive size made me concerned about my safety in a crash so I ended up getting an 81 Buick Skylark instead.
Suzuki Alto, my mother had one a 84 to replace her aging 68HB Vauxhall Viva according to my Dad the little 3 banger liked to be revved and driven hard, the GM badged Suzukis came here as Holdens but were the four cylinder versions and most recently as Chevrolet Cruz prior to that badged being shipped to Korea.
This was badged as a Swift. The Alto was a smaller Suzuki.
I thought the Sprint was the Suzuki Cultus.
It was. The Cultus was known as the Swift in Australia and New Zealand.
I think the neatest thing about the Sprint is the hood release located on the hood!
I have to agree with your observation about Atlanta’s lack of old cars. When moved there in the early 1990’s from Western Pennsylvania, I thought for sure I’d be living in an old car paradise. Along with several other assumptions about Atlanta, this was probably the wrongest of them all. No one seemed to want to own an old car.
I personally attributed it to the fact that everyone lived out in the ‘burbs or exurbs and had a heinously long commute into work, who would want to brave an hour or more in a mechanically flaky old car? No thanks.
Don’t misunderstand me, there was a fair amount of old metal around. There were plenty of old cars at car shows and at special events. It’s not like everyone just dumped their numbers matching Camaro Z/28 for a Hyundai Sonata one weekend. But I rarely if ever saw old cars out on the streets. I think only the economically disadvantaged drove old cars and only because they had no other choice.
Imagine my surprise that when I moved to Western Michigan how nice it was to come back to an area where people cherished and showed their old cars. Every day of the year I see something unusual, but I rarely have my camera at the ready. Until I started visiting TTAC and then Paul started this site, I didn’t know spotting old cars was a verifiable hobby. I really thought it was just a way to annoy your wife (and her relatives) and win bar bets.
I’m thinking of installing one of those dash cams you see advertised on late night TV. There are so many incidences of my finding something interesting on the road, but not being able to snap a pic of it because it would be dangerous to do while driving. As an example, on my way home tonight I ran across two mid 90’s Taurus SHOs (both in silver) and a mid 80’s Hurst Olds Cutlass in the parking lot of a nearby repair facility.
All that aside, the Sprint find is remarkable. I’ve forgotten how well things hold up in the relatively dry weather in mid-Georgia. Too bad you couldn’t have captured a few pix of the Sunfire next to it. Ah well…
I just texted the “brave little toaster” line to a buddy who had one of these for almost a decade. I think it is hilarious, for some reason he was not as amused. 😉
when he was injured in an accident at work I drove him around a lot in it. it had a suprising amount of room inside and was pretty buzzy, but I always felt like I was driving a go cart with roll up windows.
he used to be very annoyed that when I took him to his doctors appts in Toronto, I flat out refused to drive it on the freeway which meant putting a lot more gas in my car. I always told him that I would not drive a car on a 4-lane highway that could be blown off the road by a kid driving a vw rabbit, never mind an eighteen wheeler!
I’ll just park this here.
I had an ’86 four-door, marketed as the “Sprint ER” (extra room??)
One neat feature was the hood badge also doubled as a secondary hood release (after popping it from inside).
I paid $250 and sold it 6 months later for $150. In the whole time, I filled the gas tank TWICE.
Boeing uses the suffix “ER” for “Extended Range”. If you filled the gas tank only twice in 6 months, perhaps Chevy’s ER moniker meant the same thing!
Very cool find indeed and reminds me of when I found a mint NUMMI Chevy Nova from Illinois in Portland, OR last year. I agree about the lack of older cars in Hotlanta, but once you get into the sticks that changes and there are a number of Caprices in Savannah.
About 1987 I was deployed to Bermuda for 5 months. A guy where I worked had one of the Turbo Sprints. At the time, Bermuda had strict limits on the physical size of cars AND the engine size of cars allowed on the roads. But about that time all the car companies told the government that if they did not change the laws, no more new cars could be sold on the island. So after some stalling, the government caved. But for a short time, that Turbo Sprint was one of the hottest cars on the island. Anything else with a bit more power, was also a bit bigger, so no car had a better power to weight ratio.
You nailed it about most Japanese nameplates going for sticker price. In 1978, my folks “shopped” an Accord before buying a 240 DL. The Honda salesman was busy, so he let them write their number on a list of people he was going to call “later”.
Great article! The ONLY thing I’d disagree with, is the “first generation Sunbird” in the beginning… That’s a SECOND-gen. I had two 1st-gen ones, they were clones of the Chevy Monza.
And a freind’s parents had a Sprint, to replace their aging Chevette. About all I remember about it was how hard it seemed to be working to move 3 teenage boys and a large-ish mom around…
Ah! A Holden Barina! They and the donor Suzuki Swift were sold here in NEw Zealand alongside each other, and both seemed very popular – albeit the vast majority were the 5-door version. They had a reputation for being unburstable and were a popular first car here well through the 90s and early 00s.
Definitely not many left! I happened to get behind a Sprint Turbo in traffic last year and was quite pleased to see it, though it was considerably rougher than the example you found. Other than that I haven’t seen one in ages. Nice find and writeup!
Why can’t you buy parts for this car it says it’s absolute so where can you buy parts?
I owned a red one that had “sport” scrolled down the side. I could put it on two wheels in. Michigan dirt roads. My “friends” would pick it up and move it on me if they saw it parked somewhere. Once I came back from hockey practice to find it moved out into center field at our high school. Loved that car and have owned several hatchbacks and wagons as a result.