Chevrolet Cavalier

The Chevrolet Cavalier was a compact automobile produced from 1982 to 2005 by General Motors. Built on the company's J platform, the Cavalier was one of the best-selling cars in the United States throughout its life.

Predecessors

The Cavalier replaced the Monza, which was available as a 2-door coupe, a 3-door hatchback and a 3-door wagon (using the same body as the discontinued Vega wagon, the model it replaced). The inexpensive Chevette was retained even as sales declined, and was formally replaced by even smaller captive imports. Both previous platforms had conventional rear-drive layouts while the new design could compete on the same level with more efficient front wheel drive offerings, such as the Dodge Omni and Honda Civic. Ford and Chrysler also introduced new front drive compacts. The largely successful mission of capturing the bulk of domestic compact sales would fall on the Cavalier's 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan and 4-door station wagon, the relatively short-lived 3-door hatchback (which replaced the Monza 2+2 Sport 4-door hatchback) and, in later years, a 2-door convertible. The small Cavalier even helped fill in lagging sales of the compact Citation (a Nova replacement).

First generation

The Cavalier first went on sale in early 1981 as a 1982 model with front-wheel-drive, a choice of two four-cylinder pushrod engines, and coupe, sedan, hatchback, and station wagon body styles.

1983 Cavaliers offered electronic fuel injection, and a V6 engine became available in 1985, uncommon for a compact car. 1985 also brought minor styling changes.

The Cavalier was largely identical to the Pontiac Sunbird. Before the Pontiac brand was officially introduced in Mexico in 1992, Cavaliers sold there featured Sunbird body panels, as opposed to US-spec Cavalier panels. From 1993 on, the sibling marques were both offered, as in the United States.

Second generation

1988 Cavaliers were redesigned with fresh styling and modified engines. The hatchback disappeared from the line, but the other bodystyles continued. The exterior and interior were freshened in 1991.