The Chevette was hugely popular in Europe as marketed by Opel and Vauxhall, part of the GM empire. Effectively it was an Opel sold in the US rather than an American car sold in Europe.
I think part of the problem is that so many North American Chevettes (and their Pontiac equivalents, the 1000 and Acadian) where sold with a 3-speed automatic transmission that made them unbelievably slow:
I generally don't care too much about performance. I was completely happy with the performance of my '85 Toyota Tercel with 65hp. But I don't think I could handle 0-60 in 30 seconds...
