If you think the gas Chevette was slow, I knew someone who had one with a diesel engine. It was equipped with a Japanese-made Isuzu diesel engine pumping out about 50 horsepower on a good day. (At least it was reliable, unlike GM's own automotive diesels.) Forget automatic transmission or AC and merging onto a freeway was white-knuckle time. On the other hand the car was good for an honest 50 miles per gallon.
I've worked on Chevettes for friends back in the day. Those cars had the advantage of being dead simple (GM became less adventurous after the Corvair and Vega) but the Chevette was far behind its imported competition in engineering.
Thanks for commenting... i think they were a good little car for the time... cheap to drive and maintain...and like i said for a 16 year old back in 1988 it was a nice first car... i remember adding some little speakers to the back hatch area (only place i think you could pit them )...lol... i also remember many municipalities bought a ton of them for use as "city cars" for various departments...
I watch the Price is Right from the 80s with Bob Barker all the time. It's available on Pluto TV. They gave away a boatload of Chevy Chevettes over the years.
The Chevette brings back a bad memory. We also had an '84 4-door (burnt orange) with a manual transmission. My parents were going to let me have it to take to college. But 2 months before I graduated high school, it got rear-ended and totalled. So when I went to college, I walked and took the bus. 
Subsequently, my parents got the bug for the Cavalier. Most people consider that to be not much better than a Chevette. But they took good care of them and got 2 or 3 of them over 300,000 miles.
Lately, I have thought about finding an old Chevette to be a hobby car/restoration project. The earlier ones, especially the 2-door, were IMO handsome little cars. But there are very, very few survivors left out there.
yes... i never see them ever... you know what i do see from the mid 80s from timt to time... Buick Regals... i dont know why but every now and then i see them around here... some in decent shape... its funny how some cars have a little bit more longevity than others...
as for the cavalier... i liked them too... cool litle car....
Almost no one bothered to save Chevettes, they were treated as cheap disposable appliances. I have not see one around in probably 20 years or more. Best chance to find one would probably be out west or down south where at least salted roads would not have eaten them up.