Chevrolet is a brand of General Motors, one of America’s most iconic auto manufacturers . The Chevrolet organization deals with wide range of automobiles that vary between subcompact cars and medium-duty American trucks. The Chevrolet brand was founded in 1911 by Louis Chevrolet, the car race driver and William C. Durant, the founder of General Motors. Currently Chevrolet deals with sedans, hatchbacks, SUVs, trucks and crossovers. Chevrolet is commonly referred to as Chevy. “Bowtie Emblem” logo is the most popular logo of Chevrolet and the logo was first used in the year 1913.
The Chevrolet brand was first founded in 1917 and in 1920 itself it became GM’s ‘highest selling brand’, notably it remains so unto this day. Full range of automobiles from Chevrolet were mostly seen in North America. Between 1917 and 1918, Chevrolet and Durant majorly focused on brand building and introduced great models of automobiles such as the four-passenger V8 roadster, five passenger Tourer models and the legendary Model D. However, during that period most of the cars had low compression flat head engines with three speed transmissions.
Between the 1950s and 1960s, Chevrolet held a major position in the American automobile market. The two most notable things of this era are, - in 1957, Chevrolet made the first fuel injected engine, and in the year 1963, one out of every ten cars in the United State of America was a Chevrolet.
The Chevrolet small-block V-8 debuted in 1955. This engine was very successful and hence was constantly produced in large numbers since then. Chevrolet spread its operations worldwide. Apart from the United States, Chevrolet landed its operation in various countries like Mexico, South Africa, India, Japan, Middle East, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Europe, South America, Brazil, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina and Colombia.
Currently, in India many are under the impression that Chevrolet is a new brand, however, this brand was in fact introduced in India in 1928 itself. Chevrolet stopped its operations in India for few decades in-between and revived its existence here again in 2003.
In fact, during the year 1928, General Motors (Chevrolet’s parent organization) setup an office with an assembly plant in Bombay, it was India’s first automobile assembly plant. General Motors produced 13, 903 cars and trucks in the very first year. Chevrolet automobiles were considered the most trustworthy of that time and the brand had excellent demand. With the result, Chevrolet imported automobile products in mass numbers during that period. Chevrolet’s small four-cylinder Tourers delivered attractive fuel economy and they ran smoothly, thus makingthis product one of the most impressive of its days.
In 1930, Chevrolet competed with Ford in India. Chevrolet answered Ford’s popular Model A with its six-cylinder,46 horsepower engine, which in 1931 became Chevrolet’s highest selling car in India.
Socialist Government forced all foreign car companies to shut down their operations in India during 1952-53 and General Motors was one among them. Unfortunately, Chevrolet’s operations were closed during those periods.
When Chevrolet was reborn in 2003, the brand appeared as one of the newest launched brands of General Motors. Now Chevrolet has a plant in Halol, Gujarat and most of its popular models such as the Optra and SRV are built in here.
Louis Chevrolet, the race car driver, founded Chevrolet and William C. Durant (founder of Chevrolet’s parent company General Motors) came to be its co-founder. Louis was very much interested in auto racing and he developed his mechanical skills when he was a young man. Initially, he worked as a mechanic in Quebec, Canada and then he worked with French car manufacturer de Dion-Bouton. However, he was mostly a racing car driver.
Chevrolet had little formal education in car designing and he designed his own engine in 1909 and he was becoming an expert in that. In 1911, Chevrolet partnered with General Motor’s founder Durant and they both started Chevrolet Motor Car Company. Chevrolet honored his parents’ homeland by choosing the Swiss Cross Logo for his company.
Chevrolet drove for Buick and continued his racing career while he worked for Buick as well. In Detroit, he had his own mechanic shop in which he designed an overhead valve six-cylinder engine that motivated him to form Chevrolet organization. Chevrolet and Durant used to have arguments several times over the design so Louis Chevrolet handed over his share to Durant and finally the Chevrolet brand came to be owned by General Motors.
The popular “Bowtie emblem” of Chevrolet is the inspiration of a French Hotel’s wallpaper, which Durant saw once. However, this is not for certain. Recent research says that the Chevrolet brand logo is the logo of “Coalettes”. Others believe that Chevrolet extracted this logo Swiss Cross on ordered to honor his parents homeland.
Bowtie logo seems precious to Chevrolet and it is a popular advertising icon on brand.
Chevrolet dealers network in India
Now-a-days Chevrolet dealers and service centers can be found in most parts of India. General Motors is a successful brand in India and had a tie-up with the C.K. Birla group of companies but that ended in a few years time. After that General Motors introduced several successful models like the Chevrolet Optra, Chevrolet Tavera and so on. After the success of these cars lots of new dealers emerged throughout the country.
Every major metros in India has at least ten famous Chevrolet dealers and the dealership network of the brand is increasing day by day. Some of the most famous dealers of Chevrolet in Delhi are – Autovikas, Regent Automobiles, Shiva Motors, Triumph Motors, and Metro Motors.
Chevrolet Dealers in Mumbai - Ashthavinayak Auto Pvt Ltd, Bharathi Automobiles, 4 Wheel World, KBJ Motors, UDTI Motors, National Garage.
Chevrolet Dealers in Chennai – KLN Motors, Sundaram Motors, and V for U Associates, Choose to Chevy, TVS, and Mahaveer Cars. There are more than 200 service centers across the country.
Used Cars Market of Chevrolet Cars
Chevrolet cars are genuinely good but the used cars market for Chevrolet brand does not have a good resale value in India. Still, people show much interest in buying used Chevrolet cars because the brand offers excellent warranty schemes.
General Motors has also launched the “Chevrolet-OK” program. In this program, the Chevrolet-OK network buys and sells used or pre-owned Chevrolet cars. This program operates in six cities throughout the country and there are totally nine outlets. Delhi and NCR has three outlets, Mumbai has two outlets, whilst Jalandhar, Hyderabad, Pune and Ludhina have one outlet each. General Motors also aims to spread 30 outlets throughout the country in the near feature.
"With Chevrolet-OK Cars, GM India plans to set up a country-wide network of branded, pre-owned car sale outlets to offer valued customers an experience very similar to buying a new car. The program offers customers mechanically and physically sound pre-owned cars, which will first be certified by highly qualified GM India-trained engineers after passing through a system of stringent checks and refurbishment." said by the Vice President P. Balendran, General Motors India.
People, who buy used cars in “Chevrolet-OK” outlets, get one year limited warranty with three free services.
Chevrolet has begun production of fuel efficient cars in order to compete with other popular automobile organizations like Honda, Toyota and so on. Chevrolet plans to launch a plug-in hybrid - Chevrolet Volt, Silverado HD and Chevrolet Cruze, which is the successor of the Cobalt, by 2011. Chevrolet’s forthcoming new car models are – Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Beat, Chevrolet Orlando, Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Cruze, and Chevrolet Caprice.
Chevrolet plans to release Silverado HD in 2011, a strong, sturdy and secure car. It comes with the powerful Duramax Diesel engine. It has an improver Allision transmission. The Chevy Cruze was recently released and this model directly competes with the Honda Civic (3). It boasts more space and the car has a 1.4L Turbo engine that is specially designed for fuel efficiency. Cruze 2011 also comes with standard anti-lock breaks. Volt 2011 is a zero emission model and uses zero gasoline if it runs less than 40 miles a day.
Current popular car models of Chevrolet in India are – Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Beat, Chevrolet Aveo, Chevrolet AVEO U-VA, Chevrolet Optra Magnum, Tavera, Captiva, and Cruze.
The Beat is one of Chevrolet’s recent models. Beat made its debut in New York in 2007. Beat is a hatchback car designed by General Motors Daewoo in South Korea and built in India. Beat has an automatic transmission with a 1.2L turbocharged gasoline engine. It is especially known for its Vertigo Green exterior and matching interior. Beat’s front grille tapers down and its rear is pretty high. This model is specifically targeted towards young buyers in urban areas. The Beat comes in four variants. They are 1.2PS, 1.2 LS, 1.2 LT and 1.2 LT with optional pack. The Delhi ex-showroom prices of the Beat are – 1.2PS costs 3.4lacs, 1.2LS costs 3.6 lacs, 1.2LT costs 4 lacs and 1.2LT optional pack costs 4.4lacs.
Chevrolet Optra was first manufactured in India in 2002 and in 2007 General Motors unveiled the diesel engine Optra named as Optra Magnum. This Magnum is a reliable luxury sedan. The car has tremendous power and attractive exteriors as well as interiors. The Optra sedan comes in six variants. They are Optra Magnum 2.0 Max, Optra Magnum 2.0LS, Optra MAGNUM 2.0 LT, Optra Magnum 1.6LS, Optra Magnum 1.6LT and Optra Magnum 1.6 Max. Delhi Ex-showroom prices of the Optra Magnum 2.0Max is 8.9 lacs, Magnum 2.0LS costs 9.4 lacs, 2.0LT costs 10.5 lacs, 1.6LS costs 8.3 lacs, 1.6 LT costs 9.5 lacs and 1.6 Max costs 8 lacs.
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