![]() These were certainly not the compacts of a decade previous, and it was becoming evident that there was a new opportunity in the true subcompact car space.By the mid-1960s, both Chevrolet and Pontiac had small car concepts on the boards, but Ed Cole, then GM Executive Vice-President, had also started a small car development program using GM’s corporate engineering and design staff, which was presented for review by Chairman James Roche in 1967. Powertrains may have started with thrifty four and six-cylinder engines, but V8 engines were also on tap. The Big Three saw an opportunity and jumped into the market in 1960 with the Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant, all of which saw some levels of success.By the end of the decade, the Studebaker and Rambler marques were effectively gone from the US Market, and cars like the Chevrolet Nova, Ford Maverick and AMC Hornet, while deemed “compacts,” were really only small versions of traditional mid-size cars designed to seat six. (first posted ) The Chevrolet Vega’s genesis goes back to the fall of 1959, a point in time up to which the compact car market was primarily served by imports such as the Volkswagen Beetle and a few domestics, including the Studebaker Lark and Rambler American.
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