1962 Chevrolet Corvair

The Chevrolet Corvair is a rear-engined, air-cooled compact car manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet over two generations between 1960 and 1969. The Corvair was a response to the increasing popularity of small, fuel-efficient automobiles, particularly the imported Volkswagen Beetle and the success of American-built compacts like the Rambler American and Studebaker Lark.

The first generation (1960–1964) was offered as a four-door sedan, two-door coupe, convertible, and four-door station wagon. A two- and four-door hardtop and a convertible were available as second-generation (1965–1969) variants. The Corvair platform was also offered as a subseries known as the Corvair 95 (1961–1965), which consisted of a passenger van, commercial van, and pickup truck variant. Total production was approximately 1.8 million vehicles from 1960 until 1969.

The name "Corvair" was first applied in 1954 to a Corvette-based concept with a hardtop fastback-styled roof, part of the Motorama traveling exhibition.[4] When applied to the production models, the "air" part referenced the engine's cooling system.

A prominent aspect of the Corvair's legacy derives from controversy surrounding its handling, articulated aggressively by Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed and tempered by a 1972 Texas A&M University safety commission report for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which found that the 1960–1963 Corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control in extreme situations than contemporary compacts.

My personal 1962 Corvair Monza 900 has always been a California car. I am the third and hopefully final owner of this vehicle. The first owner bought my car brand new in 1963 and owned it all the way into the early 2000s until he passed away and sold it to the second owner, who then owned the car up until 2020. I bought the Corvair when it had 73,000 original miles! It is now only up to 84,000...