1988 Chevrolet Cavalier z24 Convertible

What do you get when you mix American Muscle with an economy car? You get this, a 1988 Chevy Cavalier z24. It has a 2.8 V6 which sends a ‘mighty’ 125 hp and 160 ft-lb torque to the front wheels, but sounds amazing. That is pretty much the gist of this car. On paper, it’s not very good, but it makes you feel like you’re driving something really serious. It handles like a dream and because it isn’t fast, you can floor it whenever you want and hear the glorious old 911-esque noise that it makes. My specific car is special because it is the launch spec fully loaded power everything digital dashed bright red model with hippie striped interior. There may be less than 1,000 left, and there are definitely less than 100 with this spec, and I estimate less than 50 in this condition. If you search google images, 99.9% are beaters or junkyard finds. I am the 3rd owner, having the pleasure of hitting 40,000 miles last month. Apart from regular maintenance, a catback exhaust from 1989, and a freak accident requiring a tranny rebuild, it hasn’t been in the repair shop. Over the next year, I plan on adding coilovers, a front lip/chin spoiler, and a louder muffler, because the 1989 has drone but isn’t loud enough at full tilt. I will leave you with a mystery: In the glove box, I have found a mysteeeeerious Chevrolet document, stating the date, time, and mileage upon delivery to the first owner, when it was new. The mysterious mystery is the mileage, which was about 2,000! How is that possible? Could my car have been a pre-production prototype or something?!…..mystery

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Comments

Mr.PurpleV12

Best cavalier generation 👍

03/29/2016 - 02:49 |
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It absolutely is. FWD with a V6 is quite an interesting combination. Any ideas about the delivery situation?

03/29/2016 - 02:52 |
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Chris Poczak

I just drove home a 1989 z24 from buying it! 3.1 swap, with a performance trans. It’s awesome.

03/29/2016 - 03:08 |
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Welcome to the squad haha. I wonder how different the 3.1 is from the 2.8…

03/29/2016 - 03:14 |
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Chris Poczak

Original is always good. I saw an 89 z24 convertible for sale for 500 and was going to buy it for the dash alone and interior considering the exterior was messed up.

03/29/2016 - 03:20 |
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That’s a good deal, considering that you get all of those parts for that price. It’s either expensive or impossible to find certain odd parts new, like weatherstripping. That’s my main problem. All of my window weatherstrip is dry rotted out, and for one rear window, its 100 bucks.

03/29/2016 - 03:32 |
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Geo Dayrit

Cool Car, I’ve never really taken a long look at the Cavalier, but yours caught my eye while I was scrolling, looks awesome! How do you like it so far?

03/29/2016 - 04:16 |
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I love it! Because of the low mileage, I expected it to behave like a new car, though, and that isn’t what happens. It still has occasional oil leaks, squeaks, rattles, and other small annoyances. Now that I have accepted those, I enjoy it much more.

03/29/2016 - 17:27 |
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Clayton. (Honda fanboy bwaaa(VTEC)AAAAAWWW)

Guy in my town owns a crappy white one and i worked on it in the show.
Those little front scoops that arnt on the base model cavalier, they eat snow. Like a dang snowplow.

03/29/2016 - 04:57 |
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Clayton. (Honda fanboy bwaaa(VTEC)AAAAAWWW)

Cool cae though.

03/29/2016 - 04:57 |
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Anonymous

Amazing looking car

03/29/2016 - 05:21 |
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SaltyRider23

It having 2,000 miles could be that it was a car used for test driving purposes, and after it got some miles on it they sold it at a discounted price. My mom bought a car like that so that’s just my thought. It looks real nice by the way!

03/29/2016 - 05:36 |
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Thank you. That’s a good theory.

03/29/2016 - 17:23 |
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Anonymous

Muffler Idea..If you want more sound but not the farty exhaust that’s associated with the imports.. these mufflers sound really good, but are quiet when you are cruising…
Look up Walker FX mufflers..They run about 40USD..

03/29/2016 - 12:19 |
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Jtmannnn14

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Thanks! I assume you have owned one, correct?

03/29/2016 - 17:22 |
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Levi Janssen

Nice car. I really like the z24’s but they’re so rare to find that isn’t nearly pure rust

03/29/2016 - 15:18 |
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The paranoia is real for me. I check underneath and in the wheel wells every week haha

03/29/2016 - 17:20 |
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