2002 Chevrolet Chevy Is Junkyard Treasure

If you bring a vehicle into the United States from Canada or Mexico, it's legal to drive it here for a year… at which point you need to either get US registration—which can be a Kafkaesque challenge—or drive it back across the border to start the process over. Sometimes such cars get stranded here and end up in el yonke, and that's what happened to this forlorn Chevrolet Chevy, now residing in Aurora, Colorado.

The Chevrolet Chevy was the name given by GM de México to its version of the Opel Corsa B, which was introduced in Europe as a 1993 model and stayed in production in Mexico through 2011. The Australian-market version was known as the Holden Barina, while the Chinese version was badged as the Chevrolet or Buick Sail. In Japan, it was called the Opel Vita.

This wasn't the first Chevrolet model to be badged as the Chevy; back in 1962, American Chevrolet shoppers could buy a new Chevy II. Starting with the 1969 model year, the Nova trim level designation shoved the Chevy II name aside here, just as the Malibu did with the Chevelle a bit later.

The Corsa B never appeared in showrooms in the United States, but it was the most affordable Chevrolet in Mexico for quite a few years.

Such a happy little car!

This car had registration from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which is about 900 miles to the south of Aurora. That's closer to Aurora (which is next door to Denver) than Chicago or San Francisco.

The final odometer reading is equivalent to 172,496 miles.

The engine is a 1.4-liter SOHC straight-four, rated at 60 hp. Its reasonably close US-market relatives were installed in the Daewoo-built 1988-1993 Pontiac LeMans.

This was simple, affordable transportation. No air conditioning, no automatic transmission (though those frivolous luxuries were available as options) and no airbags.

This isn't the first Chevrolet Chevy I've found in a Denver-area car graveyard; a 2009 model showed up in a yard south of town back in 2018. I've also documented plenty of other Mexican-market cars in the local boneyards in recent years, including a 2017 Renault (Dacia) Duster, a 2009 Nissan Aprio (Dacia Logan), a 2015 Nissan Tsuru, a 2006 Peugeot 407, and a 2001 Dodge Ramcharger.

There were sedan and ute versions of the Chevy available, too.

Truly a world car.

When it was new, it was the cheapest new Chevrolet model available in Mexico.

In Europe, this car was known as the Opel Corsa B.

It wasn't the first Chevrolet model badged as a Chevy; that honor goes to the 1962 Chevrolet Chevy II.

277,605 kilometers comes to 172.496 miles. It's only about 900 miles from Chihuahua (where this car was registered) to Aurora, Colorado (where it now dwells).

This appears to be a base-model Chevy Popular, so the engine is a 1.4-liter SOHC straight-four rated at 51 horsepower.

Air conditioning? Not in a car this cheap.

Likewise an automatic transmission (though both the automatic and A/C were available options). This is the base five-on-the-floor manual.

The black spray paint on the taillight lenses seems not-so-safe.

The color was called Rojo Brillante.