Chevy -- June 13, 2010

Some well-paid executive at General Motors probably read an article in a business magazine and had a revelation about their trademarks. He decreed that using the name Chevy dilutes the value of the trademark Chevrolet. He insisted that no one should utter the name Chevy, and that people should be fined for using it. I don't think people at Coca Cola have a problem with anyone calling it Coke. I understand that the proclamation has been rescinded. I hope so.

This is a personal subject for me because by father always bought Chevies -- and he always called them Chevies. The first one I remember was a used green 1957 Chevy Bel Air. After that we had a used 1961 Impala with a manual transmission and a straight 6. The engine block was painted blue. I learned to drive on that one. We had earlier bought a new 1970-something Vega with an automatic transmission so my sister could learn to drive. It was bright green. After someone stole and burned the Impala, we got a new mid-to-late 1970s Nova. I drove that one a lot. Later, they purchased another Chevy -- I don't remember the model -- which was my dad's last car.

The 1957 Chevy Bel Air ad is from a neat site called Vintage Ad Browser: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/

Ours was a two-door Bel Air, which was painted a darker green. It may have been a One-Fifty. I'll have to digitize some old photos.

The only person I can think of who might have agreed with this executive is Louis Chevrolet, but he parted with the company on bad terms.