I didn’t watch Super Bowl LVI. Call me crazy – I never used to miss one and always enjoyed it, but life gets busy sometimes. Oddly enough, rather than the games themselves from the past, I remember more of the TV commercials that were aired. This always seemed to be where advertisers were pulling out all the stops.

The following week at work, a coworker stopped by and asked if I had watched it. Since I hadn’t, he filled me in on the TV commercials, and it turns out that there was heavy advertising for the electric vehicle (EV). I wasn’t surprised because we all know they are here to stay, and major auto manufacturers have already laid out their plans to phase out the internal combustion engine and switch completely over to electric.

This, of course, led to a discussion of how we each felt about EVs and the change in the automotive industry, and it reminded me of the automotive industry about 40 years ago as we witnessed the shift to small, compact front-wheel-drive vehicles. That’s when I remembered a TV commercial from the time, doing its best to convince us it was good.

The story starts with the Chevrolet Nova, and I’d like to think that everyone remembers the car, but the reality of age tells me that everyone may not. If you don’t, it was originally produced from 1962 through 1979 and, at the time, was considered a small car. As it evolved over the years, it received the best of Chevrolet small- and big-block engines under the hood and, sliding right in place among the ranks of Chevrolet muscle, it is no less sought after than any other car of its era.

While emissions regulations, insurance and collision protection were tampering with everything we loved about American cars, the Nova made it through 1979 as a rear-wheel-drive car, retaining the same basic look and feel of what it always was and, in my opinion at the time, what it always should be.

Then came 1985, a joint venture between GM and Toyota, the “new” front-wheel-drive Chevy Nova, and a headline by Car and Driver magazine that reflected my sentiments exactly: “Hell Freezes Over.” A die-hard Detroit guy, I didn’t know much about the industry at the time, nor the reasons for things such as this joint venture, but it didn’t matter; I wasn’t ready to accept the new Nova.

For the 1987 model year, Chevy released a TV commercial that compared the last of the rear-wheel-drive Novas, the 1979, to the 1987 model. They didn’t put down the old one, just pointed out all that made the new model “new,” and said they just wanted to use the name because they liked it.
The commercial opened showing a beautiful 1979 Nova, with a jacked-up street-rod stance and mag wheels, just like we used to do. There was no comparison in my book, and there never will be on my own nostalgic level.

But I know a lot more now. I learned how the joint venture between the two companies was extremely beneficial to both sides. I learned how it helped GM efficiently build a quality small car and how it helped Toyota build cars in the U.S. to avoid import restrictions. I learned how the assembly plant where the new Novas were built was transformed from one of the worst GM assembly plants to one of the best, thanks to Toyota’s efficient management and production secrets.

Only good came from what I perceived as bad, simply because I didn’t like it. Now hybrid and electric vehicles are steadily increasing in numbers on the streets, and there’s grumbling about them in the same manner. Nobody wants to lose the internal combustion engine, and there’s no way some will ever drive an electric vehicle!

Is it going to make our jobs more difficult? Sure. As technicians, we are faced with learning that technology. Does everybody like them? No. Are they perfect? No. But is the shift to this technology and these vehicles only done in the interest of making a safer and cleaner world for future generations? Absolutely. We have to accept it and realize the good that will come from it all.

If it’s not obvious by now, you could say that I have a slight affinity for old American cars. So, what do I drive every day? A small, front-wheel-drive, fuel-efficient foreign car. Go figure. Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t have an “old Nova” tucked away in the garage that allows me to reminisce and enjoy those golden times-gone-by when the automobile was defined by passion, power and style.

My “new Nova” is just a car that gets driven and used. When it wears out, what will I get to replace it? Will it be a hybrid or a fully electric vehicle? It’s very possible. Will I be glad that the industry has made this shift to preserve the earth? I sure will. New cars will never be special to me in the way of the old, but I appreciate them because I understand why they are what they are. So, Chevy, bring on the commercials.