The Greenbrier

In 1960 Chevrolet introduced a car that was, at the time, incredibly radical. It was aimed at competing with some of the European cars that were sweeping across the country, especially one particular German car called Volkswagen. It was also designed to take on American competitors such as the Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Rambler American, and Studebaker Lark.

At the time the Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) were not making small, compact cars. The Corvair would change that. It was also the first, and still remains the only, American made rear engine car. At the back of the car was an air cooled 145 cubic inch flat six engine that produced 80 horse power.. It was small, light, economical and affordable. Add those together and they equaled more than 200,000 cars sold through each of its first six model years.

To further compete with the VW Beetle and its variants, Chevy decided to introduce a van and two pick up trucks based on the Corvair and badged as Greenbriers. Volkswagen had a similar Beetle based van that the folks at Chevy wanted to take on. So in 1961 the Greenbrier line hit the streets.

Greenbriers featured an over cab design, meaning that the driver sat over the front wheels. This was allowed because the engine was, just like in the regular Corvair, mounted in the rear of the vehicle.

 The standard Greenbrier van featured six doors, one each for passenger and driver, two side doors to access the back seat and/or storage area, and two more in the rear to access more storage space and, by lifting part of the floor, the engine. There was also a panel van version (CorVan) that had no windows. These were used mostly by the service industry such as delivery companies.

There were two versions of the Greenbrier pick up truck. Dubbed the Loadside and the Rampside, they were differentiated by where their loading gate was located. The Loadside was the more typical pick up with its gate in the rear of the cargo area. The Rampside, on the other hand, had its loading gate to the passenger side. This allowed easier access to tools and equipment, something that was taken advantage of by companies such as Bell Telephone.

For most people the story of the fall of the Corvair is fairly well known. The first generation, running from 1960 through 1964, had some handling issues that resulted in numerous lawsuits. Consumer activist Ralph Nader, in his book Unsafe At Any Speed, detailed these problems and brought them to the attention of the general public. In an interesting side note, the lawyer who represented GM in the various law suits was the uncle of Dave Power, the founder of J.D. Power.

Though there would be a second generation of Corvairs starting in 1965, that year would be the last for the Greenbriers. That name would be retired until 1969 when Chevy dubbed the Chevelle 300 Deluxe station wagon the Greenbrier. But it was still a standard station wagon. The original Greenbriers, in whichever form they took, offered up a highly unique combination of flexibility and economy.