The History of the Chevrolet Nova and Chevy II
             Every successful automobile is a reflection of its time, but very few cars are as representative of their era in automotive history as Chevrolet's Chevy II and Nova. That may seem like a pretty grand statement to put on the shoulders of such a simple economy car, but after all the Chevy II changed many times over during it's 17 year run. The 1960's and 1970's were a time when automotive categories and markets were in a constant state of change, thanks to new assumptions about the automobile brought about by social changes, revitalized foreign competition, international oil policies, and new more powerful environmental standards and safety lobbies. Like few other cars of its era, the Chevy II was transformed to meet the requirements of all those constantly changing market conditions. The Chevy II was a perfect reflection of the attempts by General Motors (GM) to meet the rapidly changing demands of consumers during those two constantly changing turbulent decades.
             Introduced in the early 1960's as a frugal economy car, at a time when economical foreign competition and a domestic recession
             had made economy cars the new darlings of the auto industry, the Chevy II was transformed into a muscle car in the mid-1960's when all the country was overwhelmed by horsepower. The Chevy II, the simply called the Nova, was once again cast as a sensible economy car in its lineup. Novas of the mid-1970's even sprouted pretensions of luxury, with features such as Cabriolet roofs and stand up hood ornaments, when the market shifted in that direction.
             That the Chevy II was able to fill so many niches in Chevrolet's lineup is an indication of the flexibility of the platform, and of the public's acceptance of the car. The Chevy II was Chevrolet's entry-level, do-everything family sedan for a lot of people, and if those people wanted
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