What was Chevrolet’s first production car, launched in 1913?

Chevrolet’s first production car, launched in 1913, was the Classic Six.

The Classic Six was a large, five-seat touring car designed with substantial performance for its era. It used a 299-cubic-inch, six-cylinder engine and was positioned as an upscale automobile rather than a low-cost model. Its catalog price was about $2,150, making it expensive compared with later Chevrolet products.

The car helped establish the Chevrolet name, but it was not the model that made the company a mass-market success. That role belonged to the 1914 Chevrolet 490, whose much lower price brought Chevrolet into direct competition with Ford’s Model T.

The Classic Six is sometimes confused with the Series D, another early Chevrolet six-cylinder model. The Series D followed in 1917, while the Classic Six was the earlier production car associated with Chevrolet’s launch.