The Chevrolet Motor Car Company was founded in 1911 and was named after Swiss-born American race car driver Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (1878-1941). The name “Chevrolet” has had several backronyms (back acronyms). “Can Hear Every Valve Rap On Long Extended Trips” has been cited in print since at least 1991.
 
   
Wikipedia: Chevrolet
Chevrolet /ʃɛvrəˈleɪ/, colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet and ousted General Motors founder William C. Durant started the company on November 3, 1911 as the Chevrolet Motor Car Company. Durant used the Chevrolet Motor Car Company to acquire a controlling stake in General Motors with a reverse merger occurring on May 2, 1918 and propelled himself back to the GM presidency. After Durant’s second ouster in 1919, Alfred Sloan, with his maxim “a car for every purse and purpose,” would pick the Chevrolet brand to become the volume leader in the General Motors family, selling mainstream vehicles to compete with Henry Ford’s Model T in 1919 and overtaking the Model T as the best-selling car in the United States by 1929.
 
Google Groups: rec.humor
FIAT
Charlie Gibbs
1/9/91
(...)
CHEVROLET
————-
Can Hear Every Valve Rap On Long Extended Trips
Car Has Extensive Valve Rattle On Long Extended Trips
     
Google Books
Car Crazy:
The Official Motor City High-octane, Turbocharged, Chrome-plated, Back Road Book of Car Culture
By Dean D. Dauphinais and Peter Michael Gareffa
Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press
1996
Pg. ?:
Chevrolet Can Hear Every Valve Rattle On Long Extended Trips
 
Google Groups: alt.autos.gm
CAR ACRONYMS
Dean Loudermilk
7/27/97
AUDI-Automobile Unsafe Designs, Inc.
BUICK-Big, Ugly, Import Car Killer
CHEVROLET-Constantly Having Every Vehicle Recalled Over Lousy Engineering
Techniques
Chevrolet. Cheap heap, every valve rattles or leaks, every time.
CHEVROLET-Can Hear Every Valve Rattle On Long Extended Trips
 
Google Books
A Bawdy Language:
How a Second-rate Language Slept Its Way to the Top
By Howard Richler
Toronto, ON: Stoddart
1999
Pg. 124:
CHEVROLET: Can Hear Every Valve Rattle On Long Extended Trips
 
Urban Dictionary
chevrolet
Acronym for Can Hear Every Valve Rap On Long Extended Trips
Pray the Chevrolet isn’t gay.
by Dr.D October 02, 2003
 
Urban Dictionary
chevrolet
Cheap Heap Every Valve Rattles Oil Leaks Every Time
How many old chevrolets do you see on the road compared to old fords? Not many because they are junk!
by Brian April 27, 2004