photo by W. Stopford
It was June 1990, and I had just graduated from grad school and started my first week as an engineer at General Motors. For someone who was a certifiable car-nut since childhood, it was almost like dying and going to heaven. I had a 10 year old Civic in college which was rusting itself into oblivion, and self-conscious about showing up for work in a Japanese car, I traded cars with my dad and drove his ’88 Escort until I could get a new set of GM wheels using my employee discount. How exciting!
I visited all of the GM dealerships in Lansing Michigan and this white Beretta GTZ caught my eye, parked in the showroom of the local Chevy dealership. It was stunning, all white with skirts, spoilers and matching 5 spoke alloy wheels. It was love at first sight, and I bought it on the spot. The GTZ, new for 1990, was Chevy’s top trim level for the 3 year old L-car platform shared with the more pedestrian Corsica sedan. It had the new HO version of GM’s 2.3L Quad 4 engine featuring 180 hp, which was a lot at the time, driven through a Getrag 5 speed manual and 205/55 VR16 Goodyear Gatorback tires. So the hardware and the specs were impressive, but how well did all of this componentry come together into a refined, sporting coupe?
The 2.3L HO Quad 4 engine had 180 hp and a muscular exhaust note, and with the 5 speed Getrag manual transmission it was very quick for its day. Yes it was pretty raucous up to the redline but if you’re grinning as you run up the gears your ear canals close up and help block out the racket. It had an agreeable ride-handling balance, not as bone-crushingly stiff as you might think. I ran the Beretta in local SCCA Solo events and it wasn’t very competitive against the Acura Integras and Toyota Celicas in its class; it felt big and clumsy on a tight parking lot course and the Quad 4’s power delivery was like an on-off switch. On a racetrack it was much better. We did a few track days at mid-Ohio and other road courses, and more than a few times spectators would comment on how sweet the Quad 4 sounded passing by at full throttle.
Beretta and I had 6 memorable years together. Driving home from work on the highway one evening in the middle of a horrific ice storm, one of the tires on this car decided to shred itself after running over something on the road. So I had no choice but to pull over onto the shoulder and attempt to change a tire on a dark but busy highway in freezing rain, during rush hour traffic. It was the most miserable time, soaked from head to toe with ice pellets pelting my face, fingers numb with cold trying to loosen uncooperative lug nuts, and terrified that a wayward car will slide off the half-frozen highway and send me and Beretta to the great garage in the sky. But an angel in the form of a semi truck driver pulled up and stopped behind me, blocking the shoulder and shielding me from danger, keeping his headlights fixed on me so I could see. I waved and mouthed a huge “thank you” as I finished up and moved on.
The GTZ would rank up as one of my favorite cars that I’ve owned, despite some of its glaring flaws. The biggest problem was that this car is really not suited to be a winter vehicle. The same low profile Goodyear tires that were so difficult to change in freezing rain were also atrocious in snow, but the more serious issue was that the Quad 4 engine couldn’t put out enough heat to warm the interior. I remember more than one long highway trip during brutal sub-zero Michigan winters where I’d have to stop and let the engine idle every 20 minutes to warm up the cabin, then get back on the road and stop again when frostbite started setting in again. I asked around my colleagues and found out that it was a design flaw in the cooling system that was being corrected in a future model year.
Another design flaw prompted me to move on and get rid of the Beretta, the dreaded Quad 4 head gasket leak which I was well aware of. It was only a matter of time, and by 80,000 miles the telltale whiff of white smoke was starting to appear. So it was time for Beretta and I to say goodbye before the engine self-destructed. I miss it, though. It was a perfect example of GM in the late 80’s – well intended, distinctively styled, mostly well engineered but with a few glaring deal-breaking faults. The final verdict on the Beretta GTZ was that yes, it could match the raw performance numbers of its Japanese competitors but still fell short in refinement and day to day livability. But we had great memories together, and future cars in my garage wouldn’t have the same charisma that this GTZ did.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Capsule: 1990-93 Chevrolet Beretta GTZ – Locked And Loaded
Somehow when this car is mentioned what comes to my mind is a 1970s detective TV series and a parrot…
Great story, thank you. I always liked those cars, and it was a bonus that you landed the 5 speed version. I was a GM technician at the time. Your no heat issue was due to a defective thermostat. GM had plenty at the time, in winter, I’d change them all day.
Gm also had a run of defective thermostat housings which generated an internal leak when cold, but I never saw one.
Ooooh, I remember those Goodyear Eagle GT tires – they were on my 1985 VW GTI. They were the most fabulous tires ever on dry pavement. They were also the cause of many white knuckle moments in wet/slick conditions.
You must have really loved this one – not handing this one off after getting 4 years out of it without the head gasket letting go (especially with that GM employee discount). But I do not find fault, as I have kept a few loved cars longer than I should have too.
I was never a GM guy, but these were good looking cars in the right color and trim combo, and yours was one of best looking of them all.
My ’86 GTi had Pirelli P600’s …”wide” for the time 60 series which now are on non-sporty cars, the soft rubber left black marks on my driveway (despite my not braking hard nor accelerating unduly there) so they had to be replaces pretty often…I owned the car up till 2001. When I broke 2 ribs, collarbone, and even scapula in a bicycle accident, the manual steering was a handful (even though the car was only 2400 lbs) with the 60 series tires, as I needed to be able to drive (and park) it while I recovered.
My Mom considered a Corsica in 1988, she ended up with a Tempo which she kept till 2009, so I guess it was a good choice, but I did like the Corsica. I must not have been paying much attention to cars, it surprised me in 1987 when my co-worker got one as a rental while we were up Everett, Wa for a couple weeks (not sure why, I had my own rental, we probably could have shared a car since we were there for the same reason and stayed in the same Motel). I didn’t even know about them at the time, but I’m guessing that since I bought my GTi the year before I’d temporarily turned off my car radar, maybe since that was by far the time I’d considered the most different models of cars that I might buy, so maybe it was out of exhaustion. A Corsica hatch would have been a need oddity, though as it often happens, I’m no longer in the market when a car I’d otherwise have been interested in becomes available, and I keep cars long enough that it’s long gone by the next time I’m looking for one.
I always wanted to drop a Quad 4 in a Fiero. Very neat engines! As you mentioned, this was a true GM product; over promised but under delivered.
The second-generation Fiero (killed late in development) would have had the HO Quad 4 engine.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/forgotten-future/forgotten-future-1990-pontiac-fiero-prototype/
fierorunner: Opportunity knocks. I have an 87 Fiero coupe with the HO Quad4 listed on Pennock’s Fiero Forum right now.
I do remember that one of Chevrolet’s national TV ads for this car claimed to come out on top when compared to a BMW M3. My family owned a Chevrolet dealership that I was part of until its sale in1982 so I was very familiar with Chevrolet’s early front drive sporty car offerings. When these comparison ads to the M3 came out, I was the owner of a 1988 M3. At that time, the first generation M3(E30M3) was not yet the acclaimed car that it is now. It was so much more expensive than a BMW 325is which had 6 cyl. compared to the M3’s 4 that even though it was a very limited production car, languished in BMW dealer inventories. I guess the comparison came about because both the GTZ and the M3 had an overhead cam 4 valves per cylinder engine but I remember thinking this is national TV ad was making an incredulous comparison- the BMW was a true race car homologation and the GTZ was a just another front driver with stripes and flares.
I too liked the look of these when they debuted but was still in college at the time and in no position to purchase a new car. The monochromatic look was the height of fashion around then and those big chunky wheels too, sort of an AMG look writ backwards as GM and hold the A. The white one looked great, the black one too, the red one was maybe a little much with the red wheels.
I can see these not holding up against more nimble cars on a tight course, but then in typical US form a big engine paying off on a higher speed track with looser corners and long straights, that’s what decades of racing on tracks that only have enough corners (highly banked ones at that) to get back to the line ends up generating.
Still, you got six years out of it, which seems like a lot as an employee in the candy store equipped with the corporate discount card…Me, I’d be scared I’d be the single buyer keeping GM overall afloat with all my purchases for the entirety of my employment there.
I had an ’88 GT with the 2.8L V6 and the 5 speed. Fun car. It got ugly quick when the paint decided to peel off in sheets.
medford-jim: Was your car white? I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I seem to notice a lot of white cars from all makes (GM, Ford, Honda, etc) where the white paint seems to come off in large areas.
This was the best example of the 1990s GM look. The deep belt line, the flat doors, the simple shape and front end, this was done very well with the Chevy Beretta design. The interior was also very nice. My girlfriend/fiance/wife had a nice Beretta and I always admired how the car looked.
Sadly however, we could not keep it together. The grille melted, the roof liner fell, the dash discolored and curled, going from gold to a shade of bacon, all the slick looking vents fins snapped off, the electrical system would send off a whiff of black smoke, the shock towers rusted through, and the interior fabric became brittle and threadbare. It made me really sad to see how poorly that beautiful body held up.
So I really like the way these look, but there’s no way I’d ever want another. These were very disposable cars.
Great article and fun to read with the excitement you had back then. This made me think fondly of my first brand new car I ever purchased: 1987 Chevy Cavalier Z24 in a really cool blue (Maui blue I think??) with the gray cloth seats. Boy I loved that car.
I understand you wanting to not park a Honda in the lot at GM. I drove Fords the whole time I worked at GM and got a lot of guff from management.
As a GM employee I had tried to purchase a car with the GM employee discount but the dealers in my area were not very cooperative and the savings weren’t that great. Even in 2018 I cross shopped Chevy and GMC 1/2 tons vs F150. Couldn’t pass up the twin turbos and a ten speed transmission. Almost my dream vehicle from my younger days in the early 70’s.
We had looked at the Beretta except if I remember correctly they didn’t offer a 4 speed overdrive automatic with the Quad Four. So I dodged a bullet. Quad Fours were known to have terrible crankcase ventilation causing large accumulations of moist in the oil.
That’s a great story. In particular the part about the semi-truck driver that pulled over to aid with your safety while changing your tire. So many drivers have negative opinions about commercial truck drivers for no good reason. I see so many bonehead drivers cutting off semi-trucks right before an exit or stoplight it frustrates me greatly.
I was driving a Chevy (Vega) when I graduated from engineering school and got an offer from Ford in Dearborn. The new car discount was a perk that was specifically mentioned by one of the interview team, as he drove me over to another location in his Maverick … the Falcon replacement, not the mini-truck. This was 1977 and in the end I didn’t accept the offer, but I’m not sure what car I would have picked, and if I would have lasted long enough to see the arrival of the Fox Fairmont or Mustang. GM turned me down but in ‘77 that would have been a better choice for a in-house car. Heck, maybe even a new Vega.
This is just an atrocious, weirdly skinny looking car made worse by the monochromatic paint job. And don’t forget the red “Euro” trim. Nothing says European like the color red. I owned a white ’89 Geo Prizm at the time. An econobox, but very well executed down to the last detail. Very smooth engine as I recall. Firm, but very comfortable seats done up in an attractive tan mouse fur. GM should have farmed out their next Corsica- or whatever came next- to the team back in Japan that designed this gem.
I had a 1990 in Red/Burgundy and loved that car. Had it for three years but wished I kept it longer. I remember talk of a convertible version, and would have gotten that. The engine really took off at the higher revs.
Does anyone know where to get one?? I have been looking for years. 89 Beretta was my first car and my first love. I can’t get enough of these cars!!
In 1990 the GTZ was $16k, but back then GM had great rebates and I got my red GTZ off the showroom floor for $12,200. Like so many GM cars the interior wasn’t luxury, but it was practical. The removable sunroof complete with a pop-up mini spoiler was pure fun! The throaty Quad4 revved easily and deserved respect for moving that car decently despite the heaviness of its low center of gravity. It was a hard car to push when not running as those gatorbacks stuck to the roads like glue. I went thru the OEM tires too quickly doing autocross events and wiped a second set of stickier performance tires in about 11,000 miles.
Driving the Blueridge Parway in NC was always a blast too. On the highway I could manage 36mpg on long trips, making a friends 30mpg weak Datsun look wimpy too.
I’m 6’1″ and still the seats with bladder adjustable supports were comfortable thru the 90k I put on it. I owed about $3k on it when I decided to go to Texas so swapped for an S10 Blazer which I thought would be better out there. Worst mistake I ever made!
I wish I’d kept the GTZ.. it was and remains my favorite car purchase ever.
Thank you for all those great memories. I had a white on white too. I literally destroyed everything around here in these wv hills . Nothing under a z28 with a little work done to it could handel me. I could halftrack all these v6 stan gs and v6 Camaro, and literally everything v8 made up to 1991 would be amazed at what a 4cyl stock. Could do. And as far as handling , wow I loved it. But you are right it felt a little heavier than the imports. I’ve owned a few and they felt much lighter. But hands down. The Beretta was awesome ride. I daydream of all the road races I’ve won through the years. So to all those mustangs that I love and Camaros,civics,s10 ss.novas,corollas,every type of truck you could think of and all the nissans dodge stealth, Mitsubishi 3000gts, ford thunderchickens of all types. Even the SUOERCHARGED thunderbird that I love. I had a white one of them but I said all that to say this to all those crybabies that looked in my trunk and under everything in the car accusing me of nos. Well fellas RIP.