(first posted 8/5/2012) Some cars are invisible. Due to large production numbers and affordable pricing, certain cars are seen all over the place. Slowly and surely though, rust, deferred maintenance and fender benders take them off the road – and nobody notices. The Chevrolet Beretta (and its L-body Corsica cousin) is such a car. You never even notice they’re gone, until one day you spot one and finally realize: I haven’t seen one of those in years!
The Beretta came out in 1987, and along with its four door Corsica stablemate, essentially replaced the ill-fated X-body Citation. While sporty GT, GTU and GTZ models were available (a never-produced Beretta convertible even paced the 1990 Indy 500), most of them were the bread-and-butter standard model, like this 1989 version. A multitude of engines were offered during its long life (1987-1996), including 2.0, 2.2 and 2.3 “Quad Four” four cylinders and 2.8 and 3.1 liter V6s.
I believe our featured Beretta to be a 1996 model. Granted, the ’96 model was carryover from 1995, but I am going to go with ’96 as that was the last year for the Beretta/Corsica. The color is Light Adriatic Blue, a color that debuted in 1994, but I think these cars didn’t get it until 1995. This particular car is rather basic, as it appeared to be lightly optioned. I always liked the restyled-for-1991 interior, as it vastly improved the ergonomics inside.
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While perhaps a bit cheesy today, the slide-out cup holders on the dash were kind of innovative for the time, and unique for a domestic vehicle (yes, I know the 1991 Cavalier had that feature too). Also note the placement for the headlights and the wipers on each side of the steering wheel, for easy access.
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Another interesting feature of the Beretta was the fact that you actually had excellent visibility all around. It was also the last “large compact” coupe to come from Chevy. Personally, I wish they would do a car like this again, and in this size, as I would be very interested in one.
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Considering the design dated to the late Eighties, the overall design held up well. Styling was very smooth, and as a result the outgoing ’96 models still looked pretty fresh.
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The driver’s side airbag was added at the same time as the new instrument panel. Because of the contours of the 1991-and-up dashboard, the front radio speakers were moved from the top of the dash down to the floorboard, behind carpeted panels. It worked rather well, and took up minimal room in the footwell, though why GM didn’t just design the doors to accommodate them is anyone’s guess.
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Another neat feature found throughout the production run was the “beer tap” door handles, shared with the W-body Lumina, Grand Prix, and Regal coupes.
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I found this car sitting in the side lot of a Ford dealer in Pinconning, MI (Michigan’s Cheese Capital). Even though it’s almost an hour south of where I live, I had to return to that area the next day, and the car was gone, so I don’t what became of it. Maybe it just turned its invisibility shield back on.
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Ah the Beretta
I have not seen one of those in years. I had a 1990 for about 3 years from 2000-2003 and it was well equipped with power everything. It was a manual transmission car. i bought it from a mechanic at the first dealership I worked at. It was a former customer’s who had it towed in due to a blown head gasket. On the 2.0/2.2l engines this was common and required a replacement head. The guy had all the parts for it but lost interest so I gave him $700 for the car and on my day off I put the new head on and put everything back together. It was a good car for commuter purposes.
I wanted a 1988 Beretta so bad as a first year college student! In my then naivite I never would have suspected it was just a two-door Corsica. It looked so futuristic to me, along with the larger Olds Cutlass Supreme and Buick Regal of those model years.
I admired, and still do, the ‘low-sill’ window belt line trend at GM in the late 1980s – especially after seeing where beltlines went -skyward! – on cars from the late 2000s onward. I once rode in a 1991 Corsica, and while I felt the view outward was fine, I never got to experience the effect of the added visibility as a driver of one.
Looking back at cars like these, it makes today’s typical bread and butter sedan look like one of those cartoonish renderings you might see in pencil on a classroom desk back in high school – with giant wheels tilted in at the tops, rear end up and nose within inches of the pavement, and slits for windows – Bbbblech!
My perception of passenger automobiles manufactured after 2010….
http://www.carbodydesign.com/media/2010/10/thumb-1905-720×539.jpg
“I haven’t seen one of those in years!” Me neither, thank god! My step-mother had one they bought new – they always bought new, I did only once in 1974 – and despite good care it was a total steaming pile. Typical GM ’90s cheapo garbage. Totally forgettable, as mentioned, and the sooner the better. One of many many deadly sins GM foisted on the public. Even a Cobalt was better.
Regarding the comment about “The prototypical version was white with big hunks of paint missing leaving vast stretches of rusting gray primer.” I’m surprised that I have never seen this issue discussed in more detail. I have a bit of experience…
The wife had an 88 Beretta (silver) and I had an 88 Grand Prix (burgundy).. One day she came home in apparent shock and cried ‘the paint just blew off my car in the car wash”. Most of the hood was just primer, and also a large bare spot on the roof also.
In the mid-to-late 80s’, GM and most other manufacturers were still working out the kinks with clearcoat paint formulas. We’ve all seen these cars driving around with large blotches of missing paint. Well,
A kindly Chevy dealer in a suburban midwest Metro area, revealed the ‘secret codeword’ to her (kind of like the secret Freemason handshake in a Monty Python skit). There was no official recall, but if you knew what to ask for, and your dealer wanted the business, GM would repaint your car (must have cost them a bloody fortune). I suppose other manufacturers may have had similar programs.
The secret codeword: “basecoat/clearcoat delamination”. GM repainted the Beretta; it was definitely a professional job, and we had a car with 40k miles on it and a brand new body.
A year or so later, in another large Metro area, my Grand Prix was suffering from a severe case of what I’ve heard called ‘road blast’, little chips off the front end paint from rocks and debris on the highway. While not technically a case of basecoat/clearcoat delamination, within about 1 minute of conversation, my Pontiac dealer was quite happy to repaint the car. In this case, I had a car with over 50k miles on it with what was almost carshow quality metallic burgundy factory matched paint.
My dad also had an 89 Suburban repainted under the same program.
I often wonder how many people may have been helped out if social media was available in those days. Most folks never learned of this unofficial, under the covers program.
Someone from a car dealer, just walking by, told me GM would repaint my ’88 Bonneville for free, which they did c. ’93, everything above the bumper-height body-side molding. It had some smallish bare patches on the roof and trunk.
Somehow much better looking today than they were new; for when you could actually feel and touch the horrible quality you couldnt see past it. I regularly find myself looking at GM designs of the 80’s and 90’s (the Beretta among them – how clean and timeless are those lines) and suddenly appreciating them more without the benefit of having to experience them.