Most of General Motors’ front-drive coupes and sedans of the 1980s and 1990s are not remembered fondly among stereotypical car enthusiasts, if they’re remembered at all. Vehicles like the Chevrolet Cavalier and the Oldsmobile Calais were perfectly functional and utterly forgettable transportation, and the Chevrolet Corsica was another one of these cars.
Chevy sold over 1.6 million Corsicas spanning nearly a decade, and most of them were used up by families before their owners moved on. But the Corsica wasn’t always a boring family car. If you wanted a little spice to go with your morning school run, there was the Corsica LTZ and XT, a forgotten sort of mild sport-sedan version of a car that you probably haven’t thought about in years.
The Chevrolet Corsica is one of the vehicles that helped General Motors pull itself out of a slump that was at least partially self-inflicted. Back in the 1970s, affordable imports flooded America, and domestic brands struggled to compete. Detroit built its own competitors or just slapped American badges on Japanese cars, but it wasn’t enough. Young car buyers flocked to marques from Japan and Europe.
Efforts to slow down Japan also backfired. In 1981, Japan voluntarily agreed to cap its exports to America. Later, our nation would impose heavy tariffs on imported heavy motorcycles to protect the likes of Harley-Davidson. However, as CNN wrote in 1992, this didn’t stop Japan at all. Buyers still wanted Japanese cars and motorcycles even if supplies were limited. Japanese brands also chased higher margins, too. But it all wasn’t Japan. As CNN noted, few manufacturers used the opportunity presented by the export cap and the motorcycle tariffs to shore up their product lines. Harley-Davidson rejuvenated itself with its Evolution engine, but General Motors missed the mark.
As I wrote in the past, in the late 1970s, General Motors wagered that the bad times of the 1970s would bleed into the 1980s. Thus, in GM’s eye, the car buyers of the 1980s would care more about fuel efficiency and downsizing over power and thrill, just like they did in the mid-1970s. To facilitate this, GM produced a slew of smaller models that focused on miles per gallon above all else. Unfortunately for GM, the bet didn’t pay off. Gas got cheap again, and buyers wanted to have fun and horsepower again. GM fell behind the curve, selling cars that buyers weren’t looking for.
In 1982, GM launched the GM-10 program. This $7 billion program was intended to replace the Chevrolet Celebrity, Pontiac 6000, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, and Buick Century. These vehicles couldn’t come fast enough because GM was hurting. GM held 44.6 percent of the car market in 1984. However, as public interest in GM products waned, so did its market share. By the time of the GM-10 program’s debut in 1987, GM’s share had plummeted to 36.6 percent. General Motors itself was also reorganized in 1984.
[Ed Note: Along with “normal” spots like the one above, GM also hawked the Corsica with a commercial that was pure nightmare fuel, as discussed here. – Pete]
The GM-10 cars weren’t the General’s only trick up its sleeve. GM’s plan to rise back up involved just flooding the market with smartly engineered new models. The GM-10s would be joined by Oldsmobile’s N-body and Chevrolet’s L-body platforms, which would underpin compacts. Out of the other end would come cars designed to draw buyers away from the imports. One of those cars was the Corsica, a car that you probably haven’t seen in a long time.
Chevy’s Import Fighter
General Motors set lofty goals for its new compact platform. Not only were the L-bodies supposed to make buyers forget about the Chevrolet Citation, but they were also meant to take on an armada of competitors. Chevrolet saw the Corsica going up against the Dodge Aries, Ford Tempo, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Stanza, Mazda 626, Plymouth Reliant, and Mercury Topaz. Those are some stiff competitors, and GM tried to give the Corsica the best shot at beating them.
Supervising the design of the Corsica and its platform mate, the Beretta, was Irvin Rybicki, who led the styling direction of GM’s downsizing strategy of the late 1970s and the 1980s. This was a big deal at the time because GM wasn’t just going smaller, as this was also the period of the General adopting front-wheel drive. Rybicki’s career with GM began in 1944 when he was hired on as a project engineer by GM’s Engineering Standards Laboratory at the GM Proving Ground. A year later, Harley Earl would see Rybicki’s sketches and place Rybicki into the role of a designer. Rybicki would rise through the GM ranks, from creating innovations at Cadillac to eventually becoming the chief designer of Oldsmobile in the latter half of the 1950s.
By 1962, Rybicki was in the seat of the chief designer of Chevrolet. He took over the role of vice president of design in 1977, the position that was held by Bill Mitchell. Rybicki oversaw the designs of GM’s A-platform cars, C/H-platform cars, GM-10 cars, and the J-Platform cars. He also had a hand in the futuristic wedge-shaped third-generation Camaro and the Corvette C4.
The Corsica’s wedge shape was penned in the same GM design house behind the Cavalier and Monte Carlo. From a design perspective, the Corsica and its Beretta platform mate were a step forward for GM. Both vehicles had lighting that better integrated with their bodies than the X-bodies they replaced. GM also upgraded its fight against rust by galvanizing the L-body’s steel panels.
Under those panels sat MacPherson struts up front, a twist-beam rear suspension, and, for the Corsica, a wheelbase of 103.4 inches. The base engine was the 2.0-liter four from the Cavalier with 90 horses and 109 lb-ft of torque on tap. The spicy option was a 2.8-liter V6 that pumped out 130 ponies and 170 lb-ft of torque. The hottest engine the Corsica would ever get would come in 1994 with a 3.1-liter V6 that had 160 horsepower and 185 lb-ft of torque to give.
According to MotorWeek (video above), the Chevy Corsica went into production in 1986 for 1987, but buyers couldn’t get their hands on them until the 1988 model year. GM had a fascinating plan for the launch of the Corsica and Beretta. Instead of selling them to the public first, GM sent them to rental fleets.
As the Chicago Tribune reported at the time, the plan was sort of genius. By putting the cars into rental fleets first, the public got to see and try the cars out before they went on sale. GM was also able to use feedback from rental customers to improve the cars before their public launch. Apparently, the hoods of rental Berettas had trouble closing, and the drivers of rental Corsicas kept trying to pull the headlight switch instead of rotating it.
An Overnight Hit
The Corsica was an immediate hit. Here’s what the Chicago Tribune said in a review:
Corsica’s main function at Chevrolet is as the replacement for the Citation, the compact X-body that was discontinued in 1985. Chevy waited until 1988 to bring out Corsica to give consumers time to forget about the charges of locking brakes in a panic stop with the X-body cars. Corsica is strong in two departments: looks and performance. It`s far more pleasing to the eye than the Citation. It benefits in 1989 from the addition of a glassy hatchback to the notchback sedan line. That curved hatch resembles the glass on a Camaro. Keep in mind that the size of the hatch glass will require air conditioning to keep the interior cool in the summer.
The compact Corsica is built on a 103.4-inch wheelbase and is 183.4 inches long. We test drove the LT version finished in a dark but rich gray with thick body side moldings to protect sheet metal. A red accent stripe along the moldings adds just the right touch.
Performance is the Corsica`s other strong suit, providing you get the optional V-6 engine. With the base 108-horsepower, 2-liter, 4-cylinder, fuel- injected engine, Corsica is an economy compact designed to carry the family of four and groceries. But with the optional 130-h.p., 2.8-liter, multiport, fuel-injected V-6, Corsica comes alive. Performance like this used to be reserved for two-door coupes. No more. A bit startling was the fact the standard 5-speed wasn`t typically GM temperamental. Good complement to the 2.8`s power. A 3-speed automatic is a $490 option.
While the newspaper had lots of praise for the Corsica, it also pointed out some rather weird flaws. One was that the driver’s seat felt “to be mounted on a hill” and that rolling the seat forward to be able to reach the pedals in the version with the manual would make you feel like you were sitting on the floor. So, the Chicago Tribune concluded that people with long legs would enjoy the manual best.
Other complaints from the Trib (as Chicagoans sometimes call the newspaper) include a heavy hood, a center console compartment that’s hard to reach and opens the wrong direction, rear seats that don’t fold flat, a hatch window that doesn’t have a wiper, seatbelts that dig into your neck, and, amusingly, a service manual note that instructed owners to replace the “carburetor air filter” every 50,000 miles. No version of the production Corsica had a carburetor.
But those complaints didn’t matter because the Corsica was a hot seller right out of the gate. 8,973 units were sold in 1987. Of course, that was during the fleet-only sales. In 1988, when sales opened up to everyone, Chevy moved a whopping 291,163 Corsicas. The Beretta was similarly crazy popular in 1988, selling 275,098 units that year. GM’s plan worked as its new compacts became among the top-selling cars in America in just their official launch year.
These cars remained popular, too. The Beretta remained in production until 1996 and bowed out after moving 906,230 copies. The Corsica? They practically flew off lots for years. Even in the final production year of 1996, when the Corsica was past its expiration date, Chevy still moved 148,652 of them. When all was said and done, Chevy sold 1,643,416 Corsicas.
Most of those Corsicas were perfectly fine and totally forgettable family cars. I remember my brother having a ’90s Corsica in 2007 when he was still a teenager. He got it from a buy-here-pay-here lot, and it was certainly one of the cars of all time. My most vivid memory of it was being impressed at how good the black paint still shone, and that the Corsica name on the trunk lid wasn’t even a true badge but a cheap sticker. I was also a fan of how the brake lights looked like louvers.
I’m willing to bet that most people remember even less about the Corsica than I do. When was the last time you’ve even seen a Corsica in the wild? I know I cannot remember. That alone is incredible, considering just how many of these were sold.
The Corsica Sport Sedan
Yet, not every version of the Corsica is so easily forgettable. The LTZ sat at the top of the Corsica pile, and it included most features that were options on the base model and the mid-level LT. To make the LTZ a bit sportier, Chevy outfitted the sedan with the FE3 sport suspension, 15-inch Eagle GT all-season performance radial tires, red exterior accent lines, contoured bucket seats, the 2.8-liter V6, and, weirdly, a black cargo rack.
Opting for the LTZ also netted you an adjustable steering wheel, full gauges, split-folding rear seat, cruise control, tinted glass, and intermittent wipers. If you moved up to Preferred Equipment Group 2, you got a cassette player plus power windows, trunk opener, and locks. Apparently, Preferred Equipment Group 2 was a whopping $2,375 package, but came with a 1,300 discount.
In 1987, a base Corsica was $8,995 ($26,433 in 2026). In 1988, the price rose to $10,375 ($29,303 in 2026). The mid-range LT was $11,395 ($32,184 in 2026), and the top LTZ was $13,239 ($37,392 in 2026). Five-speed manuals were standard on all Corsicas, and a three-speed automatic was available for $490. Most features that were available in the LTZ could be individually optioned in lower cars. A rear window defroster was $145, the V6 was $660, the hatchback version was $400 extra, and you had to pay an additional $425 for freight. The sedan sold 800 percent more examples than the hatch, as most buyers decided to save $400.
The Corsica would see several updates over the years. In 1990, a 2.2-liter four replaced the 2.0 four, bringing eight extra ponies with it. The V6 then became a 3.1-liter affair with 140 HP and 180 lb-ft of torque on deck. In 1991, the LTZ was killed off and replaced with the Z52, which was similar to the LTZ but added a sporty steering wheel. A four-speed automatic arrived in 1994, the same year the V6 reached the aforementioned peak power of 160 HP.
The Corsica’s marketing was interesting as Chevy wasn’t afraid to call the Corsica a family sedan that was also a sports sedan.
The Crowd Goes Mild
The reality was far more fascinating. In 1989, Popular Mechanics pitted the Corsica LTZ against the Dodge Spirit ES, Ford Tempo GLS, Honda Accord LXi, Hyundai Sonata GLS, Mazda 626 LX, Mitsubishi Galant GS, Nissan Stanza GXE, Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais SL, Peugeot 405 S, Subaru Legacy L, Toyota Camry Deluxe V6, and the Volkswagen Jetta Carat.
The fastest car in the lineup in a straight line was the Dodge Spirit, which hit 60 mph in 11.11 seconds and completed the quarter mile in 16.66 seconds at 82.19 mph. The fastest through the slalom was the Mitsubishi Galant at 68.57 mph. The best on the skidpad was the Peugeot 405 at .84 G. The only category won by the Corsica was braking, where it took only 123 feet to stop from 60 mph. The worst in the braking category was the Hyundai Sonata, which took a leisurely 167 feet to stop. The Corsica LTZ was toward the middle of the pack in acceleration, towards the front of the pack on the skid pad, and perfectly average at the slalom. Check out this commercial:
Here’s how Popular Mechanics summed up the LTZ:
Our test car came with the popular 2.8-liter V6 that’s available in almost every Chevy product, from the Cavalier to the S-10pickup. It’s a sturdy, well-developed engine that ought to be dead reliable for family car use.
The V6 Corsica has almost identical performance to the Quad 4 Calais, Where the Corsica shines is in its external appearance. The pointy nose, wedge shape and handsome roofline are as modern and lithe as any small sedan in production. Unfortunately, the Corsica interior doesn’t measure up to its exterior. The gauges are hard to see, the 2-spoke steering wheel is uncomfortable, with offbeat styling, and the pushbutton controls are hard to use. Driving the Corsica is fine at normal speeds on the highway, but the handling deteriorates dramatically as speeds rise or the mad turns bumpy. At high speeds, the car seems wobbly and under-damped, with a lot of pitch and-yaw motion.
Overall, we’d say the Corsica is an excellent, attractive platform from which Chevrolet could build a great family sedan. All it needs is a nicer interior, better suspension tuning and perhaps just a bit more horsepower. In all fairness, the top-line LTZ Corsica we tested costs about $2000 less than our favorite Camry.
There Is A Corsica Holy Grail Out There
So, it seemed GM made its family sedan somewhat sporty, but not really any sportier than the competition. Yet, this isn’t where the Corsica story ended. For just 1988 and 1989, Chevy also offered what it called the Corsica XT.
Sold in California only, the XT was more or less an LTZ with a special body kit from a third-party supplier, custom leather and vinyl bucket seats, and leather interior trim. It otherwise had the same wheels, tires, engine, and FE3 suspension of the LTZ. The press copy called the XT the “luxury version of the most aerodynamic sport sedan in Chevrolet history.”
Amazingly, some of these were actually sold, and you can find a couple of them on the Internet. However, they appear to be one of the rarest special models of this era of GM. No exaggeration, I have been waiting longer than two years to write this story because I wanted to find an XT for sale to write about. I have searched Facebook Marketplace and elsewhere regularly without any luck. So, you get only the two low-res press shots.
The Chevrolet Corsica sits in a weird spot in automotive history. It helped America forget the X-body cars and was a step forward for GM styling and engineering. The Corsica was also a smashing success at a time when GM was recovering from a dark period.
However, the Corsica is seemingly entirely forgotten and overlooked by most modern enthusiasts. These aren’t really seen as classic cars right now and aren’t even held to the same status as the Corvette C4. Many of these cars lived out their lives as family cars, first cars, and beaters, then were eventually retired. Even the sporty version of the Corsica was pretty mild compared to GM’s other rowdy cars of the era.
As such, it’s unlikely you’d ever pay much for a Corsica. A good one will probably cost you a few grand, and people will probably be shocked after seeing a car that they haven’t laid eyes on in perhaps a decade or longer. The XT remains a unicorn, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if I got an email from an owner of the rare Corsica XT.
But if you’re looking for something to bring to the next Radwood and don’t want to pay a lot for it, grabbing one of America’s hottest sedans of the late 1980s might be the pick. It has the wedge look that the fans of ’80s cars love so much, and even though Chevy sold over 1.6 million of them, they’ve become quite obscure today. Maybe the Corsica did not live up to the advertising, but it still marked an important moment for GM.
Top graphic image: GM
My sister had a Beretta GT with the 3.1; I wanna say Beretta got that in ’89. I always found the Corsica a little homely, but the Beretta was a good looking car, and quick with the V6 & a five speed.
I had a Corsica when I was like 18, I think it was my second car ever. I really liked it.
I’d still love to find a good condition 3.1 Corsica someday. They’re even rarer than my Sunbird, though.
My grandma had a Corsica, I still remember it…and when it got replaced by a Hyundai, that was so much better. Yup, Corsicas suck
There may be another “Holy Grail” version of the Corsica other than the California-only XT. While the LTZ disappeared from the lineup with the 1992 refresh, as the article mentioned, the order sheet had the “Z52” performance package option for another couple of years. It got you all the LTZ parts, just no extra badge. And while all the standard Corsica packages went to chrome badges and strips on the bodyside rub strips, the Z52 kept the orange badges and thin molding strips, in harmony with the rest of contemporary Chevy performance trims.
Starting in ’92, the 5-speed was dropped from V6-powered Corsicas. The reasoning I always heard was that for one, sedan buyers weren’t as interested in manuals, and secondly, the 3.1 V6’s power and torque had been creeping up despite GM not quoting any up-rated power in their literature (and it wouldn’t be the first time GM had omitted that), to the point that the V6 was beginning to overstress the clutch as-designed, and there was no room in the packaging to put in a larger clutch. That may have mattered more for the Z52, which was rumored to be running higher output from the 3.1 than in prior years.
The other thing about the Z52 was that it’s handling was said to be fine-tuned by GM’s then-captive Lotus engineers. Apparently, “Z5x” in the 90s was only ever applied to packages that had been tweaked by Lotus; the famous one was the Z51 package for the Corvette which advertised its Lotus-engineered tweaks. The Z52 definitely sat a little lower on its wider, slightly lower-profile tires using the same aluminum rims held over from the LTZ. (And I’ve always liked the look of those.) The overall slightly bigger wheel/tire combo filled the wheel arches better. And the Z52 had a more noticeably aggressive rake in its stance than regular Corsicas, and perhaps more than the LTZ as well.
If I remember correctly, checking the “Z52” box automatically got you all the other options packages automatically ticked. The only remaining option may have been a CD player instead of the casette unit. It was likely left to buyers to choose because it was fairly well-understood that buyers often chose the lesser stereo and then upgraded the head unit and speakers with far more advanced aftermarket gear pretty much immediately after taking delivery of the car.
Two things you simply couldn’t get were power seats — never available on the L-body from the factory, and leather seats/surfaces. The GM velour seats were very comfortable however, and the cloth probably helped with some interior sound damping. They were quite good for support on long road trips.
Ultimately, the Z52 seemed to be the answer to some of the competitive shortcomings of the LTZ — perhaps a little more power, and a little harder edge to the suspension and handling. It wasn’t advertised; it was just an item on the order sheet for those in the know. Possibly somewhat of a limited-production testbed for directions GM might take further in the future — again, it wouldn’t be the first time GM did something like that; they’ve left a long legacy of interesting options-list specials over the decades.
I ordered a brand-new 93 Z52 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It definitely punched above its weight in real-world driving, and it showed off the package’s GT-car aspirations well on long trips. I still like the very 80s/90s aero fuselage styling. Too bad there aren’t any pictures in the article showing the new-for-92 interior; it was a major improvement. I much preferred the ergonomics — no massive “hockey stick” GM multifunction stalk with fiddly buttons everywhere on it — instead, nothing but high beams and cruise control on the stalk. Headlights/panel dimming and wipers/intermittent speed were on a set of concentric knobs and rings on the ends of the new, sleeker instrument pod, similar to the A60 series Toyota Supra.
The Corsica was phenomenally popular, to the point that when the new replacement Malibu came out, buyers were walking past it on the lot to purchase the last of the Corsicas — even lightly-used ones — instead of the Malibu. In general, the L-body and N-body cars were so successful that they seemed to risk cannibalizing sales of later GM cars. I found that as time went on, GM did not want to sell parts to keep L- and N- body cars on the road. They didn’t stock them, didn’t want to stock them, and didn’t support the aftermarket for making them. L- and N- bodies eventually left the road not because they were all rusting away and no one wanted them (Their galvanizing and rust-resistance was often very good!) — they vanished because the parts supply dried up right when they were reaching the ages were repair and rebuilding would have been essential to keep otherwise sound cars on the road. By then, a financially struggling GM wanted people to buy their newer (and not necessarily better) cars, not fix up their old ones that were embarrassingly better in some ways.
That’s the GM way, though. They build great cars, then they kill off great cars.
Anyway, thanks for the great article Mercedes! It’s in the Glovebox for sure. I’ll always fondly remember my Z52!
Great comment (like an article-let) and is likely the hardest answer to a very autopian trivia question – name all of Chevy’s Z-series models from the 80s/90s. The other tough one being the Lumina Z34 of course.
Yep. My mom got a ‘91 LT with the Z52 package in late 1991 after my father died. I was just a young lad (having been born in the fall of 1989) and she needed something more practical for baby hauling than the two-door Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais she previously drove. Enter the former program car Corsica from Tichenor Chevrolet in Hartford, Kentucky.
She drove that car like a bat out of hell for 10 years and 175,000 miles. Mom passed away unexpectedly in 2001 at just 40-years-old and my stepdad stupidly sold the Corsica as soon as he could. My grandpa wanted to store it away for me to have when I turned 16 in 2005, but no dice.
I was looking for a V6 Corsica like mom’s when I found my Sunbird on Facebook marketplace in 2018. Fond memories growing up in that Chevy.
AS I recall you could really throw the Z52 around hard.
The handling was pretty superb considering what the Corsica was.
I know I did. It did not behave like a conventional front-wheel drive car of the times. The suspension was firm without being as punishingly hard as many prior GM performance suspension efforts. They managed to dial in good compliance with progressively firmer spring rates that worked remarkably well. If I recall, the struts and shocks were the typical nitrogen-filled plus simple variable valve type, nothing particularly new in the 90s but still often only found on more expensive cars. They just managed to get everything working together really well while still using very conventional suspension parts.
My mother had a new Corsica when I turned 16 in 1988. I rolled it a week after I got my license, still had the temporary giant paper license folded up in my wallet. Insurance replaced it with a almost similar model that eventually started dying while in motion because of a faulty chip that would expand under heat and break a connection. You’d have to wait for it to cool down and then everything was normal again. After a couple of control unit replacements under warranty Mom traded it on a Camry.
I’m curious, did she ever go back to an American car after?
I find it funny just how disconnected the executive leaders of these companies are regarding their “import” fighting strategies. It was the build and engineering quality, not a more modern feeling car, that make people flock to and stay with foreign cars.
She stuck with Camrys for 20 years+, then a Sonata hybrid, now a Kia hybrid.
That’s the torque converter clutch solenoid. Common with the GM FWD automatics. Went out in my Sunbird in traffic on Easter Sunday two years ago. Not fun but relatively easily replaced. I unplugged it temporarily until we could get around to fixing it. All it does is cause the torque converter to engage/disengage at cruising speed, so your fuel economy suffers with it unplugged but at least you won’t stall at stoplights.
My drivers education teacher had a 1989 Corsica LTZ hatchback when I was learning to drive.
I found it to be a very nice car for its time.
From a ‘good to drive’ perspective, it was better than the 1982 Mercury Grand Marquis my dad had, waaaay better than the shitbox Chevette my sister had and better than the 1986 Pontiac 6000 with the 3 speed auto/Iron Duke 4cyl my brother had.
These L body cars were essentially better J-body cars that only cost a bit more.
The only car from that time that was nicer to drive was my sister-in-law’s 1987 Mazda RX7. Of course that was a much more expensive car.
Since it was a Beretta sedan (basically) all the good bits came from the parts bin. Almost zero development costs. More profitable than the base model. It might be obscure, but it’s still a win, corporate-wise.
Goddamn, bring that kind of dashboard design back.
It’s Chevy Chwednesday!
I think I had a base model Corsica as a rental car once, it was white, and completely forgettable. My problem is that from the late 80s through mid 90s my family had a Chrysler Conquest TSi (Mitsubishi Starion) so there wasn’t a Corsica package that could compete with that for coolness.
I love how in that picture of the front seat area, you can plainly see that half of the instrument cluster is a fricking gas gauge. That’s the most GM thing I think I’ve ever seen. Who needs a big-ass gas gauge?
On the LT and LTZ the signature GM Bigass Gas Gage (trademarked spelling) was replaced by a tach.
I have a soft spot for GM’s “Stick a little red stripe on it” phase.
haha me 2, my 93′ Grand AM GT had one, I love jaunty red stripes lol
Worked great with the black cars, I must say
I still see these every once in awhile. There was also a loud-piped Beretta Z26 in my neighborhood as a kid – if people think a straight-piped VQ sounds bad, a straight piped Chevy V6 from the ’90s will move those goalposts slightly further. Just slightly.
The Beretta probably had a version of the Quad 4. In general, the Beretta performance options usually leaned towards rev-happier four-cylinder power. Unfortunately, the Quad 4 was potent but also the poster child for NVH, and a loud exhaust is definitely not going to help.
On the other hand, I’m in the camp that thinks the 2.8 / 3.1 liter V6 has a delightfully snarly sound. And most stock GM exhaust systems attached to them tended to be free-flowing enough so that the engine’s intake plenum and venturi tubes would breathe correctly. The fuel map on the Corsica LTZ and Z52 worked well with it and was noticeably louder through the stock exhaust straight off the showroom floor.
No, this absolutely was the V6. It’s just the kid put the cheapest straight-through exhaust he could on it, I’m pretty sure, and it made a “whargarbl” noise as it drove by.
The hotness of exhaust sound. All the GM 60 deg V6 engines sound great with uncorked exhaust.. Us cool 1990s HS kids would cut off the muffler and put Pacesetter tips from JC Whitney on them, or just a boom tube in general. Great sounds especially with a 5 speed for downshifting etc.
All the way through the 3.9 version these are great motors that need minimal maintenance to survive a long time. Biggest flaw was intake gaskets needing replacement on some 3.1 models but not a big deal to replace. People love to whine about nonsense. The X cars basically set the blueprint for 90% of GM FWD architecture for the next 2 decades. I’ll take my notchback 87 Z24 and see myself out now.
The GM 60° V6 with shitty exhaust is/was the mating song of trailer park dwellers across this great nation.
My only real recollection of them is being called a trailer park car. They seemed to have that reputation I never saw tons of them but they were definitely on the road and in trailer parks. I do recall a very redneck family I knew had a fleet of them for several years. There were no trailer parks in that area but they would have fit right in with that stereotype. Seems like most people stepped up the the bigger square gms like a celebrity or cutless. It does seem like it could be a sleeper with a 2.8 and a 5spd they were fairly small and probably pretty light.
so ugly
Not just modern enthusiasts, they were overlooked by enthusiasts of the day as well. They were totally forgettable cars within two years of being offered for sale. No one ever bought a Corsica and thought they were cool, at least the Beretta GTZ looked slightly jarring in teal with those aggro sawblade wheels.
My college car (until it threw a rod) was a Beretta GT with the 3.1 V6 and the 5-speed. It was a surprisingly good car, got really decent mileage, and could even tow a small trailer across the country. The Corsica was definitely more practical, but harder to find with the V6 and 5-speed.
I still sorta want a teal or purple Beretta GTZ or Z26 with the matching alloys, with the Quad-4 and 5-speed.
I grew up in So Cal and feel like the Corsica and Beretta were cars I barely ever saw, even in their heyday. Aside from the fact that the market was generally ruled by the imports, it seemed like most buyer who went GM either bought the Pontiac version in this size, drove the prior gen Celebrity (including my Mom in the late 80s) or stepped up in size to the Lumina.
Cool article!
I never knew about the XT, as I’m sure not many of them made it to Wisconsin.
I rented a ton of these while travelling for work back in the ’90s, but never knew they were available with a 5-speed. Some friends of mine had Berettas (they called them ‘Burritos’ and one of those even had the Quad-4), and those were 5-speeds, but I never saw a Corsica with a stick.
I learned something new today. Thanks!
My dad bought me a black Corsica as my first car. I don’t remember the trim, but it was black, with tinted windows, and had the luggage rack spoiler combo out back. 16 year old me thought it was sweet.
Unfortunately, something went wrong with it a few weeks after he bought it, and then I got a Plymouth Laser sold from under me, and then a friend’s brother’s Eclipse was too ratty for my dad to stomach. So I ended up with a hand-me-down Taurus. At least it was a nice 90’s forest green.
Heck with a Corsica, I want that S-IQ pickup!
yeah that sounds sick
I am disappointed to tell you that S-IQ is just a bizarre error from the Internet Archive. Also, thank you for having better eyes than I do! It’s been corrected to the much more boring S-10.
I sent it over to my ex-sister in law, she used to drive a 2.5 4 cylinder S-10 she called The Iron Lung (nee Duke). She got a huge laugh remembering her sick S-10!
Something may be wrong with me, but I’m a sucker for the styling of GM’s milquetoast late 80s sedans. The Corsica, Beretta, Achieva, Cutlass Supreme. All of those shark-nosed lean wedge designs. It works for me. In contrast, the first Taurus just kind of looks like a big heavy bar of soap. Revolutionary car, yes, but I never fell for it.
But then we get to the GM interiors. They’re really bad. So bad it almost adds to the charm.
Back in the 80s we joked that someone took a wax LTD and melted it into a Taurus.
I’m with you! The Beretta makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, while the Taurus does nothing for me.
The 1992 interior redesign corrected a multitude of GM sins. It was much more unified with the exterior styling, the controls felt higher-quality, and the materials — including plastics — were much better.
These were right awesome cars. For a brief spell in the mid to late 2000s, you could pick up a clean v-6 stick model with hardly over 100k miles for the same price as a washer and dryer set, and you can bet your ass it would run and run and run and run until the salt reclaimed the unibody back to the earth.
I remember really liking the look of the Beretta (and Corsica) when they came out. They looked so much better than the other GM garbage. I even saw one of each inside of a mall as a coming soon advertisement. I did not realize they held out that long even into the Saturn era.
I definitely appreciated the Beretta more than the Corsica. The more I learned about performance cars, the less interesting I fond these things, their performance was unable to match the styling.
In the late 80s FOR SURE!