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Everything You Wanted to Know About the Chevrolet Beretta
Chevrolet Beretta, a front wheel drive couple, was produced
by General Motors from 1987 to 1996. It was based on the GM L platform and
built in General Motors plants based in Delaware, Wilmington and Linden. The
Beretta was designed in the Exterior Studio 3, much like other popular General
Motors cars such as the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette Chevrolet. Chevrolet
Beretta is no longer under production.
Chevrolet Beretta - History
The Beretta was originally introduced in 1987 as a small two
door coupe. It was one of the most fuel efficient cars in the market at that
time. Chevrolet never quite achieved any
great success with the Beretta, as two-door coupes never really did catch the
fancy of the public.
Chevrolet went on to
make 6 different models of the Beretta – the base model, GT, GTU, GTZ, Z26 and
finally the Indy.
The first Chevy Beretta had two engines, the 4 cylinder 2.0L
engine and an optional a 2.8L V6 that came with a manual transmission. The V6 engine
was eventually upgraded to 3.1L and delivered over 140hp. The Beretta GTU was introduced in 1988. It came in three
different colors – red, black and white and had a stiff suspension.
The Beretta GTZ was sold from 1990 to 1993. It
was a high performance car powered by Oldsmobile's 2.3L High Output Quad 4. It
produced 180hp and 160ft of torque. It came with FE7 performance suspension and
a Getrag 5-speed manual transmission.
The Beretta Indy was manufactured in 1990. It was visually
appealing and designed beautifully. It was a sports car with striking looks and
came in attractive bright colors. The Indy was available as a convertible as
well, but only as part of a limited edition.
Beretta Z26, sold in 1994 was a more powerful car that ran
on a 3100 series engine. Chevrolet wanted to up the ante and introduced a far
more powerful engine to go with the 1994 Beretta, the Quad Four, which
delivered 210hp. But it was only for a limited edition model.
Why Chevrolet Suddenly Stopped Making the
Beretta?
There were many reasons for Chevrolet to stop the production
of the Beretta. The most important factor was that two-door coupes were never
really all that popular in the US. The second reason was that Chevrolet found
itself at risk of losing a high-profile court battle over the brand name,
“Beretta”, which was also used by a German gun manufacturer. The third reason
was that Beretta was found to be too expensive and was made in limited
quantities. The various Beretta models had short life-cycles and so never
really made much money for the company.
Final Thoughts
There is a lot of curiosity about the Beretta. It was
styled like a sports car, but wasn’t really one. It was reasonably fuel
efficient and had a great design. The engine performance was good - the V6
engine delivered 165hp, which is more than enough power for passing on the
highway. The transmission was reliable too. It was a good car and had many
innovative features when introduced for the first time in 1987. But it never
really did catch on.
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