Like cramming right before a test, GM thought it could also get away with cutting corners on the Chevy
Corsica. Considered a model for the down-to-earth buyer, this late ‘80s retro vehicle proved to be forgetful and borderline offensive. Just because it's affordable, doesn't mean it's worthy of being bought. What made the Corsica one of Chevy’s worst cars?
Barely good enough to be a rental car
The Corsica was actually born a rental car
. GM first introduced the autos to fleet customers in 1987, before the general public could get their hands on one. You may have recalled seeing one of these compact cars at a Dollar or Avis rental shop. The Chevy Corsica was produced until 1996 and was built upon the L-body platform. The Corsica also had a two-door sister, the Beretta. The Beretta actually had a couple of notable performance versions like the GTU and GTZ (which featured Oldsmobile’s Quad 4 engine).
“Every model before and since that came as both a two-door and four-door had one name and common sheet metal. Back then they all came in two-door, four-door, convertible, and wagon,” according to MotorBiscuit
. But the same can't be said for the Corsica and Beretta…and Chevy marketed the two cars differently. GM featured a Cavalier front-wheel-drive suspension and rear axle in the Corsica. According to MotorBiscuit, “Fewer body seams, no end caps, and lots of two-sided galvanized steel added to what GM hoped would be a cheaper car without consumers seeing the cheap.” Buyers could get a 2.0-liter engine with 90 hp or a 2.8-liter V6.
However, it was different from your typical run-of-the-mill rental car. Its powertrain came with an optional 3.1-liter V6 engine with 185 lb-ft of torque. The Corsica offered some much-needed excitement to car rental lots. Employees were known to write their names on the pavement with one of these.
But the plastic interior cracked, sagged, and warped within no time. Not the car that would impress someone on a first date, especially with those cheap seats. It took about a year for the paint to delaminate from both the Corsica and Beretta. Clear coating flaking off as you drive into the sunset—not a good look.
As we’ve seen with other GM models from the ‘80s, owners experienced blown head gaskets, clogged fuel injectors, problematic alternators, and air conditioning failures. Maybe you’d want to reconsider taking this unreliable car on a summer road trip
across the country. And the Chevy Corsica just kept getting worse
MORE: Doug DeMuro Says a BMW Is the Worst Car He’s Ever Reviewed
Chevy had a vision to convert Bertettas into convertibles. According to MotorBiscuit, “Five examples made it to the 1990 Indy 500 as pace cars. But the quality and amount of reinforcement necessary to compensate for the missing top were never sorted out.”
Rear impact tests also didn’t go so well. The $20 million dollar investment never made it to the general public.
Don’t even try to call it a family car. In fact, anyone who loves their family wouldn’t be caught dead passing this sub-par vehicle on to the next generation.
The mediocre car had a small trunk and virtually no legroom. Its body panels, though easy and cheap to repair, were an eyesore. According to Autotrader
, “Once you experienced their stupid door-mounted seat belts (set way too far forward, due to the Corsica’s short doors), you understood why GM was in trouble.” Skimping on quality came back to haunt the Corsica
The Corsica also featured computer-controlled multi-port fuel injection and 95% of the duds were painted white. A lot of them shared door keys as well. Is that really the smartest idea?
Throughout the years, the Chevy Corsica did receive improvements to its engine,, but by then it was probably too late. “GM is notorious for offering the bleakest of specs and options upon initial release. Then, over the years, it improves and fixes what it didn’t get right in the beginning,” MotorBiscuit notes.
On the off chance you see one of these useless vehicles cruising around town, just be glad you’re not driving it.
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