After the first of the year, Chevrolet will bring out a new pair ofcompact front-wheel-drive cars called Corsica and Beretta, the first entriesin the compact market from Chevrolet since it dropped the Citation X-car in1985.
The compact market is a big one, so why did Chevrolet wait two years tobring out successors to the Citation?
Citation was the last of the ill-fated X-cars, mired in controversy overrear brakes that had a tendency to lock up in a panic stop. By waiting twoyears between the last of the X-body Citations and the first L-body Corsicaand Berettas, Chevy hopes it has put enough time between the models so thatbuyers won`t consider the L-cars simply sheetmetal replacements for the X,which they aren`t.
Corsica is a 4-door sedan, Beretta a 2-door coupe, both featuring theaerodynamic look used on the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable. In fact, the cars look like miniature Tauruses.
The cars share much of the mechanical componentry–engines,transmissions, suspensions–of the subcompact J-body Chevy Cavalier. However, the L-body cars are built on the same 103.4-inch wheelbases as the GM N-bodycars (Pontiac Grand AM, Buick Somerset, Olds Calais) and not the 101-inchwheelbase of the Cavalier (Citation was a 105-inch wheelbase).
The base engine is the 2-liter 4-cylinder, same as in the Cavalier, withthe 2.8-liter fuel-injected V-6, same as in the Celebrity, an option teamedwith the Getrag 5-speed manual transmission. Automatic is an option.
They`ll both go into fleet/rental service (Autos/Aug. 31) first inNovember before going on sale to the general public after the first of theyear. Rentals get them first, both to capture attention and to help spotproblems early so that fixes can be made before they go on sale to the public. Chevy expects to sell 233,000 of the two cars combined during theremainder of the 1987 model year with annual production targeted at 450,000 to500,000 after that.
