Forgotten Cars of the 80s/90s: Chevrolet Corsica Hatchback (1989-91), Answering the Unasked Question
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Learn more about the Chevrolet Corsica and the Corsica Hatchback. While the Corsica was a very popular car, the hatchback never really took off.
The Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance were also hatchbacks, even though they looked like sedans from the outside. The first-generation Geo Prizm was available as a 5-door hatchback as well. And the SAAB 900 and 9000 were hatchbacks too, although they were much more expensive.
As were the Mopar Lancer/LeBaron duo. The 1st Gen ToyoNova, the Camry had a 5 door until 1986 too.
Americans did not like the hatchback form factor, but loved the extra room and utility--as long as it wasn't in a wagon. A hatchback sedan was supposed to be the best of both worlds. But even going back to the Nova (which was available in a similar design), they just never sold very well.
I had two Corsica's for field work with the USDA. They were absolutely adequate. The cars throttle was either wide open or my foot was on the brake, especially with the A/C on. They were comfortable and I was usually on roads that could barely qualify for roads and they did surprisingly well. Nothing like coming up to a locked gate in a National Forest and having to go back through the soup I just went through. The tall grass made the bottom of the car nice and shiny though. But back on the road and it would drive as nice as ever. 1000 miles a week I'd drive.
Granted, the newest Corsica is now approaching 30 years old, but it's strange to think a car that was so popular has virtually disappeared from our streets. I knew at least a few people who drove them; not surprisingly all of them had sedans. It was a car I gave little thought at the time. If younger me were to get an L-body, I would have wanted the Beretta GTZ. Given that they both had 2.3L fours, C&D actually did a comparison test between the Beretta GTZ and the BMW E30 M3! The M3 outperformed it, but C&D also pointed out the GTZ was no slouch itself - especially since it was much less expensive.
I feel like most GM passenger cars and mopar as well from this era are a super rare sight. (Except the notably collectible models like Camaros and the like.)
They could have gotten away from the aliens if the Corsica hadn’t broken down.
You're friggin out of luck mate! Prepare to be probed.
We bought one new in 1990. Really liked that car. 3.1 v6 decent room. I always remember the exhaust note that the V6 put out - very different and I could always distinguish it from other V6 vehicles. 200.000 plus miles and she finally let go with compression in number 6 cylinder. My wife and I always reflect on how we miss that car.
I never understood why the U.S. has been so indifferent to larger hatchbacks. For a few extra dollars, you get more flexibility, a fully finished trunk, and sometimes a few extra cubic feet of trunk space. I enjoyed my Dodge Lancer and was always a fan of the Citation and the Malibu Max, so I assume I'd have liked this car. Maybe if the marketed a hatchback with identical looks to the sedan and called it a "flexible access option" it would loose the "cheap car" stigma. I did drive a Corsica V6 sedan for a few days and it seemed like a much nicer car than a similar N body would have been; it felt roomier, looked less dated and had more adjustments in the 4-way manual driver's seat. Not bad for a rental car.
I like how Adam is branching out into the 90s cars as that is basically classic car territory now. Hope to see a video on the end of the GM B bodies 1996 Caprice, Impala, Roadmaster.
I'm afraid I have to tell you this but the nineties was thirty years ago? I know, I can't understand it either? In 1993, thirty years ago was the sixties....
Instant memory of my '96 Impala SS in Dark Cherry. Gorgeous car. Bought new and sold four years later for almost as much as I paid for it. An experience never to be repeated, I'm sure.
Thow were cool rides. Especially in police form as a wagon.
Nice to see Adam reviewing cars from this period, but for me, they will NEVER be considered "classic" cars.
I love the 92 Caprice that I inherited.
A reliable, if humble in horsepower 305, plenty of room, cheap and easy to maintain, and NOTHING rides on the highway like an American, body on frame, rear wheel drive design.
Not even the best Lexus comes close.
I've had many passengers who are BLOWN AWAY by the room and comfort, often commenting how it is better than hugely expensive luxury cars that they've been in or owned.
At over 200,000 miles, it still starts and runs great, we have never had to replace a major component, and I STILL think it looks futuristic with its flowing, smooth, whale like lines which consistently gets looks and questions from strangers.
And guess what... those very smooth lines and modest (but very adequate) power numbers allow this huge car to get 30 mpg on the highway, with no weird hybrid electric wizardry.
Just plain, old, common sense engineering and design can do it...
Let's go GM... do it again!
My Grandma still has her 1996 Chevy Corsica to this day.
The Corsica and Beretta were everywhere back then. The updated 3.1 V6 models had decent acceleration for the time and a nice exhaust note. I can't remember the last time I saw one driving around though. They're nearly extinct now, at least in the snow belt states.
I have not seen one in years.
A buddie had a Beretta with a Quad 4 and a 5 speed. Stupid car was pretty quick!
like Vegas and Pintos. Even out here in California , Corsica and Beretta rarely seen. And I am a former owner of a brand new off the lot black GTZ Quad 4 5 speed. so fun to drive
Have a neighbor in Greeley CO that's got one AND a grand am . Both are faded but run great.
I owned a Beretta and put over 100,000 miles on it over the course of seven years. The paint peeled, the dashboard warped, and the seat fabrics split apart. The headliner fell. The car basically disintegrated with exposure to daylight and fresh air. The 3.1 V6 was quick and it was pretty cool at first (I really liked the fluid and futuristic dashboard design), but by the end all of the plastics had become brittle both inside the passenger compartment and under the hood, and I was constantly fixing things. A leak behind the dashboard let water pool under the passenger side seat, and ultimately the floor and the seat bracket rusted out.
The Corsica hatchback offered no advantage over the sedan, as it's hatch slope was not buch different from the sedan's rear window and trunk lid. They might have sold better if the roof line had been extended to be more like a station wagon and had a more vertically sloped lift gate, thus giving more cargo capacity. In recent years, the Chevy Cruse hatchback suffered the same fate, even with a slightly elongated roof line. It still did not provide much more useful cargo capacity.
I bought a 1988 Corsica CL with the 2.8 V6 engine. It had more upscale seats and a touring suspension. It was the best handling car I ever owned. It had good acceleration, hugged the curves like a European touring car, and a very smooth ride for a car in its class. My family took many a road trips in that car to the mountains and the beach. It was a great daily commute car as well. I think Chevy was really on to something with the Corsica. If they had invested in tweaking the exterior and interior appointments, it could have developed a major market share compared to similar sized vehicles.
My friends dad worked at a GM plant that produced these and the Beretta so he would bring home all types of brochures, posters, etc… they ended up owning both. I think the Corsica died first…
Did he bring home “One Piece At A Time “ by Johnny Cash?
I owned a '93 Corsica LT with the famed Z52 Sport package... It included a sport steering wheel, red stripe on the moldings 15" alloy wheels and a slightly beefier suspension. It was the archetypical rental vehicle but was a lot of car for the money. I bought one slightly used from a Ford dealer in NJ with less than a 1000 miles on it owned by an old lady, even left the bingo chips in the car. It served me well for about 10 years took some trips from NY to Fl with it. It was built during a time when American cars were engineered to last 100,000 miles before major repairs were nearly guaranteed. When I donated it to a charity in I believe 2004 the tow truck driver said that is the best condition Corsica I have ever seen and was surprised I was donating it 😎
Boy, these add put a smile on your face. Thanks for making this videos!
I didn't like these as a kid. But I want one now. They're pretty rare and kinda cool.
I have fond memories of my departed uncle who was a sales manager for a Chevrolet dealer in the late 80s. I remember driving in so many brand new demo Corsicas, Berettas, Celebrity Eurosports…and even an occasional Monte Carlo SS.
I don’t recall ever driving in a Corsica hatchback….but in my opinion it was Chevy’s way of offering a utilitarian version without actually offering a station wagon…since in ‘89 Chevy already offered a Cavalier, Celebrity and Caprice wagon.
3 different Chevy wagons in the same showroom, those were the days.
A good but forgettable car. I remember the drivers ed place I used as a teen in the mid 90’s has all Corsicas (not the hatch).
I then had a 95 or 96 Beretta Z26. I loved that car as a late teen/ early 20’s guy.
I had both a Corsica and a Berreta. The Beretta was a rocket with the 3.1L.
Interesting. I never saw a hatchback Corsica. I did get a 1990 4 cyl. Corsica in the mid 2000's for $50 and a case of beer. It needed a transmission - I replaced that and a freind drove the thing another 60,000 miles or so before junking it. They were ok work cars, not too bad, not too good. Good enough.
Thanks Adam! The long-form Corsica ad doesn't look like it was for broadcast. It looks like it was a commercial meant for theaters. That being said, it's nightmare inducing and weird. Somewhere I have a tape of the two guys that wrote the Chevrolet "Heartbeat" jingle being interviewed about their craft. I need to put it on YT.
The two hottest trends in advertising:
1) Show people trapped in your product, terrified and screaming
2) Show grotesque, horrifying alien creatures fawning over your product
How much coke were they using back then, anyway!?
My driver's ed test in high school was in a burgundy Chevrolet Corsica! That's how I always remember it!
We got crappy Cavaliers.
Owned a 93 burgundy one with the 3.1 V6. One of the best cars I ever owned.
We had a baby blue Corsica 4 cylinder for drivers ed. Hated practicing interstate on ramp merges in that thing. Lots of noise but did not go anywhere too quickly in that thing.
We had a Buick with dual controls. I knew how to drive but I thought some of the others were going to get me killed.
Same here, except our Corsica was white….
I had an 88 Corsica that I bought with 38k on it. Drove it 200k more. It took a couple of good mechanics to get it to run properly. The mass air flow sensor, coil packs and a few other bugs were common faults. Efi was new for Chevy, the dealers struggled with it.
That first commercial was weird! It had Dinah Shore in a 57 BelAir in space. How did I not ever see or remember this?
I’m just sayin’, the advertising creatives behind the alien ad must have consumed copious amounts of cocaine to come up with that one.
I had forgotten these cars. Thanks for bringing them back to my mind. They were perfectly good and perfectly forgettable! I love your channel!!!
We had a 1989 Chevy Corsica LTZ 2.8 v6 which I guess was the "sporty" version with different suspension. But I heard that the first 9,000 went to fleet sales so GM could get feedback before selling them to consumers because they really needed the car to succeed 🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️
Love it, I remember buying a used Corsica for my middle daughter for her first car. It was a 4 door sedan with the 3.1 V6. That car went through so much with her driving it. She literally smashed all four corners of that poor car (not at once) and it was repaired every time and still ran great. Finally she drove it with a cracked radiator hose and burnt up the engine. I did most o the maintenance on it and it was easy to work on as well. As always, love your videos
Great video! I forgot about these cars, That UFO Commercial was insane!
Big budget commercials lol
I suspect the Corsica Hatchback was meant to fill in the gap left by the discontinuation of the Citation. I remember thinking back in 1987, two years after the Citation had been dropped, that Chevrolet really didn't need a car to fill in the gap between the Cavalier and the Celebrity, especially with the smaller Metro, Spectrum, and Nova adequately competing with the Escort, and the Tempo being roughly the same size as the Cavalier.
My grandfather had a 89 hatchback Corsica 2.8l. Ran well. I remember it having metal door handles which seemed high quality. With the back seat down it had massive space. Even recall camping once and sleeping back there. Only issues he seemed to where the muffler liked to rust out and the ECM went bad once when the car got older. I think it was a better overall car than the 98 Malibu he got to replace it.
The two minute 30 second commercial was first exhibited at that years Chevy dealer convention (1987), and then later ran in theaters as part of the usual sneak previews. I don't think it was ever chopped up into a 30sec commercial, never seen a shorter version of it. It doesn't appear to have run during that years super-bowl. (1987, or 1988) The visual production was done by Boss Film Studios, a prominent American visual effects company at the time with talented names attached to other projects like Star Trek the Motion Picture, The Right Stuff, Ghostbusters, Total Recall, Die Hard, Terminator 2, Aliens 3, etc.
The woman in the Chevy convertible at 9:27 is Dinah Shore who in the 1950's had her own show The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, (thus very appropriate she's in this Chevrolet spot) she had 80 charted popular hit songs, started in radio with numerous popular shows, had several television shows with her name in the title. Prolific career. This commercial certainly had a lot of connections.
My parents had a bright white Tempest when I was about 3-5 I remember it parked in the laneway. My aunt and uncle had a black Corsica with red cord cloth seats about 15-25 years ago. My youngest cousin at the time jumped through the passenger window. Thanks for the memories Adam.
Was the window open or closed? It sort of reminds me of a friend of mine who tried to hurl a beer bottle out the window, but forgot that it was closed and shattered it. I told him it served him right for littering.
This to me is the perfect example of Roger Smith era odd product planning decisions. Developing and tooling this must have cost a fortune, all to fill a market need that only existed in the minds of GM executives.
The Ford equivalent to this was adding a V6 and AWD option to the Tempo/Topaz late in its life cycle.
Yea what bizarre idea it was to add AWD to the tempo/topaz line. From what I heard it was a not very great unit as well. That Vulcan V6 however was a real goer.
I pretty much remember all car ads over the years as they were often shown during TV sporting events, but for the life of me I do not remember that sci-fi ad for the Corsica. 😂
Thats something they showed to the dealers who all puked.
Regarding the bizarre alien abduction ad, I have many questions. Did all of the cloned vehicles have their occupants trapped inside for all eternity? The woman who winks from her 50's convertible didn't seem to mind. Why did the aliens only collect Chevrolets? Did the aliens end up driving the cars?
That was Dinah Shore who sang the famous "See The USA In A Chevrolet" jingle in the 1950s and 60s.
I had the same thoughts regarding the occupants. That's kinda creepy and disturbing when you think about it.
never knew about that 80s alien commercial!! THANKS GOVNA!
Wow, that Sci Fi commercial was awful. I appreciate the theme, but it was too distracting and took the focus away from the car. It must have been a one and done Super Bowl commercial because I don't remember it.
Super Bowl is the only possible explanation!
My mother in law had one. Other than GM's quick succession of names which always confused the heck out of me - (Celebrity, Corsica and eventually a return to Malibu) - the Chevrolet was competitive at the time. Speaking of which - the competition offered us the Ford Tempo and Plymouth Acclaim during this forgotten era.
Lumina.
This and the Celebrity were 2 different cars. The Corsica/Berreta duo were Citation replacements, which in turn were Nova replacement. The Celebrity was a Malibu replacement which then became the Lumina and then the Impala. Malibu was then resurrected in 1997 on the Corsica replacement.
FIRST OF ALL... Adam is a "DOG💪🏼🐶💪🏽" when it comes to product knowledge, frequency of video releases and just overall IQ... ngl I've learned at least 8 "new" words since I hit the 🛎 on this channel.
SECOND THING at 1:45🙄😳 _WTF_ is happening with those tires on that Buick they look like Dodge Demon front drags all the way around!🤣
@8:37 That alien (are we allowed to call them that?) is wearing what looks to be an old Impala emblem on a chain around his neck, like a rapper!
Weird commercial - I don't remember seeing it back then.
me neither
A shame that stylish, but practical cars don't exist at GM anymore.
I love the 92 Caprice that I inherited.
A reliable, if humble in horsepower 305, plenty of room, cheap and easy to maintain, and NOTHING rides on the highway like an American, body on frame, rear wheel drive design.
Not even the best Lexus comes close.
I've had many passengers who are BLOWN AWAY by the room and comfort, often commenting how it is better than hugely expensive luxury cars that they've been in or owned.
At over 200,000 miles, it still starts and runs great, we have never had to replace a major component, and I STILL think it looks futuristic with its flowing, smooth, whale like lines which consistently gets looks and questions from strangers.
And guess what... those very smooth lines and modest (but very adequate) power numbers allow this huge car to get 30 mpg on the highway, with no weird hybrid electric wizardry.
Just plain, old, common sense engineering and design can do it...
Let's go GM... do it again!
Guy down the street just blew his Northstar Cadillac at 100,000 miles. GM reliability!. Bought it at 91000 miles. Boy does he look stupid. Its going to the scrapper.
Cars that this car "competed" with...
Many practical, mainly foreign cars, that combined sedan looks with hatchback practicality.
Like models from Volvo, Saab, Audi, VW, and a number of market target Japanese sedans as well as America's own Chrysler small Horizon and Sundance models, which looked exactly like sedans, but were in fact, very functional hatchbacks.
This is a style that is the best of both worlds, no negatives that I can think of, and especially with today's "fastback" design (with dismal mail-slot trunk access), something that should come back.
So many modern cars have this same design, but with fixed glass.... such a small change as allowing that glass to open with the trunklid would GREATLY increase trunk access and overall practicality!
Remember the 80s Saab commercials with the smallish 900 carrying a sofa in its rear, because of its practical hatch?
Something you don't know that you need it until you need it, and increased access the rest of the time as a bonus.
GM needs to do this NOW, when they finally understand that people still want cars, with gas at high prices.
Korea and Japan understand that chasing the SUV trend is great, but not at the expense of other, lower volume options because, as we can demonstrate over and over, tastes and priorities change, and companies that have models in ALL segments do the best.
This is why Kia's mediocre minivan is currently selling at 30% above MSRP.
American companies have largely stopped selling vehicles in this market with zero anticipation of high gas prices and changing tastes, which ALWAYS HAPPENS.
Don't put all of your eggs in one basket, a lesson that GM USED to know!
In short, other than a few hundred dollars invested in a 30,000 car, what is the DOWNSIDE to having the rear glass open with the trunk and giving some SUV functionality to a sleek, fastback-roofed car?
Great ET-inspired Chevy ad. Aliens even cloned popular singer, actress & early mega TV star Dinah Shore floating by in ‘57 Chevy convertible harkening to her famous ‘50’s ads for Chevy belting out one of the greatest ad jingles in history, “See the USA in a Chevrolet!” Thanks Adam!
_WE NEED MORE VIDS "FROM THE" 80's 90's & Aught's FROM THIS GENIUS!_
Adam you ARE the man sir 🙏🏽
Shit box, had an 89 Tempest with the 2.0l. Head gasket issue, heater core, noisy pistons when cold, on top of scary braking distance. The only GM I would ever owned.
I've always had a soft spot or the Corsica. I never cared for the hatchback, but still to this day think that the sedan is a clean, attractive design. Had a Beretta for a few years, and that's a good looking model as well.
I bought a 92 Corsica in 1993 and drove it for 10 years putting on over 240,000 kms. It was an excellent car other than the air conditioning and after 200,000 km the coil packs drove me nuts. Very reliable car overall and greatly missed. Probably the only fwd cars GM made in the late 80s/early 90s that were better than this were the A bodies. Thanks for covering this car.
Thanks for an interesting feature on a car I'd forgotten about. It blows my mind that the sedan outsold the hatch by such a wide margin. Who WOULDN'T want the added practicality of the hatchback with virtually no downside? The hatch looked virtually identical to the sedan except for the backlight. In GM's defense, it was probably small change to develop the hatch as the basic sedan body was used and the number of distinct hatch parts needed to be developed was relatively small. Americans are fools for not embracing hatchbacks. I've never understood it. The Corsica wasn't exciting but was one of the better FWD GM platforms of the day.
My wife had a 3.1 V6 Sedan. Trouble free. Very good car.👍
The 3.1 had a flaw though...after the first 100 thousand miles or so, the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets had to be replaced...other than that, it was a reliable and fairly powerful engine.
@@curbozerboomer1773 Those were the 94 and later 3.1s.
I had a 1992 Corsica with the 3.1L. I still think fondly of that car. It was comfortable, handled really well, and got good gas mileage even with the 6 cyl. Made many road trips in that car.
Thank you Adam. Very well stated and quite informative. I remember Corsica. I also know it was sold in Canada as the Pontiac Tempest as well. I saw one here in the United States one time. It does look like that early Saturn by the way. This is when GM started getting into trouble with its brands. The Heartbeat of America.... That's today Chevrolet!
I disagree with your view on Corsica exterior styling. I think it looks modern, sleek, and classy. The Beretta was even nicer.
This subscriber Enjoys your videos. I think a whole new realm for you would be a look into the costs and profits of some of these cars that you as a bean-counter So well describe. For example how much door handles cost, how much profit was made on certain lines or products. For example I heard Ford made 0 money on the entire escort program but more than a billion dollars of profit on the pinto program. most of us would love a breakdown from your bean counter expertise. It would be very interesting to see the Japanese car profits versus the domestic car profits. Please look into this for us. Thank you
I bought a 88Corsica sometime in the mid nineties. It was an ok car. Had to put a heater core in it. After that everything started going bad. Traded it for a 71 Chevy pickup with the low geared tranny.
I really miss color keyed interiors.
Every now and then carmakers answer a question no one asked.
A decade later they'd try again with the Malibu Maxx.
I had a 94 Corsica and I disagree that the exterior is plain Jane. I thought especially for it’s time the car looked very sleek.
Excellent video, Adam. The Chevrolet marketing people smoked some pretty hard stuff, didn’t they?😂
That outer space ad was stupid. Apparently I never saw it because who could forget a stupid ad like that??
Inherited a 95 from Mom in law. The 3.1 is a very peppy engine and dependable, had to repair intake gasket (oil leak) and water pump.
I had an 88 GT Beretta with the 2.8 ltr the forerunner to the 3.1. Other than regular maintenance/wear items, I put 1 alternator, 1 coil pack, 1 CV axle, and 1 clutch that took that car a quarter of a million miles. The only recurring problem was I had to replace the radiator 3 freaking times. The last time I bought one, the guy handed me a boxed radiator and asked if I needed radiator hoses. I politely said no, and he told me that they recommend replacing the hoses with the radiator. I explained that the car had 205,000 miles on it and this is the 3rd radiator I'm replacing and it still has the original hoses, so if anything, I needed a radiator made out of that hose material. I sold that car with close to 260k miles for a thousand dollars. I know they didn't have a great reputation, but that car was quick (with an improved ECU Prom), got great mileage, and is still the best dollar value car I've ever owned. I thought they were great cars.
Interesting, Chevrolet didn't find it necessary to drive home the importance of safety. Half the time in the commercial, the family
chose not to ware their seat belts.
I would venture to say that the hatchback may have had something to do with Nascar or IMSA testing. Maybe even the SCCA. Possibly a homologation for a racing series.
What a terrible commercial!
They must not have run that alien ad much. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that.
Excellent styling on this GM car. You can’t tell it’s a hatchback
The 4 cylinder 3 speed auto is what I drove for drivers ed, it would not get out of it’s own way, lol
Corsica, there’s a car that was built to forget.
The automotive equivalent of a gas station spork.
As long as we’re remembering , don’t forget the fun issue with the cv boot clamp cutting the oil filters open on the 4cyl.
Interesting video. I remember “The Heartbeat of America” commercials. At the time I thought there were quite a few Corsicas and Berettas on the road. Back when GM was trying to emulate the imports and not doing a very good job. But many interesting ideas and features.
GM probably spent more on the alien ad, than the dashboard design!
Strange Corsica V6 fact: you could almost do a wheelie by flooring it in reverse - you could get the rear wheels to come off the ground if you slammed it into reverse at very low speed while flooring it.
😆
Fun Corsica V6 fact: you could definately ruin your transmission if you slam it into reverse by flooring it at very slow speeds.
🤔🤔
OK but don't tell your dad.
@@paddle_shift I'm sure it was not good in the long term - but if any experienced early transmission failure it was the next owner. I did it while barely crawling forward just so me and my buddies could get a laugh.
That first commercial was wild and I see they even had Dinah Shore in it.
Back in the day, somebody in Southfield MI sold me their 3 year old Corsica sedan real cheap. Only later did I figure out that the difficult to remove stench in the trunk had to have been because something dead had been in it. I tried every cleaner imaginable and only managed to make it tolerable. I hope I wasn't duped into cleaning up a crime scene. The car ran great though.
I’ve never seen that alien ad before. Reminds me of the time around age 8 or 9, in the backseat at night while on a trip to Bay City MI, heading into a fog across the road that seemed to take forever to exit but when we finally did, looked back to see cars zipping right through just a thin band of fog. It was creepy but I’m still a non-believer.
I don’t recall that commercial. What a bizarre way to promote a car.
Pretty close to my peak car crazy years ... and I don't recall a Corsica hatchback. But then again Corsica itself barely registered in my young self. Taurus was THE sedan at the time other than the big RWD holdovers that I really liked.
Excellent intro: Answering a question never asked....an American past time, American car companies, American government, American education, etc.
Brought back such great memories. My first car ever was a 1992 Chevrolet Corsica
@4:30 ... Can't stop seeing a goofy face...
The Corsica hatch always looked a little strange; the hatch just 'tacked on" instead of designed in like the 626. It didn't have a rear wash/wiper either. The sedans were everywhere though.
The Corsica was the definitive rental car and grandma grocery getter of my early 1990s youth (along with base models of the Cutlas Cierra). I did think the Berettas were cool though.
Oh...you said the "C" word - Cimarron
Son-in-law had a red Beretta. Thought it was a handsome car.
Thanks Adam, the commercials at the end were fun forgotten gems!!! 👍👍🙂
The corsica front end is so ugly
what creativity and effort in that commercial!
love the 80s
While living in New York City, I saw an oddity. It was a Corsica, but it wasn't. A strange two-tone color scheme I had never seen before. Red with Gold on the bottom. As I looked closer, I discovered it was a Pontiac Tempest. I figured it must have come down from Canada. That reminded me of the Pontiac Firefly which was a Chevy Sprint that was sold in Puerto Rico. So many cars that Americans never knew existed. BTW, a friend of mine had one of those 40,000 Corsica hatchbacks in Puerto Rico.
Firefly was also sold in Canada. Actually, that was it's main market.
@@roger628 Yes I know. Canada sells its products in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico perhaps being the only U.S. territory where Canadian cars were sold. There were other models as well that were sold in Puerto Rico, not available in the states. But I think the reason was to provide a greater line-up for automakers in a low-income area. This allowed Pontiac a source of income that it otherwise would not have in this particular market.
Oh, that commercial is ODD...
Mom test drove one of these when I was a kid we didn’t get it but these were nice cars that hatchback looks like a handy car to have 👌
Had no idea these were stretched J bodies.
i have pontiac tempest 1992 engine 3.1 v6 great car its the same like corsica i live in israel
I had a Corsica sedan as my company car. It felt junky compared to my Nissan, but it got me around and it was pretty comfortable.
80s Nissans were nicely built cars👍
The Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance were also available as a 5 door hatch. The 5 door was a much stronger seller than the 3 door. Probably the main reason this was green lighted in the first place. I don’t think GM’s top brass knew what a Mazda was yet 😂 The 5 door Ford Escort hatch must’ve been a slap in the face!
I think the Shadow and Escort were more in the Cavalier space rather than Corsica IIRC
Geez I owned a 2 door Sundance hatch and didn't even think about that comparison! Good call.
Oh and that was the first car I bought brand new! Peppy little coupe err hatch 😆
Cool. Kinda forgot about the Corsica and the fact they made a hatch is weird. 😎
I remember these cars! I remember a dark blue one red emblems. My mentor Dan tells me about the Chevy dealership calling him come see the new (insert derogatory term) and they went down a few guys and the 88 Cheyenne and the Chevy Corsica all in a group and they were not admired by the conservative crowd of 1987.
The first binnacle used for the Corsica instrument cluster looks like it could have been lifted from the Pontiac Fiero. Not too often a car commercial tells a mini story, usually they just show a car driving around downtown LA or some other big city. Thanks to Adam for posting.....
The 2:30 commercial was first exhibited at that years Chevy dealer convention (1987), and then later ran in theaters as part of the usual sneak previews. Ran no where else.
I have a 1987 Fiero GT, the Fiero instrument cluster and the Corsica instrument cluster look nothing alike. I have no idea why you think it does.
@@rogergoodman8665 The idea was somewhat copied, the cluster binnacle was rectangular on both the "early" Fiero and "early" Corsica. The cluster binnacle had gages towards the center and control switches towards the ends of the binnacle. The cluster binnacle stood out from a deep-set dash on both. They weren't carbon copies, but it was the same idea. Have a great day.........
Corsica! Along with a few other vehicles of the period these struck me as maxx '90s in my fractured memory. Had one for a spell in a tourquoise-like color as a rental while our then current driver was being repaired after a fender bender. For some absurd reason I enjoyed that POS, which like my soft spot for the later X-bodies, is also an emotion probably best left un-analyzed. Although Mr. Regular would probably enjoy being my shrink during that conversation... has he talked about the Corsica yet? As always, thanks for these Adam, your content tempts this ex-car guy to dive back into the world of junk.
Drat, forgot to mention the Corsica I drove was the updated early '90s flavor (as my above experience was from around '93, I think?), as seeing this video reminded me so strongly of the '90s I spaced the L-body being around since '87; coffee, you've let me down this morning.
I always liked the Corsicas with the red and gray paint scheme
Adam, I find your term 'handsome' engaging and appropriate in your review of most vehicles, however this vehicle is not worthy, really...
Haha fair enough
@@RareClassicCars Mine looked good.
I had a 1989 Corsica 5 door hatch , 5 speed manual V6 , I miss that car , if anyone has one for sale , let me know
1987-90 I DARE YOU to find a FREAKING CUPHOLDER. BUT WTF WAS THAT ACID TRIP COMMERCIAL DUDE??!?!??!!!???