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1990 Chevrolet Beretta GT* | Back: rv9 |
Specs:
GM 3.1L V6 Port Fuel Injection 140 hp @ 4200 * 185 ft-lbs @ 3200 rpm 3 speed automatic transmission 187 inches long 2900 lbs. approx curb weight. |
Performance:
0-60: ~8.8 seconds. 1/4 mile: ~16.8 seconds Top Speed: 116 mph - governed 60-0: 133 feet. * |
When purchased and how much:
August 1995 for about $9000 CDN with
86,000 km. (about 53,000 miles) Still have it.
Odometer now reads over 210,000km. (130,000 miles)
Intro:
Rolling Violation #10 always has a
* after it. Why? It's not my car. It's my wife's
car.
Why the big stink over who "owns"
the car, especially if I'm married? I don't do front
wheel drive. It's just wrong. At least she bought a Chevy.
And so, Rolling Violation #10 is an
"adopted" car. She's been through a lot since 1997 when I first met
her: (the car, not the wife. Ok, maybe both of them.)
Beretta (Pre-Ray):
Purchased new from Melnick
Motors in 1990, it was traded back in 1995. Nicole had recently
totalled her Sunbird, and was looking for a new car. (The accident
wasn't her fault - and she's not making me say that - it really wasn't
her fault. I have the paperwork.) It was in pretty good shape
and had been well maintained, with only 86,000 km on it, virtually all
of it small town, highway, pampered "little old lady" mileage.
It was black, sporty looking, with
the reddest interior I've ever seen. Air, cruise, tilt, digital dash.
Nicole was hooked. She bought
it - it hadn't even been prepped yet - it had been literally traded in
THAT day.
From 1995 to 1997 the Beretta subsisted
on a steady diet of regular unleaded and oil changes, racking up the mileage
to 146,000 km in July of 1997.
Beretta (post-previous boyfriend)
When I met the Beretta, it
was in need of three things. One, some TLC. Two, some money.
Three, a new alternator. Shortly after meeting Nicole, her car decided
to fall in love with me. That's the only explanation I can come up
with for a formerly reliable car blowing up like it did. :) Nicole
decided to take a chance by calling the new guy who supposedly had 1) tools
and 2) a crush on her. She was right on both counts. It is
extremely tricky to look "cool" when you're trying to figure out how to
get the dang serpentine belt off and you have NO IDEA how the heck you're
going to get a stupid ratchet in there without taking half the front end
apart. Eventually, a little brute force when she wasn't watching
took care of that...
Between 1997 and 2001, the Beretta
managed to rack up mileage and repairs at a rapid clip. First up
was brakes and tires. The tires on there would start hydroplaning
on a humid day. Both rear wheel cylinders needed to be replaced in
1998. Then they needed to be replaced again in 1998. Then one
again in 2001. Unfortunately, this is probably a major contributor
to the permanent "mushy" feel of the brake pedal. The brakes are
fine, just the pedal feel sucks. This is a common Beretta complaint.
Then it was fed new shocks, struts and ball joints. Suprisingly enough,
Darren
was again involved in this!
Another common Beretta complaint has
to do with the door panels and dashes. Over time, the early design
door panel falls apart. From the factory, it's basically held together
with velcro and glue. Unfortunately, no one makes repro parts for
this, so you're left duct taping and bunge cording the door panels back
together. As I write this, the driver's door pull has come off again...
maybe I should be working on the car instead of a web site talking about
the car... naah. :)
Not all is bad about the poor Beretta.
This thing ends up saving my bacon
every winter. Virtually guaranteed that somehere between Christmas
and Valentine's day I'll have blown up my winter car. We've been
"saving" the Beretta in the winter until this happens, and my other cars
(rv9 and rv12) never seem
to last the whole winter without blowing up something. As a result,
I end up driving a FWD car in the winter while my other car gets rebuilt
in the garage/driveway/parking lot.
It's coped with the Florida heat in
July, been driven 18 hours non-stop, been hailed on, and just generally
been >thisclose< to a work-truck. About as close as you can get
for a car.
Lock up Transmission:
Lock up torque converters. Wonderful
when they work, not so wonderful when they act up. Really crappy
when it starts malfunctioning intermittently in the winter. Really
really crappy when it starts going when you're busy house shopping...
What happens when your lock up torque
converter locks up? If you're driving, the engine speed drops by
about 200 rpm and your fuel mileage goes up about 1-2 mpg. The problem
is when you're stopping and it doesn't unlock - the car shudders and eventually
stalls. It's just like driving a stick shift car and trying to stop
without pressing in the clutch. At first, restarting the car will
"fix" it for a while, but it will get worse. Eventually, you'll need
to do a "neutral drop" just to get home, and this kind of abuse will eventually
cook the transmission. While you have it out, replace the steering
rack - it's a lot easier that way.
Over
time, heat causes the solenoid to start deforming and sticking. If
you catch it early, it's pretty easy to change. If you are lazy or
cheap, you'll end up with a dead transmission from the abuse. Don't
ask if I'm lazy or cheap, I'm both. :) If you're really lucky, you might be
able to get the transmission side pan off in the car when it the solenoid dies.
On the replacement tranny, I wasn't so lucky - I had to change the solenoid in 2003
with the pan only loose - I couldn't get remove the pan. Amazingly - NO LEAKS!
More pictures:
Links:
Credits/Disclaimers:
Hail Magnet:
Not quite sure what causes this, but this thing is a hail magnet.
As you might guess from the pictures, this is post paint job. Unfortunately
2001 produced a lot of hail. We weren't able to cover the Beretta
in the fall and the hood is sporting a few dents. It could have been
worse - I've seen people's cars written off from hail damage!
Paint Job:
For a few years around 1990, there were changes in the paint and primer
by GM (and Ford and Chrysler). They had to reduce emissions, and
they changed the paint and primer. Unfortunately, the new stuff had
some delamination problems. (There are a lot of sites covering this
so I won't go into any detail.)
Eventually we'd had enough of the
spotted look, and the decision was made to repaint the car. It's
in pretty good mechanical shape, and it was only the paint and doors that
prevented it from looking in nice shape.
In Fall of 2000, it went into the
paint booth. They only had to sand for about 5 minutes - the pressure
washer took most of the paint off. (Ok, so it was more than 5 minutes,
but apparently the pressure washer really DID take 90% of the paint off!)
Status:
As of Fall 2003, we still have the
car and probably will for a couple more years. The odometer just
hit 210,000 km and it's running fine. I fixed a nagging oil leak
last summer, but she's not quite ready for retirement yet. It always
starts, there's no rust and once I fix the air conditioning and Nicole
fixes the doors there's nothing really wrong with the car. (other
than it's front-wheel-drive.)
If Nicole ever lets me take a good
picture of her car, I'll replace the primered shot at the top of the page
- she has a phobia about pictures and her cars. It seems that within
a few weeks of the picture being taken, the car is totalled.
Latest pic:
www.beretta.net
- lots of links and a mailing list
Some performance specs from Motor
Trend April 1990 issue. (braking)
0-60 & 1/4 mile times are "guesstimates"
from a handful of Beretta GT and GTZ road tests and the stopwatch.
The car has never actually been drag raced - that would be too embarassing
to get waxed by a Honda.
I've seen Hosepower figures of 135
hp and 140 hp for the 90 3.1 V6. The 89's were 135 and the 91's were
140, but depending on where you read you see both for 90. I have
a 90 Lumina catalog that has both numbers in it, so I use 140.
It's not like it's 495 or 500 hp...
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2003-September-23. Please don't use my images without giving credit.
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