3:39 that boi changing the radio stations like a madman because he knew 30 years later RU-vid would not allow more than a few seconds of copyrithed music without a strike ! 😂
@@jkeelsnc It was. Some bands or owners of songs don't mind if a song happens to drift into the background for a few seconds. Others lose their mind if they can recognize three notes. I forget the movie, but an entire segment of it had to be re-edited because a car drove by and you could hear Pink Floyd playing on the radio. At the time the members of and record company for Pink Floyd were busy suing each other into oblivion. So the director knew that even ambient background sound would result in an army of lawyers coming after the movie as soon as it was released. They've calmed down a lot since then. But other bands (King Crimson, Rolling Stones, Beatles, among others) are constantly scanning to find anyone who uses anything too close to what they have a copyright on.
Paint quality was a problem with a lot of cars in the late 80s and early 90s. Chrysler's paint would peel right off the primer. Ford had issues with the clear coat mysteriously thinning out to reveal bare paint. It was a bad era for car paint. Cars nowadays are having paint problems too. Manufacturer's have been covertly switching to water based paint and it's not durable at all. Hyundai and Nissan are having issues with delaminating paint.
I bought a 1988 FWD Cutlass Supreme that same color in 1994, and despite only being six years old at the time half of the paint had already peeled off and the windows would be covered in a gray film after it rained. Needed a cheap car and for eight years it only stranded me once when the notorious GM electric fuel pump failed.
@@twincitiesdashcam9119 I'm pretty sure the white paint was affected too, so maybe you got lucky. My Mom had a 92 Acclaim in a periwinkle kind of color and the clear coat thinned pretty quickly. By year 7 all of the paint had flaked off from the door frames at the A-pillars revealing gray primer. The rest of the paint was dull and chalky, probably on the verge of peeling too. That A604 4spd was a real junker. My Mom's Acclaim had the Torqueflite 3spd and it was problem-free for 182k miles.
My metallic black 89 Corsica sedan was being repainted when it was 2 months old. Again after it’s third year. Both under warranty. Needed a third paint job at 10 years old, but took it to Macco. The Macco job wasn’t perfect, but it lasted another 10 years lol. Have had it 31 years now. Just hit 127k.
I love it too, they were my English teachers, along with Top gear. I'm from Brazil, I used to watch them on cable TV, recording the show to watch over and over again to get everything, next week, same thing. Until I got to the point to watch and got it on first time. Job done.
Yes the 2.8 with manual trans was a decent performer for its price, though not too many were sold. The more common 2.0 with 3 speed auto was clinical depression on wheels.
halo hunter Compared to what? The Stanza was heavier, and was significantly slower. Others that competed in this class were typically slower despite being lighter by 1-200lbs but a 4 banger Corsica was right there with most of them anyway if that actually mattered to you.
Honda used the same design in some of their late '80s cars. But nobody actually left them attached in when getting in and out. That was just to fulfill a federal requirement. Most other cars only had the shoulder belt attached to the door (like VWs) and had a separate lap belt, or used "mad mouse" automatic retracting shoulder belts -- which I actually thought were really cool when I was a kid.
@@halohunter5217 I had a two-door Geo Metro with them, always used them like normal seat belts. I tried leaving them passively buckled ONCE, and when I got in the lap belt wanted to go under my knees at calf height!
I owned a 91 Corsica 4 door as my first car in 2009. It was sitting in a lot and my sister gave it to me. I had to get a new battery to get it working and after a car wash and proper fuses it was running but needed work. Over time I replaced the muffler, TCC, wipers, and engine mounts and I had it running smooth for 3 years before the head gasket blew on me. 0-60 in whenever, no heat/air, 3 speakers, seized door locks and trunk, engine light would come on at 60mph and 3 speed automatic. It was crude but it got me from Philly and DC with my friend with little trouble. I miss that POS.
I’ve been waiting for this video for sooo long. My mother owned one of these growing up all thru my childhood. She also had a brand new beretta. My twin brother and I used to lay in the back and stare at the sky while going down the highway, loved the hatchback. So many memories!
I'll never forget this car. My religion teacher had a blue one like this with tint. Just like the Corsica, Mrs. Haas did not play and whenever she got serious, she meant business. This was also my mom's first car and although I had not made it to planet earth yet, according to my grandmother she couldn't stand that fucking car & she hated every minute of ownership. 🤷♂️ I don't see what the big deal was, seemed like a pretty practical & okay car to park in her driveway back then
I did Driver's Ed in a bright red '96 Corsica with a V6. It was the first time I drove a car (and not my parents minivan). For 2 days (6 hours behind the wheel), I was entertained by the melodic vocals of Dolly Parton, as the instructor apologized for the tape being stuck in the cassette deck... Great car though.
Same car was in movie The Naked Gun 1988 Corsica as drivers ad car, but bad teacher in that movie which funny part with Leslie Nelson when told her "Go for it Stephanie" she put the pedal to the metal when she screeched the tires and Leslie went back in backseat frightening for his life (LOL) she probably got be experience driver than.
Blew my mind to see that 5-speed shifter in this Corsica. Finding a Beretta with a V6/stick combo was rare enough, I didn't think GM ever made a Corsica with a manual.
Both manual and hatch versions were really rare. Back in ‘07 I had its cousin an Achieva coupe with the Quad4 and manual for a few years. They also made about 6 of those. It wasn’t as fun to drive as I thought it would be. Had a Saturn at the same time, they were much more fun to drive as long as U were good about checking the engine oil level
Whats more when these older cars went wrong, chances were you could fix it yourself and keep it running for peanuts as they were pretty simple. I wouldn't even attempt to do any serious overhaul work on a modern car. They have been designed deliberately to be un-serviceable by anyone other than dealers with $$$$s worth of special tools and diagnostic equipment. Its all a scam.
soundseeker63 you'd like to think that but these things had that V6 so shoehorned in there you had to take the engine out of the car to change the serpentine belt! I'm not joking either lol alternatively you can detach the engine, support it from underneath and jack the car up off of it lol. They were cool cars though and had pretty decent power!
@@soundseeker63 sounds like you never changed the plugs in one of these... or the belt (had to remove motor mount) or the coils... or.... These things were junk from the factory.. meanwhile I have had no issues fixing my 2001 BMW or 2009 Kia...
The GM 60degree V6 was no joke, especially the 87-93 vintage here. Not hi tech by any standard but they were mostly reliable and gave you a choice between decent fuel mileage or tire burning torque. Unfortunately they "improved" the design around 92-94 (the 3100) and that's when the problems started, and were never fully acknowledged or addressed by GM all the way through the mid 00s
Nah, these engines only got better (G6 GTP anyone?) And thanks to GMs terrible intake gasket design, you can grab these engines dirt cheap. Only downside is that the manual transaxles are tough to find.
@Steve Silvas That's my dream job, I worked at the Hyundai factory, here in Brazil as a test and development driver, the Koreans values your work as a top stuff, but the Brazilians thinks it's just a driver job, as a valet, and doesn't respect what you do. I don't work in there anymore, but I dream about moving to USA or another country where I can do what I know and love with more dignity, but I'm 43 now, and I think that's too late...
In the summer of that year, i bought a brand new cavalier z24, it was a blast to drive at the time! Mine was burgundy red with silver accent. I wish they do a retro review of that model!
@R Robert The 90 was the best year for the Z24, It was the first year for the 3.1 and last year before the facelift. My brother had a 90 Z24 Red with a 5 speed. They are really hard to find anymore. Hold on to yours and thanks for keeping it alive.
I know everyone says these car were bad but I miss them. Nice basic transportation without the distraction of an infotainment screen and scrabble-book collection of driver aids. No drivers using cell phones in their cars back then either.
@@OrangeCrusader Not True . Zach Morris had a Giant cell phone on the show "Saved by the Bell" at the same time this video was being made in 1989. But then again if Zach Morris can afford a cell phone in 1989 be probably would not be driving a cheap Chevy Economy car lol.
I remember my friend being gifted with a used 4- door version when we were 16. I prayed to the gods that when I turned 17 my mom wouldn't be that cruel. I was right... I got the 5- door version.
The 2.8/3.1 engines from 87-93ish sounded great due to the splayed valve/exhaust port design. Unfortunately these heads were only available on the FWD versions of the engine as seen here. The Camaro/Firebirds with the 2.8/3.1/3.4 kept the original head design and sounded totally different. Ditto for the S10 vehicles and anteater minivans. Completely different top end.
@@captainmorgan5449 I agree. My cousin had one and was surprising. People won't believe this . But that fiero was good in the snow (am Canadian) . It was like a Volkswagen bug . You past through the snow. Ha ! Ha ! Would love to have one . Always love those Fiero GT
What a terrible car. Just awful. The interior plastics used on this car set a new record for bad. There are not many of these things around today thank God.
by 1989 standards for north American market it was a brilliant car. remember Reliant or Topaz or Oldsmobiles of the era. Buddy had Corsica LTZ around 1992 it was a standout compared to most other American designed crap.
Back in the early '90s we had a Corsica as a loaner while the family car was being worked on. I still remember when I shut the passenger side door (I didn't even slam it hard) the window fell down into the door...
@@halohunter5217 Back in the day, my Mom had a 1992 Plymouth Acclaim. That model camd out in 1989. The build quality was so much better. Same with the Ford Tempo. Much better built car.
The Corsica was supposed to be GM's sporty "European-inspired" family car, and they actually even sold it in Europe for a while. But you can really see how the corporate bean counters took their toll on it, with the cheapness of the controls and materials. It also had an ungainly muffler that hanged down awkwardly below the rear bumper, and very poor quality paint that started peeling after just a few years.
@@brettcannon74 That isn't exactly true: The Beretta and Corsica design was derived from the Chevy Cavalier's J-car platform. Sunbird, of course, is Cavalier's Pontiac cousin.
I'm not sure why, but here lately I have been really in love with the whole back to basics car sort of thing. I could not stand corsica's when I was younger. Growing up my first car was a 1994 cavalier and I could not stand it. As I get older I have an appreciation for these older basic modes of transportation.
This is the part of the horror movie where you shout to the victim - Don't go there!!!! Sadly GM continued headlong down the road to oblivion with cars like this.
I remember sitting in one of the Corsica's sister cars, the Beretta, back in the day. I looked at the salesperson and asked him if the price is less because it says "Corsica" on the dash. He fired back immediately as if it happened a lot, "it's a rarer so it costs more". Awesome QC Chevy! 🙄 Hell, even the dealer missed it! 😔 🤯 Oh, and I'm sorry, that rear end is NOT attractive. Neither then, nor now imo.
I had a 1990 Chevrolet corsica. It was an ok car. Comfortable seats, decent ride/handling, and good mpg about 27 on the highway. Otherwise tachometer stopped working at times, water hose bust, and ball joints were bad. I began to wonder if the dealer rolled the numbers back, but GM did at least during the 1990s had issues with electrical, cooling, and suspension systems.
I really dig that drawer-style glove compartment. Seems like that design could hold more and made everything more accessible. I wonder why that didn't catch on more.
I just recently seen one of these beauties on the road in 2019! I must say that I was really impressed to see one that actually survived after all these years... lol 😂
Reminds me of the Aussie Nissan Pintara Superhatch - a rather ill-starred 5 door from the same era...however, those things are even more depressing because the quality of the materials and engineering was such that many of the few they sold exist to this very day. 😊
In 1992 I bought an "88 Corsica 4-cylinder for college commuting. Ugh. So sluggish. In 1993 I upgraded to an '88 Corsica with the 2.8L V6. Loved it. And oh man, everyone wanted to drive that quick little zinger. It was fun! And the V6's burbling baritone exhaust note ALWAYS drew comments.
Definitely a disposable car. It might be good during the time you were making payments. But after 4-5 years too many were suffering the death of a hundred little problems. Second or third owners bought them because they were cheap. But dumped them as soon as they were looking at a repair bill that cost as much as the car.
Well said. Gm’s cars from the 70s lasted longer. Not the major components, those needed fixing for sure, but the hundred little problems that the 80s gm cars had. Maybe when they lightened them up for cafe standards they put in lightweight mexican parts.
we had a Corsica growing up and that thing would run no matter what, we even used it to clear snow in our driveway once. I have a big soft spot for them
Mr. Regular calls the 70's to early 80's American cars the 'Malaise era". Bullshit, THIS was malaise era, thanks to the leadership of Roger "We can make cars like Sunbeam makes toasters" Smith.
I've always considered Toyota, for all its vaunted reliability, to be among the most appliance-like of automakers. Driving a washing machine would be more exciting.
Got one for $150 back in 1998, had 187,000 miles on it. Would not idle, 2.8 V-6 with the 3-speed automatic. Cleaned the idle air control valve, and with working A/C that car got us through anything until 316,000 miles six years later. It was quite rusty, and then one day the engine simply shut off, no noise, nothing. Done. Yes, the car felt and looked incredibly cheap inside, but rode well and did its needed duties for us. Only needed a battery, brakes and tires over the time we had it. Duct tape was our friend too to re-affix things in the interior!
I live in Toronto, Canada. I rarely see Taurus', acclaim's, and Corsicas anymore. Meanwhile 1992 to 1996 Camrys and 1990 to 1993 Honda accords are still everywhere.
As nitpicky as reviewers get about current cars, it's good to remember what POS's cars were as recently as this one, and how positively they were reviewed then. Nowadays, this would be the Yugo of cars.
Initial quality wasn't horrible. Cheap interiors and lots of obviously lowest bidder parts used. But with a starting price under anything Toyota had, and way under Honda, plus the rebates that every dealer was throwing at them, it wasn't too bad. Of course, after a few years you began to realize that you got what you paid for, and the craptastic quality (or lack of) came out in full force.
I never thought anything of these cars when they were new. To me, they were "whatever" cars. But the 5 door hatchback I remember being around - it's an interesting idea! This review makes me appreciate that body style a bit more. As they said, you barely notice the difference between this and the regular sedan. One thing I thought was weird on these was how part of the back door formed the edge of the rear wheel well, rather than having a piece of the quarter panel between the door and the wheel. I don't know why they did that.
@@Mr_Chris77 Oh my god that's too good! LMAO!! Also I would think this drawer over time would become lose and I bet it squeaked and rattled and would slide open and close every time you left the line and stopped in traffic.
3:12.... the position of those belts will surely strangle you in an impact or even sudden braking?! Must be even worse for short people!.....suddenly face-planting the windscreen doesn't seem like quite such a bad end! lol
I had a 1995 Corsica and it was the best car I owned back when I got it in 2001. I put 113K mostly trouble-free miles in over 7 years (far more than any of my other cars before), I still miss it after trading it in on a 2009 Mazda 3. And I miss it even more than my 2012 stick-shift Fusion I used to have.
The EPA had required new paint formulas. Some took longer than others to get it right. Chrysler and GM took the longest. That's why so many of their cars had the signature burnt/fade area on hoods, roofs, and trunks. A friend who did body work told me GM started using fewer coats on many of their less costly models around this time. Unless you were an expert in auto paint, and had an old and new model side by side, you couldn't tell the difference when new. But as they aged it faded a lot faster.
My uncle still have his 1990 Beretta Indy limited edition in competition yellow with a cracked rear spoiler, cracked front air dam, cracked dash, faulty digital gauges, and other issues.
One of my best friends bought one of those when he first got married back in 1989, and he loved it! It really was a well-proportioned and inexpensive car for the up-and-coming Yuppie back in the day.
I miss the old Motorweek because they took all the "Precautionary" measures before testing vehicles on a strip like "flashing the brights twice" and discussing random nonsense with a Motorweek "co-worker" at the window of the vehicle just before launching the car. Very important areas they cover there !!!
Had one equipped like this except In grey. It was a lemon that GM had to buy back from me. In less than a year, the paint peeled off and the brake system had to be replaced twice. It eventually spent two months in and out of the dealer for computer issues they couldn’t or wouldn’t fix that caused the engine to simply shut off while driving and every light on the dash to turn on. My experience dealing with that made me vow to never buy GM ever again. On a positive note, when it worked, it was definitely quicker than it should have been and was great on long road trips.
Its how they got around the laws on requiring passive restraint, i.e. a air bag. Since no air bag installed, they had to put in the door mounted seat belts. I remember some early 90's Toyota's and Honda's had those seat belts on tracks that would roll up when the door was closed. But you still had to put on the lap belt part. I always thought that was silly because if you forgot the lap belt and got into an accident, then you would slip forward and possibly out of the shoulder belt and probably get a nasty road rash on your neck or face if you were lucky from the belt. When all cars were finally required to install airbags these silly automatic seat belts went away.
When I was little, our family car was a 1995 Corsica, with the 3.1 V6 if I remember correctly. My parents bought it in 2001 about a year before I was born. It had no A/C (which is an essential in summer in Mississippi), the head liner was held up with thumb tacks, and the seats looked like a cat threw a temper tantrum on them. I have 4 older siblings, and all of them used it as their "first" car. As I grew older, the car had more issues, the most major being a blown head gasket when my oldest brother was driving to work. Years after, the radio went out, the rear windows stopped working, it went through a hailstorm, a leak brought water to the front passenger floorboard, a massive hole on the dash over the gauge cluster, and probably a few other minor issues I can't remember from the top of my head. Even through all of the abuse it went through, it had over 250K miles and still ran strong. Then, three years ago, my father sold it to our neighbors for $900. Not even one week later, my neighbors were t-boned in that car by a Ford Expedition that ran a red, and that was the end of that little POS car. Ever since, I've never seen another Corsica.
Being a few months shy of 35 I will NEVER understand (or miss lol) how those ridiculous door mounted seatbelts ever were approved for release. The most dangerous and annoying design ever hahaha. I hated those growing up as a kid.. GM had those through the 90’s 🤣
