There are low-mile cars and then there are low-mile cars. This 1990 Chevrolet Beretta Indy 500 Pace Car replica has a mere 22 miles on it. Not 22,000, just 22, although the odometer shows just 21 miles. This 30-year-old incredible time capsule can be found here on eBay in Morgantown, Pennsylvania from a familiar seller. The current bid price is $3,550 but the reserve isn’t met.
This is a factory-made replica, of course, not an actual Indy 500 Pace Car from the 1990 race. That one was a convertible and Chevy never sold them to the public in that modified form. They came in two colors, 1,500 were yellow and 3,000 were turquoise. Our own Jeff Lavery showed us a couple of them over the last few years, one in yellow seen here and one in the other color, turquoise, as seen here. I’m normally a big fan of yellow cars but I’m not enamored by GM’s yellow, it’s a bit too dark for me. If you’re going to go full-on 1990, and why would you not, the turquoise with pink graphics version is the only way to go.
This car screams the late-80s/early-90s to me, and that’s not a bad thing at all. The Beretta was made from 1987 to 1996 and they were a two-door coupe body style only. I have only known one person who owned a Chevy Beretta, a guy that I went to college with had one, that’s it. I bet that most of us have known people who have owned just about any vehicle shown here. Well, other than a 1916 Wilcox Trux.
The interior appears to be in perfect condition which you would think about a 22-mile car. The seats both front and rear are perfect and the 80s-video-game-inspired digital dash does not disappoint. The V6 engine came with an automatic transmission and while the real pace car was a convertible, owners of the replicas had to make do with a manual sunroof.
The 3.1L V6 had 135 hp compared to the modified real pace car’s 225 hp, and 135 hp with an automatic makes for much more show than go on this replica. Still, this has to be one of the cleanest ones to come up for sale in a couple of decades. The underside even looks like new – or maybe better than new. Were they really that shiny underneath from the factory? If you had to choose one: yellow or turquoise? Be honest.
Yellow!
I had two Beretta’s both were great cars and much better as the cost was low. Good MPG and vent low maintenance. The convertible should have been produced.
why do you say it has 22 miles, and then state the odometer shows 21?
its 21 miles not 22.???
Jwinters, because the seller has it listed as having 22 miles and I assumed that it had clicked over to 22 after they took the photo showing 21.
Not a classic at all.
Its 30 years old ; technically it is , although I dont see it as one either- Then again , I dont see a 37 year old Escort as a classic , but I would check it out if one showed up at a car show ! .
Dave, it is a classic based upon what bone said AND considering the “history” of cars in general…..other things need to be considered too. In this era, there were not very many exciting domestic cars period. IF there was one, this IS one of them. They were cool when new. If you were going to buy a car from this era and put it away…this would be one of them. I don’t personally like Model T’s but they part of the car history.
Bone, now to contradict myself, yes an escort falls into that commentary BUT I don’t believe an Escort and a Beretta are as comparable….for the purposes of buying a car, putting it away and taking it out 30 years later…the Beretta (in my opinion) wins.
Like the car. I had an 89 Z24 and loved it. I worked for Enterprise back then and the Beretta GT was a cool looking little car and was chosen to rent and drive over most everything else on the lot. Zero performance etc, but again, part of history.
Neither a classic nor a muscle car.
Had a Beretta that would leak every time it rained. The drivers and passengers floor boards would puddle up. After multiple triples to the dealer, inform me to park the car in the garage when it rained.
See? Problem solved! (from the dealer’s perspective).
I drove one of these as a demo when I worked for a Chevy dealer in the day. Nice enough car for what it was. Love to know why someone stashed one away. It’s a two door Corsica! Got wonder why and what the return on investment will be for original “collector”. Can’t drive it. Good luck to seller. I got beach front property available in Arizona if he wants to invest more cash.
I’m fond of calculating that and I have for other cars on here. But I’m not going to for this, because I don’t want to make anybody cry. Just be glad it exists!
I predict bidding will hit 10 grand even with the world the way it is right now. It is a dealer selling it with a reserve and he will probably want bigger bucks. I could be way off though. It would be fun at cruise night.
I owned a 1988 Beretta GT. It had the 2.8 liter engine paired with a 5-speed MANUAL transmission. Very few manuals were made. I traded it in with 212,000 miles on it. All in all, it was a fairly reliable car. I don’t miss it one bit.
I’d much rather have a Beretta GTU in red or white, but by the mere fact that this is a factory pace car replica this car will always be a collectible whereas the GTU is not. Having had a Corsica LTZ back in the day with the 3.1L, I’ll respectfully disagree with the author’s comment about performance. Those cars were pretty light and that V6 had tons of torque – the combo made them pretty potent stoplight heroes. They also had a distinctive exhaust note similar the warble of the 350z and G35 of the early 2000’s.
Always thought the Beretta was one of the more better looking Chevys during that time.
My tastes turned to the Pro Street and drag versions. Thinking back to the Reher-Morrison Super Shops and Joe Lepone versions. If you didn’t keep this one stock in the name of Indy 500 history, it would be the perfect bones to modify.
What do you do with this one? I can’t imagine anyone walking into a museum or viewing a private collection and saying, “Ooh! A Beretta!” The new owner could drive it, but that takes away the most interesting aspect of the car. Besides, with the steering rack mounted on the firewall, these weren’t the best driving vehicles GM made.
It’s been on eBay 2x, the bidders maxed out at 17k?, it did not meet the reserve
Biggest POS that I ever bought. Spent more time in the shop than on the road.
The dealer has it listed for $46,500 on their website.
$46,500??!! You should see my shocked face
Not going to happen. Especially now.
I had an 88′ Beretta,. I loved mine. It did have a few recalls, one was for the door hinges. The doors were heavy, and over time, seemed to be dropping. You could feel it as you shut the doors. With the doors curling up toward the roof, weather was an issue at times. We had a wicked storm of freezing rain/sleet. I couldn’t even get the doors opened to get in to start and warm up. All in all it was a good car to get me back and forth to work. Mine was a 2.8 liter automatic, two-toned blue.
We had one of these that was a car donated by GM to our auto tech class. It was a teal convertible. Very cool. It was basically brand new.
You sure you’re not thinking of a Cavalier? These weren’t made in convertible form, except the actual pace car from Indy, which were never sold publicly.
I had this in Teal Bought brand new.It had the 5 speed fun car back then not a speed demon but peppy. Enjoyed it. To this day I wish i did not trade it in. I traded it in for a brand new94 Lumina z34.I enjoyed that car to great handlng and quick for what it was but plagued with electrical problems. traded that in less than 2 months for a 94 blazer two door. Nice truck for the time.. the days when life was easy ….