Well, here’s something slightly unexpected: a minty Chevrolet Beretta GTZ in the exact all-white color scheme I was hoping for listed on a Swiss-market classifieds site. No, this was not on my bingo card for a potential find this week. The Beretta not only comes with the elusive manual transmission and the killer white-on-white scheme, but it’s also accompanied by a parts car! The seller, whoever he is, sure loves these Quad 4-powered Berettas, and we salute him for it. Find this 1991 GTZ listed here on Ricardo.ch for 7,000 in what is presumably Swiss francs.
Thanks to Barn Finds reader Tom Oberbueren Switzerland for flagging this amazing find! There’s certainly a following for GM products overseas, but it typically skews towards older American land yachts and wagons, not an early 90s sport compact. That being said, just like there’s a next generation of car collectors in the U.S., the same applies for other countries as well, and it may very well be the offspring of an American muscle car fan that imported this Beretta. The car appears to remind in entirely U.S. market condition, as it still wears its sealed-beam headlights – though it does have the mounting hardware for a Swiss license plate.
The seller notes that it runs well and shows just 26,000 KMs, which works out to just over 16,000 miles. The seller clearly found himself one of the best examples left in the U.S. before importing it, but he does point out that it apparently sat in the sun for some period of time as the headliner and dashboard are “…coming loose.” I can only interpret this to mean the headliner is starting to drop and perhaps the dash is cracked in places. Regardless, those are easy fixes because of the included parts car, and the low mileage on the Quad 4 engine is a rare find no matter the jurisdiction.
This Beretta GTZ has been retrofitted with the European-specification headlights, so one would presume it has been overseas for a longer period of time. I wonder how the seller found himself with two of these limited-production 90s coupes, as they are hard enough to find in the U.S. It also strikes me as unlikely that there are many potential suitors for this car overseas, so is there a chance it makes sense for someone to bring the white car back home? The 180 horsepower front-driver is a surprisingly fun car to drive, so owning one in the best color combo with low miles may be tempting enough for someone to put it in a cargo container and pay the shipping charges.
This Beretta looks really nice. A Quad 4 and a stick will be fun to drive too. The ground effects and rims really dress it up too.
There was one of these GTZ’s in our neighborhood that
I saw often,then one day it was gone.
I guess if you have to have a Beretta,this is the one to have.
They could have at least added a pic of the dash and headliner.
You could split the cost of a freight container with a Swiss cheese company, to get the car back to North America!!!
The white car retains its US-market flush-mount composite (separate bulb and lens/reflector housing) headlights. “Sealed-beam headlights” would have the bulb, lens and reflector as a single integrated unit resembling the ones retrofitted to the parts car, tho’ those may well be non-flush composite units as well.
These cars simply aren’t around anymore. They were everywhere when new and were pretty much gone by Y2K. Not many choices to choose from if you want one, but not many want one.
There’s a good reason for that. Good looking car, but didn’t hold up like many of that Era. Like I said about the blue one a few days ago, these made great looking Pro Stockers!
Slick compact cars. I think that’s how they were classified. I do remember reading the articles after the Quad 4 was interduced. This engine at the time was supposed to be the most efficient engine built to date by the general or anyone else for that matter. ( Dr Olds) Anyway enough rambling, this fella has a unicorn today. Well two I guess, I did run across one in a pick apart but the engine was missing. The car is a long away from home. Best of luck to the seller and the buyer.
I always thought the performance variants of these were great looking, and they have aged very well from a styling standpoint, in my opinion anyway.
I always thought GM missed the boat by not doing something a little bit crazy with these. They could have and should have done the 3.1 turbo from the ASC/McLaren Grand Prix at least, if not the GMC Syclone/Typhoon 4.3 or Grand National 3.8, if they would have somehow fit.
I’d like to agree but the torque steer from those mills would have been crazy. By all accounts that ASC McLaren was a handful. It is a good looking car and fun with the manual. Personally I’m looking for a Ford Fusion Sport or Taurus SHO. Too many doors though.
Pontiac addressed torque steer on Grand Prix GXP with simply wider front wheels. I owned an 05.
The LS4 v8 GXP would embarrass a Grand National. This would be a great swap into the Beretta!
too costly to get back to USA
The exchange rate (just for the price of the car) doesn’t help sell it. Then consider shipping 2 of these cars from Rotterdam(?) to the closest port, having them go through customs and all of the European (head lights, etc. being replaced with US Spec pieces) before it’s legal to drive it.
I’d say this 2 for 1 deal is far, far upside down when it comes to value. You’ll have to love this car (and the parts car) for all the money you’ll spend before driving the first mile….
I love the Idea, but there is no way to make this work financially.
Add says the engine is making a noise they believe to be crank or cam barring’s so it’s a big risk for return on investment on the other hand if the noise is something simple you could make a good profit if you can find other cars to fit in the container gives someone an excuse to visit Switzerland for a few days
I know in which garage it sat for 20 years with the first owner, where I bought it with exactly 4800 km on the clock. Then it was in my garage until 2020. After that, it was also in a garage with the third owner. The fact that the headliner is sagging and the cheap dashboard is warped (not cracked) happened without any sun exposure. It was never stored outdoors and is completely rust-free. It was also never driven in winter and was cavity-sealed and rust-protected from the start.