A year after Ford introduced its set of twins– the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable–General Motors gave birth to a set of its own–the Chevrolet Corsica and Beretta–as did Chrysler, though pressed for names, Chrysler settled on an old standby and called both LeBaron.
Nope, this is not a summary of what’s new for the 1997 model year, but a look back at the 1987 rollout.
And, while Taurus and Sable are still around, oh, how things change, as evidenced by the fact Corsica and Beretta no longer are. Ditto LeBaron–in all its shapes and forms.
A look back also found that 1987 was the year that:
– Volkswagen was going to make folks forget the Beetle by bringing out a new car called the Fox. People forgot VW instead.
– Ford turned to South Korea for a mini-Festiva and, not to be outdone, General Motors turned to South Korea for the Pontiac LeMans mini. History shows Ford and GM made a wrong turn.
– Because currency exchange rates forced the Japanese to boost car prices dramatically, an upstart from Europe called Yugo expanded its lineup to include a GVX model in an attempt to boost sales to 70,000 in its second year from 52,000 its first. Yugo’s goal was to outsell another upstart called Hyundai, which sold a record 186,800 cars in its first year in the U.S. in 1986.
– Chrysler gambled that it would take a while for Ford and Chevy to catch up with it and introduced extended-length versions of its fairly popular Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager mini-vans.
– If the gamble on bigger mini-vans didn’t pay off, Chrysler still had a wide array of popular nametags to fall back on, such as the Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon, Dodge Aries/Plymouth Reliant, Dodge Diplomat/Plymouth Gran Fury and Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance.
– Cadillac took a gamble that folks were tired of paying big bucks for Mercedes-Benz SL roadster and unveiled an Allante two-seater at $54,700.
– Chevy said, why gamble and continued selling the ever popular Celebrity, Nova and price leader $4,995 two-door Chevette, cars that would be around a lot longer than expensive roadsters.
– Buick said enough was enough, that it would offer the Regal in rear-wheel-drive form for only one more year before converting to that flash-in-the-pan front-wheel-drive.
– Buick and Ford opted to offer rear-wheel anti-lock brakes on the LeSabre and F-Series pickup truck, respectively.
– Olds’ future looked bright with the Firenza and Trofeo in showrooms.
– To complement its popular midsize 6000 STE, Pontiac adds a front-wheel-drive Bonneville sedan. It sits in the same showroom as the Fiero.
– American Motors Corp.’s French partner Renault provides it with the Renault Medallion to complement the Renault Premier and Alpine. Peugeot of France counters with a new flagship model called the 505STX.
– Audi adds something called a shift-lock mechanism in response to charges that its cars accelerate on their own.
– Japanese imports, burdened by a quota system limiting the number of cars they can sell in the U.S., say they may have to focus on larger sporty and luxury models to make money in the U.S.
In case you haven’t kept track, Corsica, Beretta, LeBaron, Fox, Festiva, LeMans, Yugo, Omni/Horizon, Aries/Reliant, Shadow/Sundance, Diplomat/Fury, Celebrity, Nova, Chevette, Allante, Firenza, Trofeo, 6000 STE, Fiero and any car named Renault or AMC are no longer sold in this country.
