Chevrolet Vehicles are Great First Cars

1989 Chevrolet Beretta GT

My very first car was a 1989 Chevrolet Beretta, and I’m not going to lie, I was more than a little surprised when I drove it to school and saw so many doppelgangers sitting around the parking lot.

I was driving an ’89 Chevy in was the fall of 2001. I didn’t know much about cars at the time, but I figured that Chevrolet must be doing something right if so many of their older cars found their way into the hands of teenagers.

Maybe they were easily affordable or they were the car of choice over a decade prior, leading to many drivers trading up? Regardless of how it came to be, the car of choice for teenagers in our little town, white Berettas were prevalent enough that I had my license plate memorized after trying to open the wrong door one too many times.

It served me well, too. Not only was its fuel efficiency a huge plus for someone working a minimum wage job 15 hours a week, but it had a surprising amount of power behind it too.

I discovered that power pretty quickly with just how well it got up to highway cruising speeds.

On the first road trip I took as a driver, my father, his dog Norman, and I took the Beretta out west to visit my uncle; I’m convinced that the only reason I was brought along was because it meant my dad wouldn’t have to drive. It was fun to see what my car could do though, and it got us there and back without any trouble at all.

It seems pretty obvious, in retrospect, that this was a solid car to give to a first-time driver. Being so old, it wouldn’t be difficult to find replacement parts, but being made so well, it probably wouldn’t need them either. It gave me everything I needed in town and stood up to all the highway driving needs I had too.

With siblings and the siblings of friends growing up and getting their first set of wheels, I see many parents choosing to buy other great used Chevy vehicles for their kids’ first cars. I wonder if the kids will be just as clueless as I was as to why their friends all have the same cars.