The Strange Lawsuit That Put A Chevy Beretta Inside Beretta's Headquarters

Car and Driver subscribers successful nan precocious '80s expected cool cars connected nan cover. The October '88 rumor featured a yellowish C4 Corvette ZR-1 pinch flames underneath and nan headline, "The Corvette From Hell!" Those C4 Corvette ZR-1s are inexpensive now, but still monstrously cool. November '88's screen boasted a caller Lamborghini Countach pinch roses laid by nan rider door, possibly near successful an effort to woo nan V12 beast. Then, successful February of '89, we sewage Otis nan Avocado sitting successful a Buick Reatta. Artistically, it was a measurement down. Yet nan strangest point astir that rumor was not that Car and Driver thought readers cared astir Buicks aliases guacamole ingredients, but nan "Beretta vs. Beretta shoot-out" article inside. 

The communicative focused connected a Chevrolet Beretta going head-to-head pinch Italian gunmaker Beretta's 92 (or nan subject equivalent, nan M9), a semi-automatic pistol which is famously not a car. Surely, this would beryllium nan only clip these 2 unrelated products would transverse paths, right? There's nary measurement a firearms shaper successful Italy would ever springiness a darn astir an American front-wheel-drive coupe made connected General Motors' L platform, right?

Well, Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta S.p.A. was rather irritated that GM had nan gall to usage nan name, which had been trademarked successful nan U.S. since 1954. Beretta is complete 500 years old, still owned by nan family who founded it, and doesn't want anyone to deliberation nan institution allows different entities to usage its personality without definitive permission. This is really a suit betwixt 2 practice businesses resulted in a Chevy Beretta GTU Coupe being placed wrong Beretta's U.S. office successful Gallatin, Tennessee.

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While lawsuits these days are mostly aimed toward weapon manufacturers, nan business was flipped backmost successful July 1988. That was erstwhile Beretta went to a national courthouse successful New York and demanded $250 cardinal successful damages from General Motors. The automaker had put nan venerated Italian sanction connected a car that was nan luxury balanced of a stiff pizza.

Also, $250 cardinal (almost $685 cardinal successful 2025) seems a spot excessive, doesn't it? Well, it's not for illustration GM hadn't been warned. The Chevrolet Beretta debuted successful 1987, and correct away, nan gunmaker sent GM cautionary notices. As for GM's response? This was nan institution that took a decade to reside Cadillac Northstar motor creation issues, and sewage upset erstwhile it couldn't use whale lipid successful transmission fluid anymore, truthful unsurprisingly, it ignored Beretta. Then came nan lawsuit, and GM realized that putting its fingers successful its ears and going "la-la-la-la-la" wasn't going to work. 

GM's lawyers contacted Beretta to reside nan business successful a measurement that wouldn't consequence successful a 4th cardinal dollars disappearing from nan firm coffers. The colony played retired successful a amazingly amicable manner. GM donated $500,000 to nan Beretta Foundation for Cancer Research and Treatment, and Chevrolet's coupe sewage to support its name, though catalogs had to bespeak that Beretta granted permission. As tokens of hatchet-burying, each institution gave nan different a present. Beretta gifted a shotgun and a firearm to GM's then-CEO, Roger Smith. The gift from GM was a Chevy Beretta featuring nan gunmaker's logo and "Beretta U.S.A." painted connected nan side. Since 2016, nan car has lived successful Beretta's Gallatin agency successful factory-new condition.

The Beretta sold decently for nan first fewer years, and a convertible type moreover served arsenic nan gait car for nan Indy 500. In 1988, GM produced 275,098 of them. But, for illustration nan Pontiac Fiero earlier it, excitement died down quickly. In 1989, Beretta accumulation dropped to 180,242 units. It was nan past clip nan model's yearly accumulation numbers crested 100,000. The Beretta was discontinued in 1996. 

Unlike nan Fiero, nan Beretta didn't amended pinch age. The astir powerful engine, nan Quad 4, went from 180 hp successful '92 to 170 hp successful '94. The V6 was only disposable pinch an automatic transmission, and it mislaid 5 hp successful '95 and ne'er sewage it back. Berettas aren't precisely collectors' items, either. A yellow, 52-mile, manual transmission 1990 Chevrolet Beretta GT came up for waste successful 2025, arguably nan nicest successful existence, and it wasn't moreover asking $30,000.

Conversely, Beretta's 92 handgun is still successful accumulation and enjoying a modern renaissance. The Beretta 92/M9 is simply a communal show successful movies, TV shows, and video games, but nan astir absorbing type is its rare, 3-round burst-capable related nan 93R (R opinionated for "raffica," aliases "burst" successful English). The 93R is astir apt astir celebrated arsenic Robocop's sidearm of choice. The gun's extended trigger defender was needed to fresh nan robot suit's fat fingers. Speaking of popular culture, possibly GM could person avoided a suit if it had changed nan pronunciation and gone pinch thing for illustration "Baretta." Oh, wait, that sanction was utilized for nan show "Baretta" starring actor-turned-accused murderer Robert Blake. Never mind.