Looking for a Beretta

[rushwal]

My wife says I need a project car.

She had a Beretta, and I always liked them, but they're hard to find.

I'm looking at a 1989 2.8 V6 automatic. Are there any particular red flags or years/engines to avoid? What should I look at if I take the trip to check it out?

[rushwal]

Now to clarify the wife saying I need a project car, I'm still working on my first project car, but it's just an engine refresh. So the project I need is more on the easy side.

[keiffith]

Depending on your location there's usually a couple on FB marketplace. There's no real years to avoid. Usually a clean example with cosmetic defects is sub 4k.

[Rettax3]

My wife says I need a project car.

She had a Beretta, and I always liked them, but they're hard to find.

Even MUCH harder to find than a solid Beretta project car is a wife that will suggest their husband needs a project car -DEFNITELY a keeper!

My GTU was originally an '89 2.8 V6 automatic... It had moderate engine trouble when I bought it, but I had purchased the car specifically with the intent of swapping in a 3800 SC that had been abandoned with me, so that wasn't a problem -and the car did drive home. Both the 2.8 and the TH125C automatic available in '89 were decent and reliable units, at this point the question is mostly how well they were maintained, and how well the car they are in has been sheltered from the elements.

Major areas to watch for on a Beretta are (in no particular order):

-Rust -look especially at the rear coil-spring suspension perches, front and rear door-jamb corners and door hinge areas, check underneath along the rocker-panels too.
-Firewall leak -most Berettas will suffer from the dread firewall leak -there are actually a few different causes of this, and all Berettas of all years are susceptible to all of them, to my knowledge. All six of mine have suffered from the leaks. Look for indications the carpeting has gotten soaked, look for rust in the front floor-pans too, although that may not always follow the firewall leak.
-Ignition switch, tilt-column linkage. I put these together because they are dependent on each other. The switch is actually under the dash, with the ignition-lock rotating a rack-and-pinion style device connected to a push-rod operating alongside the column. The 'rack' parts are different if the car has a tilt column (common), and both versions are made of pot-metal, and can break. Not sure what interchanges with them, but it will be a journey of frustration if those are broken. The 'pinion' gear is part of the lock tumbler, and can actually come off, leaving you stranded. I had that on my '90 Turbo 'Retta (before I bought the car -I actually knew it before I bought it), mine got re-attached with aviation safety-wire -better than new.
-Seat-tracks and seat-belts -fairly unique setup, if there is a problem with function of either area, it will either be an easy fix or a very difficult search for parts. Make sure the belts retract into the doors properly (yes, MOST year Berettas have the seat-belts in the doors!), and the seats slide forward and backwards properly.
-Standard engine check-up, oil condition, listening for rattles (unlike the later 3100 V-6s, the 2.8s are not prone to cold-start lifter-rattle, so noise there is a bad sign, not just 'character'), check hoses/belt, coolant condition, etc etc... If it is intended as a project-car, the condition of the maintenance items shouldn't be very important, just an indicator of how well the car has been looked after.

Possible concerns regarding parts:
Most hard-parts are still available for these cars, but there are some specific issues...
-Window 'fuzzies' (or 'dew-strips', the felt or 'fuzz'-lined window trim on the doors along the bottom edges of the windows that wipes the dew and dust off the windows when you roll them down) have not been available for years. There has been a lot of research on what can be modified to fit, I suggest reading through the Forum to find more on this, and determine how much of a headache you are willing to accept regarding these parts. They aren't absolutely necessary of course, but cracked/broken fuzzies do look pretty ghetto.
-Window trim. As you look at the doors, the triple-ridged black trim surrounding the top edge of the door glass framing is also unavailable, and are a Beretta-specific part (no other GM car used them), and the rubbery outer layer can deteriorate, shrink, crumble, or peel off. Cosmetic only, it is still noteworthy... At least one or two other members here have tried just painting the metal backing black after peeling the rubbery part off, I don't think I've seen pictures showing the results though -which might tell you something.
-Performance suspension parts -some of the Berettas had performance parts from the factory -better springs, better struts, better sway-bars -even an alternate front sway-bar configuration in the GTZs, Indys, and one specific RPO code GT in one year ('92 IIRC) that linked the bar to the struts directly instead of the lower A-Arms, those end-links are all but impossible to replace now without finding a 'close enough' replacement. In '89, this wasn't a concern though as this "FE7" suspension code wasn't released until 1990. As to the springs and struts, any other 'basic' parts will fit, but won't perform as well as they did when the car was new with the better OEM parts. Relevant RPO codes would be Z51, F41, FE2, FE3 -top performance, heavy duty, performance level 2 and performance level 3, respectively.* Many aftermarket performance parts are no longer available either.
-Most interior switches -Berettas have unique light-switches and such. If they don't work, you might find NOS parts here or on ebay, but it is a crap-shoot. Don't assume anything electrical that the operator interacts with directly will be available, or cheap.
-Trunk spoilers. Hot-ticket item, I don't think the GT/Indy/Z-26 spoiler was available in '89, but the GTUs made in '88-'89 had a unique spoiler, and all of them are hard to find now.

Overall, Berettas are decent cars. They handle well, drive nice, are easy to work on and cheap to maintain, like any GM car of the era. But they are getting old, and parts are getting harder to find. The onboard diagnostic system is not very sophisticated, so you need to know how they operate to diagnose them properly, or that little light will be on until you pull the bulb. They are easily modified and easy to upgrade to newer parts mechanically, but even the bullet-proof ECUs are becoming tired and starting to fail in real numbers. They have weak-spots and design-flaws (like any car model), plan on replacing your engine-mounts on a later-model car for instance, and the older V-6 cars were easier to replace the serpentine-belt than the newer ones. But I have several of them for a reason -I like the styling and performance, and they are decent vehicles I can work on.

If you end up seriously looking at a specific car, a few of us are still around regularly enough to help with questions you may have, and of course we all like seeing a new car show up in the Forum! So good luck, and hope to hear more about this endeavor from you soon.
*RPO codes, if you don't know, are "Regular Production Order" codes GM assigned to any given car during its' construction. On a Beretta, there is a sticker affixed to the spare-tire cover in the trunk that has the VIN and a couple dozen three-letter code sequences in alphabetical order, they list all equipment the car was built with -it is basically the car's "Build Sheet", if you are more familiar with the older cars. They can be decoded to determine what replacement parts are 'correct' as well, but Berettas offer few unsavory surprises in regards to what 'will' fit and function.

[woody90gtz]

I'm on Beretta #4 because I love them. I would have kept #3 forever if not for a weird opportunity. Still seem to be many of them coming out of the woodwork on facebook, although many need a bit of work.