Introduced for the 1988 model year, this front-wheel-drive compact was Chevrolet’s successor to the Citation in the division’s small-car lineup. It arrived as part of GM’s L-body program, a corporate response to rising demand for more modern, space-efficient cars, and was developed alongside its two-door companion, the Beretta. Chevrolet positioned it as an affordable, practical compact with a more contemporary feel than the rear-drive and X-body cars it replaced.
The nameplate’s history is fairly straightforward: it launched in the late 1980s and remained in continuous production through the 1996 model year. Early on, the car was offered primarily as a four-door sedan, with a five-door hatchback variant added later in the run. That hatchback version gave the model a little more utility, but the sedan remained the better-known body style and the one most closely associated with the nameplate.
Mechanically, it shared much of its architecture with the Beretta and was part of Chevrolet’s broader effort to refresh its passenger-car image after the mid-1980s. Over time it became a familiar fleet and family car, especially in the United States, where it occupied the lower end of Chevrolet’s car range before being displaced by newer compact and midsize offerings. Production ended after 1996, and the nameplate was not revived, making it a single continuous-generation model in Chevrolet history.