General Motors is a special beast in the automotive world. It runs like a corrupt government, it grows and shrinks and "re-branded" itself with the same frequency as an old Chevrolet Cavalier visits your local mechanic. It made some of the best performance cars in the world, but simultaneously created some of the lowest-quality basic transportation appliances (and awards the latter products all the marketing budget. RIP Chevy SS).

But spend enough time rifling through the back catalogs for each of GM's brands and you're bound to dig up some real hidden gems, forgotten to the endless forward march of time. Cars like the Buick Reatta, a two-door, two-seat coupe with a touchscreen from 1988, the Oldsmobile Cutlass FE3-X, the most insane of the G-Body models, or the Chevrolet Lumina Z34, a European-inspired, high-performance two-door version of Disney-MGM Studios' official company car.

The Lumina Z34 had flared fenders, vents in the hood, a custom body kit, and a loud exhaust. It ran had a 3.4l, twin-cam V6 engine (hence the "34" in Z34), sport suspension, and manual transmission, which is an extreme rarity for the W-Body platform on which the Lumina is based.

It's an interesting and "sporty" version of a completely un-interesting car, and because of the buying power of 1990s nostalgia, it's starting to become a collectible item. Let's look into a brief history of the car, its specs, and features, and what a Lumina Z34 costs to buy today.

Wasn't The Lumina A Minivan?

Chevy Lumina sedan and Z34 coupe
via curbsideclassics.com

The Chevrolet Lumina has a weird identity. The model launched in 1990 as the entry-level of GM's new W-Body platform. It shared underpinnings and mechanicals with the Pontiac Grand Prix, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, and the Buick Regal. It was a front-wheel-drive midsize sedan with a series of inline-4 and V6 engines feeding the front wheels through four-speed automatic transmissions almost exclusively.

The Lumina competed most closely with the Ford Taurus and the Chrysler LH cars like the Dodge Intrepid and Eagle Vision. W-Body cars like the Lumina had surprisingly advanced suspension design that kept them competitive against rivals, which the car needed in order to overcome some of the problems with drivetrain options, particularly the troubled 2.5l Iron Duke four-cylinder. It used a transversely-mounted leaf spring running across the width of the rear axle, as well as standard control arms and struts. This was a similar design to the C4 Corvette's rear suspension, although it really didn't give the Lumina much in the way of "sports car" handling. It was softer and more compliant over cracked road surfaces, but this was no Integra Type-R.

The first generation of the Lumina ended production in 1994. There was a second generation of the car from 1995 until it was replaced with the Impala and Monte Carlo in 2001. And yes, there was a minivan variant called the Lumina APV. It didn't really have much in common with the Lumina sedan or coupe, but it was infamous for its resemblance to a Dust-Buster vacuum cleaner.

There were some attempts to spice up the Lumina's driving experience, including a "European-inspired" handling package, but GM's best efforts in this regard came from a three-character option package called the Z34.

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The Specs And Tech Of The Z34

Chevy Lumina Z34
via bangshift.com

Think of the Lumina Z34 as the 1990s domestic equivalent of a Honda Accord Coupe V6 6MT. It was a tarted-up sporty version of an otherwise tame and respectable family car. Like the Honda, the Lumina didn't sacrifice ride quality or interior comforts in its pursuit of performance, but also like the Honda, it had the biggest V6 engine in its range and, crucially, a 5-speed manual transmission to put its power to the front wheels.

The Lumina's engine is actually quite interesting. While most of the economy-grade cars were running iron-block pushrod V6 engines, like GM's 3100 V6 or the Ford Vulcan engine, the Z34's 3.4l V6 was a dual-overhead-camshaft design with aluminum heads that redlined at 7,000 RPM. It produced 210 horsepower, which is a respectable number for a 1990s V6, 215 lbs/ft of torque, and was good for 0-60 in just over seven seconds.

The transmission, as mentioned above, was initially an exclusive Getrag 5-speed manual, but GM caved and offered a 4-speed auto as well. The stick shift remained an option throughout the car's four-year run, but the automatic was the volume seller.

Elsewhere, the Z34 had upgraded "FE3" handling package suspension, better brakes, sharper steering (though "sharp" is a term used loosely), and better tires from the factory. The exhaust was also upgraded from the base, and it allowed that twin-cam V6 to sing a rather pleasant note.

RELATED: A Detailed Look Back At The Chevrolet Lumina Z34

Where Are They Now?

Chevy Lumina Z34 rear three quarter
via consumerguide.com

The Lumina Z34 is a very rare car today. Searching the classifieds, I found only one listed in Moncton, New Brunswick with over 400,000 km on the odometer, and another one listed in Tampa, Florida with 200,000 miles. Both are automatics, and neither is expensive, which goes to show how hard these cars are to find. There are plenty of lesser Luminas, but the Z34 is a very rare bird. You're almost more likely to find one in a junkyard than listed for sale in someone's driveway.

The Canadian car was listed at $3,500 CAD and the Florida car at $1,100 USD, though it's hard to say if that's an accurate representation of what these things are actually worth. J.D. Power's valuation has it listed at a "high retail" of only $1,825 USD, but whenever these do pop up it's likely that owners will try to get a little more than that out of them on account of the rarity and the growing desirability of obscure 1990s cars.

The Lumina Z34 is one of those weird and interesting GM cars that most of us have likely forgotten about. It was never a barnstormer in its day, nor was FWD ever going to convince G-Body coupe and F-Body muscle car enthusiasts to give up their Grand Nationals, Cutlasses, Camaros, and Firebirds for a Lumina. But it exists now as a time capsule car, a trip back to GM's early-90s era of massive expansion and its vain attempts to reposition its brands and products to fight the Germans and the Japanese.

People may not remember many of the old cars GM was cranking out in the 1990s, but they will recognize the Lumina and they'll be pleasantly surprised when they hear what the Z34 engine and exhaust sounds like. It's like a Taurus SHO if the Taurus SHO is too well-known and common for your taste in old cars.

Good luck finding one of these, but if you do, know that you've stumbled across what could be one of the rarest domestic cars of the 1990s, and could someday become a desired classic.

NEXT: 10 Times GM Built Incredible Sports Cars