Start with what the GM N platform is: a 4-door Sedan / 2-door Coupé with 122 I4, built from 1984 to 2005, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer.
How it came about
The General Motors N platform (commonly called the N-body or N car) was a front-wheel drive compact automotive platform produced from 1984 to 2005. The GM N platform was based on the GM J-Body and replaced the GM X platform.
The hardware
The engine is 122 I4; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a 3-speed THM125 automatic / 3-speed 3T40 automatic / 4-speed 4T60-E automatic / 4-speed 4T40-E automatic / 4-speed 4T45-E automatic / 5-speed Getrag 282 manual / 5-speed Getrag F23. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 103.4 in / 107 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the GM (General Motors) line-up the GM N platform has a clear place: it replaced the GM X platform / GM L platform; it handed the line to the GM Epsilon platform. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Ferrari Testarossa, the Toyota MR2, the SEAT Ibiza. Its GM (General Motors) stablemates include the 1955 Chevrolet and the 1957 Chevrolet.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the GM N platform — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.