Junkyard Find: 1992 Geo Prizm
We’ve seen a few NUMMI-built Junkyard Finds in recent weeks, including this ’87 Nova and this ’87 Corolla FX16 GT-S. However, the car that really comes to mind when you think of NUMMI is the Geo Prizm. Here’s an example of GM’s rebadged Corolla that I found at a self-service junkyard about 20 miles from the car’s birthplace. It’s the circle of automotive life!
Prizms and Corollas came down the same assembly line at NUMMI and were, for all practical purposes, the same car. Savvy used-car buyers soon learned that you could get a 5-year-old Prizm for half the price of a 5-year-old Corolla… but most car buyers weren’t that savvy.
Nobody has ever been able to explain the point of the Geo marque in a way that made sense to me. It was used as a catch-all badge for rebadged Suzuki, Isuzu, and Toyota cars (sadly, there were no Daewoo- or Opel-built Geos), and car buyers were just as befuddled by Geos as by Eagles.
By the early 1990s, the Corolla had already gone pretty far into its descent into the soporific transportation appliance we know today. Sure, you could get a GSi Prizm and a GT-S Corolla in 1992, but most of these cars were essentially treated as 3/4-scale Camrys. This one didn’t even make 200,000 miles before its general hooptieness condemned it to death in a Chinese steel factory.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Geo was to sell to "I can't buy a Chevy badged car". But, dealers didn't care, called them "Chevy Geos", and promoted cheap rebated Cavaliers. Then sell the GAP, extended warranty, 'paint protector', etc, etc. "For 20$ more a month you can add...that's like a take out pizza".
After over 30 yrs driving bugs , my folks bought a 86 Nova and a Tercel. My brother had a Metro and my DIL had a 93 Prizm. . Compared to other bottom line GMs, they lasted quite well.