Junkyard Find: 1987 Isuzu I-Mark
North Americans bought the post-Chevette Isuzu Gemini under several marques. There was the Spectrum, sold as a Chevrolet, a Geo, and a confusing Chevrolet/Geo. In Canada, you could get a Gemini badged as a Pontiac Sunburst. And, of course, there was the Isuzu I-Mark, a destined-for-China’s-steel-industry example of which I’ve found in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service wrecking yard.
These things were cheaper than a Corolla, had front-wheel-drive, and… they were cheaper than a Corolla.
The 1.5 liter four delivered 90 horsepower, which wasn’t so bad in 1987, and the I-Mark proved more reliable than, uh, the Hyundai Excel?
All in all, a forgotten commuter appliance that now serves as a reminder of The General’s musical-marques efforts of the 1980s and 1990s.
Who can forget the “Joe Isuzu” ads of the 1980s? Let’s watch a few for the I-Mark.
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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A college friend of mine had one of these (I want to say it was a high school graduation present). Not a very memorable car (she was more memorable). I remember she had this thing for setting out to drive home from Nashville to Memphis for the weekend on under half a tank of gas and trying to make it all the way without stopping to refuel or empty her bladder (200 or so miles). Typically she and the car would arrive equally dehydrated.
The intriguing story of Joe Isuzu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Isuzu