Junkyard Find: 1989 Geo Spectrum
The Mitsubishi Sigma I found a couple weeks ago was one rare Junkyard Find, having been sold in the United States for just two model years. Today, though, we’ve got something even more obscure: an Isuzu Gemini badged with both Chevrolet and Geo emblems, available for just one year.
The General never seemed quite sure what to do with the Geo brand; the Chevrolet-ized Isuzu Gemini aka I-Mark was available for a few years, but then became a Geo in 1989.
But wait! What’s that Chevy bowtie doing on the grille? I’m sure it all made sense after a 21-hour marketing meeting in an airless Motor City conference room.
These things were reasonably competent commuters, but didn’t exactly fly off the showroom floors.
It’s too bad Geo didn’t use this Japanese-market Gemini ad to sell the Spectrum.
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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Up Shift. Once the RPMs hit about 2000, if the vacuum was low enough, the light would come on to tell you to upshift for maximum fuel economy.
Hi Murilee Martin! I think this is my car!! I bought one, just like this one, back in 1989 and owned it for about 7 years! Even the dent on the front bumper looks vaguely familiar. Do you have access to the VIN? I would really love to know if this car has any ties to AZ.