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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.
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Yeah, with an ad like that it would definitely sell. Why are these Japanese ads so strange to western people? Are Japanese people strange or is it us?
About 20 years ago I had two neighbors who were students from Japan. I discovered things that are perfectly normal to us are alien level weird to them. Trying to explain stuff usually came down to either because he can ( Jacked up F250 4×4 as a daily driver). Or “It’s a southern thing”. (Boiled peanuts, Y’all)
Or a lifted F-250 4×4…in an apartment complex
Plenty of those things don’t make sense to a lot of Americans :)
Still looks pretty good styling-wise. I miss foglamps mounted next to headlamps a la Mercedes. Popped up on a lot of Japanese cars including Lexus.
They’re not entirely gone — my ’05 Mazda6 has them in this style. (Oddly, whether they were mounted in the bumper or the headlamp assembly depended on the trim level, that year.)
The Subaru SVX also feature those. Though they’re not yellow as foglamps should.
In 1989, I was busy riding my bike to junior high every day (and getting hit by cars several times). My route took me through the now long-defunct Chevy dealer in downtown Xenia, Ohio. Even more a car enthusiast then than I am now, I slammed on the brakes the first time I came across this bizarre Chevy called…what does that say? Geo? Hmm…never heard of it. Was it yet another piece of American-made crap my parents might buy? Possibly!
At school that day I felt a little special at having uncovered this strange new car. It was short-lived however as the double branded model seemed to disappear from the market just as quickly as it arrived. Years later, its fleeting nature made me think I had imagined the whole thing…that the Chevy Geo never actually existed.
Thanks for the article Murilee.
As a fellow Ohioan, and having been through xenia ohio… I’m sorry.
“As a fellow Ohioan, and having been through xenia ohio… I’m sorry.”
Who was the offended party; Xenia or you?
Any tornado devastation lately?
Yes, it IS hard to differentiate between tornado damage and the cruel march of time as the Rust Belt dissolves.
Oddly enough, last time I was in Xenia I saw one of these on Main
Street close to where that dealership was!
Growing up around Xenia and a little bit younger than you, I remember the dealership (Langs). They moved 7 miles west on the main route to/from Dayton. The dealership has almost half a mile of frontage on that route, so you get to see basically all their inventory just driving by! Sorry about getting hit by cars… For a borderline cowtown, Xenia has some awful drivers, even more now.
obbop,
Thanks for the chuckle. It’s been 11 years since the last round of devastation, so it’s probably overdue.
And then they sold the next generation of Gemini as the Isuzu Stylus (in four door guise) and the Impulse/Asüna Sunfire/Geo Storm (in two door guise).
Untested probably bulletproof LeMons engine? The Isuzu 4XE1. When my Stylus finally gives up (21 years!), I’ll see how its 95 horsepower rockets around a track.
Oh, you got the SOHC Stylus then. I had the Impulse with the DOHC (130HP).
It should go right in a track, actually that’s one of my regrets, not having taken the ‘Pulse to the track.
The engine, as you said, is bulletproof.
Indeed, I have the SOHC Stylus. This is because in 1991, I had a baby on the way and my wife just said no to a standard transmission. That meant I was forced with the lowly 3 speed automatic and 95 horsepower SOHC engine. The 138 HP DOHC was 5-speed only.
It’s a shame, I hear good things about it.
Kirk its nice to see you, last I read you weren’t feeling well, stroke and all.
You know, it’s hard being 96 too.
i sold these new back in the day.capable little car. gm employee’s bought them in great numbers because of the great price they were getting on them. i sold four to the same family in one day. Mom, dad and the two daughters all got a new car for around 20k total!
The only Geo that had any following was the Storm, but it had to be dropped when Isuzu switched to all trucks.
I rented a Spectrum in summer 1989 for a week in LA. Was capable, it kept up with the carzy freeway traffic. But was also forgettable since it was gone by 1990, essentially replaced by Storm and Prism.
My grandma had this as her last car, the four-door version known as Isuzu i-Mark. Bulletproof little car, very basic and plain with hardly any soundproofing, but boy was it reliable. Her prior car had been a fully loaded 1980 Chevy Citation. Reliable it was not…
When I was in the service a buddy of mine had a new one of the 4dr turbo versions. It looked rather good in a medium gray color and moved out quite decently. I think it had a horizontal, ribbon-style boost gauge.
Under Alfred Sloan, every GM division gained a lower-priced companion make to lure budget conscious shoppers into their showrooms. Every division, that is, except Chevrolet, which was already entry-level and couldn’t drop any further.
I always say Geo as part of Roger Smith’s belated quest to right this “historical injustice” some 60 years later, by giving Chevy not just one companion make, but two, along with Passport.
Unfortunately, it was just as dumb an idea in the 1980s as it was in the 1920s.
I remember these, briefly when they existed for such a short time.
Don’t think too much about them these days, if at all, but I do remember them though.
The Storm had more staying power over these.
This one looked like it was in still nice looking shape before being junked however.
I remember when GM decided to use the Geo name, around 1988, right as they redesigned the little Sprint, into the Metro.
Not a bad looking little hatchback compared to current Japanese economy cars. Stylistically, Toyota hasn’t progressed at all.
I used a 4-door Chevy Spectrum up in two months when I was a teenager. It had about 22,000 miles when it was done.
And I’m sure you could also break a crowbar in a sandbox too..
“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”
Wasn’t this car sold initially as Chevy Spectrum? if so, ’89 must be the year on which they switched to Geo.
In any case, the Gemini/I-Mark/Spectrum looks far much very mucho muy better than the Excel Sajeev seems to like so much. And they were both penned by Giugiaro.
GET TO KNOW…GEO
No matter what?
is there an “or else”?
A neighbor of mine once has the I-Mark RS version of the Spectrum. This was the sport version w/ 16v, larger alloy wheels, body cladding and a rear spoiler. Not a bad car, far better than the previous I-Mark aka Buick Opel but not as good as a comparable hot hatch’s for it’s day Corolla FX or GTI.
I had one of these for a few years in the late 80’s-early 90’s. Very reliable car for me with great mileage and Ok acceleration. Great car for a college student back in the day.
Nothing represented GM’s lack of commitment to the car market and protecting brand equity than Geo did, except for the Vega and the Cavalier, and the …
Oh heck, how am I ever going to get a period on that sentence if I keep remembering all the crap GM turned out??
Nothing screams “You’re cheap!” like a 85 mph gauge cluster, straight needles with no garnishes, front-lit with that depressing dim industrial green color. On the other hand, it looks like the car held up extremely well, inside and out, and got the job done, before ending up in that junkyard.
Hah, my wife’s first car. Apparently it was so awful that the engine tried to bail out by chewing through it’s motor mounts. After the escape attempt was thwarted it became depressed and attempted suicide by breaking it’s timing belt.
They only had it for a year or two after which it was traded in on an even more horrible Plymouth Colt Vista.
In 1985 Chevrolet sold three cars under the GEO nameplate. Prizm,Metro and Spectrum. All three were sold as Chevrolets by 1989 even though they all sported the GEO globe. 1989 was also the first year of the Tracker. IIRC in 1985 sales were split into three regions of the country. The Metro was West Coast, Spectrum was East Coast and Prizm was all of the lower 48. All three models were widely available in 1986.A Turbocharged model was available in 87-89 and was called the Spectrum Turbo.IIRC the Spectrum Turbo was both a 2 door hatch and 4 door sedan. The only thing missing was one of those “Lotus Tuned Suspension” emblems. And the Lotus Tuned Suspension. A budget priced and optioned 2 door hatch was also introduced and called Spectrum Express.
I had one of these. Bought it for $250 in 1998 with a broken front sway bar and a noisy tire, sold it a few months later for $1500. This one had the sport package, with a fatter sway bar, and one on the rear. Besides the Lotus tuned 16v Isuzu i-Mark RS, there was also a Chevy Spectrum Turbo.
Am I wrong, or did a i-Mark have a top 5 finish in one of the early Lemons races?
Wonder what the “U/S” idiot light was for?
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.