Junkyard Find: 1991 Geo Storm GSi

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin
junkyard find 1991 geo storm gsi

The Storm, a rebadged second-gen Isuzu Impulse sold by GM’s short-lived Geo division, was with us for just the 1990 through 1993 model years and didn’t leave much of an impression. I see the occasional Storm in wrecking yards these days, but it takes a factory-hot-rod GSi version to get me to reach for my camera. We saw this ’90 Storm GSi in a Colorado yard a couple years back, and now I’ve found another in Northern California.


Let’s watch some Storm ads!

The 16-valve performance force from Geo.

The GSi was quite a bit quicker than the ’87 CRX, but depreciation of cars bearing the doomed Geo marque probably meant that this ambitious young paralegal would have been better off sticking with the Honda.

In Canada, you could buy this car as an Asüna Sunfire.

With 130 horsepower, the Storm GSi offered one of the best bang-for-buck deals of its time. I think I’d still have bought the Sentra SE-R, though I was driving something a little more hooptie at the time.

Presented without comment.

Today’s Junkyard Find looks just like my super-rare diecast (actually all-plastic) Geo Storm GSi, which was given to me by a LeMons racer who claimed it was a dealer-promo item.






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  • Kinsha Kinsha on Jun 30, 2014

    I have a 1991 GEO Prism GSI 5 speed with Toyotas famous high compression 4AGE motor. 130 horse almost 8000 RPM redline 4 wheel discs front and rear sway bars and strut tower bar all stock. Power everything including sunroof and it all works even the AC. It is very light and a blast to drive. We call it the little red devil ;-)

    • Bumpy ii Bumpy ii on Jun 30, 2014

      Yeah, those are fun. I think most people have no idea you could get the 4AGE in a Geo. Some wacky part of me wants to find a hatchback Prism GSi and swap on the flip-light Trueno nose from an AE92.

  • Aron304 Aron304 on Jan 27, 2016

    Not sure if anyone cares, but i do have a yellow 1991 geo storm gsi (auto not manual) with all the fixings (though i did take the casset deck out for a new pioneer headunit). it has 28000 miles on it as of 1/27/2016) i have a video of it with a new sound system in it (though this is an old video since then i changed the subwoofer and amp) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWpwZlJkj7s

  • SCE to AUX I charge at home 99% of the time, on a Level 2 charger I installed myself in 2012 for my Leaf. My house is 1967, 150-Amp service, gas dryer and furnace; everything else is electric with no problems. I switched from gas HW to electric HW last year, when my 18-year-old tank finally failed.I charge at a for-pay station maybe a couple times a year.I don't travel more than an hour each way in my Ioniq 1 EV, so I don't deal much with public chargers. Despite a big electric rate increase this year, my car remains ridiculously cheap to operate.
  • ToolGuy 38:25 to 45:40 -- Let's all wait around for the stupid ugly helicopter. 😉The wheels and tires are cool, as in a) carbon fiber is a structural element not decoration and b) they have some sidewall.Also like the automatic fuel adjustment (gasoline vs. ethanol).(Anyone know why it's more powerful on E85? Huh? Huh?)
  • Ja-GTI So, seems like you have to own a house before you can own a BEV.
  • Kwik_Shift Good thing for fossil fuels to keep the EVs going.
  • Carlson Fan Meh, never cared for this car because I was never a big fan of the Gen 1 Camaro. The Gen 1 Firebird looked better inside and out and you could get it with the 400.The Gen 2 for my eyes was peak Camaro as far as styling w/those sexy split bumpers! They should have modeled the 6th Gen after that.
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