Junkyard Gem: 1990 Geo Storm

General Motors began selling rebadged Isuzus in the United States all the way back in 1972, when the Isuzu Faster pickup showed up here as the Chevrolet LUV. A few years after Isuzu began selling vehicles in North America under its own branding, The General began selling Isuzu I-Marks as Chevrolet Spectrums; when the time came to create the Geo division to sell badge-engineered Suzukis, Toyotas and Isuzus here, the Chevy Spectrum became a Geo and a sport compact based on the Isuzu Piazza appeared in Geo dealerships as the Storm. Today's Junkyard Gem is a first-model-year example of the Storm, found with lots of miles and plenty of rust in a Denver-area car graveyard recently.

Isuzu began selling this car as the second-generation Impulse for the 1991 model year. Few American car shoppers were interested in that car, but the Storm sold well.

For the 1991 model year, a "Wagonback" version of the Storm was added to the lineup. The Storm was discontinued after 1993, and Geo itself got the axe in 1997.

The 130-horsepower GSi version of the Storm was one of the best quickness-per-dollar deals of its era, but this car is the base Storm with just 95 SOHC horses under its hood.

An automatic transmission was available, but this car has the standard five-speed manual.

How much did it cost new? The list price was $10,390, or about $24,741 in 2023 dollars. 

This one got well past 200,000 miles during its career.

The rust is nasty. This car might have been a runner at the end, but corrosion plus high miles, manual transmission and defunct brand all conspired to send it to this place.

The new Geo Storm is rolling in now.

So cheap!

The JDM headlights definitely looked better than the sealed-beams we got here.

By Murilee Martin