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Junkyard Gem: 1988 Chevrolet Spectrum CL Sedan

After a not-so-successful run selling Opels in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, The General looked to his partners in the East for the next round of low-priced GM-badged imports. There was the 1985-1988 Chevrolet (Suzuki) Sprint (which later became the Chevy/Geo Metro), 1988-1993 Pontiac (Daewoo) LeMans, and a bunch of Chevrolet and Geo machinery based on the late-1980s Isuzu Gemini. Here's one of the first of those Isuzus: a 1988 Chevrolet Spectrum CL sedan, found in a Northern California self-service wrecking yard. The first model year for the Spectrum (sibling to the U.S.-market Isuzu I-Mark) was 1984, and these cars wore Chevrolet badges through the first part of 1988. At that point, GM decided that its Asian-built imports would belong to the Geo brand starting in the 1989 model year, so 1988 models can be either Geos or Chevrolets, depending on when they were imported. Most Spectrums (Spectra?) were hatchbacks, so a 1988 Chevrolet Spectrum sedan is now one of the rarest 1980s cars sold in the United States. This is yet more evidence that rare does not equal valuable. The interior looks non-thrashed, and the odometer shows a startlingly low reading for a 30-year-old Japanese car. The buildup of rodent bedding in the engine compartment suggests long-term abandonment prior to the car's final ride to this place, possibly dating back 20 years. In keeping with 1980s design trends, the HVAC controls show vivid pink and blue colors, and the option to direct air at your feathered hair or your high-heeled boots. Perhaps the members of Poison owned this car. Most Spectrum buyers would have been too cheap to get air conditioning or an automatic transmission, but this car has both. You just never know what you'll find in the junkyard! This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. As slick as city rain. Featured Gallery Junked 1988 Chevrolet Spectrum sedan View 18 Photos Auto News Isuzu Automotive History

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. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The new Geo Storm is rolling in now. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. So cheap! This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The JDM headlights definitely looked better than the sealed-beams we got here.

Junkyard Gem: 1998 Isuzu Oasis

When I'm crawling through a big self-service wrecking yard (as I do at least once a week) in search of interesting discarded vehicles, the top of my "look for" list always includes weird and obscure examples of badge engineering, the weirder and more obscure the better. So far the Nissan-made Suzuki Equator has eluded me, but I have managed to shoot such junkyard badge-engineering oddities as the Mitsubishi Precis (Hyundai Excel), Acura SLX (Isuzu Trooper), Saab 9-2X (Subaru Impreza) and Saturn Astra (Opel Astra). Isuzu's dire need for a minivan in the late 1990s led to a deal with Honda to sell the first-generation Odyssey as the Oasis (even as the Trooper became the Honda Passport). Few bought the Oasis, but I found one in a Denver yard a few months back. Pure Honda throughout, down to the VTEC badges on the engine. This is the 2.3-liter F23 four, rated at 150 horsepower for 1998. Sold new in Denver, will be crushed in Denver. Though Americans bought many a Geo or Chevy built by Isuzu during the 1980s and 1990s (not to mention the big-selling Isuzu-made Chevy LUV truck of the 1970s), the Isuzu brand never really caught on over here. By 2009, Isuzu was gone. The first-generation Odyssey was well-made and efficient, but it was designed for the Japanese home market and thus was too small for most American van shoppers in 1998 (most of whom were moving to SUVs around that time, anyway). You could fit a lot of people and gear in this small-footprint machine, but that was more important in crowded Japanese cities than in sprawling American suburbia. Collectible? Not at all. But an interesting piece of automotive history. I can't find any Oasis ads online, so let's watch a JDM commercial for the first-gen Odyssey, featuring the Addams Family. Featured Gallery Junked 1998 Isuzu Oasis LS View 17 Photos Auto News Isuzu Automotive History