(first posted 8/28/2015) It is well-known that GM has always struggled somewhat when it’s come to small cars. Most of the time, this can be attributed to the actual product, with the automaker’s small car efforts usually facing criticism for lack of refinement. But what if GM were to sell a re-branded version of a segment benchmark? Would the General finally have a praiseworthy compact car in its stable?
It certainly sounded like good idea on paper when GM began selling a rebadged version of the JDM-Toyota Sprinter (a close Corolla cousin) in 1989 as the Geo Prizm. In fact, the whole newly created Geo brand was comprised of rebadged Japanese compacts. Hey, if you can’t be better than the competition, sell them as your own, right?
Things looked even more positive when the second generation Prizm arrived as a 1993 model, proudly displaying distinctive “organic” styling and offering more size, features, and power. The fact that it was based off the highly commendable E100-series Sprinter/Corolla should’ve alone been enough to sell hundreds of thousands of them. But Geo, with its mishmash of rebadged economy cars never really made a name for itself, and the whole brand folded into Chevrolet’s lineup after 1997.
Arriving in 1998, the third generation Prizm was now badged as a Chevy. Granted, the new E110-series was less exciting, and the Prizm now only differed from the North American-spec Corolla in fascias and radio. Still, Chevrolet’s brand recognition and vast dealer network surely would’ve catapulted the Prizm to a top seller and moneymaker for GM, right? Guess again.
The Chevrolet Prizm actually sold even poorer than the previous Geo-badged version. Whatever the reason, (dealers content with the less-expensive Cavalier, focus on SUVs, etc.) Chevy never really promoted the Prizm, leading to an invisible existence. So despite a strong product, this time, a lack of advertising largely prevented GM from achieving notable success in the compact segment.
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Everyone I knew that had one loved it. My family had a Geo Prism and it survived years of abuse on western Mass. roads. It finally went to the crap pile at 300k miles when the exhaust fell off.
These were, and are when you can find one, great cheap wheels. If they weren’t abused, they’ll run a quarter million miles, and they cost less than a comparable Corolla.
Yes – these are good cars, capable of withstanding much abuse as they rack up miles. I felt the same way about the Saturns of this era as well.
As much of a mistake it was for GM to create the Geo make in the first place, shutting it down was probably even worse. These cars received almost no marketing attention when new, and felt lost surrounded by “domestic” Chevrolets. Even the badging seemed like an afterthought: The grille was clearly shaped to accommodate the Geo logo, and the Chevy badges looked totally out-of-place. Combined with the cost- and corner-cutting that also affected the “E110” Corolla, this seemed to suck the endearment of the Prizm away. It was an appliance (and a somewhat ugly one) devised to get you from point A to point B–no more, no less.
By this point, GM in general (and Chevrolet in particular) were such poison to import car buyers that even bringing out an absolute copy of what was considered the best Japanese car available wouldn’t sell. Those hard core just would not allow a Chevrolet nameplate in their driveways, because everybody knew that Chevrolet made junk cars.
It got so bad back in the ’90’s that Consumer’s Reports was berating their readership over their refusal to buy the Nova/Prism (which dealers were putting cash on the hood) instead of the Corolla (which was never being sold at full sticker, in my area dealers were tossing $400-1200 ADM to the sticker – and getting it).
This is the point where GM had completely lost it, and was not going to get it back in anything less than decades and generations. Amongst a certain crowd (say, the hip Beltway area) a Toyota was the mark of a smart shopper, while buying a Chevrolet branded you as uncool, un-hip, conservative and even possibly Republican. Same car? Didn’t matter. That badge on the hood was everything.
And, amongst boomers at least, this attitude hasn’t gone away. My sister and brother-in-law are prime examples.
Syke, didn’t it work the other way around too? I don’t think that Chevy diehards ever accepted these as “real Chevrolets” even when they wore the bow tie. These things got stuck in a strange place where the import buyers ignored them and the Chevy buyers ignored them. The did not leave a very big market.
Good point. What American car customers Chevrolet still had wouldn’t want to be seen in a small car. All I know is that when I bought the Geo Metro for the girlfriend back in ’94, the dealer was so obviously grateful that I actually wanted one of those things that it was the first time I didn’t have to do the usual bare-knuckles, nose-to-nose travesties that is dealing for a new car.
I always saw these as the affordable car choice if you were on a budget and that’s OK too. I’d have to agree with jpcavanugh that Chevy buyers were ignoring them and many of the dealers had great deals on the Impala’s especially in the later part of 2001, post 9/11 when gasoline prices sky rocketed like we never saw before.
I still fail to see the point of cars like that in the US market, at least in mid-west. If the situation ( space, fuel price ) is bad enough when a car as small as ford tempo is necessary, that’s truly sorry in those places. Usually a bottom line car here is a Buick century sized car ( ford contour, Chevrolet Malibu, dodge stratus such ) and anything even smaller or less prestigious as those, they belong to 1) it’s a new car as cheap lease 2) used car driven by people choosing cars poorly, like Chevrolet aveo 3) how much hate they have to show about cars. 4) I’m going to buy another car soon.
Because the economy from a smaller mid-size like a Chevrolet Malibu is good enough, keeping improving isn’t necessary in most situations, while the living standard and comfort are compromised and keep compromising will lead to not so good experience in driving/sitting, and I can’t imagine a situation why it would be necessary to keep downsizing ( unless 20yo or similar ).
On the other hand, there are still so many rather reliable used cars to choose from and many of them offer very good economy. But as I heard on west coast, when many Mexicans prefer to drive chrysler 300, it will diminish the appeal for certain model ( same as ford crown vic ) for other crowd still usually there are plenty of other models to choose from, like Buick Lucerne, so the number of choice should be healthy. On the other hand, smaller cars have better tendancy to be tuned/modified in a silly way ( Mitsubishi eclipse, Honda civic, Dodge stratus coupe, Scion anything ) and it will reduce their appeal too.
My family had an E90 Prizm when they lived in the Midwest, and I’d take issue with this. First of all, your definition of adequate economy is not everyone’s. The Prizm, particularly with the (fairly rare) five-speed, was a good more economical than GM’s contemporary A-body or N-body cars and the 4A-FE was a vastly more pleasant engine than the groaning 2.3-liter four in the Tempo. (The three-speed automatic didn’t do either any favors, admittedly.) Something like a Buick Century at that point would have stickered for something like $7,000 more than the Prizm, which was and still isn’t trivial. The Prizm wasn’t an especially sporty car, but it rode about as well as a GM A-body, had adequate space, and was a lot easier to park. How does that not make sense?
I think improving economy by using stick isn’t something so popular among most buyers, because the driving technique is very different ( But I do in the leisure cars for fun though ) and the difference of mpg is probably 5-10 ( 25 for Century, or 34 for Prizm ) the difference reflected on cost is more obvious when the gas price is above 3.3, but not so obvious when it’s 1.8-2.8. A-Body isn’t too comfortable to my standard, neither is Prizm, I think the slight advantage in space comes from the bench seat as it will be easier to stretch out to the middle a little bit for those cars. Price difference on new cars will be diminished as used, especially when it doesn’t make sense for Japanese cars to hold value better while Buick is always a good deal by compare ( and some dealers finally figured out the trick to sell used car is by putting a Camry, Avalon, Corolla with higher book value+poor option+high mileage probably not so clean next to many loaded and nicer Buick, Impala or Fusion at a bargain. )
Parking wise, it depends on difference areas. I can drive any car as large as I want in most areas, but in Chicago, hell no, Trabant isn’t even small enough 😛
It really shows the bias against American cars by some import shoppers. The same car made in the same factory with a better warranty and yet, whether badged as Geo of Chevy, a lower resale value. I don’t know if it’s bad experiences with real Chevrolets, politics, or self loathing, but I just can’t understand it. I am glad GM abandoned the experiment and the plant given to Tesla.
I bought a new ’93 Corolla. A wagon, so there was no equivalent Geo, but I’m not sure I would have cross-shopped it if available. I did also consider a Suzuki Sidekick and didn’t bother looking at the equivalent Geo Tracker. And even though at the time I lived in a huge metro area, the local Chevy/Geo dealer (along with a separate Buick store) was gone in a few years, a decade before the bankruptcy. As a motorcycle guy I didn’t mind owning a Suzuki, but as a car guy also I couldn’t swallow the thought of owning a “Geo”.
The experiment did not work when the car was badged a Chevy and it did not work when it went crossover and became the Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Metrix. Import buyers like to talk of quality or driving dynamics, but I think the product from NUMMI tells what the shift to imports was really about.
I’ve never driven either, but having ridden in both the first generation Vibe and Matrix I can say that neither one was that impressive on the inside. Both were about the same in terms of material quality, so it wasn’t that the Pontiac was worse than the Toyota, but the interiors of the Matrix/Vibe were noticeably cheap when compared to the Corolla they were based on. Plastics were harder and hollower, upholstery wasn’t as plush, and there was less accent trim.
Matrix/Vibe had a Toyota chassis and Pontiac interior with each brand doing its’ own exterior styling. As a 30+ mpg SUV substitute with car handling it tends to attract a customer base that would just as soon have hose-off hard plastics.
Friend of mine almost bought a near last-of-the-line Vibe with a stick for a price that reflected what he called “Toyota quality with Pontiac depreciation”.
“Toyota quality with Pontiac depreciation”
Many dealers selling used cars figured it out already. They deliberately get many spartan high mileage Toyota/Honda in rough shape with higher book value and park them right in the lot, and surround it with many pristine loaded late model Taurus/Fusion/Impala/Lucerne/300 with lower miles at a lower price. In that particular dealership, Avalon stays there for quite a while.
I tried to add earlier but was too late to edit, the Vibe was a 50k-a-year seller; in places like New England (and I’m sure the PNW) where people buy wagons it’s a dozen-a-day sighting and even the slightly more than one-year-only secondgen isn’t that rare.
I’m sure the styling, or the fact that unlike the E100 Prizm it has some, helps raise its’ profile on the streets too.
It was still stuck with the lower resale values compared to the Matrix. When people know they are getting the same thing and pay more for the privilege of sending their wealth overseas, something is wrong in the state of Denmark, and New England.
Oh yeah, as to Chevrolet being half-hearted about the Geo brand; in Pennsylvania at least, if you bought a Geo, the title said Chevrolet. Which they pointedly did not mention at time of purchase.
I remember all of the PR from the creation of GEO, which distilled out to nobody trying the imported Chevys because of the name. GEO sounded so cool and global. Then a few years later, they changed back, saying that people need to know that they were Chevys.
These seemed to get the same respect out of Chevy dealers and loyalists that the Mitsubishi cars got from Mopar dealers and loyalists. The captive imports just never got past stepchild status, even when they might have been the best cars being sold out of the brand.
^This. I resented the idea that the manufacturers thought their customers were so stupid they’d never know the difference. The cynicism of offering badge engineered products from another company [or “joint venture” ] irritated me to the point I’d never consider any of the captive imports from the Big Three.
Although the article doesn’t mention this, Chevrolet had of course been selling Corolla-derived cars for a styling generation before this, as the 1985-88 Chevrolet Nova, as well as two other import-derived models, the Sprint and the Spectrum.
I always thought that the creation of the Geo brand was intended to advertise these cars’ “really an import” status both to import buyers, who wouldn’t otherwise shop at a Chevrolet dealer, as well as diehard buy-American types, who shopped at Chevrolet dealers specifically to avoid imports, and were annoyed that what were essentially foreign cars were being sold there under the Chevrolet name. The creation of Geo also had the effect of better organizing a Chevy model lineup that seemed to feature numerous overlapping small car models. As you noted in a different post, the import buyers continued to ignore the Geo models, and the buy-American diehards hadn’t wanted anything to do with them in the first place, greatly reducing the potential market for these cars.
I never really understood why they went back to badging these as Chevrolets, but I guess badging them as Geos hadn’t really accomplished anything, and as time went by the whole import vs. domestic distinction was becoming highly muddled anyway. GM also seemed to be in the process of gradually phasing out its agreements with the manufacturers that made the Geo models. Had the Geo nameplate not been retired, later cars like the Aveo and Sonic may have also been Geos.
i was one of those people who would never consider a domestic car. one time i got a chevy nova as a rental. i immediately recognized it as a corolla. the car was fantastic and i cynically figured that gm was so pathetic that they were rebadging toyotas. it wasn’t until much later that i heard about nummi and found out that the car was built in california. i was astounded that anything that good could come out of gm.
Pontiac Vibe another variation of the Toyota Corolla Matrix replaced the Geo/Chevrolet Prizm after 2002. At least the Pontiac Vibe carried through the end after Pontiac declared extinct by 2010 and the Toyota Matrix through 2013 in the U.S. and 2014 in Canada with the possibilities of re-release of the same exact model with minor changes for 2016. The corroborative relationship between GM and Toyota at least lasted from 1985-2010 about 25 years.
The fashionable neologism “frenemies” certainly applies to industrial competitors entering joint-ventures like this.
An excuse that some use to dissmiss the Geo/Chevy/Pontiac’s built by NUMMI was that the “interior parts were GM”. Thus, the whole car was “inferior”. 😛
Other excuse was that GM dealers would “treat me badly” if they went there, as if no Toyota dealer has ever had bad customer service
If anything back then, Chevrolet dealers were being so badly humbled by imports that they were trying to surpress their natural “rip off the customer” urges, while Toyota dealers were usually dealing from a level of arrogance second only to Honda dealers. Basically it was “Negotiate? You must be joking. If you don’t buy it the next person thru the door will. At this price.”
Service departments may be a bit different, admittedly. But the bottom line is that we’re talking the same level of rationality seen in a mother of four who refuses to drive a minivan because of the message she thinks it sends.
+1 last remark; I think it stems from a cultural attitude that children are a nuisance & a hindrance to fulfillment. I’ve encountered parents who did not seem to like being around their children, & tried to “outsource” parenting whenever they could.
Ironic that people whine about industrial outsourcing, yet do the same thing with parenting. Winston Churchill was closer to his nanny than his party-animal parents.
+2.
Minivans make more sense, but adults today are very “image’ oriented and want to be seen as ‘cool’ by peers, as if still a teenager.
“I may have kids, but I drive a sexy truck!”
Trucks come in sexy?
NO they dont Ol Pete
Great cars except for the oil drinking 1ZZ-FE, and the performance sapping 3 speed automatic that so many of them had.
Yeah. The 4A-FE in the first-generation Prizm was a really nice engine with a five-speed — not all that powerful, but smooth, eager, and very economical. The three-speed auto had a unique knack for keeping the engine in rev bands where it would drone, buzz, or both.
The story of these cars is closely intertwined with the story of the plant they were built in. This American Life recently re-ran their piece on the rise & fall of NUMMI. They did a nice job of giving a pretty balanced view of a complicated story. It’s worth a listen if you haven’t heard it.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/561/nummi-2015
+1. I’ve listened to that episode several times. Incredibly interesting.
Seconded. Automotive manufacturing is a strange world.
I’ll also second what some other commenters above have said: I knew a guy in high school who had one of these, and it holds the all-time record for the most abuse I’ve ever seen a car take. Reverse-to-Drive slams and J-turns all day long in the Dallas heat, and it just smiled and took it.
I live in the SF Bay Area, and NUMMI has been an real institution, quite successful. I’m sorry that it had to go in the aftermath of GM’s bankruptcy and the slump in the vehicle market. Perhaps logistics and geography worked against it – as it was the last vehicle assembly plant in California left at the time.
Our E100 based Prizm replaced the absolutely lovely Audi 5000S that tried to kill me more than once with it’s random electrical and HVAC failures. I coasted into the Chevy/Geo/Toyota dealership with the Audi running off the battery – the alternator once again randomly failing to function properly. The Geo models sat right next to the Toyotas – and even with my screwed up, non-running trade-in I got money on the hood to buy the Prizm over a Corolla! If my wife hadn’t insisted on a manual transmission we could’ve had an even sweeter deal on a slush-box Prizm. Ours lasted through many brutal Ohio winters until my daughter and son-in-law finally killed it driving in Pittsburgh – only thing that EVER failed other than maintenance items (tires, brake pads, shocks/struts, etc…still had the original cluth) was the fuel filler door cable slipping off the actuating lever. Great little car – quiet, solid driving, reliable, economical, simple…even a little fun to drive with the slick shifting 5 speed…
These are great econoboxes – my only gripe is the sloppiness in the cable shifter which just doesn’t compare to the direct-shifted 1997 Civic that I’m driving now.
Add this to the list of Deady Sins. Pointless rebadging with no marketing follow through.
Sorry, it was not a deadly sin. The rebadging was incredibly necessary because at that point foreign car buyers absolutely would not consider buying a domestic nameplate. Badge engineering a line of foreign cars under a new nameplate was the best possible solution for GM in an impossibly bad situation.
The Geo lineup made perfect sense. Japanese imports – at your Chevy dealer – and if you buy one your peer group won’t know that you’ve bought a Chevy.
I consider Geo one of the things that GM did right at that time. It certainly did as well as Saturn, at a fraction of the expense.
The best possible solution would have been for GM to start producing quality cars and rebuilding their reputation, not selling an import under their name.
The GM NUMMI trio (Nova, Prism, Matrix) is utterly fascinating because it’s the only vehicle I can think of that could be considered for both Deadly Sin AND Greatest Hit status at the same time. They would easily be the best-built GM cars of their time, being essentially a stone-cold reliable Toyota Corolla. Yet, when you slap a GM badge on something and sell it at GM dealerships, even a Toyota, no one of any means will be buying one. GM cars, sales of which by the time of the Prism, had deteriorated to the level of “It’s the only thing I could afford” class of car. So, this meant that those few who did their due-diligence got themselves dirt-cheap Toyota quality at a GM crap-car price. Even today, when someone mentions the word “Geo”, they think more of the Suzuki Swift-based Metro and not the Toyota-based Prism. They were the bargain cars of the decades when sold new and I, for one, was sorry to see the NUMMI experiment ultimately fail. Those cars were the finest expression of the utopian ideal to have the best-built, lowest-price car for the masses, yet the masses were too stupid to realize it. Therein lies the real problem with NUMMI cars; how do you market a car that’s jointly built with your primary competitor? GM couldn’t run ads that touted the Prism’s main selling point (“Hey, look! Toyota quality with a GM badge!”).
So, history remembers the NUMMI experiment as putting out both the best and worst car that ever wore a GM badge.
Shades of the Holden Nova badged Corollas that were sold in Aussie, NZ got its small GM cars from Europe at the time badged Opel or Holden after the naming rights got sorted out. No doubt these were better than GM NA’s efforts at small cars or any cars judging by the junk presented on this site from GM, they really did emulate BMC with their rush to FWD and wrong size badge engineering.
Wasn’t there a rebadging exercise by GM, Toyota, Nissan, Ford sharing models between each other under the Button Plan back in the 1980s, which didn’t fool the consumer – the rebadged models sales figures lagged way behind the original manufacturers?
Okay, I’ll try.
The Ford/Nissan tie-up was doomed from the start. Nissan had (maybe still has?) a bad rep for quality here. Replacing the excellent Mazda 626-based Telstar with the Nissan Pintara(Bluebird)-based Corsair was doomed to fail. Just to confuse the issue, at the same time Ford sold the Laser which was still based on a Mazda 323! Ford did get the Maverick, a rebadged Nissan Patrol, which did quite well for them. And Nissan got the Falcon ute, sold as the Nissan Ute. I’ve seen a total of one.
Components got swapped around too. Nissan bought the Holden 1.6 engine from the Camira and put it in local Pulsars – not a bad move. But back around ’80 Toyota had bought the Holden Starfart four and put it in the Corona – huge mistake.
Holden sold the Corolla as the Nova, the Camry as the Apollo – both relative failures for them. Toyota got the Lexcen, a facelifted Commodore, which was quite successful for them as a sort of Cressida replacement – you still find them on the road in country areas especially.
It really boiled down to which company had the better dealer in your town.
John Laws booming voice on nation wide talkback helped flog a few Lexcens there were people who really thought those were Toyotas,
The other thing that wasnt noticed was Japanese manufacturers swapping vehicles around Nissan vans built by Mazda was one that slipped through nobody noticed in Aussie its worse in NZ because of all the JDM rebadges that have turned up as used imports Isuzu badged Subaru Legacy, Holden badged Isuzu aska Aussie didnt get Honda badged and powered Mazdas nobody got told about Nissan badged Mazda wagons its a real rabbit hole to fall into.
I thought the entire NUMMI experiment was utterly pathetic on GM’s part. It was a tacit admission that they were completely uncompetitive in one of the most important segments in the U.S. market at that time. It was shocking that The General would go to one of its biggest rivals and ask to build a rebadged version of one of their best selling products, all so The General could “learn” how to make a decent car. How the mighty can tumble…
Given the situation, the NUMMI deal was an absolute no brainer for Toyota. They got U.S.-based manufacturing capacity, along with the happy realization that one of their historically most feared/revered competitors was actually shockingly incompetent. Given the reputation of GM brands at that point, Toyota presumed correctly that anything sold in a Chevy showroom–even a virtual Corolla clone–would automatically be perceived as inferior to the Toyota product. Hence, there was no need for Toyota to worry about additional competition in the segment undermining their pricing power.
Final Score: Toyota +100, GM big fat ZERO.
Sad but all quite true.
We bought a ’95 in 2000 out of desperation to replace a faultering Ford pickup. Had 55,000 miles. With the exception of the woeful automatic transmission, it was the most dependable car we’ve ever had. I still regret “selling” it to my father in law when it had 190,000 miles just to have him trade it for a rusty Contour a year later.
It is a shame the Geo /Chevy Prizm and Corolla derived Nova did not sell better. To me the 85-88 Nova and the 89-2002 Prizms were better looking then the Toyota Corollas of the same years(especially the 89-92 which looked different then the Corolla due to its creased lines and the 89-92 Hatch which looked very nice)
Everybody I knew that owned one of these cars loved them and were sad when they parted with them.
I think one of our members on Curbside Classic has a blue 89-92 Prizm.
Along with the later 2003-2010 Pontiac Vibe, these Prizms represented GM’s most reliable cars from 1985-2010.
They were a great bargain for somebody that wanted a Corolla without the mark up.
I don’t have any personal experience with a Geo per se, but I did try to buy a Nova back in 1986. My theory was that I would probably save some money buying it, and that it would probably never need to see the dealership again after purchase. So, yeah, a Corolla for a lower price was what I was after.
I went to a Chevy dealership and told the salesman who greeted me that I wanted to see a Nova. He then led me through the rows of cars and finally stopped in front of some fat bling-encrusted Chevy (I don’t recall what) and started telling me what a great deal he could give me on it. I stopped him in mid-pitch and told that I wasn’t interested: I wanted to see a Nova.
He said, “Son, there just ain’t no room to move on the price on those things. Let me give you a deal!” When I said no, that I wanted a Nova, he walked off and left me standing there.
Since then, I have always thought that GM’s incentives to dealers and salesmen to sell slow moving American iron really hindered the sales of the Nova and, subsequently, Geo’s. There was just more profit in selling the American built stuff, and so the small margin rebadged imports were ignored on the sales floor.
All I can say is that the 93-97 Prism and Corolla looked better than the 88-92 versions and muuuuuch better than 98-02 versions. Both the Prism and Corolla of 93-97 vintage still look nice to this day and the interiors were decently good quality, what did you do the the 98-02…yuuuck!
We bought a new ’99 Prizm primarily because my late father had a credit card that had built up $3000 worth of credit (which he gave us) toward a GM-branded car. The Prizm 5-speed was the only GM car we’d have wanted to buy in summer 1999. We had to have an aftermarket radio and speakers installed (a basic 4-speaker stereo, along with a/c, finally became standard for 2000); the only options our car had were a/c and rear window defog.
It was very inexpensive – maybe because it wasn’t advertised? – and offered great fuel economy, as much as 40 mpg on hilly roads with a fully loaded car and a/c running. After 11 years we sold it to a friend who’d once owned a ’90 Prizm, and it’s still going strong. A few interior parts were cheap – for example, I had to replace the driver’s door handle.
There were a few differences in addition to “fascias and radio” mentioned in the article. The beltline, unlike 1998-2003 Corollas, extended from the rear door all the way to the back of the car; the radio antenna was fixed and flexible, mounted atop a rear fender, rather than the A-pillar type used on Corollas; the dashboard itself was different, although smaller details such as air vents were likely the same; the trunk lock was centered, whereas it was offset in Corollas; mudflaps weren’t available from Chevy (although I ordered a set intended for Corollas and they fit just fine).
We were (and still are) very happy with our choice – not that we’d have ever considered the Cavalier sitting in the same showroom.
When I quit the Toyota Dealer to go Chevy I realized one thing. Toyotas sell themselves. A Chevy/Geo badge probably hurt things.
My first sale when I was at the Chevy store was a 1998 Prism, the only Prism on the lot. The guy didn’t test drive it, didn’t care about color or options. He wanted to get that car, get to F&I and get out.
I had to SELL Chevys, Toyotas seemed to just walk out the door.
Toyota generally is copying GM Chevrolet’s re-badging formula 15 years later. During the late 1980s Chevrolet established a subdivision called Geo in which it has slapped labels on cars made by Isuzu (I-Mark/Gemini) as a Chevrolet Spectrum, Isuzu (Impulse) as a Geo Storm, Suzuki (Cultus) as a Geo/Chevrolet Sprint, Suzuki Sidekick as a Geo/Chevrolet Tracker, Daewoo Kalos as a Chevrolet Aveo, Daewoo LeMans as a Pontiac LeMans and the 1985-2002 Toyota Corolla as both a NUMMI/Chevrolet Nova and NUMMI/Geo/Chevrolet Prizm and the related 2003-14 Toyota Corolla Matrix as a 2003-10 Pontiac Vibe. Toyota had established the Scion brand in 2003 (much in a similar fashion Geo was to Chevrolet) to give new brand identifications to other smaller Toyotas which would otherwise be rejected here in North America. Examples: Scion iQ from Toyota iQ, Scion xA from Toyota ist, Scion xD from Toyota Urban Cruiser, Scion xB from Toyota bB through 2007 and Toyota Corolla Rumion from 2008-on, 2011 Scion tC from Toyota Zelas (the 2004-10 Scion tC was the first Scion brand not marketed as a Toyota.) Scion FR-S from both Toyota 86 and Subaru BR-Z. the up and coming 2016 Scion iM which was originally a Toyota Auris a variation of the Corolla and the 2016 Scion iA (in Canada a 2016 Toyota Yaris 4 Door Sedan) from Mazda2/Demio.
Can’t speak to this series of the car but our ’88 Corolla-by-any-other-name hatchback was great, and I don’t know if Chevy sold anything as good for the segment until (perhaps) the Cruze.
Also, if memory serves, I thing the Cavalier cost more than the captive Corolla in the 80s and ended up being less expensive by the century’s end (as noted). I don’t have the expertise to tell it, but therein may lie a fascinating tale.
It’s funny how GM executives rather die than put a global GM car in US market without sabotages. This Chevrolet/Opel/Holden/Vauxhall Vectra should be the 1997 Chevy Prizm instead that bizare Saturn LS.
These were good cars. I knew a few friends with great experiences. They were obviously Toyota Novas and Toyota Geos, which meant good cars without the markups.
Pontiac was selling Daewoo LeMans, Ford was selling KIA 121s as Festivas, and Mitsubishi provided Colts for years. I was perfectly comfortable considering any of them, and I try to support US brands only.
Please don’t claim that buyers are stupid. Please don’t insult your neighbors. Many people did want a Cavalier type GM car over the NUMMI, but don’t be insulting and clain that they aren’t as smart as you because they do.
The Cavalier was a better looking car than the Corolla to many buyers. It’s OK to prefer one to another.
Finally, it was sad to see NUMMI fail. GM needed success in this market but they couldn’t get it via NUMMI.
I bought a Festiva and shopped at two Ford dealer. Neither of them made me feel bad for preferring it to an Escort, and no one I knew had ignorant comments to make either. I really find it hard to believe that bigotry kept these cars from being successful, based on my experiences over 12 years with my KIA/Mazda/Ford
Rebadging a Toyota Corolla a Chevrolet Prism was the kiss of death. GM’s record with small cars was so bad-Vega, Chevette, X-Cars, J-Cars-that shoppers immediately assumed it was a piece of junk, even if it was built in the same assembly plant along side Toyotas. Chevrolet should have used the same strategy when they released the Saturn; it’s own separate dealer organization with no official connection with GM.