(first posted 11/21/2018) We are six installments into the Obscure Rebadges series and we’ve only scratched the surface of the world of rebadges. Hell, we’ve only scratched the surface of the world of General Motors rebadges. Earlier, we covered three Asian-market GM flagships: the Alpheon, Isuzu Statesman de Ville and Mazda Roadpacer. Today, let’s look at some more GM rebadges from around the world.
GMC Chevette
Yes, you’re reading that correctly: a GMC badge on a subcompact sedan. There have been car-based GMC models before, like the Sprint, Caballero, Acadia and Terrain, but I’ll bet you didn’t know there was a GMC sedan!
The 1992 GMC Chevette was exclusive to the Argentinian market and represented the final gasp of the venerable GM T-Car. And you thought the Chevrolet Chevette stuck around for too long! This GMC sedan belatedly replaced the Opel K-180, GM Argentina’s original version of the T-Car. Debuting in 1974, the K-180 was largely the same as the Opel Kadett but with an Argentinian 1.8 four-cylinder engine derived from Chevy’s inline six. It rivalled the Volkswagen/Dodge 1500.
GM’s Argentinian operations suffered heavy financial losses in the late 1970s which, along with the political situation in the country, led to GM’s withdrawal from the market. GM returned in 1985 as part of a joint venture with Sevel, importing and producing Chevrolet trucks. Then, GM entered into a joint venture with Renault-affiliated CIADEA. As part of this agreement, GM do Brasil exported the Chevette to Argentina while Renault exported its Renault Trafic van to Brazil to be sold as a Chevrolet.
Although GM’s Brazilian line-up included more modern, front-wheel-drive vehicles like the J-Car Monza, the Chevette had remained in production. Two- and four-door sedan models were offered in Argentina alongside the GMC 500, a pickup derived from the T-Car.
Engines consisted of a 1.4 overhead cam four-cylinder with 63 hp, a 1.6 four, and an optional 1.7 Isuzu diesel four. With the VW 1500 now gone, the Chevette’s rivals included the Volkswagen Gol, Renault 12 and Fiat Spazio, the latter derived from the Fiat 127.
Although the Chevette had enjoyed a long life in Brazil, its time in Argentina was short. The Chevette died after 1994 and the agreement with Renault a year later but GM carried on in Argentina, christening a new factory in 1997 where it produced the much more modern Chevrolet (née Opel) Corsa.
Chevrolet Lumina
You may already know the Middle East was one of Holden’s many export markets for the VT-VZ and later VE generations of Commodore, one where it wore the Chevrolet Lumina nameplate after it had been extinguished in North America. This meant there were honest-to-goodness rear-wheel-drive, V8-powered Luminas and even a Lumina Coupe based on the Monaro (Pontiac GTO). What you may not know, however, is that the Lumina nameplate was used in another market after its discontinuation in North America. The Filipino Chevrolet Lumina was a bowtie-badged, Chinese-built Buick Regal.
It wasn’t the first time a Buick had worn Chevrolet badges – for example, the FWD A-Body Century was a Chevy in some South American markets. It wasn’t even the only Chinese-built Buick masquerading as a Chevy, as you’ll see later.
GM had withdrawn from the Philippines in 1985 along with Ford, finding the political and economic situation there at the time was untenable. This left just Nissan, Toyota and Mitsubishi operating in the Filipino market. In 1997, GM returned with the Opel brand, and introduced the Vectra, Omega and, shortly thereafter, the Tigra and Astra. In 2000, Chevrolet returned with the Suburban and Savana and GM dealerships were branded as GM AutoWorld. But Opel struggled in the Filipino market and by 2000 the market was still dominated by Japanese automakers who accounted for 80% of the total market (Koreans were the next biggest players with 15%). The Vectra struggled against rivals like the Nissan Cefiro (Infiniti I30/I35), Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. GM withdrew the brand in 2003, leaving the corporation without a car in the mid-size segment.
Enter the 2005 Chevrolet Lumina. Well, enter the Buick Regal with Chevy badges affixed to it, an odd decision considering GM Philippines was already offering rebadged Korean products like the Optra and therefore could have introduced the Daewoo Magnus (Chevrolet Evanda/Epica). The Lumina was quite a bit larger than the Vectra, measuring 20 inches longer and around 5 inches wider. This made it the largest car in its class.
Unfortunately, the Chinese Regal wasn’t available with the naturally-aspirated or supercharged 3.8 V6s that had been offered on the North American Regal. Instead, it used 2.5 and 3.0 V6s from the Chevy 60-degree V6 engine family plus the 2.0 Family II four. The Filipino Lumina offered just the 2.5 V6, producing 152 hp and 155 ft-lbs. It was no rocket ship, hitting 60mph in 12.8 seconds, but it was comfortable, spacious and well-equipped.
It was also short-lived. China ceased production of the Regal in 2008 and so the Chevrolet Lumina was discontinued from the Filipino market, again leaving GM without a mid-size sedan.
Chevrolet Venture
Something looks kind of off about this Venture, doesn’t it? That’s because the Philippine-market Venture wasn’t based on the North American Venture but, rather, the Chinese Buick GL8. Yes, this is a rebadge of a rebadge.
The Venture preceded the aforementioned Lumina by a few years, arriving in Filipino GM AutoWorld showrooms in 2001. Chinese production of the GM U-Body had commenced just two years prior and the Philippines was the first export market for the Buick GL8. It arrived to do battle with the Kia Carnival (Sedona) and the Hyundai Starex (a rebadged Mitsubishi L400/Delica). The Venture was also offered in a unique 10-seater variant, blurring the lines between minivan and minibus and having seats in a 3-4-3 configuration. Although Filipino taxation laws were favourable to 10-seaters and Filipinos tend to be slimmer than Americans and thus less squished when sitting four abreast, the 10-seater option was discontinued in 2005.
As with the Lumina, a variant of the Chevy 60-degree V6 was the only powertrain. In the Venture’s case, it was a 3.0 V6 producing 171 hp and 184 ft-lbs and hitting 60mph in 16 seconds. As with the other U-Body minivans, the Venture was spacious and drove well with a comfortable ride, smooth-shifting transmission, and relatively adroit handling for a minivan.
That was about all it had going for it. The GM U-Body wasn’t a bastion of fine workmanship when it was made in North America and its Chinese counterpart was no better (and possibly much worse). Build quality was subpar, the interior was full of cheap plastic, and the Venture creaked and groaned like a CD of haunted house sound effects. Parts availability was also a source of persistent frustration for Venture owners. By the mid-2000s, there were plenty of better-built Japanese rivals like the car-based Mitsubishi Grandis. And by 2007, GM Philippines axed the Venture. The Chinese-market GL8, however, lived on.
Subaru Traviq
In the early 2000s, GM was involved with a multitude of other automakers. It had a brief partnership with Fiat that spawned shared platforms. It owned a share in Suzuki and purchased Daewoo, while also owning a share in Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru). This led to various rebadges within the extended corporate family: Daewoos became Suzukis, Subarus became Saabs and, in the case of the Subaru Traviq, an Opel became a Subaru.
GM had started manufacturing cars in Thailand in 2000 and one of its first models was the Zafira, a handsome C-segment multi-purpose vehicle introduced by Opel to battle the Renault Scenic and which used the same platform as the Opel Astra. The Thai Zafira was exported to numerous Asian markets including the Philippines. It was also the first Thai-built car to be exported to Japan, where it was introduced in August 2001 with Subaru Traviq badges.
An importer, Yanase, had been the distributor of Opel products in Japan for decades. By 2001, the Japanese Opel range included the Zafira. Nevertheless, the Traviq reached Japanese Subaru showrooms as competition for the Zafira. It was the first car-based multi-purpose vehicle to wear the Subaru badge, boasting Opel’s Flex 7 seating system where the second and third rows could be folded flat into the floor. The Subaru badge was about all it had in common with other Subarus like the Impreza – the Traviq didn’t offer optional all-wheel-drive, nor did it have a boxer engine. Instead, 1.8 and 2.2 inline fours were offered with a standard four-speed automatic.
The Traviq undercut the almost identical Opel Zafira on price in the Japanese market thanks to the lower cost of manufacturing in Thailand. However, it wasn’t a strong seller – 12,000 annual units were projected but that ended up being the total volume over the Traviq’s admittedly short, three-year run. Its dimensions also meant it ran afoul of Japanese taxation laws. Traviq sales ended in 2004, shortly before GM sold its share in Subaru. It took another four years for Subaru to develop its own MPV, the larger Legacy-based Exiga. As for GM’s Thai operations, they found a much more successful vehicle to manufacture and export: the Chevrolet Colorado.
Chevrolet Forester
A lot of cars from different automakers have worn the Chevrolet bowtie at one point or another. In the Americas alone, there have been Opels, Isuzus, Suzukis, Toyotas and Holdens. In India, the bowtie badge even appeared on a Subaru, one of the fruits of a brief tie-up between GM and Subaru that also spawned the Saab 9-2X and the aforementioned Subaru Traviq.
The Forester relaunched the Chevrolet brand in India after a half-century absence from the market. Although Opel-branded products were already offered in India, Chevrolet slotted in underneath as a more mainstream brand.
GM’s presence in India has long been tumultuous. Opel had launched in 1996 with the Astra, with the Corsa and Vectra following in 2003. By 2006, Opel was out and Chevrolet was GM’s only brand in India. Although the Chevrolet-branded Forester was unique to the Indian market, the rest of their model range was similar to other markets with a fleet of mostly GM Korea products plus the rugged Tavera MPV from Indonesia. The Forester was one of just 44 different cars sold in India.
The Chevrolet Forester was offered with only one powertrain, a 2.0 flat-four with 125 hp, mated to a five-speed manual transmission. In some ways, it was well-suited for India and its rough roads: it had slightly higher ground clearance than, say, a conventional sedan, yet offered all-wheel-drive traction and greater comfort than rugged off-roaders from the likes of Mahindra. But the Forester was a petrol SUV with a relatively high price tag and so sales were slow; its station wagon looks in a market surprisingly averse to wagons might also have had an effect, as well as the unfamiliar badge. It was discontinued in 2005 with no direct replacement. The Chevrolet brand itself left the market in 2017, leaving GM with no products to sell in one of the world’s largest developing markets.
General Motors’ once huge array of brands, its lengthy history of corporate tie-ups, and its sprawling network of global operations means there’s plenty more obscure GM rebadges to share. Stay tuned for the next instalment, where we look at some more rebadges from GM and from other automakers.
Related Reading:
Obscure Rebadges From Around The World: Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five
Our Curbside Classic: 2000 Subaru Forester – The True Cost Of Ownership, So Far
COAL: 1998 Buick Regal GS – Yes, As A Matter Of Fact, I Would Rather Have A Buick!
So nice to see the PH-market versions of the Lumina and Venture here. Chevrolet has quite a colorful history in sending obscure rebadges in the Philippines. Prior to the Optra (a rebadged Daewoo Lacetti), they sent in the Casia, a rebadged Suzuki Esteem sedan. The Zafira was also badged as a Chevrolet here.
Cool! 🇵🇭
I like the look of that Venture. It has the Pontiac Trans Sport/ Montana front end on it and that is the best looking front end on all the U vans.
Great installment of Obscure Rebadges! I knew nothing about most of these cars, so reading this was quite a treat. Now I want to buy a used Forester just to rebadge it as a Chevy!
I loved the Filipino cars too — have never known about the un-Buicked Lumina.
The 10-passenger Venture interior reminded me of the picture below I came across recently. While researching Kia minivans recently (prior to buying a Sedona), I checked out Sedona/Carnival models in other markets. In many Asian markets, this minivan is sold as an 11-passenger version, with 4 rows of seats (pic here is from Korean-market website). I have no idea how common this configuration is for minivans in worldwide markets, but I found it pretty interesting. Those 3rd & 4th rows sure don’t look like they have much (or any) legroom, though.
“Do you routinely need to carry a herd of toddlers or large dogs? If so, does Kia have the vehicle for you! (Earplugs available at extra cost.)”
This reminds me of the Hyundai Starex the in-laws rented when we stayed with them in Malaysia. But that also had a flip-down seat in the front row, bringing possible capacity up to 12 (which we thankfully never had to use). It looked something like this:
The Mazda5 was a 7 seater in many markets, with a foldaway seat between the second row captain’s chairs.
Seating capacity can be a two edged sword. In the UK the 12 seater Landrover 109 and 110 station wagons were very popular because they were taxed as a minibus rather than a car. Then the licensing laws changed and to drive a 12 seater you needed a commercial license and in some cases had to fit a tachograph for driving hours compliance. Suddenly lots of Landrover owners were sawing 6-8″ off of their rear bench seats to instantly make them 10 seaters.
The Filipino 10-seat minivan in a new one to me. That one would lead to eyerolls everywhere if sold in the US, even more so than the vans they actually sold.
The rest of the world sure got way cooler Chevettes than the US did….
Is there a feature here on car names that don’t translate well into English? If so, the Fiat Spazio should be high on the list….
I’d like to have one of those GMC Chevettes and take it to the local show & shine.
The 4-abreast seats in the Venture are mind-bending. But when I had a bunch of little 2nd grade Cub Scouts to tote around on outings and field trips, that many seat belts would have been appealing.
GM’s approaches to different world markets were . . . I’m trying to think of the word.
“Disjointed?”
FUBAR?
Many wonderful examples of things to create brain torsion – which is always a good thing. However, the Filipino Lumina, of all things, really intrigues me.
Will, keep these coming. They are great and I can only imagine the amount of research required to write these.
Bizarre though it may be, I’d really love to have one of those GMC Chevettes. I’m intrigued by its simple rugged presentation. Looking at that interior shot piques my interest even more. It looks like some of the switchgear came out of late 70’s to mid-80’s VW parts bins. Such a unique conglomeration of bits all screwed and glued together in those things.
There are a couple of comments concerning those Chevettes. The GMC version was sold just as a 2 door and with a 1.6 engine, as the 1.4 had been out of production since about 1986. As for the Isuzu Diesel version, which was available in Uruguay from 1982 to about 1988 or so, it was a 1.8, and I don’t believe the GMC version had that option. The confusion on the engine size comes from the Corsa, the Chevette’s heir, getting a 1.7 Isuzu Diesel later on.
South America was a huge market for the Brazilian T car in many different versions, some of them unknown in Brazil.
As part of the badge engineering, the GMC version had the “CHEVROLET” letters deleted from the trunk, replaced instead with leftover “CHEVETTE” badge
It was hard finding much information on the GMC. I did, however, find this road test which mentions the 1.4:
http://importados.testdelayer.com.ar/test/gmcchevette.htm
Your source is good. In fact I remember reading that test at the time. As I have no source on hand to prove otherwise, I stand corrected (though I’m almost sure they didn’t get that engine). Thanks for a great text!
Wow the mystery of the Subaru that looks like a Vauxhall has been explained, I saw one here no doubt ex JDM and could not figure out what it was, I kinda like the Gemini ute surprising that wasnt tried in OZ a home made ute cut down from a Vauxhall Chevanne Ive seen, which is pretty much all that ute is,it wouldnt have been too hard in OZ surely, Loving this series.
The 10 seat minivans remind me of the 12 passenger VW bus built for either Mexico or Brazil.
I think in any of those vehicles, you’d better be very good friends with your fellow passengers.
And for a very long time, with 12 people it’s got to have been just a little bit faster than walking.
“… Lumina … extinguished …”. That subtle metaphor did not go unnoticed! Definitely some obscurity here; I was aware of the Chevy Forester but not most of the others. Someday I’d really like to hear from a GM insider about their global branding strategy in this era. Or even if there was one.
There’s the facelifted Pontiac Trans Sport sold in Europe with Oldsmobile Silhouette ‘attire’ from 1994 to 1996.
This one I remember well. When worked at a GM dealer around 2000, these were common on the used car lot or in the repair shop.
Last year a former co-worker bought one, but was very unlucky with his decision after a short time.
Interesting finds. I know that GM puts the bowtie on everything with wheels, which makes Chevy a real global brand. Even here in Europe we had these Daewoo based faux Chevys. But building a Buick in China an shipping it to the Phillipines to sell it as a Chevrolet, that´s really obscure. just like building a Opel in Thailand that pretends to be a Subaru in it´s home country. I´m wondering that there was sold one at all.
I know some of the South American and Middle Eastern rebadges get confusing, but wow, the ones from the Philippines and India? I love me some Chevy badged Subaru Foresters.
It may be the nostalgia talking but that Chevy 500 (ute) would be a show stopper at Cars and Coffee…
My jaw dropped at the GMC Chevette. I mean its a car – not a truck! AND the GMC “Chevette”?! Should have been called the GMC GMCvette 🙂
I truly enjoy this series Will!
Amazing! I never new of those Filipino Chevrolet before. I want to point out that the add showing the Chevy 500 comes from Chile, where the Brazilian Pickup was sold. Also, that the GMC 500 was also sold as such in Guatemala
The GMC T-500, Guatemala 🇬🇹
The Opel K-180 was sold in Argentina but never had the popularity of the Dodge/VW 1500, even though it was superior in performance.
The GMC Chevette was seen in the 90s when GM re-established itself in Argentina, although few were seen and it was not very successful (less than the Opel K-180).
Holden Scurry – GM’s lowest selling Holden rebrand?
Why they show up on NZ roads I dint know but some of those Holden/Chevrolet Luminas are on the roads here, I seen 3 and bowtie equipped Holdens arent rare but with all the export badging they seem real and not the first Chevrolet badged Holden to land either Chev 350 Statesmans were popular back in the day.
If a 10-seater version of a Venture would have been available in the U.S. the need for an external pusher would have been mandatory for American bodies. Here the crazy method: .https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/08/subway-pushers-of-japan.html
The reason the Chevette wasn’t marketed as a Chevrolet in Argentina is because Sevel still had the distribuition rights of Chevrolet brand until GM comeback in 1994. Sevel marketed domestic produced Chevrolet pick-ups until 1991 (C10), then imported the modified brazilian model (C20). They also distribuited american Chevrolets, like the Corsica, Beretta and Lumina APV and also the brazilian Monza.