When the weakening dollar made the German Opel 1900/Manta too expensive to import anymore, GM looked to its affiliate in Japan for the replacement. The Isuzu Gemini was of course essentially an Opel Kadett C, although with a totally different drive train and a number of other changes. R&T’s conclusion is foregone: it’s not a bad car, but it’s not quite it’s predecessor either. But then the comparison is a bit skewed.
The Opel 1900 (Ascona) and Manta were in a class above the Kadett, so to start with, it’s a bit of apples and Japanese plums. So yes, the Opel by Isuzu is not quite as competent and refined in some of the details. But there’s no denying that it was well built, like all Japanese cars of the time.
I first shot and wrote up the Isuzu version, the I-Mark, way back in the early days (2009), a diesel. And although it looks like hell now, almost ten years later I still see it once in a while.
I last shot it in 2015 (above), but I saw it again just a week or so ago, looking even worse for wear, but still clattering along and trailing a small cloud of black smoke.
That body, dashboard, level of performance and nimble handling is what we got here in ’75, and it became the best seller of small cars for some years (sold as a Holden Gemini). Really not at all a bad car in it’s time, with such attributes, it’s understandable it sold thus. Certainly, the Golf was a better car, but a scientific 93% more fragile.
One of the GM mysteries to me is why it needed such faffing and fluffing and re-seating and dashing to become the (what’s been reported often enough here as) execrable and ill-timed Chevette. Why wasn’t this unstellar, but decent and fully existing car enough, rebadged appropriately?
My sister owned just this car, in two door form, in about ’84-’86 or so, and it really was rather nice. I’ll add that this particular two-door bodyshell is not photographed in these pics to show it as the pretty thing it actually was, especially without the doorstop bumpers. The coupes get quite good money now, and for once, I get it.
Buick (a tank), Isuzu (you did what?) and Opel (cheap jewellery). Couldn’t fail, could it.
Yeah we got em too along with its Vauxhall Chevette stablemate which sold better and from memory of them drove better, the Gemini was a bit tougher mechanically, very few of the Isuzu versions left here now and not many more of the Vauxhalls. They were side by side at the dealership my Dad was involved with but due to the different front sheetmetal few realised they were essentially the same car.
“Chevette with a trunk”.
Again, same say “If only GM brought over Opel designs as small cars in the 70’s…”, but they did, and we got the Chevette. So, any “Opel Vega” would have been similar.
Finding it next to impossible to leave comments as I keep getting :
“you are posting comments too fast”
Hey, I was waiting for this car to appear here!
You summarized the Car & Driver Road test conclusion: not a bad car, but not quite an Opel either.
C/D did take note of the “Jaws” grille. As a kid, I took note of it’s relatively good quarter mile performance–under 19 seconds in C/D, and R&T confirms. That was pretty good for that era.
Tight back seat, thanks to the rakish roof. GM should have offered it as a sedan, to compete against the boxier (and more practical) Corolla, or even the brutally ugly B210 (what a name! Maybe they thought of 4 B-52s, but B208 didn’t quite work..)
GM already had Vega hatchback, and the Monza variants. They didn’t need another ‘fastback’ (and this one was NOT a hatch, it was coupe with a trunk).
Cars biggest shortcoming, IMO, was the lack of a 5-speed. The other Japanese cars offered them.
In late 70s long island, there were still quite a few Mantas on the roads, the occasional 1900 or Kadett, AND a few of these. I actually rode as a passenger in 2 Mantas
As usual, great choice of car, thanks!
The sedan was added the following year.
Interesting, thanks for sharing.
I have never seen one of these before, and don’t recall seeing it in a magazine road test or advertisement.
I can’t argue with the Buick photo. I think it’s a decent looking car, thanks!
For better or worse, sportish coupes were the market for mainstream inexpensive new cars in the 70s. Few people would buy a new Corolla sized car as the main family ride. It would be a family second car, or a single persons car.
There’s a name problem here. A German Opel Kadett coupe with a larger engine would have probably behaved just like the Isuzu, and fitting and quality would have been similar.
Looks like GM used “Opel” as a model name instead of as a full fledged car make. If you compared a Nova against a Caprice of the same era, there would have been differences, but the two were Chevrolets.
There were quite a few Isuzu Gemini, both in coupe and 4 door sedan form here in Uruguay about ’80 and ’81. People would go on buying lots of Chevettes because they were cheaper and Brazilian. But the Isuzus were the same car, only with much BETTER fit and finish. Opel here, at the time, was limited to the Rekord, a really expensive and larger car.
The opposite, actually. Opel was treated as a brand name and Isuzu was treated as a model name.
Here in the US everyone knew what an Opel was, and the Opel Kadett, Opel Manta and Opel GT had sold pretty decently. Opel did not get its own dealer network here, instead they were sold through Buick dealers.
The problem was that when exchange rates made German Opels unsellably expensive in the US and GM needed to swap a Japanese car for the German one, they tried to call it an Opel and act like nothing had changed, except that they were introducing a new model. But everyone knew that with “Isuzu” added to the name, the car was no longer German but Asian.
It was “Buick Opel by Isuzu”. So, I would consider the Opel the model name and Isuzu the brand. Or perhaps “Buick Opel” was the model name. Or, maybe “Buick Opel” was the brand and “by Isuzu” was the model, following conventional syntax of brand then model. Whatever, it was confusing, and for those of us who knew that an Opel was German (and who Adam Opel was) it seemed like a cheapening of a brand, typical of GM and reaching its culmination in the Korean LeMans.
Yes, it was “Buick Opel by Isuzu”, then “Buick/Opel” with the slash /
Would have been better if offered to any BOP dealer, instead of forcing on Buick stores. They looked on them as ‘bait and switch’ products.
Speaking of exchange rates, what exactly were they referring to when they mentioned the “subsidized price” of the Opel?
Same engine/trans used in the ’76 up Chevy Luv pickup.
R&T did a second piece on the “Opel by Isuzu”. iirc a one page piece with nearly half of it taken up by the pic of the car.
The piece was about the version with supposed sporting pretensions, which amounted to a couple bits of trim, nothing done to the powertrain or suspension. R&T was already put off by GM trying to pass off the Isuzu as an Opel, but eviscerated GM for having the chutzpah to claim the thing was any sort of “sports” car. iirc, the article ended with words to the effect that R&T considered not reporting on it at all, but decided to run the piece to warn readers what a fraud the car was.
The car mags of the 70s rarely published a negative article that might endanger their ad revenue. British Leyland always seemed exempt from that rule, but the test of that “Opel by Isuzu” Sport Coupe was a very rare attack on a GM product.
This is what a Chevette with a lot fewer corners cut is like. They seem to imply that the German one had fewer still. The market and expectations are different, though. In most of the world, an 1800cc car was a high-level car and the expectations of features and refinement would be high. In the US, the Chevette was selling only to the bottom of the market, and it shows. The Impulse turbo would be the ultimate Chevette, with Giugiaro looks and refined appointments, and impossible to recognize for what’s underneath. Same sow’s ear, made into a silk purse.
When these “Japels” (Japanese Opel) debuted; I drove to the Buick dealer in my fuel injected ’75 Opel Manta for a test drive of the “new” model.
It was a quick test drive.
As I gratefully climbed back into my REAL Opel for the ride home, I laughed, chortled, sniggered and guffawed at what I had just wasted my time test driving.
For 1979, the Buick (whatever) got a new grille and rectangular headlights. Woo woo.
From the “SC” on the rocker panel, that may be the “Sports Coupe” that R&T heaped so much derision on.
From my recollection, most Buick dealers *hated* to sell Opels, both German and Japanese. The Opel signage was tiny, there was rarely one on the showroom floor, and at best two of the service technicians were trained to fix them.
In 1980, a high school friend had a 70 Kadett that was a hand-me-down. It only lasted a little while, because the Buick dealer pretty much refused to sell parts or service the thing, and there was no such thing as an independent Opel repair shop. That car literally fell apart, piece by piece.
…the Buick dealer pretty much refused to sell parts or service the thing, and there was no such thing as an independent Opel repair shop.
The way Saturn Astra parts are being transmuted into unobtanium by GM, Astra owners will soon find themselves in the same place. I wonder how many Cascada and Regal owners realize they are driving an Opel that will probably be treated with the same scorn as soon as the last new one disappears from the showroom?
Steve-
The son of one of my friends has a GTO that he planned to keep ‘forever’ and he is encountering that same lack of parts and service problem. Yeah, it’s a GM product, but a Holden parts are apparently not in the normal GM parts books, nor are the maintenance and repair procedures.
That’s pretty sobering…I had not considered that.
I drive a 2014 Buick Regal, which I really like. I would think as long as “Buick” exists, parts should be available.
This Regal was NOT a huge seller. On the other hand, Opel, Saturn, and Pontiac were all discontinued, while Buick remains, and the Regal is a “Buick”. GM says “they value all customers”, but I can see them wanting to “wrap things up” with their discontinued brands.
However, I was concerned about GM getting rid of Opel, since the Regal is basically a federalized Opel Insignia. The new 2019 Regal hatchback/wagon should keep the link going for a few more years.
Yes, new cars are the ‘best’ ever, but it’s hard for me to find one that excites me. If my Regal had a good manual trans, it would be a great car! It ‘feels’ firm, like a proper up-level….OPEL should (as a kid, I liked Opels, and the larger engine Senators and Diplomats were viable alternatives to Mercedes and BMW up until the late 1970s…)
Your comments are food for thought, thanks!
I drive a 2014 Buick Regal, which I really like. I would think as long as “Buick” exists, parts should be available.
Your 2014 was probably built in Canada, VIN code 2, so I would expect that it would be more integrated with GM’s North American parts supply chain. The early 2011 Regals were built in Russelsheim.
The new 2019 Regal hatchback/wagon should keep the link going for a few more years.
The new gen Regals are all built in Russelsheim, so far. GM gave PSA significant incentives to get away from the existing GM platforms in a hurry.
This article notes that PSA has set 2024 as the latest date to have all Opel models transitioned to PSA platforms, so, somewhere along that timeline, Regal production will be moved out of Russelsheim, or the model dropped.
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/11/what-psa-groupes-plans-for-opel-mean-for-the-buick-regal/
These Isuzus lasted forever, didn’t they? There’s an old white sedan version of this model I still see on occasion with the factory alloys.
I had both the panel van & coupe versions of the related Holden Gemini. Fun cars to drive. Good handling & steering. A Weber carb and some timing advance really woke them up, and I surprised a few drivers with mine.
There’s an immaculate coupe, driven by an elderly lady locally. One I’d love to get my hands on.
Here’s mine, at the beach.
I learned to drive on my dad’s 72 Ford LTD, but I learned to LOVE driving on a 78 Buick Opel hatchback. Great little car, absolute blast to drive when you’re 17 years old and have the whole world in front of you.
My first late model car was a ’76 Opel by Isuzu purchased with low miles on it in 1978. They weren’t holding their value well in our area, but handled better than many, were quicker than most smallish cars, didn’t burn a lot of gas, and had a nice trunk. I had high hopes for reliability and durability given the Chevy LUV engine and general Japanese-ness.
I was hard on that car, using it to tow a boat trailer. However, it was the tin worm and the carb that nobody could rebuild that really caused us grief. Perhaps the low miles were from spending too much time sitting. In any case, it started to run rough and burn a lot of fuel. Multiple attempts to rebuild that complex carb went nowhere, and Buick wanted $400 to put a brand new one on. My mother liked the car, so we kept it in the family for my brother to drive as-is, and I bought another old VW since I liked to drive them and knew how to fix just about anything on them. By the time the car was 4-5 years old, the door skins had rusted away from the frames and the front fenders had rusted through. It was replaced by a Subaru wagon that held up much better but was less entertaining to drive.
Several years later I found myself riding in a 6-7 year old Isuzu Gemini taxi in Arica, Chile. The driver owned three of them, all with over 250k miles on them before their heads were first pulled. The rest of the car was also holding up very well compared to the other taxis is age. I think it was a combination of salted Ohio roads, immature smog control technology and Buick dealer apathy that kept mine from living up to my expectations.
That’s a ringing endorsement I can live with!
Many times in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Opel was the second or third most popular imported car make in the U.S.
These Japanese Opels (Isuzu I-Marks) were probably O.K., but they suffered in comparison to the previous Opel 1900s. It was strange that when the 1900 replaced the Kadett in the U.S. market, Opel customers didn’t really notice. As a replacement for the 1900, the Opel Isuzu was noticeably smaller and a bit tinny and customers did notice the difference.
Later on Chevrolet would import a version of the updated front wheel-drive Isuzu I-Mark as the Chevrolet Spectrum, and then as the Geo Spectrum for a single year.
Not a great photo (taken from a tour bus), but here is a four door, branded Chevy, in Ecuador a few months ago. I saw quite a few on the roads while I was there. Looks pretty small next to that modern Kia.
In the late 70’s I had a Plymouth Arrow (Mitsubishi Celeste) and a buddy had a Buick Opel (Izusu Gemini) – we used to open both hoods and marvel as folks would walk by and ask why were there all these Japanese kanji characters written inside.
Both were great cars – not very sophisticated but extremely well made and they would just thrum down the highway. Never had a problem with either one.
Car and Driver liked the (smaller) 76 Dodge Colt 1.6, and the 77 Arrow 2.0.
What I recall about this car was the interesting Ad campaign they had in some magazines (I recall from probably Time Magazine) in the late 70’s, they had a series of ads where they compared some trait to several competing makes, and in the end…they came up 2nd to the VW Rabbit…in their own ad campaign (how many times do you see that happen?)….but they graciously admitted how good a car the Rabbit was and that the Opel was a pretty good choice despite coming in as #2 in their “test”. I don’t recall which models were 3 and 4, but I’m guessing Datsun and Toyota.
Several years later (mid 80’s) I was helping one of my two younger sisters find a used car…and one of the candidates we found was an Isuzu I-Mark. My sisters (still) only could drive Automatic, which back in the 80’s still limited them greatly in selection of small cars (which they both wanted)…also of course I wanted them to get a car with fewer miles, as cars getting to 100k miles was less common then, but we also lived in a large state where most of the used cars seemed to rack up mega-miles…but the Isuzu clicked most of the right boxes, it was automatic, had “reasonable” miles, and wasn’t expensive (it wasn’t the height of fashion in cars back then it was even considered and older design). I never owned an Isuzu, but I liked that the company also made trucks, so I was pushing for it, but my sister resisted…she eventually ended up with a Ford Escort (which had fuel delivery problems but otherwise ended up being a good car for her). I’m kind of sad that I never got to buy an Isuzu before they stopped making passenger vehicles…Isuzu seemed to offer something different (maybe such as making RWD small cars when most small cars were moving to FWD) and of course their trucks were well regarded.
It came in second out of two. Just a head to head comparison with the VW Rabbit. If Toyota and Datsun were included in the comparison, it would have placed fourth.
Wrong, and wrong again. Datsun, Toyota and a Subaru, actually.
Still, it was (as usual for GM) idiotic marketing. VW actually rans ads thanking them for the free publicity.
I rescued a Opel / Isuzu coupe a few years ago; it ran / drove well and had its charms, plasticky interior and all. I sold it along only to make room for more German Opels.
This was my first car!
I ultimately had 3 of them in the 80s.
I remember going to a mechanic once and upon raising the hood he said, “That ain’t german, but japanese…..”
My first car too, bought it for $600 in 1987.
It was a 1979 Buick/Opel by Isuzu, it was the SC model, it had an orange painted upper and black painted lower with black vinyl interior and manual transmission. I pimped that sucker out with the best Kraco car stereo system $15 could buy. lol
I abused the living crap out of that car and it held together amazingly well…I miss it.
I remember both Opels and “Opel by Isuzu” models, and indeed a neighbor several doors down had a Manta and a GT throughout the 1970s (I knew all the neighbors by their cars, and quickly learned from a young age that cars reflect people’s personalities.) I don’t question either being excellent cars. The sad thing is that many good small cars would get lumped in with cars that were absolute rubbish from the factory because we were already at a point of planned obsolescence in the mind of the consumer. The first owner may keep it a few years before climbing the ladder, or passing it on to a family member, and then proper maintenance was often eschewed by budget conscious second owners who couldn’t afford, understand, or was oblivious or indifferent to proper car upkeep. So its hardly surprising that this poor Opel Isuzu pictured here with the makeshift rear window compliments of some Saran Wrap and duct tape becomes representative of the quality of these cars. Myself? I love a well-engineered, well-built, durable car that is properly maintained. It can be like a pair of comfortable dress shoes that are worn in, but eminently presentable. Bottom line is take car of a decent car, and it will return the love.