GEO: Forgotten Automobile Manufacturers | The Every day Drive

July 6, 2025

15

The Chevrolet sub-brand that didn’t sluggish the Japanese invasion.

1989 GEO Lineup

With a showroom stuffed with automobiles and vans right-sized and right-priced to fulfill the calls for of a nation fatigued by excessive inflation and costly gasoline, Toyota noticed large retail beneficial properties within the U.S. throughout the Eighties.

GEO: Forgotten Automobile Manufacturers

Between 1985 and 1988, the Japanese carmaker noticed gross sales leap from round 925,000 models to 1.25 million. Toyota was not alone. Different makers from the island nation, together with Honda, Nissan, and Mazda have been carving out significant chunks of the U.S. market as effectively.

With a portfolio of bigger and extra conventional automobiles, and nearly nothing within the lineup to counter the Japanese invasion, Basic Motors hatched a plan and… it was a doozy.

Wanting to counter the gross sales successes loved by upstart Japanese-brand rivals, Basic Motors determined meet the enemy head-on…with their very own merchandise. Actually.

That plan was GEO, a brand new GM model stocked with small, inexpensive automobiles sourced by Japanese carmakers. The GEO Lineup, which reached 5 fashions at one level, included automobiles constructed by the likes of Isuzu, Suzuki, and Toyota.

The brand new franchise was provided to Chevrolet sellers, 80 p.c of which selected to take part in this system. The small, fuel-efficient GEOs have been retailed on the identical heaps as a lot bigger Chevrolet Malibus and Caprices, in addition to—curiously—Chevy’s personal, and moderately well-liked, compact Cavalier.

GEO was neither a hit nor a failure. Nevertheless it did fail to attract many import intenders into Chevy/GEO shops. Between 1989 and 1997 about 800,000 GEOs discovered consumers. Throughout the identical interval, Chevrolet constructed and bought roughly 2 million Cavaliers.

GEO wrapped issues up after 1997. Oddly, a number of GEO fashions would soldier on as Chevy merchandise, seemingly complicated the shopping for public considerably. Shared beneath are the automobiles and vans bought as GEOs. What number of of those have you ever seen on the street?