On August 12, 1981 Suzuki, Isuzu, and General Motors signed a deal to co-develop compact cars. In hindsight we know that this deal didn’t result in any game-changing products. Instead, it produced a lot of rebadged models under the defunct Geo brand. History is littered with captive imports, cars produced by a foreign manufacturer but sold under a domestic brand. From the Mitsubishi-made Dodge Challenger to the GM-made Toyota Cavalier, these badge-engineered cars sometimes let customers buy a car that would have been otherwise unavailable in their market. Other times, it was just a lazy emblem swap. But they were once everywhere, and now a dying breed.
What’s your favorite captive import?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s your Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi dream build?“
Mad scientists all, you are. Not only did we have the nuttiest, awesomest Franken-builds for Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi, but their extended families as well. Yewnos100, for example, came up with a Rover 800 built with Honda Civic underpinnings and Franxou dreamt up a KA24-powered Alpine A110. We loved Tom A.‘s idea of a Mitsubishi Chariot body on a Z33 chassis and a K20C1 motor. StreetSpirit‘s gull-wing Starion with FJ20 motivation sounds equally insane, as does Ian G.‘s Honda Element with a VR38DETT and Mitsubishi AWD system.
This week’s winner was returning champion dankan, who conjured up a totally badass Acura Legend build whilst casually poking 2024 Nissan and Mitsubishi in the eye:
I think it depends on the era. In 2024, to be brutally honest, I don’t think I’d want to add anything from Nissan or Mitsubishi to a Honda. I certainly wouldn’t expect such a mash-up to be an improvement.
But further back in time, things get interesting. In the 70s, there’s all sorts of interesting ideas. Letting Honda’s F1-trained engineers play with the S20 and L24 could make them even tastier propositions as they get to re-work the the valvetrains and combustion chambers using their emphatically world-class experience. A 240Z that was as hard-hitting as a contemporary 911 Carrera RS? Yes please.
Or in the early 1990s, you could take the KA7 Acura Legend, and do a performance version with the turbo motor and AWD drivetrain from the 3000GT and engineering work from Nissan to make sure the motor is somewhat reliable. So, an Acura M5-slayer, with Mitsubishi parts and Nissan tuning for the turbos.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Old Datsun / Nissan cars were copies (licensed vehicles) of European manufacturers like Austin / Morris. And some Austin models were badged as Nissan in Japan. The story becomes interesting with the Mitsubishi brand, where in the 1970s models like the Lancer, Celeste were rebadged as Chrysler versions. Yet they were still the small sized sedans and coupes. But the Mitsubishi Starion would have changed all that with the sporty Starion which was also called the Chrysler / Plymouth / Dodge Conquest. With no internet the average Joe wouldnt know they were using a Japanese car.
I think we could go all inception like on this. Is a Mazda MX-6 a captive import? Or is the Ford Probe? USDM product, but engineered by someone else. I think my favourite captive import is the laziest, though.
The Plymouth Laser. Merely change the letters on a Mitsubishi Eclipse and away we go. A forgotten car for a forgotten brand. A brand so devoid of meaning it was killed off in the early 90s and no one said a word. And the Laser went along with it. They built over 100,000 of them, and that wave is now just part of the ocean.
How about the Metropolitan? Sold as a Hudson, Metropolitan and a Nash, the little Met was a subcompact coupe or convertible, partially made in the UK, and sold here under those various badges under the Kaiser nameplate. Most differences were in styling … ie: badge engineering. I think it was also sold as a Nash Metropolitan. This little car had more names than probably any other marque!
My my, without a doubt it is the Asuna Sunfire!
Geo brought us the Geo Storm, a cheap and cheerful little sports coupe available as a fastback or as a shooting brake, but they only offered it as a cheap and cheerful little sports car based on the Isuzu Impulse. Good looking, too, and the 140hp 1.8 must have made for one fast Geo, Flanders’ would not have been able to complain!
But here in Canada, GM separated its dealerships into two teams -Chevrolet-Geo-Oldsmobile- and -Pontiac-Buick-GMC-. Every time one team got something, the other team complained about not having it too, which always ended with your typical GM badge-engineering.
But here came Asuna, it arrived in a burst of thunder, and was gone just as fast a couple years after, as a “the other team’s Geo”, with somewhat similar offering, but their Asuna Sunfire WAS the Isuzu Impulse, and this one could be optioned with the Lotus-handling, turbo engine and AWD! This was the one to have, but coming from a weird unknown brand that closed up shop after two years, it was forgotten very quickly.
But do not worry, little Asuna Sunfire, I remember you. I will always remember you.
Two years only, Canada-only and shared a dealer channelwith a cluster of other brands. That’s like a trifecta of obscurity.
About the lacklustre dealer channel, you might be right, I seem to remember hearing radio ads about the Saturn-Saab-Isuzu dealership, so if Asuna was mixed with this sales channel, it would have been even worse than Pontiac-Buick-GMC and Chev-Geo-Olds!
I was too young to remember much from when this car was made, but I am starting to want to learn more about these.
I just learned that they were offered as the original Isuzu Impulse in the US because there was a super nice one on Bring a Trailer earlier this week, and when I saw it I was like “OMG I just wrote a love-letter about this car!”
I owned a Geo Metro for years and really liked it, but I’m not sure if it counts as a captive import as much as a collab (made in a GM plant in Canada, most of the body styling done by GM Design in Detroit).
Chevy LUV – I had several toys of them as a kid.
Getting beyond Japanese models, the grandpappy of all captive imports were the British Ford Anglias and Prefects that Ford brought into the US starting in 1948; between them and their name successors along with Cortinas, Capris, Courier, the MkI Fiesta, Merkur, Festiva and Aspire, Fomoco had at least one captive import on the US market every year 1848-1997 except for a one year gap in 1983.
I’m going with “favorite” mainly by how crazy it was….the Toyota Cavalier in Japan. Closely followed by the Acura SLX (rebranded Isuzu Trooper), but I know that doesn’t really count for this question.
The Geo Prism GSi hatchback has always held a weird place in my heart too 🙂
Wow, what a list we could make. Personally I am a fan of the Plymouth Sapporo/Dodge Challenger duo from 1978-1984. My brother bought an 84 Sapporo when I was in high school and I always liked its styling and sporty interior. My brother unfortunately did not have a great a experience with it and traded it in after only a year of ownership for an 85 Pontiac Grand Prix with T-tops. I eventually inherited the Pontiac, but I wonder what my automotive life would have been if I got the Sapporo instead.
Definitely a Ford Probe GT, and make mine a 1995 model. I remember seeing the second-gen Probe GT on the cover of the August 1992 Car and Driver magazine, the first issue my parents got me as a subscription. The car was so cool when it came out; the shape, the engine, the reviews galore. Back when cars were sporty, Car and Driver had a number of great sports coupes comparisons, pitting the Probe GT with other 2+2s. It always had solid performance, and for years I wanted one. My parents’ friend bought one, thinking he had bought a true American sedan, but didn’t realize it was a captive import. Didn’t matter to me, I always asked to borrow and drive it around. The V6 was super smooth, and revved effortlessly to its 7000 redline. The transmission was very precise, and the clutch was easy to modulate. The exhaust growl was very addictive, and the car’s overall shape just made me stare all day. I even washed the car for the family friend, asked him to sell to me if he was letting go of it, etc. I believe in 1995 they went with a nice looking heckblende, and the wheels got even more visually aggressive.
The car definitely didn’t sound like an American car of that era, because the powertrain were all from Mazda! I really liked it, and even though my diehard American car fans scoffed at the FWD / V6 nature of the car, I kept posters of it on my wall. I think I was still looking to buy one as my first car out of college, but ultimately went with something else.
That’s a tricky one, growing up in the Netherlands in the zeroes and 2010’s there was this show called ‘new kids’ that prominently featured a bright green Opel manta B (which happens to be designed by Hideo Kodama and shares a lot of GM Isuzu bits but that’s besides the point). The show new kids was like the Dutch trailer park boys and that helped put the Opel Manta squarely in the same niche as an Iroc with a def leppard tape (DJ Paul Elstak for us Dutchies) and a mullet waving in the breeze.
It even went so far as tainting the good name of all 70’s and 80’s Opels. The kadett being one of them, another Opel meant for the guy in acid washed jeans threatening you with his county fair bought ‘traditional ninja sword’ cause you looked at ‘his girl’ a little too friendly at the local diner.
My first introduction to the Gemini however was through JDM auctions I’d browse daydreaming about buying my very own Kaido racer while in class.
It was a later model coupe with the big headlights and shovelnose, a big departure from the mini muscle car the early Geminis and Kadett were.
This took some getting used to, on the one hand it’s a sophisticated take on the trailer-park special Opels, on the other hand there’s some Mad-Max interceptor in the styling and an understated mystique like a Japanese salaryman who’s actually a black belt that would turn out to be an unlikely mentor for acid wash jeans guy in his journey to better himself.
I’ve not learnt enough about the position the Gemini took in Australia or the US socio-automotive landscape but it’s funny how the Kadett was not my jam and the Gemini had me enthusiastic.
I’ve since accepted my inner Billy Zabka and fully embraced the Kadett/Gemini duality, Manta-B, Hair Metal and I think you should too!
That Gemini was the coupe sold as the Geo Storm in America, right? Not the earlier one mostly known as the Chevrolet Spectrum and either a more Golf-like 3 door hatchback or a 4-door sedan but no 5-door hatch?
sadly no, i wish we got the storm or a derivate here.
they could have passed it off as an opel GT easily!
i’m talking about the rear wheel drive GM T-body, the isuzu, buick, opel, holden, chevrolet, pontiac platform where everything from the chevette to isuzu piazza was built on. it was pretty popular here as the opel kadett in almost every body style imagineable.
The ’87 Chevy Sprint Turbo. Suzuki-made, white on white with the ground effects/side skirts and body kit. Turbocharged 1L 3 cylinder engine. It was light, quick. They were just cool
That was a cracker of a car, had over 100hp I think. Shame they never had a cult following and they rusted. Guess the lightweight was due to the metal used.
A friend of mine owns a 2 door Suzuki Vitara which is a Chevy Tracker (post GEO). True 4WD with a ladder frame. Great SUV. Bit more comfortable than my Samurai.
interesting topic about models… my vote goes to the opel kadett/isuzu gemini/opel by isuzu/buick isuzu opel/buick opel/isuzu i-mark/isuzu piazza/opel k180/gmc chevette (he lived well into his 90’s brazil) and many other names that he surely had. a “global” model, if you can say so, with different engines and different options depending on which side of the world it was sold on.