The 1973 GM T-Car was a genuine world car, sold on 5 continents under the Opel, Vauxhall, Isuzu and Holden brands, among others. But while it wasn’t the last “world car” platform from General Motors, the T-Car variants were not universally replaced by a second generation of the platform. Instead, Opel and Vauxhall went their separate ways. A new, front-wheel-drive platform known as the R-Body underpinned the T-Car’s Isuzu, Chevrolet and Holden-badged successors.
Compared to the T-Car platform, the R-Body’s scope was much narrower and the commercial success of its variants a mixed bag. Although GM’s European operations were out of the project, the new platform was developed with both GM and Isuzu involvement with styling by Giugario. Isuzu sold their R-Body as the Gemini or, in North America, as the I-Mark. Although sales were relatively consistent, just one more generation later Isuzu ceased manufacturing passenger cars. They had already pulled out of the European market, the R-Body Gemini only offered for a truncated run.
Chevrolet offered a rebadged I-Mark in North America as the Spectrum; there was also the identical Pontiac Sunburst in Canada. The Big 3 were finding it difficult to profitably build small cars. Chrysler had been selling Mitsubishi models as captive imports since the 1970s and General Motors decided to sell some captive imports as well. However, their strategy was much more convoluted than smaller Chrysler’s: the old T-Car was sold until 1987; the global J-Car was introduced in 1982, following the compact, domestic X-Body and later supplemented by N/L-Body compacts; a venture with Toyota produced the California-manufactured Chevrolet Nova; and GM also offered rebadged Suzukis and Daewoos. It seemed like a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” strategy.
At Chevrolet dealers alone, buyers could choose between Chevette, Cavalier, Sprint, Nova and Spectrum. With such a dizzying variety of small cars, the Spectrum was often overlooked; the Cavalier was by far the strongest seller of the group. Available as either a three-door hatchback or four-door sedan, the Spectrum was launched in 1985 in only 16 eastern states. This was because of voluntary import restrictions that limited GM to only 29,500 Spectrums when they really wanted to import in excess of 200,000. The Spectrum was then rolled out to the rest of the US in 1986.
Chevy’s little Isuzu came only with a 1.5 overhead-cam four-cylinder engine (70 hp, 87 ft-lbs). A turbocharged 1.5 (110 hp, 120 ft-lbs) was available in 1987-88 on the Spectrum and 1987-89 on the I-Mark. While the R-Body was much more modern than the T-Car, its engineering was conventional in the new front-wheel-drive order: MacPherson struts up front and a transverse twist beam at the rear with trailing arms, with rack-and-pinion steering and front disc/rear drum brakes.
A small car buyer in a Chevy dealership was spoilt for choice but the Spectrum wasn’t necessarily the most compelling. In 1986, Chevy’s small car range opened with the 3 and 5-door Sprint three-cylinder at $5,380. Then, the Chevette 3-dr was priced at $5,645. Cavalier sedans started at $6,888, the coupe a couple of hundred less; the hatchback was only offered in higher trim levels. The Nova was priced at $7,435. Where did the Spectrum fit into all of this? Smack bang in the middle: $6,658 for the hatch, an extra $300 for the sedan. The Spectrum wasn’t as stripped out as some base model imports were but you still had to pay extra for power steering and a radio. Standard transmission was a 5-speed manual with a 3-speed automatic optional. These were still the bad old days in terms of slushbox’s fuel efficiency vis-à-vis stickshifts: while the manual achieved an EPA-estimated 37/41 mpg, while the auto managed only 31/33 mpg, although that was still an exceptionally class-competitive number.
The Cavalier was hardly the final word in refinement but the Spectrum wasn’t a little limousine, either. The 1.5 four had to be worked hard and the result was plenty of noise. The ride was comfortable but the handling was thoroughly unexciting; Popular Mechanics called the handling “woozy” and the shifter and steering “vague”. It was an average little Japanese import, no more, no less. Even the sportier turbo model was unimpressive: Car & Driver, in a 1987 comparison test, ranked the I-Mark Turbo 9th out of 10 similarly-priced sport compacts. Although powerful, it had a “rattly, clunky” feel the testers felt was out of place in a Japanese car; it was also criticized for high noise levels and “vaguely insecure” handling.
In Chevy showrooms, when the Spectrum was compared with the Nova – a car with almost identical power output and similarly uninvolving dynamics – the Spectrum looked like good value. But the Cavalier, inferior build quality aside, must have seemed like a screaming deal to Chevy buyers: an almost identical price but a larger interior, a similar equipment level in the base model including window defoggers and power brakes, and slightly more power albeit with a heavier curb weight. This was a time before the Cavalier truly became a relic: its mechanicals dated back only a few years, it looked handsome and it was keenly priced.
The Spectrum far outsold its Isuzu-badged counterpart, the I-Mark. After all, Isuzu had 520 dealers in the United States in 1985, while there were 5,120 Chevrolet dealerships. In the I-Mark’s best year, Isuzu sold 32,300. But for all of Chevy’s talk of importing and selling 200k Spectrums a year, the largest number they sold was 99,370 in 1986, then selling between 60-80k until 1989. Voluntary import restrictions had handicapped GM’s import efforts in the past and perhaps they continued to play a part in the Spectrum’s sales performance despite their regular extensions. To paint a larger picture, the domestically-manufactured Nova managed 152,915 units in 1987 to the Cavalier’s 307,028. In 1986, Chevrolet managed to sell 103,244 Chevettes and 357,093 Cavaliers.
The Chevette’s time was finally up in 1987 and Chevrolet, although not replacing it directly, had provided a suite of vehicles for Chevette buyers to choose their replacement from. In Australia, however, the Holden Gemini was a direct replacement for the perennial T-Car Gemini, a regular fixture on the sales Top 10 lists. But, like GM did in North America, the new FWD R-Body was offered alongside other cars of its size. There was a reason for this: there was no five-door hatch.
In the United States, a subcompact or compact can sell even if there’s only a sedan available. In Australia, at least from the 1980s onward, no five-door hatchback variant being available often relegates a small car to niche status. Frustratingly, the only hatch developed for the R-Body was a three-door and Holden declined to manufacture it, given its limited appeal to young family buyers. The old T-Car Gemini had come as a three-door wagon, three-door panel van and two-door coupe. The all-new RB Gemini would go it alone with a single sedan available in SL (fleet only), SL/X and range-topping SL/E trims; base price was roughly a $1,000 higher than the out-going T-Car. Perhaps Holden thought it would sell just fine considering the bulk of T-Car Gemini sales had been the sedan, but they didn’t consider the extraordinary success of the Mazda 323-based Ford Laser hatch or the exceptional sales performance of the Corolla range.
Small car buyers looking for a Holden hatchback had a similarly-sized and similarly-priced option available: the Astra. Confusingly unrelated to the Opel Astra, the Holden Astra was instead a locally-manufactured, rebadged Nissan Pulsar with the same anaemic engine and dated design. Despite a huge dealer network, the Astra was a disappointing seller for Holden. They must have been perplexed why their small, Japanese-developed car sold so much worse than Ford’s. In early 1985, Ford Australia launched the new “bubble-back” KC Laser that further entrenched the Laser as one of Australia’s most sought after small cars.
In its first year, just over 10,000 RB Geminis were produced. In 1986, a horrible year for the Australian car market, a meager 5,865 were sold, the Astra hatchback mustering only 6,192. The Gemini, once one of Australia’s best-selling small cars, was proving to be a tremendous disappointment with sales down roughly 50%. In contrast, the Corolla sold 29,125 units in 1986, the Laser 25,152. If you included the related Ford Meteor sedan and wagon, Ford’s small car line sold 33,799 units. Critics were also underwhelmed by the new Gemini, especially its predictable yet dull handling and its mediocre powerplant (the turbo was not offered here) although it was praised for its improved space efficiency.
In only its second season, rumors were swirling of the Gemini’s demise. The Australian Government’s Button Plan was being implemented, with the aim of reducing the number of separate platforms manufactured by Australian automakers and the eventual goal of reducing tariffs and opening up the market. Holden had to reach an 85% local content target that the Gemini couldn’t hit, and the Astra and Pulsar were built together locally. When Holden announced the next-generation Astra would receive the Aussie “Family II” four-cylinder engine instead of the Gemini as well as a sedan body style, the little R-Body sedan’s time was up.
The RB Gemini wouldn’t live past 1987, the same year the new Astra hatch and sedan (pictured above) landed in Holden showrooms. The R-Body survived until 1989 in other markets, however. In 1989, the Chevrolet Spectrum became the Geo Spectrum as Chevrolet consolidated its Japanese imports under one sub-brand.
The first-generation R-Body had one last hurrah with the 1989 I-Mark RS. Packing an all-new, double overhead cam, 16-valve 1.6 four-cylinder with 125 hp – more than the turbo 1.5 – and 102 ft-lbs, these sporty new I-Marks had a suspension tuned by Isuzu’s recent purchase, British sports car manufacturer Lotus. With much improved handling and a sweet, rev-happy engine, the RS seemed like the car the I-Mark (and Spectrum, and Gemini) should have been all along. Chevrolet didn’t receive a version and it came too late for Holden.
Neither Chevrolet nor Holden would sell a version of the Gemini’s successor, sold in North America as the Stylus sedan, although its coupe and hatchback variants were later sold as the Geo Storm.
Once Isuzu pulled the plug on passenger car production, they shifted to truck and SUV-only model ranges but continued to sell passenger cars – rebadged Honda products – in the Japanese market.
The Big 3 American automakers all picked different partners from Japan. Some worked better than others: Ford’s involvement with Mazda resulted in several successful models and Chrysler’s ties with Mitsubishi also bore fruit. But although GM philandered with the Japanese, courting Toyota, Suzuki and Isuzu simultaneously, it was the latter that proved somewhat disappointing. Isuzu may have screwed their cars together well but they often lacked the level of mechanical refinement in Mazda and Honda vehicles. For undemanding buyers, if not enthusiasts, the Gemini/Spectrum/I-Mark ticked all the appropriate boxes: well-built, reliable, fuel-efficient. But its general, unremarkable competence is why these never really engendered any strong feelings and were swiftly forgotten by many people.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1982 Isuzu I-Mark Diesel
Giugiaro disowned the shape after GM raised the side recess line above the door handles and fiddled with the hood. After he saw them on the road, he changed his mind and acknowledged them “emotionally” as his creations.
It has that distinctive mid 80’s Giugiaro style–it’s almost like a better proportioned and more nicely detailed version of the 1st-gen Hyundai Excel. Personally I’ve always found these nice-looking little cars, if not particularly exciting. The composite-lamp nose for the ’87-’89 US cars seems to work best with the rest of the design, as opposed to the sealed-beam look on the early Spectrums or the variant on the Gemini pictured here.
Isuzu handling is rubbish for once the magazines were right the Aska rebadged as a Camira for the NZ market was just as bad as the RB Gemini, they really should have had someone like Lotus involved from the begining.
I know you dont have them in Australia but Isuzu also rebadged the first model Subaru Legacy sedans as Askas following the demise of the on NZ got as a Camira, Ive seen the odd one or two roaming here they arrived as ex JDM used cars.
I’ve always quite like these. Im not sure if they were originally locally assembled or came in from Japan/Australia but NZ seem to get better engine choices. Definitely more than a few turbos and some diesels too. Plenty of JDM models came in over the early 90’s too, Lotus tuned suspension RS’s and 3dr hatch models galore. We even got plenty of the ’89-94 model too with its daring (for Isuzu at least) design. I don’t seem to remember many of the old T series Gemini left in the late 80’s early 90’s but there were still plenty of the Vauxhall Chevette version chugging around.
The Vauxhall Chevettes easily outsold the Isuzu/Holden Geminis, whether they were a better car is debateable but those Vauxhalls just ran from the showrooms.
Australias car market is much more limited in range than New Zealand’s, always was probably always will be untill protection of their domestic makers ends
Drove one of those when I visited Oz in 86 and it was totally forgettable. A dull appliance. Like Bryce is saying, someone like Lotus should have been involved from the start.
We had a Sputum, er, Spectrum for just over one year. It was a replacement for the Suzuki Samuari I had when we got married, and with Son Number One on the way, Wife made it clear she wanted something more car seat friendly.
Should have kept the Samuari.
We did a good bit of travel that year, and after 30K miles, the Spectrum was leaking oil and rattly. An uninspiring car to drive, I can’t even remember if ours was manual or automatic. It would be the last GM product I’d ever buy – we used it as trade-in on an ’89 Civic three-door and were happy to see it go.
These were good looking and amazingly economical small cars. The biggest fault they had in the USA was the tempermental carb. The fact that it was still carbed is surprising since the J car had the economy tbi system since 83 and even the Korean Lemans debuted with it in 87. Since the Nova still also had a carb, perhaps Isuzu thought they could save a little.
William does a great job of explaining what Australia gave up when this Gemini replaced the T car version in Australia. We in North America were also giving something up, Local production of a subcompact.
Roger Smith borrowed and bet billions to prove America could profitably build a small car. He was wrong. Not due to engineering expertise but the numbers just were not adding up. This was for a car a class up from the Chevette. Even Roger Smith was not going to bet on a USA Chevette replacement. The in between path of a updated Chevette that retained the RWD T platform was not tried.
The Chevy Spectrum pictures inside and out show a car that could have only come from Japan. The problem comes where Japanese buyers do not want to see a bowtie on the hood or have to set foot in a Chevy dealer like their parents did. The people still looking at American cars were going to find more of what they liked, a bigger simpler pushrod engine teamed well with a smooth shifting automatic in a Cavalier.
Owned an 86 I-Mark as my first new car out of college. The carb on that car gave me fits. Dealer service was non-existent and took many trips just to get it right. The I-Mark seemed like a good idea at the time.
I rode in one of the Spectrum/I-marks when my Civic was in to have the engine re-built after the oil drain plug backed out. As a passenger these seemed like a decent enough car, but it was evident you were riding in a car built to a price.. The interior was nearly all hard plastics with a few patches of cheap looking upholstery.
I wasn’t aware that the Voluntary Import Quota had any effect on Isuzu or indirectly Geo/Chevrolet. I guess I figured Isuzu never sold enough cars for the quotas to “kick in”.
Even today, I still don’t understand why Chevy feels it must sell THE smallest car of all the American manufacturers (yes, I know the Spark is a Korean-built car).
The way I see it they’re the only ones even trying in that market. It’s not like they don’t have a Fiesta competitor–that’s the job of the Sonic. (Which I’ve heard mostly good things about, though it doesn’t seem to sell all that well). Ford doesn’t offer anything the size of the Spark in this market; in fact neither do any manufacturers except Mitsubishi, Smart, and Fiat (and the 500 and Fortwo may be similarly tiny but are not really in the same class). Heck, Chrysler hasn’t even had a subcompact since the early 90’s Colt, and with the Dart getting the ax, they’re stepping out of the compact market.
I see them here and there, and in much larger quantities than I see the Mirage, so folks are buying them. There was a silver Spark in the parking lot of my hotel this morning.
My mother in law bought a new Spectrum sedan in 1986. We had Mrs. JPC’s 88 Accord then, and there was a world of difference in the refinement of those two. Of course, there was also a world of difference in their transaction prices, too. I also had an 83 Twin Stick Colt sedan around that time that was much more fun to drive.
MIL hardly ever drove it, and it did what she needed it to do. She was one of those rare people who chose it because of its compact size. The Cavalier may have seemed like more car for the money, but she didn’t want more car.
Personally, I didn’t like it a bit. The 3 speed automatic, lack of a/c and the manual steering didn’t make it any easier to love. It was just a low end car from a second-tier Japanese company.
If I wanted to draw the most generic-looking sedan that utterly typifies 1985, it would look very much like the R-car. Although the styling isn’t unpleasant, it appears to be totally without inspiration. Giugiaro must have had an off day.
Throw away car. I wouldn’t have fit in one and wouldn’t have bought one if I did.
“In Chevy showrooms, when the Spectrum was compared with the Nova – a car with almost identical power output and similarly uninvolving dynamics – the Spectrum looked like good value.”
On paper this was true. However the Nova was slow selling by GM standards(in real life they sold well enough) but that meant that Chevy dealers were putting “cash on the hood” and offering big discounts on the Nova, so you could get one for ether the same amount or a little more then a Spectrum.
I have seen many Sprints and Metros out and about over the years, I have also seen a lot of 85-88 Novas around. But I have never seen any Spectrums(even in the junk yards) in the metal.
Good article and here is a Spectrum I found back in March of this year. The rear of the car says Geo, but the grill cover has a Chevy Bow Tie. I assume these are rare to see on the road.
The trunk lid.
I wonder if that came from the factory that way (like some of the Datsun/Nissan transition vehicles) or if the grille was replaced at some point? In any case rare to see one with the Geo badging.
The ’89 grille was one-year only. It was wider than the ’87-88 variant, the separate parking lights inboard of the main headlights having been decontented out. Putting it under the Geo umbrella must’ve been last-minute.
This was my car (this exact car, pic is the park not to far from where I live) I had it for almost 20 years, just sold it a few months ago. Super reliable. Chevy made the Spectrum from85-88; Geo spun out in 89, it was replaced by the prism in 1990.
Interesting read! You effectively sum up why this car never did better in the U.S.: too many compact choices at Chevy dealers and not enough nameplate recognition.
Lost in the shuffle. There’s still a few around here, not surprisingly.
Jeez; Holden was as confused about their small-car strategy as GM was in the US.
So strange. I was looking at cars on Craig’s List the other evening and entered Chevrolet Spectrum in the search box. None in Tucson or fifty miles around. And then this piece shows up.
Thanks William. Another one for the Isle of Misfit Cars.
I had an I-Mark hatchback, it was pretty good while I had it towards the end of college and the beginning of real life. If anything it was a bit underpowered but it looked good, rode well, was reliable and fuel efficient. Can’t ask for much more than that on a budget.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1986-isuzu-i-mark-thats-no-lie/
I rented an ’89 Geo Spectrum for a week in LA on a biz trip. Actually, the car was to go site seeing at night, there was a shuttle to the office.
I thought it was all right, had a nice blue interior*, and kept up with freeway traffic. But yeah, wasn’t as solid compared to a Nummi built Prism rented 2 years later.
*2nd thought, it was same as featured car for sale in AUS, and white too.
I forgot that these even existed. Apparently so did buyers back in the day!
William, this great post voiced the questions I always had about the Spectrum’s place in Chevy’s U.S. lineup. There were other small Chevy’s that did “cheap” better, and the Nova – being Toyota Corolla-based, always seemed slightly more premium.
My parents bought a used ’88 Nova, and it cost more at its age than many other cars in its class were priced.
Coincidentally, I still have my 1987 Chevrolet brochure (like your blue cover featured) from the ’87 Detroit auto show. I may have to locate and dust that bad boy off.
Nice write up! The Canadian only Pontiac Sunburst is seriously rare these days. Even small car loving Canada didn’t embrace them. I saw this one a few years ago.
2 or 3 Geminis that I know still exists operational in my neighborhood. One of them -a white one- ended (a month ago) on one of our local scrapyards. I missed to take a one last photo… R.I.P. lil’ Isuzu… 🙁
Ideally what Holden should have done had it not been for the urgency for a new age family car for the eighties and overspending in that department is for the model that replaced the first generation T Car is badge engineer what was then known as the Opel Kadett as both a three door and a five door as the first generation Gemini replacement.I am not sure if that variant came as a sedan or not but know it’s 1984 to 1991 replacement did which was sold in the USA AND NEW ZEALAND briefly as a Pontiac as well.Not knocking what they did with the switch to Nissan and later Toyota for the replacement from 1987 to 1996 was it even necessary when the easiest solution was use one of their own products within the GM BRAND and stick a Holden Badge plus existing or new name on it.
I remember GM’s travails during the time the Spectrum graced our showroom, but remember I’m looking at it from the lens of a Sales Manager at a Chevy Dealership back then. As the New Car & Truck manager, my responsibilities included managing the inventory- a job Chevrolet made almost impossible at the time. Here’s the high points of the small car lineup.
1. GEO Metro. We sold those little 3-poppers like ice cream cones on a hot Sunday afternoon. The only question was how many we could get, not how many we could sell. I still see them on the road.
2. The Spectrum. Underpowered, overpriced. Quite simply, the answer to a question no one had asked. Worse, GM had pre-ordered these cars and distributed them from the port. If you wanted a black basic 5 spd- how many would you like? Blue Automatic with A/C… ummm, let me check and get back to you. I think it took us two years to work through our Spectrum allotment.
3. The Nova. It sold well enough, because word was out that the Nova was simply a rebadged Corolla at a discounted price. Translation- if we didn’t discount a Nova heavily, the customer simply went out and bought a Corolla. Sales… yes. Profits… not so much.
4. The Chevette. I still have nightmares about this model. Back in 82-86, Chevy massively overcommitted on the number of diesel motors they would buy from Izuzu. Result- Chevette diesels were literally being rammed down our throats. EVERY manager who got a demonstrator got the keys to a Chevette diesel. How well did they drive? I parked mine after a week and bought a factory-exec’s Cutlass Supreme Coupe. If that didn’t say “not no, but hell no!” I don’t know what would. The Used Car Manager parked his and bought a new Coupe DeVille… ’nuff said.
5. The Cavalier. Contrary to everything I’ve read about the J-Car here, we sold the crap out of those things. What we discovered is buyers gravitated towards the higher end of the equipment spectrum on these cars- Auto, A/C, Pwr Windows and Locks. About 1:1 Sedans to Wagons. I’d select a group (say 10-15) of them, and throw them in the weekend ad for an attractive price, xx to choose from. Sold ’em out that way just about every weekend.
Soooo… Cliffs notes, if we’d have just run with the Metro and the Cavalier, I don’t think we’d have lost many sales, and I wouldn’t have spent so much time watching my inventory dollars balloon into the stratosphere.