- 66
- Massachusetts
- StreetHawk555
These are cars and car companies that you forgot existed. Let's start off with Passport/Asuna.
Passport was a Canadian car dealership network owned by General Motors in 1988.
This way they can sell their imports in Canada, from Isuzu to Saab, and its own branded car, the Optima.
It is yet another blatant rebadged Opel Kadett/Daewoo LeMans to cut costs of making a new car from scratch. Bearing striking similarities to its U.S. sibling, the Pontiac LeMans and offering the same exact body styles.
3 or 5 door hatchback
And 4-door sedan
Hell, there was even a GSi model that nobody payed attention to.
Although it got 52mpg on the highway, the Passport Optima never caught on with buyers as it was very slow and didn't last long, as well as the company. It was axed in 1991 and GM rebranded it as Asuna in 1993, renaming the Optima as the Asuna SE and GT.
It still looked the same as the LeMans but it had a restyled front fascia and the sedan had different looking tailights.
Asuna sold other cars but just like these above, they were badge engineered too.
Sunfire (Isuzu Piazza) Fun fact: The name of the car was later brought over to the J-body Pontiac Sunfire replacing the Sunbird.
Sunrunner (Suzuki Escudo/Geo Tracker) It took the place of the other obscure Tracker clone, the GMC Tracker. It was marketed as an upscale model as it had no base model. It was equipped with all the GMC Tracker SLE's standard features.
But alas, they all sold poorly as Asuna shut its doors in 1994, making it the most short lived marque from GM.
I wanna see if you can dig up some lesser known cars & car companies to your curiosity and see what you can find. Happy hunting!
Passport was a Canadian car dealership network owned by General Motors in 1988.
This way they can sell their imports in Canada, from Isuzu to Saab, and its own branded car, the Optima.
It is yet another blatant rebadged Opel Kadett/Daewoo LeMans to cut costs of making a new car from scratch. Bearing striking similarities to its U.S. sibling, the Pontiac LeMans and offering the same exact body styles.
3 or 5 door hatchback
And 4-door sedan
Hell, there was even a GSi model that nobody payed attention to.
Although it got 52mpg on the highway, the Passport Optima never caught on with buyers as it was very slow and didn't last long, as well as the company. It was axed in 1991 and GM rebranded it as Asuna in 1993, renaming the Optima as the Asuna SE and GT.
It still looked the same as the LeMans but it had a restyled front fascia and the sedan had different looking tailights.
Asuna sold other cars but just like these above, they were badge engineered too.
Sunfire (Isuzu Piazza) Fun fact: The name of the car was later brought over to the J-body Pontiac Sunfire replacing the Sunbird.
Sunrunner (Suzuki Escudo/Geo Tracker) It took the place of the other obscure Tracker clone, the GMC Tracker. It was marketed as an upscale model as it had no base model. It was equipped with all the GMC Tracker SLE's standard features.
But alas, they all sold poorly as Asuna shut its doors in 1994, making it the most short lived marque from GM.
I wanna see if you can dig up some lesser known cars & car companies to your curiosity and see what you can find. Happy hunting!
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