General Motors’ Passport and Asüna, Total Brand Confusion (Part I)

In the Eighties and Nineties, Standard Motors of Canada determined to attempt new distribution approaches for its imported cars. Like in the recent Dodge Colt series, Common Motors had its very own captive import cars and vehicles that have been created by other brand names. But mainly because of dealership arrangements in Canada, GM took issues a step more than Chrysler and recognized a different distribution community for its imported wares. The endeavours direct to the thrilling Passport and Asüna brands for the Canadian marketplace. First up, Passport.

Common Motors of Canada Restricted utilized for a trademark on the Passport name on June 2nd, 1987. The company’s comprehensive title was Passport Worldwide Cars, and it was released to an energized Canadian public that summer for the 1988 design 12 months. Passport was a form of precursor to a new manufacturer south of the border that arrived in 1989 – Geo. In the beginning, Geo was not offered in Canada but we’ll communicate a lot more about that afterwards.

The Passport lineup went a little bit even more than just some captive imports, on the other hand, and was even over and above the reasons of Geo: It sold an amalgamation of autos from throughout GM’s portfolio. Passport served as an outlet for whatever didn’t fit on to loads at the mainstream GM dealerships in Canada. There was particularly a person motor vehicle that received Passport branding, and it was a doozy. Say good day to the Optima.

You’d know it south of the border as the Pontiac LeMans, when the rest of the planet would phone it a variety of distinct names: 1.5i, Pointer, Runner, Racer, and later on, the Cielo. The LeMans was on GM’s entrance-push T-human body, employed normally for European choices like the Opel Kadett and Vauxhall Astra. The Kadett E served as the basis for the LeMans. Extended-lived, the T was underneath quite a few fairly priced vehicles from GM and remained in use until eventually 2016. That yr was the ultimate a person for the LeMans, as it ultimately went out of licensed manufacturing in China.

Even though engineered by GM’s Opel arm, the LeMans and Optima for North American consumption have been constructed in Incheon, South Korea. Compared with Optima, which was an unfamiliar name to customers, Pontiac’s LeMans experienced a long historical past and the Korean hatchback was unquestionably an affront to the badge. GM recurring this folly with the Corolla-Nova. The new Optima was available with 3 doors as a hatchback, four doorways as a sedan, and as a five-doorway hatch.

And so the Optima turned the a single and only Passport vehicle obtainable at the “Canada-huge Passport network” GM proven, with dealers dotted across the nation (however concentrated in Downtown, Canada). It was remodeled from a Daewoo to a Passport by means of a tiny Passport badge up entrance, and some Optima badges in the grille and at the rear. Of course, the Optima alone would not a dealership fill, so GM acquired a small wild with the automobiles it parked at Passport plenty. The principal purpose (as there was no Geo nonetheless) was truly the distribution of Isuzu passenger cars and trucks.

There was no Isuzu dealership community in Canada exterior trucks, so the full Isuzu line appeared at Passport. The lineup was designed up of the sporty i-Mark and Impulse, along with the Stylus hatchback, and SUVs in the sort of the Rodeo and Trooper/II. The Pickup truck was there far too. Retailed as Isuzu via your Passport dealer, none of the Isuzus had any exterior Passport badging.

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A total lineup then, one particular Korean and several Japanese cars available at your neighborhood Passport seller? No, not really. Passport also distributed Saab versions, supplied Saab experienced only the 900 and 9000 at the time. It is almost challenging to visualize going for walks into a dealership and remaining offered with an Isuzu Pickup following to a Saab 9000. But that was the scenario. Advertising and marketing seemed to focus on the Optima and Isuzu versions, your author can not find any that clearly show Saabs.

In any celebration, the dealership chain’s income were gradual. There was tiny interest in the Optima. Sad to say, there’s not a lot of knowledge obtainable, but it’s instructed that in 1988 there were just in excess of 2,000 overall Optimas and i-Marks sold, and 2,150 trucks and SUVs. 1989 was a little bit superior, with 5,087 overall vehicles and 4,204 truck goods.

There was a lot more promising item coming too, as Saturn was about to arrive on line. Saturns were to get there at Passport sellers midway as a result of the 1992 design yr (Saturn’s Canadian debut), but it was not to be. In 1991 GM introduced the hammer down and killed off the Passport name. Passport dealers were not shut down but ended up rebranded into just named Saturn-Saab-Isuzu retailers. Maybe GM assumed shoppers would end in far more typically if the title was a lot more specifically on the tin.

The adjust built the Optima an orphan as the only real Passport motor vehicle. So it was discontinued right after 1991, and the LeMans appeared at Pontiac sellers in 1992. South of the border, the unloved Pontiac LeMans ongoing on sale via 1993. The LeMans would close up a solitary-12 months supplying in Canada, as the small hatchback ongoing its identification crisis: The pursuing year it was offered underneath an additional all-new and Canada-only GM model called Asüna.

Created for the reason that of the interesting way GM Canada was arranged, Asüna picked up the items of Isuzu and shaved off some Geos to keep the dealership traces fed. That’s where we’ll select up next time.

An intriguing aside: While GM was certainly finished with the Passport trademark by 1991, it was renewed in August 2005 by August of 2020. GM Canada held the trademark via Oct of 2014 when it was inactivated mainly because of non-use.

[Images: GM]

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