1990 Geo Prizm GSi

1990 Geo Prizm GSi

I've been really fixated on Cadillacs as Guilty Pleasure cars these days, and I considered going with the Cimarron d'Oro--or even an $85 1:43 scale diecast bustle-back Seville toy--for today's GP honoree.

However, thoughts of the way that GM managed to pass its bad-management virus to Toyota got me to thinking that perhaps NUMMI was the vector by which this virus hopped the ocean… and then my thoughts turned to the very small number of interesting vehicles to come out of the GM-Toyota partnership in Northern California.

The Corolla GT-S FX16, of course, but there's no guilt whatsoever about owning an FX16; just about every car freak in the world acknowledges the FX16's inherent coolness, and this it does not qualify for this series.

But how about the Geo-badged version of the hot AE92 Corolla, the Prizm GSi? The Prizm (or, as nearly all Craigslist sellers spell it, the Prism) was built on the same assembly line as the Corolla, using damn near all the same parts… and yet the GM-ness of the marque made buyers shun the badge-engineered Corolla clone.

1990 Geo Prizm GSi

1990 Geo Prizm GSi

The Prizm GSi, which was made for the 1990-1992 model years, got the same screaming 130-horse 4AGE engine as its Corolla GT-S sibling. Drive one today and only the most obsessed Toyota zealots will have any idea what you've got, and they'll sneer at you for not slapping JDM Sprinter badges all over it.

I've been waiting to see one of these in a 24 Hours of LeMons race, and now I'm actually contemplating searching for "PRISM" on Craigslist and seeing if I can score a deal on a GSi.