Geo is one of the many marques General Motors has kicked to the curb over the years, but as today’s Nice Price or No Dice Tracker proves, there’s still some life left in the products of that moribund brand. Let’s see how much you might pay to live with it.
Finding a four-leaf clover is a famously rare and supposedly luck-imbuing occurrence. Coming across a cheap but seemingly solid 2000 Saab 9-3 Viggen, like we saw yesterday, is almost as lucky and far more enjoyable after the fact. Our Viggen had a lot of miles under its belt and the seller’s warning that the paint wasn’t much to write home about, but at just $3,950, none of that mattered to the vast majority of you. The result was a solid 85 percent Nice Price win.
American automakers—traditionally the “Big 3” but now pretty much the “Mid-2”—have long seen wily imports encroach upon their market share. Each company attempted to create domestic-built competitors to these interlopers, but, in the end, an “if you can’t beat ‘em, import ‘em yourself” strategy seemed to be the choice made by each.
In the case of General Motors, that meant a whole new division—Geo—which served as a catchall for a lineup of cars and trucks built by three separate partners at factories around the globe. Geo faded into history after about a decade of existence but was outlived by its most successful models, all of which were re-branded as Chevrolets before eventually dying off as well.
This 1995 Geo Tracker is one of those successful models. Just three years after it hit the streets, all ensuing models were sold as Chevrolets. Regardless of the badge on the grille, the Tracker was a Suzuki product built at the GM/Suzuki joint-venture plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. The badging might have said Geo—and later Chevrolet—but there was little else to distinguish the model from the Suzuki Sidekick upon which it was based.
While also available as a four-door wagon and hard-top, this Tracker is the cute-ute convertible. That’s probably the most desirable edition to have, and this one is made all the more attractive by being capped with a two-piece fiberglass hardtop. The two-door rides on an amazingly short 86.6-inch wheelbase and only clocks in at a tad over 11 feet overall.
That makes the Tracker an easy car to maneuver and park. Its size also made it a great vehicle to tow behind an RV, allowing for run-around shenanigans at the KOA once you’d set up camp. That seems to have been part of this one’s M.O., as it has a tow bar connection on the front in addition to a hitch mount in the back. According to the ad, it’s done 180,000 miles, but there’s no info about how many of those were done as an also-ran to an RV.
A ton of little work has been done to keep this Tracker… well, on track. Those efforts include new paint, fresh front axle bearings, door handles, front tires, headlamps, and a fuel pump. The seller avers that, as a result, this is the best-looking Tracker presently on the market.
It does look pretty solid, and the respray appears well done. Inside, things are also tidy and clean. This is a 4WD Tracker, which means the high-low leaver for the transfer case falls readily to hand between the wonderfully ’90s-patterned cloth bucket front seats. Those wheels are spun by a 96-horsepower fuel-injected 1.6-liter four, mated to a five-speed manual transmission. That combo should offer reasonable miles per gallon when not counting on an RV doing its work.
Per the ad’s description, the A/C is cold, and the title is clear. The price tag for this potential RV accessory is $7,700, and it’s now incumbent upon you to judge both the truck and that price. What do you think? Is this Geo worth that kind of cash? Or does this Tracker’s price lose the scent?
You decide!
Seattle, Washington, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at [email protected] and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.