Asüna

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Canada, 1992-1993


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History

Midway thru the 1992 year, GM decided to change the format of its Canadian Passport dealers which actually carried the Isuzu brand cars, pickups and SUVs, as well as the Passport Optima, a 4-door sedan or 3-door hatchback car otherwise known as the Pontiac LeMans and Opel Kadett on other markets.

And so with the forthcoming of the Saturn brand and GM taking control of Saab, Passport dealers became Saab-Saturn-Isuzu dealers.

The Passport Optima was then transfered to the new Asüna brand which would be sold at Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealers troughout Canada, which, by the way, were already selling the Pontiac LeMans, which was the exact same car. Also joining the Asüna brand was the Asüna Sunfire, a rebadged Isuzu Impulse, since Isuzu in Canada would be focusing exclusively on light trucks and SUV from 1992 onward. The GMC Tracker already sold at Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealers would also be incorporated into the Asüna brand as the Asüna Sunrunner, abandoning the GMC branded model and sending the Tracker nameplate to the Geo brand, also present on the Canadian market since 1990 and sold at select Chevrolet-Oldsmobile-Cadillac dealerships.

GM only offered the Asüna models for 1992 and 1993, some being available only in the second half of 1992 as 1993 models, such as the sporty Asüna Sunfire. Early models had the Asüna badges in block letters while the latter models received a triangular logo. 1993 was the only model year for the Asüna Sunfire, although some early delivered units were registered as 1992. The fact is, the Asüna Sunfire was exactly the same car as the 1992 Isuzu Impulse sold in the United States with the 1.8 engine. However, Isuzu USA didn't offer the Impulse model in 1993 although the Isuzu Stylus and the Geo Storm, produced by Isuzu, continued on in 1993.
Isuzu would actually stop producing passenger cars after that year, focusing on the truck, light truck and SUV market. Isuzu would however sell rebadged Honda and Acura passenger car models in Japan from 1994 onwards.
1993 and the Asüna brand was a transition for GM since Isuzu dealerships still had to outsell the 1991 Impulse and Stylus models well into 1992, offering discounted Impulse RS models way cheaper than the quoted 2?,995$ sticker price at the time, selling as low as 15,995$ according to personnal sources.

In 1994, as Isuzu stopped producing the Sunfire model, and as the Asüna SE/GT (Passport Optima) became obsolete for the Canadian market, the Asüna brand was abandoned. The Sunrunner would however continue its career as the Pontiac Sunrunner until 1998.

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To see the complete list of "Alpha 3" country codes used in these pages to specify the market in which the model was sold, please visit the following website :
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/country_code_list.htm
(We added (EUR) for Europe, (NAM) for North America, (SAM) for South America and (GCC) for Gulf Cooperation Council)

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