Think back to the 1950s and ?60s when sports cars, with all their color and spirit, were exploding onto the American car scene. Because of its canvas top and two little seats tucked into a compact skin, the sports car was, well, cool.
Today, sport/utilities - with 4-wheel drive, oversize tires and brutish styling - have supplanted the sports car and redefined cool.
No other vehicle spans the generation bridge much better than the 1995 Geo Tracker, which more or less brings the sports-car formula to the sport/utility culture. In size, weight and tidy styling, the Tracker blends the driving flavor of a sports car with the go-anywhere, do-anything practicality of a sport/utility.
If the Tracker could speak, it would scream "cute." The cuddly look applies to all available Tracker models - 2WD or 4WD, hardtop or convertible, base or LSi. In both size and style, the shape is unlike other sport/utility cars, with the exception of the
Suzuki Sidekick, which is also made by CAMI in Intersoll, Ontario - General Motors? joint venture with
Suzuki Motor Company Ltd.
The Sidekick is an exception, of course, because it?s the same vehicle.
The bite-size proportions of the Tracker are emphasized by the short overhangs - the part of the body that extends beyond the wheels at the front and rear of the car - and the fact that the wheels themselves are pushed out to the corners of the vehicle. The large tires encircle steel or aluminum wheels depending on your option package, and fill neatly flared fenders at all four corners.
Between the fenders, the Tracker has only two doors; beyond the fenders, the Tracker goes nowhere but up. The bumpers - body colored on the LSi but black in base trim - sit just ahead of the front wheels and immediately behind the rear. The body doesn?t protrude beyond the wheels except vertically, where the Tracker is capped by either a convertible or a hard top.
For 1995, the two-position convertible top has been redesigned to make it easier to operate. The front half of the top folds back to provide a sunroof effect, or the entire top stows behind the rear seats for open-air driving.
