We all had an awkward period growing up. That period was the Nineties. Geo just happened to go through almost its entire existence during the decade and, not to dunk on the designers behind the brand’s relatively few concept vehicles — particularly its Tracker concept vehicles — but it shows.

The few retrospectives on the Geo brand out there tend to assert that GM desperately wanted to capture the youth market by rebadging some small captive imports already in the Chevrolet lineup, introducing a few others, and giving them a “gee willikers, kiddos, these are 23-skidoo” makeover. While the marketers in charge of Geo eventually went that way, GM — at least initially — was a little more transparent about its intentions for Geo.

The livelihood of Geo depended on more than livery.