Also from your source, ”The first compact truck from General Motors was the rebadged Isuzu KB sold since 1972 as the Chevrolet LUV.” It then goes on to talk about production being shifted to the U.S. due to the 1973 oil embargo. Look at the drivetrain list. Most of the stuff in the truck was Isuzu. Isuzu peroxides the 1.9 and one other engine. Iirc, 3 of the transmissions were also sourced by Isuzu.
Also consider the following. At the time the S10/Sonoma/Hombre was being built GM owned 49% of Isuzu. Additionally, Geo existed at the same time. As everybody knows, almost all Geos were built by imports and sold in the U.S. as a domestic vehicle. The only exception would be the Chevy Spectra, which was sold as the Geo Spectra simultaneously, iirc, for 2 years only. The truck wasn't the only vehicle Isuzu was making for GM. The Geo Storm was made by Isuzu, and based on the Isuzu Stylus, however these 2 vehicles had less in common than all the other Geos. The storm never came with AWD or a turbocharged engine. As for the rest of the Geos, the Prism/Prizm was a Corolla, the Metro was a Suzuki Swift, and the Tracker was a Samari. GM didn't stop there. The truck relationship is still ongoing today. The Colorado/Canyon is still an Isuzu today, even though GM managed to kill Isuzu in the U.S. Ironically, when GM did that the Trailblazer/Envoy/Rainier/9-7X/Ascender also disappeared. Those SUVs were replacements for the S10 Blazer/Jimmy.
It is through partial ownership that GM has been able to build such a variety of cars. Case in point: Pontiac Fiero. It was a GM car that was built with input and resources from Lotus (who also helped Toyota build the MR2 at the same time) and utilized Isuzu transmissions for the 4 speed auto and 4 speed manual. Another partnership was Saab and Subaru. That brought around the Saab 9-2X (Saabaru). Ironically, GM still works closely with Toyota. That's why when GM sold it's 20% share of Fuji Heavy Industries (Subarus parent company) Toyota magically ended up with it. Now we're seeing the fruition of that through the Scion FRS and Subaru BRZ. Let's not forget Hummer, Opel, Vauxhall, Honda, Monero, etc.
I could go on. I haven't fully covered GM and haven't even begun with Ford/Mazda/Volvo/Jaguar/Land Rover/Volkswagon (how Henry Ford wasn't convicted of war crimes escapes me)/Aston Martin/etc. or Chrysler/Mitsubishi/Kia/Hyundai/Volkswagon/etc. And, how all 3 of The Big 3 can be tied into BMW.
