bluejay

Always liked these.  FWD just wasn't accepted in the marketplace, which is a pity as they're great to drive.

Interesting as GM owned Lotus and part of Isuzu at the time. I never knew they rebadged them and slapped a Kia engine in place of the more powerful Isuzu engine. The Elan is on the same platform and shares parts with the Impulse and Geo Storm.

Imo, the Impulse RS was far better than the Elan...same engine, AWD and half the price (just not convertible). I wonder if the Elan also has the vestigial drive shaft tunnel and mounting points for the rear diff like my Storm.

Yeah, Kia bought the rights to build the Elan after Lotus decided to quit making it. Apparently it was also sold as the Kia Vigato in Japan, although I highly doubt that many sold. 
 

The Impulse… well, they’re neat as a car, but they’re just not very pretty, are they? I think I preferred the old one from the 80s. The 90s ones with the semi-pop up headlights like the ones on the CRX were really weird.