By Kamil Kaluski
I saw the new Chevy Blazer at this year’s New York International Auto Show and it’s everything you’d expect it to be – another forgettable, unmistakably General Motors, mid-size CUV. It looked like the Equinox in almost every way. It was so bad I didn’t even take a picture of next to the Equinox to show the lack of similarity. By pure coincidence, the day earlier I drove my friend’s 70’s K5 Blazer. You’d think there would be some old DNA Blazer in the model, but no. There’s none.
Which bring me to today’s question, which was inspired by Twitter’s HWMcNewbie who stated that “OEM are mostly terrible when it comes to resurrecting brand names.”
That’s kind of a valid point. Between the Beetle, Thunderbird, Charger, Challenger, MINIs, and whatever else that was once dead but came back to life, which is them have been really good? Did any of them made you say ‘I want to buy that!”?
Photo: Zlomnik on FB
Jeff Glucker
according to the reviews, the new alpine a110 should be worthy of it’s name.
then I’d say that the alfas giulia and giulietta. the new ones look good, are different enough (for modern times/cars) from everybody else, and I like to think they still have some alfaness in them.
The new Alfas are reportedly beautiful, quick, a joy to drive and full of electrical gremlins. Sounds like quite a bit of Alfaness in them.
Well, the Camaro died for a few years. The new ones aren’t any worse than the 3rd or 4th gen ones.
Technically, there was a one year gap between the C3 and C4 Corvettes. The C4 was miles ahead of the C3 (I’ve owned examples of each).
I like the new MINI, wouldn’t mind having one. Same goes for the Charger/Challenger.
I agree, the MINI and Dodge cars are worthy successors. The current Camaro is a phenomenal performer, though the 2019 front styling is garbage, and I wouldn’t own any of the new ones because of the claustrophobic interior.
If we get specific about things…
New Beetle RSi, please. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c357be52d0524d57c9a4873d4f6bfcc08d6170b031b22a21d8355c54eef1a26.jpg
Ford did okay with “Model A.”
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JSSQGmycBgI/maxresdefault.jpg
With Mustang, two.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/IMIAAOSw-7RVDtip/s-l640.jpg
Admittedly the first-year sales of the II were nearly three times that of the previous year and the II never fell as low as the ’71-73 figures, but I’m more inclined to call this “back from life support” than “resurrection.”
People give the mustang II shit, but it brought back the Mustang to be what it was supposed to be. The early 70’s models were just too big.
Definitely the right car for the time too, they fluked it with the oil crisis
I don’t know, it doesn’t share much with the first one. No planetary gearbox, no mid engine, no ankle-height dashboard that doesn’t obstruct the view of the road ahead, no ‘only one colour’ (red for the first Model A’, etc.
Thoroughly conventional and maimstmain really, a bit like the new Blazer. 🤔
All good points, but what can one do? It’s what the young folks want these days, with their cat’s whiskers and their bee’s knees…
At least the dog’s danglies were still a few decades off! (truck nuts?)
When companies resurrect a storied model name, we always want it to the be same as the old one, but it will never be, and there is no reason for it to be.
Does the Camaro count? The gen 5 was not only worthy of the name, it was a significant improvement over its previous generation.
The Challenger is about as close as anyone has come to being what people want in a resurrected model.
The GTO was precisely not not what people wanted a GTO to be, even though it was truer to its roots than a retro GTO would have been. (as an owner of an ’05, I may be biased)
The rebirth of the Mini was good. Of course it was bigger than the original, but by contemporary standards it was small, and for fun, it fought above its weight class.
Does the Magnum count? The LX Magnum wasn’t really a successor to the late ’70s Magnum, but I don’t think anyone was lamenting that fact.
The Charger being reborn as a sedan was as disappointing as it was necessary. You can’t argue with the success of the model
How about the 300? The rebirth on the LH platform was a mistake, but the re-rebirth on the LX was a big boost to Chrysler
This list seems to be Chrysler heavy, but it’s all the LX with a handful of old names slapped on it.
I didn’t like the GTO coupe, but I thought the G8 was brilliant.
No.
Not even Sunbeam’s reintroduction of the name “Alpine” in 1959?
https://justbritish.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Sunbeam-Alpine-%E2%80%93-All-models-1959-to-1968.jpg
Perhaps.
I had never heard of the Mark I & III (really? no Mark II?) Alpines until you brought this up. I’ll have to do research before I announce my findings. I believe this calls for a junket! Book me a stateroom on the first steamer for Old Blighty!
The 1953 Alpine was itself a resurrection of the Talbot Alpine from the 1930s. It’s all a bit convoluted because Sunbeam died in 1935 but then Talbot was rebranded as Sunbeam due to the confusion over the British and French arms of Talbot which had been split between different owners.
First generation: https://c7.alamy.com/comp/KX5T86/1933-talbot-105-alpine-in-chatton-northumberland-KX5T86.jpg
Second generation: https://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/width/640/media/6405269/Sunbeam%20Alpine%20(1).jpg
So the 1959 one was the third generation.
Fourth generation then was the Hillman Hunter-based one: http://car-from-uk.com/ebay/carphotos/full/ebay176972.jpg
And fifth generation was the Chrysler Alpine – a rebadged Simca 1307/1308. So then when PSA took over Chrysler Europe this became a Talbot Alpine again with the French and British arms of Talbot having been reunited. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/images/2016/04/08/chrysler-alpine-2a_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqM37qcIWR9CtrqmiMdQVx7BfOCYufpxLlnk9UkSq3RIc.jpg
That 4th generation has first generation Barracuda vibes.
Roy Axe who styled the fourth gen, later worked on the Chrysler Minivans, and the 5th gen Alpine/1308. Keeping it all Chrysler.
Roy Axe who styled the fourth gen, later worked on the Chrysler Minivans, and the 5th gen Alpine/1308. Keeping it all Chrysler.
The advantage of resurrecting a Lister Knobbly race car on a small scale is you can bring it back virtually unchanged 60 years later
https://s.aolcdn.com/dims-global/dims3/GLOB/legacy_thumbnail/1049×590/quality/80/http://www.blogcdn.com/slideshows/images/slides/218/288/4/S2182884/slug/l/lister-knobbly-4-1.jpg
…but back in the real world of non squillionaire cars.
The new fangled transverse engine Austin 7 isn’t a bad take on the original, and almost as good in motorsport I hear.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Austin_Seven_1959.jpg/1518px-Austin_Seven_1959.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/1922_Austin_7_–_Shanghai_Automobile_Museum_2012-05-26.JPG
Jeep Gladiator? Toyota FJ Cruiser? Hopefully the upcoming Bronco.
Better use of the Gladiator name would be for a JGC with a bed, but it’s on a unibody platform these days. The Wrangler-based truck should be more appropriately named JL-8 Scrambler, but regardless, it is cool.
I think the FJ Cruiser would have been better if it had a taller greenhouse. I was interested, but couldn’t deal with the gun-slit windows and massively obtrusive C pillars. It was like a stilted rolling cave.
I have high hopes for the Bronco, but Ford has a history of cool concepts that don’t deliver when normalized for the real market.
I’m a fan of the original Mercury Cougar, and I’d always hoped Mercury would eventually return it to the Mustang platform, though as a sport sedan (so it didn’t cannibalize Ford pony car sales). After its production as a T-bird twin ended in the 90s, the Cougar took a year’s hiatus and unfortunately returned as a rebadged Contour coupe– a car originally intended as the next Ford Probe. What a joke.
http://image.mustangandfords.com/f/9791435+w650+h650+cr1+st0/mufp_0510_01_z%2B1967_mercury_cougar_xr7%2Bfront_view.jpg
https://file.kbb.com/kbb/vehicleimage/housenew/480×360/2000/2000-mercury-cougar-frontside_mecou001.jpg
I really liked the second generation Probe but this was a disappointment.
I agree– a friend of mine had a G2 Probe GT, and it was both attractive and fun to drive. It could almost keep up with my Contour SVT, a car that I thought was decently quick at the time.
My roommate in college drove a 1988 Cougar, which didn’t set the roads on fire, but was a handsome, comfortable cruiser and no slouch when you buried the accelerator. The 1999 was just… bad.
I actually really liked (heck, still like) this concept when it appeared. Good point about moving it to be a sport sedan in order to avoid cannibalizing Mustang sales, but I’d have been intrigued to see something like this (maybe more of a grand tourer to the Mustang’s ponycar?), regardless.
http://oldconceptcars.com/wp-content/uploads/mercury_messenger_concept_6.jpg
I remember that car. It looks somewhat like a pre-Mustang concept Ford made in the early 60s (that was maybe named Cougar?). It also reminds me a bit of a Lancia Stratos (especially the side glass) and the headlights look like an homage to the original hideaways on the ’67 Cougar. I don’t remember when it was built, but for a concept, it looks more retro than futuristic.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Dodge_Challenger_%289885025066%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/1920px-Dodge_Challenger_%289885025066%29_%28cropped%29.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/1981_Dodge_Challenger_X%2C_front_left.jpg/1920px-1981_Dodge_Challenger_X%2C_front_left.jpg
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/a9f8d342be9b289f569ae2d7b6632039b6d0f90e/c=135-0-2264-1601/local/-/media/2017/05/12/DetroitFreeP/DetroitFreePress/636302159613731482-2018-Dodge-Demon-01.jpg?width=534&height=401&fit=crop
How about the Sunbeam Tiger?
http://www.thornleykelham.com/assets/gallery/332/_resampled/ScaleWidthWyI5MDAiXQ/Segrave-Land-Speed-Record-16th-March-1926-53.jpg
https://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/59905296-770-0@2X.jpg
Fiat Multipla https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/1959_Fiat_600_Multipla_tipo_100.108.jpg/280px-1959_Fiat_600_Multipla_tipo_100.108.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Fiat_Multipla_silver_front.JPG/280px-Fiat_Multipla_silver_front.JPG
Wow. So it started as a friendly overgrown pillbug and grew into a grotesque snail that you immediately want to kill with fire? What the hell were they thinking?
the new Tesla Roadster looks like it’ll be a dramatic improvement over the original
also, the original Ford GT was a great resurrection of the GT40 and the new GT is a great resurrection of the previous one. none of these three cars is the same as its forbear, but each is amazing in its own way.
One could argue that the New Beetle hit the mark quite well. The original was a simple economy car for the masses. But, nostalgia being what it is, people mostly remembered it for being cute. So when the New Beetle was the less practical but more adorable version of the Golf it may not have been true to the original, but it was true to what people thought of the original.
The New Beetle was well-received, but the second version (2012?) hit the mark better, at least for me. The NB was too symmetric– like the rear half was almost a reflection of the front half. It always bothered me. My vision of the Type 1 was that it was fatter in the rear, which I think the later Beetle emulated better.