I have nothing but respect for Caitlyn Jenner and what she’s going through, but I still have to catch myself when referring to the sports legend as I frequently do so as “he.” I have the same problem when it comes to cars and trucks made by one brand, but sold by another. Well, not the same problem as there’s nothing particularly envelope-pushing or brave about slapping your logo on something someone else built.
The rebranding bug seems not to be as prevalent of late, but we’ll just have to see how much Miata is in the Fiat Roadster when it debuts. Once upon a time manufacturers shared models like they did wives in that awful movie The Ice Storm. That’s exactly what we’re interested in today. What, in your opinion, is the weirdest model rebadging that you have ever seen?
Image: TheCarConnection
Hooniverse Asks: What was the Weirdest Model Re-badging?
By Robert Emslie
Aug 7, 2015
Jeff Glucker
DAF 66 to Volvo 66 – didn’t make much sense, didn’t last long.
http://www.motorsbros.com/images/Volvo-66-10.jpg
The Lancia Delta to SAAB-Lancia 600. It was only sold in Scandinavia and I’ve been living there for all my life without seeing a single one.
http://boitierrouge.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/600-trasera.jpg
I only learned of it recently…do you know of any sales numbers?
I googled it and according to a Swedish magazine there are 12 of them still on the road out of 6419 built as of 2012. Ouch.
http://www.klassiker.nu/reportage/saab-lancia-var-%C3%A4r-du
My gosh! That sounds like the winner in a question Hooniverse hasn’t asked yet – which car evaporated the fastest!
That surely is an unbelievable rate of destruction. And a good Hooniverse Asks for those who control registries.
Rust never sleeps.
Definitely a weird one. I think the recent Lancia/Chrysler shenanigans (Chrysler Ypsilon, Lancia Voyager, …) are very strange as well. I can’t remember any rebadging involving Lancia that doesn’t seem weird. Maybe the Y10, if you want to count that.
The Lancia/Chrysler cross-dressing was prefigured a few years earlier in the UK by the re-branding of the whole Daewoo range as Chevrolet.
Given that the average Brit’s image of ‘Chevy’ is a two-tone ’57 with fins and a lot of chrome it was hard to see what reintroducing the brand to the UK with a bunch of Korean econoboxes was meant to achieve?
They did the same in continental Europe. However, they pulled Chevrolet (apart from Camaro/Corvette) out of most (all?) markets last year. In the UK, they appear to be staying for the rest of 2015.
I’ll admit I did a double-take the first time I saw the Chevy bowtie on the Manchester United jerseys.
A ridiculous investment considering that Chevrolet got the axe, and another excellent illustration of the left hand/right hand bureaucracy at GM…
Toyota Cavalier.
It’s like GM said “Since you are letting us rebadge your Corolla as a Prism, perhaps you would like to take our Cavalier and sell it as a Toyota.”
And with Japanese culture as it was, Toyota didn’t want to be disrespectful, so they did it.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Toyota_Cavalier_1.JPG
I always wonder what was the thought process of a Japanese costumer when he/she decided to get this car, what did they expected and what was their reaction a few months later when the car starting to break apart. “But it has a toyota logo in front?!!!”
Which reminded of this picture.
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–wcTV6NJz–/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_320/18s451c5bfgo5jpg.jpg
Someone I know ‘in the trade’ told me that the average time spent rectifying faults on arrival in Japan to bring these cars up to Toyota’s JDM quality standards was longer than the complete build time for two Corollas in Japan. And then they were still the most unreliable model of Toyota sold there.
The Toyota corrolla rebadge to Chevy was odd if only for the procession of names it received: Malibu, Classic, and Prizm were all Corrollas. In a side note, they were all built at Toyota’s SF plant that is now Tesla’s, and during the mfg time this car was rebadged it was -at the same time- Toyota’s worst quality level plant worldwide, and GM’s best quality level plant worldwide.
Actually, the Corolla was assembled and rebadged as GEO Prism, and the plant is in Fremont, CA, not SF. The joint Toyota/GM plant was called “NUMMI” (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc). Small pickups (Tacoma (Hilux)) were also assembled there, along with the Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe twins. As predicted, the venture was not succesful, and was cancelled entirely during the GM bailout.
Tesla has indeed occupied a portion of the sprawling facility. Thank the Feds for that bit of corporate cronyism. Facts are Facts, Elon Musk is as much a political animal as he is an industrialist.
The GM Plant they were making Malibus at, then became a Saturn Sky plant was a Fisker plant for a very short time, its empty again
Volkswagen Taro pickup. Yes, it’s merely a rebadged Toyota. The taro is a starchy root and an odd name for a trucklet.
Yeah but starchy roots are delicious and Toyota pickups are rad.
Until they get wet for too long… then starchy roots rot and Toyota pickups, well, rot.
Oh what a feeling, Poi-ota!
http://www.productioncars.com/send_file.php/dodge_attitude_silver_front_mexico_2007.jpg
If I’m not mistaken, some generations of the Attitude still had Hyundai badges somewhere, and either way, it was a super quick and dirty rebadge. They probably could’ve just kept rebuilding the original Neon for years and been okay.
The later ones were barely rebadged.
http://carsien.com/uploads/dodge/dodge-attitude/dodge-attitude-11.jpg
The Dodge attitude:
http://ajournalofmusicalthings.com/wp-content/uploads/Hyundai-logo.png
…is not to rely on your ongoing business? Bad omen.
To be fair the Hyundai connection is gone (probably because Hyundai since set up shop on their own in Mexico) and now the Dodge Attitude is this:
http://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/2015-dodge-attitude-is-a-reskinned-mitsubishi-mirage-photo-gallery-91780-7.jpg
Which is slightly higher effort, being a Mitsubishi that they gave an entire new bumper. Though their other subcompact, the Vision, is lazy, at least it’s in house lazy, because it’s a Fiat.
http://www.dodge.com.mx/img/autos/1600/vision-2015.jpg
Chevrolet is doing the same thing with the Suzuki Vitara, currently.
It has all its Suzuki badges, but is sold as the Chevrolet Grand Vitara SZ Next (what a smooth name!) in Ecuador.
http://www.chevrolet.com.ec/content/dam/Chevrolet/lat-am/Ecuador/nscwebsite/es/Home/SUVs/Grand%20Vitara%20SZ%20Next%202.4%204×4/Model%20Overview/Colorizer/Blanco/01_perspective_img_1.jpg
On one hand, they rebadged Vitaras for years, on the other hand they got super lazy with this one.
“Shevrolet.”
This might be a bit too re-engineered to qualify as a re-badge, but the Mazda Roadpacer was a 1970s Holden Premier… with a rotary engine!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Roadpacer_AP
Yes, the Roadpacer! And even thought they’re ridiculously underpowered, I want one.
http://www.oocities.org/r100coupe/zroadpacer_interior.jpg
68-72 Nova-esque from the rear…
I’ve driven one of these and they are exactly as bad as you’d expect a Chevy Nova sized, (and weight), car powered by the torque-less carburretored 13b non turbo rotary driving through a GM350 three stage auto.
Veeery smooth though.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/46/4581/25114790002_large.jpg?v=1
That’s not weird, that’s just Canadian. Oh, wait. Never mind.
Wierd? Maybe. Desirable? Absolutely.
Get some mud and horse-dung on it, take it to your local Lincoln dealer and see what they say!
After all, that;s where the other Mercuries go for service…
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Buick_Park_Avenue_China_2012-05-27.JPG
The Chinese Buick Park Avenue… So it’s the Australian Holden, with an American-market name sold only in China.
Sure.
There’s also the Buick Excelle, a Korean Daewoo with an American name only sold in China.
Lest we forget – the 1988 Daewoo Cielo erh, Pontiac LeMans
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daewoo_LeMans
The horror, the shame, the horror!
http://www.destgulch.com/movies/apoc/apoc12.jpg
I was at my local pontiac dealer in 1988 messing w Fieros when I saw a foreign (korean?) Le Mans delivered off the truck to the dealer without a radiator. Drove it off the truck that way.. on & off the boat that way….
BMW diesels in ’84-’85 Lincolns, although that’s not really what you were asking. And late 70’s VW/Audi engines in AMC’s. With regard to re-badging, when the JDM discovered SUV’s, they all were sharing platforms and swapping badges. In recent memory, probably this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_9-7X#/media/File:Saab_9-7X_–_03-19-2012.JPG
HAH! The Saab-uru
The Suzuki Sidekick was rebadged countless number of times so most of them were pretty strange, but the Asüna Sunrunner, which was a weird attempt at making a Geo for Pontiac in Canada that went about a year, has to be the strangest.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/4799/1281/24495640002_large.jpg
I was going to say Asuna, then saw your post. They also badged an Isuzu hatchback as an Asuna. Imagine, taking an obscure name (in this market at least) and making it even more obscure by renaming it. When I worked at a Pontiac dealer back then we’d say, “It rusts Asuna you drive it off the lot!”
Why oh why didn’t they just use the Geo name in Canada too? I’m assuming most Canadians can watch US TV channels, therefore there’d be at least some instant brand recognition!
But they did use Geo. Pontiac and Chevrolet had separate dealer networks, and everything Chevrolet got Pontiac wanted.
Certainly the most cynical…http://media.caranddriver.com/images/09q4/300858/2011-aston-martin-cygnet-photo-317056-s-429×262.jpg
*Cygnical
I’ll find the way out…
Rebadging Isuzu SUVs as Acuras always struck me as a wonky move.
My first thought was A-M Cygnet, but that’s so obviously, intentionally weird it doesn’t seem fair to use. Then I thought about BMC/BL’s incestuous mashing about with Austin/MG/Morris/Wolseley/Vanden Plas badges, but that doesn’t seem remarkable, either. Because Britain.
So I am left with my third choice, the ’79-’82 Plymouth Arrow Truck, the only Plymouth pickup truck since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was Plymouth’s version of the Dodge D50, which was itself a rebadged Mitsubishi Forte, and was given the same name as Plymouth’s version of the Mitsubishi Celeste coupe. The whole move reeked of “Ah, what the hell,” even at the time.
http://i1.wp.com/hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/White-Arrow1.jpg
My old next door neighbor had a Trailduster with the roof removed. He used it like a pickup. Fitting, because as a rebadged Ramcharger, it was about 95% the same as a D150.
And the 1983 Scamp is saddened by, once again, not being considered a truck.
http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/s/scamp01.jpg
No, actually I just forgot about the Scamp. It was a one-year model and according to Allpar they only built 3,564 of them, so I think I might be excused for the oversight?
A real truck wouldn’t get sad, it would go on a rampage.
That was a great game.
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/263810-paperboy-rampage-game-boy-advance-screenshot-rampage-watch.png
Or Scamper away with its tail between its legs…
The Triumph Acclaim. More pathetic than weird. (Also, here’s a list of the more heinous examples of re-badging, http://www.carthrottle.com/post/9-rubbish-rebadged-rides-that-should-never-have-been-signed-off/ )
https://d37nk263jfz2p8.cloudfront.net/image/1/700/0/uploads/articles/1280px-triumph_acclaim_august_-544661fd7f02a.jpg
There is one in Pennsylvania. I’ve seen it twice now and have pictures to prove it. It’s right hand drive and was given by a father to his daughter as her first car.
Wow, that Saab 9-6X would have looked a lot better than the Tribeca.
It was probably the best running and most reliable Triumph ever made
The Isuzu Aska was based at different times on the GM J-car platform, the Honda Accord, and the Subaru Legacy.
If you have to Aska what it is, don’t buy it! 😉
Certainly one of the lesser-known byproducts of the Honda/Austin Rover fling, the Honda Crossroad, a Japan-only rebadge of the Land Rover Discovery Series 1.
https://d-a.d-cd.net/6255ddu-960.jpg
Came here to post this. The most unreliable Honda ever marketed. And still the only production Honda badged V8 ever available
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2808/11356743576_e5687daf6a_b.jpg
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7298/11356690826_73e2038c5d_b.jpg
https://c3.staticflickr.com/3/2883/11356745694_d081cba8fd_b.jpg
http://playswithcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/6.jpg
“Buick Opel by Isuzu” still makes me chuckle. http://hooniverse.info/2011/08/13/hooniverse-lost-car-weekend-the-1976-79-buick-opel-by-isuzu/
Let’s take a luxury brand from a company known for exquisite mechanical engineering and slap its badge on a aging, sloppy SUV.
Acura SLX
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Acura-SLX.jpg
This was a product of the same deal. Isuzu Oasis
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isuzu_Oasis_–_03-28-2012.JPG#/media/File:Isuzu_Oasis_–_03-28-2012.JPG
Speaking of Isuzus:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/1953_Isuzu_Hillman-Minx_01.jpg/800px-1953_Isuzu_Hillman-Minx_01.jpg
Yup, that’s a 1953 Isuzu Hillman-Minx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isuzu_Hillman_Minx
The dozens of Canadian cars that are rebadged American cars. If I strike it rich, I may collect these someday.
Here’s a few, some have already been posted.
Acadian:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/62_Acadian_Invader.jpg
Asuna:
http://cartype.com/pics/7719/full/asuna_gt_ad.jpg
Beaumont:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f6/59/36/f6593656447632b4b5a4cce183e4f60e.jpg
Monarch:
http://www.oldcaradvertising.com/Ford%20of%20Canada/Ads-Cars/1950s/1957%20Monarch%20Ad-01.jpg
Fargo:
http://oldcaradvertising.com/Chrysler%20Canada%20Ads/1953/1953%20Fargo%20Truck%20Ad-01.jpg
Frontenac:
http://www.oldcaradvertising.com/Ford%20of%20Canada/Ads-Cars/1960s/1960%20Frontenac%20Ad-01.jpg
Meteor:
http://www.oldcaradvertising.com/Ford%20of%20Canada/Ads-Cars/1950s/1958%20Meteor%20Ad-01.jpg
It should be noted that the 1961 Meteor actually is pretty magnificent.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7086/7055233193_3c077d486f_b.jpg
The front of the Meteor is even stranger.
I think I’d be a little leery of any car whose most-marketable trait is that it is “eventful”.
This is not a Dodge Caravan. It’s a Sanxing G-Star. Which was a scheme to get around Chinese import laws. They would import Caravans as “car parts” and put a new badge on them, and sell them as their own brand.
http://www.carnewschina.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sanxing-g-star-chrysler-china-5-660×456.jpg?97ba00
http://www.carnewschina.com/2014/03/20/spotted-in-china-the-sanxing-g-star-chrysler-voyager/
people in China were probly like “wait Americans are worried about the quality of Chinese cars?”
“I have nothing but respect for Caitlyn Jenner and what she’s going through ”
His name is Bruce. And he brought this on himself. Sympathy? For what, exactly?
Volkswagen Routan. My neighbor honestly thought his van was German. Dumbass. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f05e8d8ca30b319ff87ebf77e708e359658d01b125a1644d90c6254c865ca10f.jpg
Oh, there’s a lot of German in that box. It’s just that it’s warmed-over Daimler-Benz, not VWAG.
I guess you could tell him that it’s really Italian. http://news.allpar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Lancia-Grand-Voyager.jpg
Toyota Lexcen: rebadged Holden Commodore for the Australian market.
http://cdn.motorshout.com.s3.amazonaws.com/models/system/9602/p16bo8dcp81jksdqm1ldb8rppaa4_r.jpg
And on the other hand, there’s the Holden Apollo, a Toyota Camry rebadged for Australia.
And the Holden Nova, a rebadged Toyota Corolla, another product of the government imposed restrictions, (not what they do nowadays.)
The Button Plan’s rationale was to improve efficiencies of scale by forcing joint ventures on the car makers so Toyota teamed up with GMHolden and Ford was forced into bed with Nissan; to give us orphans like the Ford Corsair, a rebadged Nissan Bluebird, which was odd because Ford already sold another same sized rebadged Japanese car, a rebadged Mazda 626 as the Ford Telstar. In addition, as well as Mazda based utes and the Falcon utes, was the Ford Maverick, a rebadged Nissan Patrol. in all it’s versions.
http://www.holden.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Holden-Nova-SLE-Hatch-Manual-1990-008.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/1989-1992_Ford_Corsair_(UA)_GL_sedan_01.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/1990-1992_Ford_Telstar_TX5_(AV)_Ghia_hatchback_01.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OGzV1NJML._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
As part of all of the Button Plan shenanigans, there was also “Nissan The Ute”, a rebadged Ford Falcon utility. Obviously the marketing department at Nissan couldn’t be bothered even giving it a model name.
http://i689.photobucket.com/albums/vv254/rolly_028/Nissan_Ute.jpg
Ha! I didn’t even know about that one. I thought Ford had managed to keep the Falcon entirely out of it. We only see dribs and drabs of this unfortunate experiment (which Abbott has now really made all in vain), in NZ. Thanks for the piccie!
Not quite weird as much as blatant. Honda/Acura Integra to Rover 416i https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d686ee1070db14433a49b4ef54efae60bf8521ad72571cf594e5013c91488070.jpg
One that would have been- Qvale Mangusta rebadged as an MG.
I’ve been following Peter Stevens on Facebook and asked him about the Xpower based off the Mangusta…
Hi there Jason, interesting question. The original, and very silly plan, of the directors of MG Rover was to just re-badge the Qvale. But it was a dumb looking car so I insisted that we re-body the car; the project then fell into the corporate money pit with around 130 people getting involved. After a year that team had spent around £20 million and had come up with the plan that a totally new car was needed! At that point the board stopped the project and asked me what I could do for £10 million, I bravely said I could give them a car within 18 months with the first prototype ready in a year! I put together a very small team that kept the chassis and running gear, kept the windscreen and some of the underneath structure, and produced a new outer skin using what at that time was a revolutionary new composite process. We planned that it would be a £55,000 car but the board were greedy and decided to sell it for £80,000! It was only designed to be a 55grand car so we sold around 50 before MG Rover went into liquidation but MG Sport and Racing remained viable for another year and probably more than 80 cars were eventually made. The car was supposed to look tough and aggressive rather than cute because I thought that its job was to present the company as being tough too. Hope that helps, I may write a lengthy piece after the summer, Peter
Peter Stevens is both brilliant and a really nice guy.
In that he took time to reply to my question says volumes.
I can’t believe nobody had mentioned the Saabaru yet…
Or the Cadillac Cimarron…
Volga Siber
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Volga_Siber_front_Moscow_autoshow_2008_26_08.jpg/1024px-Volga_Siber_front_Moscow_autoshow_2008_26_08.jpg
A Chrysler Sebring rebadged as a Volga.
A Volga Car? Wow, I thought Volga only made boats, man?
Last-gen Lincoln Town Car too capitalist pig for your liking? Check out the Hongqi CA7460!
http://i.wheelsage.org/pictures/faw/-hongqi_ca7460/autowp.ru_faw_-hongqi_ca7460_1.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Hongqi_CA7460_rear.jpg
Hongqi? is that pronounced Honkey?