Badge engineered vehicles

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Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Olas

Daewoo Matiz - Chevrolet Matiz


US buyers had their first opportunity at a Daewoo in the late 80s by buying a Pontiac LeMans. Worse, this was a formerly cool name, slapped on an econobox.

I visited Korea (escaped from the airport for about three hours is more the truth) and saw a LeMans there. Badged as the Daewoo LeMans. Seemed kind of boring that they didn't even pick a better name.

And a year earlier I was in Australian and saw the same Mercury Capri driven there as right-hand drive - as the Ford Capri. Of course this was one heck of a departure since the previous generation Capri was essentially just a rebadged Ford Mustang.

Someone mentioned the Saab 9-2X Areo, which was a cosmetically modified WRX. However, they had the base 9-2X, which was from a base Impreza. Saab had a huge input on the cosmetic design of the grill. The hood scoop and hood on the 9-2X Aero was also considerably different than the WRX. Of course the nickname of those vehicles was the "Saabaru".

There's more. The Diamond Star hatches of the late 80s were sold as the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Plymouth Laser, and Eagle Talon. Nobody remembers "Jeep/Eagle"? I think it was supposed to be something for the Jeep dealers to sell when the AMC models were scrapped and supposedly to compete with Saturn.

While someone mentioned the Geo Metro, that was preceded by the Chevrolet Sprint. That was actually based off the of the Japanese market Suzuki Cultus. The Swift name was to sell that car outside of Japan.

And one of the most obvious was the Honda Passport and Acura SLX, which were based off of the Isuzu Rodeo and Isuzu Trooper.

I also guess it's "badge engineering" to create a platform and basically sell the same car under different names. The GM J-body was notorious. It wasn't that it was so bad, but that the Cadillac Cimmaron probably set back the reputation of the brand by 10 years. To slap a Cadillac badge on an econobox was a poor marketing decision.
 
The Ford Probe was always based off of the Maxda MX-6. A friend owned one and talked about getting mods that were designed for the MX-6. I guess is wasn't specifically "badge engineered" but it was close enough.
 
BMC was the king of badge engineering in the '50's and '60's - Austin and Morris were identical apart from grill and badges, Wolseley, Riley, MG and Vanden Plas had different bonnets and wood trim. Worked for us back then as we had import restrictions - so if they could import only 1000 Austin Cambridges, they could import another 1000 of the identical Morris Oxford. Rootes did it too with the identical Hillman Minx and Humber 80. The MkII Jag was the same as the Daimler 250...the Daimler just had the V8.

Canada badge engineered American cars too - we got the Pontiac Laurentian and Parisiene which were just Chev Impala and Belair. The Canadian Dodge was just a Plymouth.

As in the original post, the Aussies are good at it too. They badged the Vauxhall Viva as the Holden Torana, but it didn't fool us as we had both sitting on the same floor. Modern Holdens are just Opels, Vauxhalls and Daewoos. Here we get Lexus with the real badge - they are Toyotas. A strange one is the Toyota Cavalier - a badged Chev. I was working on a Nissan truck yesterday - it was an Isuzu NPR.

We get some real weird stuff in NZ - we have no local market to protect.
 
y.p.w, you may well already know this, the Mercury Capri started life as the Ford Capri, designed and built here in Australia! They're based on the Mazda 323/Ford Laser engine, driveline, brakes, etc. Horrible little car, I worked at a Ford dealer when they were released, and the few we sold were always back for roof leaks, excessive wind noise, blah blah. And the turbo version had way too much power for the flexy chassis to handle. We had one at trade school which Ford had donated for the apprentices to train on, it was left hand drive, but wore all the Oz badges - it was a unique beast indeed!

Silk, thanks for chiming in, some great info there! Years ago I worked with a Kiwi in Western Australia and he'd tell me about some of the weird and wonderful grey imports you guys get.
 
Originally Posted By: y_p_w


And a year earlier I was in Australian and saw the same Mercury Capri driven there as right-hand drive - as the Ford Capri. Of course this was one heck of a departure since the previous generation Capri was essentially just a rebadged Ford Mustang.



actually that gen Capri, the Mercury was the badge engineered version. They were all built in Australia

HPB beat me to it.
 
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Originally Posted By: Silk
Here we get Lexus with the real badge - they are Toyotas.


Toyota (the Japanese conglomerate) knows that Toyota of North America and or the dealers they deal with had all sorts of contractural strings left over from the 1960s that make the dealership experience difficult for the (picky) consumer. Lexus was an end run around their own dealer network.

Infiniti was the same deal from Nissan. Mercedes tried pulling a slightly different thing with AMG which made everybody mad.
 
I'd be more likely to believe Lexus was a copy of Acura's marketing success.
Marketing an upmarket brand because at the time "everybody" conceded the Japs could build econoboxes but they could never build a luxury car that would compete. The best of the best belonged to the Germans. Funny how many people traded in German cars for Japanese those first few years.
 
Originally Posted By: earlyre
Originally Posted By: y_p_w


And a year earlier I was in Australian and saw the same Mercury Capri driven there as right-hand drive - as the Ford Capri. Of course this was one heck of a departure since the previous generation Capri was essentially just a rebadged Ford Mustang.



actually that gen Capri, the Mercury was the badge engineered version. They were all built in Australia

HPB beat me to it.

Yeah - I was well aware of that. I meant that the version sold in the US was the "badge engineered" version. Even so, it was odd that they picked that name in Oz and then decided to keep that name for sale in the US.
 
Heck - the first car I ever bought with my own money was a 1995 Acura Integra GS-R. That was a Honda pretty much everywhere except the badge, the front and the name on the back, and the center caps in the wheels. Every replacement part I ever bought for it came in a Honda package. They didn't even bother to change the valve cover with the Honda name on it. Eventually they decided to use Acura specific badging under the hood.

In Canada I heard they had a version of a Civic EX with Acura badging.
 
The worst example is probably the Cadillac Cimarron, a car that shared far too much stuff with the Chevy Caviler.

Anyway:
Ford Crown Vic=Lincoln Town Car=Mercury Grand Marquis.
Dodge Stratus Coupe=Gen III Mitsubishi Eclipse
Chrysler Town and Country=Dodge Caravan
Isuzu Oasis=first gen Honda Odyssey

And there is a rumor that the 2016 Mazda Miata will share a large amount of stuff with a new Alfa Romeo.
 
Originally Posted By: artificialist


And there is a rumor that the 2016 Mazda Miata will share a large amount of stuff with a new Alfa Romeo.


not a rumor.
they were co designed, and will both be built in Japan by Mazda. but the Alfa/FIAT Spider will have some Different sheet metal, and an Alfa Built engine.(while the Miata/MX-5 is all Mazda)
 
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Go back 40 years and GM built four versions of the Chevy Nova. Chevrolet Nova, Olds Omega, Pontiac Ventura, Buick Apollo. First letters from each model spell "N.O.V.A". Other than grills and tail lights, same cars.
 
Originally Posted By: chestand
Go back 40 years and GM built four versions of the Chevy Nova. Chevrolet Nova, Olds Omega, Pontiac Ventura, Buick Apollo. First letters from each model spell "N.O.V.A". Other than grills and tail lights, same cars.


I recall the early 80's vehicles were basically all the same car with slightly different sheet metal.
The cutlass supreme,chev Monte Carlo,Pontiac Grand Prix,Buick skylark/grand national,were all basically the same frame,could be had with the same interiors,with minor changes that were model specific,and the same engines for the most part.
Pontiac and Buick got a couple of 267s as the base v-8 whereas the others were a 305,which eventually became the base v8 for all of them.

Then once those cars all went to their smaller versions in the early 90s they all came with the 3.8 which was a fantastic upgrade when compared to what they used to have.
Chev was the worst for it. Every one of their subs had an identical model car,albeit there were slight model and option differences which was the only way to really differentiate the models.
So I think the general takes the win in this category.
 
I personally think GM was the worst for it in the 1970's and the 1980's...4 versions of the Nova, 4 versions of the Impala, 4 versions of the Monza, 4 versions of the Citation...

That said, I deliberately bought a 1985 Buick Skyhawk in the mid-1990's because I thought it looked much better than the Cavalier or Sunbird version.

Yeah, I know, but that's seriously what I thought.
 
Originally Posted By: addyguy
I personally think GM was the worst for it in the 1970's and the 1980's...4 versions of the Nova, 4 versions of the Impala, 4 versions of the Monza, 4 versions of the Citation...

That said, I deliberately bought a 1985 Buick Skyhawk in the mid-1990's because I thought it looked much better than the Cavalier or Sunbird version.

Yeah, I know, but that's seriously what I thought.

Chevy Cavalier.
Buick Skyhawk.
Cadillac Cimarron.
Oldsmobile Firenza
Pontiac Sunbird/Sunfire

Now if they could have figured out a GMC version I think they would have done it.
 
Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
They were bold enough to turbo it so I'd give them points there.

Chevy Sprint Turbo. I actually wanted one when I was in HS.

CC-117-061-800.jpg


Not sure if it's really [censored], but it was definitely badge engineered from a Suzuki Cultus.
 
Originally Posted By: hpb
Thanks for the responses guys. Apparently the whole badge engineering thing is a world wide phenomenon! I wasn't really referring so much to platform sharing, just the "badge and grille" jobs. Some new-to-me model names have cropped up anyway, I'll be sure to Google them.

Someone commented the Mazda B series was originally a Ford - I've always thought it was the other way around? Back in the 90's when I worked on them, the Ford Courier had Mazda logos everywhere...and came to Oz fully imported from Japan.

Regarding the Pontiac G8 ST, known here as the Commodore SS Ute, it's pretty much the car of choice for the young guys who can afford it...they claim it's a 2 door coupe with a really big boot (trunk)!
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: hpb

Someone commented the Mazda B series was originally a Ford - I've always thought it was the other way around? Back in the 90's when I worked on them, the Ford Courier had Mazda logos everywhere...and came to Oz fully imported from Japan.


It's the other way around in the US. Our version of the Ranger was US designed and built. It came out in 1982 as a 1983 model and competed with the Japanese B-Series. Starting in 1994, Ford began rebadging Rangers as the B-Series for Mazda for the North American Market. They also built the Mazda Navajo, which was just a rebadged Explorer Sport.

The US version of the Ranger was also built and sold in much of South America up to 2012, but it was available with a crew cab and diesel engine options there. In South America though, the B-Series was never based on this platform except in maybe a handful of places.


yep, all because of the ol North American "Chicken Tax".

Ranger sells worldwide, and every Ranger is a Mazda B-series except the North American Ranger. To avoid the 'Chicken Tax' Mazda began to use Ford's N/A Ranger for the B-series in 1993
 
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