Ep. 30 Seeing Double: The History of Badge Engineering
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2024
- A classic car connaisseur explains and untangles the lazy business practice that is badge engineering/rebadging, by using some of the most obscure examples out there.
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GM are the actual kings of rebadging. They literally rebadged the hell out of every model, platform and brand possible.
Starting in the late 40's TBH..
LaSalle/Cadillac
Pontiac/Chevrolet
Buick/Oldsmobile
While not entirely identical in appearance, so many design elements and components were shared it's really like almost 3-5 different "models" of the exact same car. Especially after 1980, when only two GM divisions made all the motors.
for real, this is the company that has the guts to rebadge the Lotus Elise 😂
@@smellsuperb1 Pontiac itself is a rebrand of Oakland in 1926, it was just so successful they completely dropped Oakland in 1931.
So GM really stands for "Giant Mimeograph" 😭🤣🤣
vw right now
it's why I laugh to myself when people swear brand loyalty. "it's Buick for me, I would never drive a Chevy" LOL
I'm a model loyalist. I like rangers, so I hot no problem droving a Mazda
Back when Holden and Toyota were rebadging each others cars here in Australia in the late 80's - mid 90's, you'd hear of people buying a Nova (Corolla) or Apollo (Camry) because they wanted an "Australian" car, or buying a Toyota Lexcen for the "Japanese quality" *giggle*
I had a 84 Buick LeSabre I bought from a friend that needed a transmission but it was powered by a Olds 307 from the factory originally & no not the lowly Chevrolet small block 307 from many years before that was under powered & often times smoked & used oil like a sive lol . GM would use different engines in different bodies going back to the 70s where some of these cars used what was called the BOP transmissions where it could bolt to a Buick Olds, Pontiac or Cadillac engine that often times any of those engines could be installed at the factory let's says a Buick with a Olds engine in its body or vise versa or Pontiac with a Buick engine . I think one of the reasons behind this was at times they would run out of a engine let's say like a Buick so they could keep production going by bolting in a Olds or Pontiac engine into the Buick body using that BOP transmission especially if said Buick was ordered to have a 350 ci engine which all of them made a 350 at one time other than Cadillac in those years who had the 472 & 500 cube engines & later the 425 in the early 80s.
Agreed
Even though they're both under the mighty GM umbrella lol
Here in the US, the GM mid-size SUV was sold as the Chevy Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Oldsmobile Bravada, Buick Ranier, Saab 9-7X, and Isuzu Ascender. All in the same country.
Don't forget the Chevy SSR....
Remember when a colleague of mine bought a new Daewoo here in Finland. When she was about to leave the shop with the car, the salesman said: "Just wait a second". He went back to his desk and picked up some Chevrolet badges. "Here you are, this is not official yet, but the Daewoos are soon Chevrolets. Guess the retail price could be a little higher, so its only fair you get these" (well it would never be high, of course, but a nice gesture).
Haha
@@cubiczirconiabeard5366 Indeed he did, my colleague showed us the badges (and I knew the company, it was a small city). And anyways it was no big deal, the same car dealer just continued selling the same cars, they just rebranded it for the Finnish market. Anyway ti was just nothinh more of a joke, as the papers of the cars stayed the same. Just like when another dealer gave my friend Bavaria-bagdes to put on his standard Beemer.
Speaking as an American; you captured it perfectly when you said "how stupid do you think your customers are, GM?". It's a self-selecting group to be sure
The government back in 2009 made bankrupt GM close these rebadging companies and it still was not enough.
Holden
Opel
Vauxhall Motors
Hummer
Pontiac
Saturn
Saab
@@b4804514 Ironically Hummer was one of the least Rebadging companies, given 2 out of their 3 models were closely based on other platforms, but literally only being like 1/3rd of that platform, while their one model that didn't do that is a Miltary Vehicle, and basically undriveable in most parts of the world but that's another story
GM cars don't come with an owner's manual: they come with a letter of condolences.
@@tjenadonn6158 Yeah I believe that is called a warranty
And then there are the cars manufactured by GM and sold by Toyota…
The first generation Chevy Trailblazer was also sold as the Buick Rainer, Oldsmobile Bravada, GMC Envoy, Isuzu Ascender, and SAAB 9-7X.
We recently swapped a motor out of a Buick Raineer into my buddies Trailblazer. They didn''t even change the interiors hardly at all with the exception of Isuzu and SAAB.
K5 Chevy Blazer/GMC Jimmy!
Dont forget the Cadillac trivago
@@dougzzzie738 the cloth interior was a slap in the face in those Ascenders. This comment is being made as I sit in my Isuzu with heated leather seats.
Actually I think you have the order wrong lol I think the envoy was the main and original idea then the rebadged ones came along after
The first Honda Passport in the 1990's was a rebadged Isuzu Rodeo with 12 months 12,000 miles less warranty and a $3000.00 up charge just so it could be called Passport. A girl I worked with was a hard-core Honda person. She was going to trade in her Accord for a Passport. I told her why don't you save yourself $3000.00 and go with the Isuzu. She said that she would never be caught dead in a crappy Isuzu Rodeo. Ok, good luck with that Honda.
The Saturn vue has a honda j series engine.
I was just commenting how I had one of those Isuzu Rodeos. It was Identical to the Passport except Honda did change the interior a bit. I did a lot of the repairs myself and it had a lot of GMC Jimmie parts... the suspension and frame were based off of a Jimmie Blazer.
@@jessewalters5361 For a moment I thought you were talking about the Jimny a tiny off-roader made by Suzuki.
And the Isuzu Trooper/Acura SLX/Subaru Bighorn
My old man wanted to buy an Isuzu DMAX, but it doesn't come in an extended cab with a manual transmission. I said "what about the Mazda BT-50?"
He claimed he liked the Isuzu, not the Mazda. I told him to go down to the dealership and take a look at the difference.
Anyway, now Dad drives a Mazda.
One of the greatest moments of driving I had was when I passed a Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute. 3 of the same car with 3 different badges. I thought it was so funny.
There was a great commercial for the Lincoln town car in the 1980s, a bunch of geniuses exiting a restaurant and all of them getting very confused about which GM car belong to which. Nobody could tell the difference between a Buick, Oldsmobile or Cadillac.
Even GM couldn't tell the difference between an Olds, Buick, Pontiac, or Chevy. That's why on the assembly lines, the cars kept getting the wrong engines. Pontiacs with Chevy engines. Oldsmobiles with Buick engines. Cadillacs with Buick and Olds engines. And so on.
Of course, Ford wasn't exactly exempt. Most Ford cars had Mercury equivalents.
Crown Victoria / Grand Marquis.
Fairmont / Zephyr.
Taurus / Sable.
Escort / Lynx.
Tempo / Topaz.
Granada / Monarch (and hilariously, the Lincoln Versailles)
Pinto / Bobcat
Maverick / Comet
Torino / Montego
I always wondered what a third gen F-body Buick, Olds, Cadillac would look like. The Buick would have a chrome "Custom" badge, for sure, probably would have been called the Wildcat, maybe even just "GS," woulda kept the Pontiac taillights with a different center section. There's just no way to put chrome on those cars so they still look good.
There was another that showed them in profile and I think they just used different colors to show the lack of difference.
czcams.com/video/SaZqQLpbjFU/video.html
Somemoby sent me the link of the video, it's hilarious!
My favorite rebadge is the Toyota Cavalier. I just like the idea of a Chevy made in Ohio being marketed as a Japanese car
It was actually entered into a japanese racing league and did pretty well lol
Was just as reliable tbh
Well Ohio is phonetically similar to "Ohayo", which is a casual way of saying good morning in Japanese, so...
Cleveland is the capital city of a casual Japanese morning greeting.
@@deanchur Columbus
@@luisvelasco316 I had no idea, thanks for the correction
From Australia, Early Toyota Lexen's were rebadged Holden Commodore cars.
Also: a number of Audi, VW and Škoda share the same infotainment systems, complete with identical bugs in the software!
Also, love the (re)use of the highway footage 3 times. Fitting for the video!
Nissan I think also shared with Ford or it was Mazda can’t remember but it’s was all during the 1980s Australia
Correct ford has used rebadged Mazdas and Nissans
The original Mini was sold as the Morris Mini-Minor, the Austin Seven, the Wolseley Hornet, the Riley Elf, and later on it was sold as the Rover Mini and finally just the Mini. BMC/Leyland/Rover are repeat offenders at this. Who could forget such monstrosities as the Vanden Plas Allegro and the Rover 45/Honda Concerto?
to be fair, the Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf had extended boots that the Mini lacked, as well as timber dashboards and twin, rather than single carbs, so some effort was put in
British Leyland had at least 50% of cars based on a different one and 40% more were outside based or engineered. I think the reason they get away with it is because of how much they struggled up a literal cliff.
Just like the Rootes Group:
Hillman Minx
Singer Vogue
Humber Sceptre
Sunbeam Rapier
One carb or two, sir ? Plus new grille on each one.
Sticking with the British Motor Company:
Austin A55 Cambridge
Morris Oxford V
Riley 4/72
Wolseley 15/69
MG Magnette III
Siam di Tella (in Argentina)
One carb or two, sir ? Plus new grille and tailights on each one.
Or:
Austin 1800 and 2200
Morris 1800 and 2200
Wolseley 18/85 and Six
(ie same bodies, with a choice of 4 cylinder or 6 cylinder engines)
and abroad:
Austin Balanza
Austin Freeway
BMC Freeway
Austin Windsor
Morris Monaco
@@oldcynic6964British Motor Corporation.
And Innocenti in Italy to some extent
My favorite rebadging example involves Ford, Mazda, and their compact pickups. From 1972 to 1982, Ford rebadged Mazda B-series pickups imported from Japan as the Ford Courier. This ended when Ford replaced the Courier with the domestic-built Ranger. Then from 1994 to 2009, the reverse happened: Mazda rebadged the Ford Ranger as their B-series pickups for North American sales.
Yes I remember asking my my uncle why his ford courier had Mazda emblems on the corners of the windows. Found out Mazda made the whole truck.
As someone with a Ford ranger, yeah LMAO. It's one of our family cars and when I was younger I would remember driving around and seeing little Mazda trucks that looked almost identical
Also, early Mazda B2600s were actually Mitsubishi Mighty Maxes, and they could also be found as Dodge Ram 50s and a plethora of other names sold around the world.
A girl I went to high school with had a Mazda Navajo. The only one I ever saw in the wild.
Ford escape and Mazda tribute SUV 😂
The best badge engineering of the '80's was the Chrysler K cars. When they did the annual unveiling they started with Chrysler. The next day they did Dodge and the day after that Plymouth had it's day. But they didn't have to move any cars around. They simply changed the grills, badges, and in some cases the taillights. The cars remained the same.
Heck, the K-platform was an example of not just badge engineering, but also platform sharing, as many platforms in the 80s and early 90s made by Chrysler were actually based off of the K-platform.
The K platform became the basis for the E (longer wheelbase mid-size), S (minivan), G (sports cars), H (also mid-size), P (compact), J (also sports cars), C (also mid-size), AA (mid-size, again), Q (the dud that was the TC by Maserati), Y (stretched version of the C, were luxury cars), and AS (second generation minivans), with the last cars derived from the K platform going out of production in 1995.
14 years (K platform introduced in 1981) and 11 derivitives.
Wow that’s so interesting!
@@carcrasher88YT thank you for that, i am a chrysler guy from way back and knew MOST of this, i had a 600 es turbo coupe, ( convertible) and an early caravan, loved them both, but i was a fifth avenue guy, and briefly had an e- class fifth avenue to go with my new yorker fifth avenue, i outlined the 80s full size (WHICH started out as mid size grocery getters in the 70d
@@carcrasher88YT Actually I think the third gen Caravan/Voyager/T&C are the last K-cars, 98-02(?) sporty bodies, last gen for the Voyager.
During the 1970's Ford did the same thing. Other than grilles or taillights you could not tell a Mercury from a Ford.
Absolute legend! Im from AUS and i still shook my head the moment you said "Peugeot provide good engine's". Then right on time you say "No they don't" haha
The Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon twins. Some were even built with Omni badging outside and Horizon on the inside.
Aka Simca Horizon and Talbot Horizon and even Saab-Valmet Horizon
And Talbot Horizon in France and the UK
Love how the laziest rebadge is misspelled as "Rebagde"
When the Mercedes Sprinter van was introduced in America in the early 2000s, I first saw it presented as the Freightliner Sprinter, a brand otherwise only known for heavy commercial trucks/tractors.
That was a re-badge, Daimler owns Freightliner. An even more peculiar one is a Dodge Ram cab and chassis re-badged as a Sterling Bullet.
@@abpsd73 i remember seeing he freightliner one in a movie a long time ago, and was like "wtf is with that grill on the sprinter?". it's also sold as vw crafter and MAN TGE in parts of europe
MAN did something similar, not too long ago. They usually make commercial trucks, but also started offering a Transporter, which was just a VW Transporter with a MAN badge.
@@hekkensnatser yes, thats the one. upon looking deeper though, it turns out the VW and MAN vans stopped being mercedes based in 2017
I thought Sprinter vans were originally designed under a three-way partnership with Dodge, Mercedes-Benz, and Freightliner, but in a 2-minute Google search I wasn't able to substantiate that.
Here in Brazil the GM Chevette was the sedan, the Marajó was the station wagon, Chevy 500 was the mini pickup truck and one not mentioned in the video was called Chevette Hatch, you guessed it, for the hatchback.
Edit: Also GM in the early 2000s here in Brazil sold a SUV called Tracker at the same time Suzuki sold the same car rebadged as Vitara. The diesel version had a Peugeot engine that caused all sorts of problems with our crappy diesel fuel sold here...
@eduardocostaps1979 The autolatina came up with a lot of cars:
VW Saveiro / Ford Pampa
VW Santana / Ford Versailles
VW Logus / Ford Escort
VW Apolo / Ford Verona
Camaro and Firebird are my favorite. Not really a rebadge but they sure shared everything except front and rear clips and up until 1982 the engine. Side view was basically the same, the doors would fit as would many other body parts. Trunk lid, etc. Some years even fenders.
Camaro and firebird are rebadging done right
I used to own Daewoo Lanos.
Once I hit the pothole when I was on my vacation in Montenegro. Rear wheel bearing failed.
I left it by the road and went to next town, and asked for rear bearing for Daewoo Lanos. Seller had no idea what that car was. I remembered that Lanos shares platform with Opel Kadett E, which has copied VW Golf MK2 Golf rear suspension. So I asked for Golf bearing. Whole kit with bearing, nut, split pin and grease was 8€. I fixed car by the road and it is still driven like that to this day.
oh my god, I'm so excited for this, I love rebadged cars, especially when they make NO sense. like any time dodge tried to.turn a Mitsubishi into the new iconic Dodge muscle car lmao.
Kinda, wasn't the Sleath/GT3000 more of a Sports Car though, (Granted what does count as a Muscle Car in the 90s is kinda weird)
@@nickrustyson8124 sorta, but Dodge and Mitsubishi (aka moparbishi) did a lot more than just that, there was some real weird stuff going back to the beginning, with the "Colt," which... that makes one think of a ~pony car,~ yes? nope, it's a subcompact. 😅
@@nickrustyson8124 The Dodge Stealth wasn't even the worst offender. They attempted to rebadge the Galant Lambda as the Dodge Challenger back in the early 80s and they also made a Japanese-looking, FWD, 3-door hatchback named the Dodge Charger. The Plymouth Sapporo and Turismo would be just fine but noo, they also had to make the Dodge variants and harm these iconic nameplates, for crying out loud.
At least GM, with the Camaro/Firebird, and Ford, albeit having the equally Japanese-looking Fox Mustang/Capri, still kept it real, with V8s (albeit awfully underpowered) and RWD.
I spent hours trying to tell the difference between the Dodge Neon and the Plymouth Neon as well as various K-cars between them. 😭
@@nickrustyson8124 They were fast back then. Could still hurt a buncha new car feelings today. In twin turbo trim. The 3000GT/GTO was cooler with the active aero. The biggest crime on those cars were the fake aluminum wheels, it was painted foam on a steely. Pretty sure it was only the cheaper ones that got those, but not 100%. Still a good looking car today, if you see one, and it runs.
Fun fact: there was a nice little secret within the Ford Granada/Mercury Monarch/Lincoln Versailles family. Although all three were really the same car, the Lincoln was a hot rodder's golden goose: it sported the tough 9" differential with factory rear disc brakes whereas the Ford and Mercury had drums.
An obscure rebadge that I grow up with it, was Renault 12 that was rebadged as Dacia 1300/1310, which was in production until 2004. And was modified into estate version and a pick-up version, which prove very succesfull.
And the Rebadged Dacia was introduced some month earlier as the Renault 12!
Dacia isnt a rebadge tho. they just built the same platform, independently. Dacia bought the license from renault, so its not a clone either.
And it came to Brazil as Ford Corcel, the sw was called Belina and a remodeled version as a small truck known as Ford Pampa
Its licence production , the quality of the dacias were terrible after 70’s. But one interesting example is Olcit Club and Citroen Axel. This were designed by Citroen and made in Romania. Citroen has a plan to sell this design to Romania, but after crisis they dont have money to pay, so they export cars to france. This cars have some quality problems (they dont have any quality at all).
@@kepakpl Fun fact about Dacia. Dacia Nova, SuperNova and Solenza are the only Dacia cars 100% designed in Romania. Dacia Nova shared components with Dacia 1310 CN3. SuperNova was the testing bed for Renault components after acquisition in 1999. And at Solenza they tested the factory tooling for Dacia Logan.
I think the Chrysler TC by Maserati deserves a special mention as the car that sounds most like a rebadge that actually wasn't.
It had an unreliable Maserati engine, didn't it?
@@billolsen4360 No it didn't, it was a frankenstein engine made with parts of different brands over a Chrysler block...
@@billolsen4360I believe it had a Mitsubishi 3.0l V6, same as most Chryslers at the time. Those engines were known for burning oil, but they can run forever if you keep adding oil and don't let it get too low. I've seen plenty of lebarons and caravans with that engine which had 300,000+ miles and still ran like a sewing machine.
In Australia, Toyota sold a car call “Lexcen” which was a rebadged Holden Commodore built in Australia which was based a Opel from Germany which had a Buick engine from the US.
And more than likely bought by the greens with their goat wool socks lol.
These are such interesting facts, no direct added value, but just interesting.
grtz
Mr. worldwide
The DeLorean was designed in Italy for an American owner with a Peugeot-Renault-Volvo engine and built in Ireland🤦🏾♂️
Don't forget the Holden Apollo, which was a Camry to go alongside. Or the Ford Maverick which was a Nissan Patrol, and it's counterpart, the Nissan NXF Ute.
I wondered if an Aussie would post that little nugget.
In Communist Poland, GM's World Car of the seventies was availiable through Pevex stores (a state-sanctioned chain of stores offering Western products ranging from sweets and Lego bricks to passenger cars for vouchers or foreign currency, most commonly US dollars and West German marks) was British Vauxhall Chevette hatchback and Japanese Isuzu Gemini sedan of all. There were even service books published in Polish for Isuzu Gemini in the 1970s, and I've even seen one of those in my local library.
12:28 I thought that was a Photoshop in the front of the car! Hilarious to see it wasn't.
And as for the rebadged vans, here in the US we have the Ram ProMaster, which is a rebadged Fiat Ducato.
The Geo nameplate was entirely based on rebadges.
my 95 Metro resembles that remark
Geo was a catch all for Japanese cars to be sold by GM. There was never a car actually manufactured by Geo.
If I remember correctly, the Geo logo was literally an oval representing the world with a tiny Chevy bowtie in the center
GEO is the basis of NUMMI, even though they're not part of that partnership.
@@scott8919 yes it is
i love how fiat 124 which is also rebadged like crazy is not even mentioned but still in the video as a silhouette :D
Yep, I was thinking of the 124 also.
Lada springs to my mind...
here in india the 124 was sold as the "premier 118ne" and instead of the fiat engine it had a nissan engine (a12 inline 4) and nissan drivetrain. vastly worse than the italian fiat 124
Iirc they were also rebadged as Murat 124s in Turkey
@@mrkei5871 well i am turkish for that matter :)
My first car was a 1987 Ford Laser, which was essentially a Mazda Familia and was produced at the same factory in Japan.In Europe it was a Mazda 323, in South Africa a Ford Meteor, in the USA a Ford Escort. It has been introduced in several markets around the world
I had a 1996 Daewoo Nexia, which was a rebadge of a 1980’s Opel Kadett. The parts all had the GM logo and lots of parts were directly interchangeable with the original Kadett parts (which were also GM).
Rebadging can also be good. If Pontiac didn’t rebadge the Commodore and Monaro, they would have never came to the US as the G8 and GTO. I have a G8 and I really like it.
Exactly, I do not mind rebadging if it adds something like with the Pontiac G8.
I own a 67 GTO and really like it.
1. Holden VE Commodore (Australia)
2. Pontiac G8 (North America)
3. Chevy Omega (South America) *Brazil*
4. Chevy Lumina (Middle East)
5. Vauxhall VXR8 (Europe) *United Kingdom*
(Edited)
Forgot #6
6. Chevy Lumina (South Africa)
And to be fair, the Commodore/Monaro are simply long evolutions of rebadged cars themselves, so it all comes full-circle.
Shame they didn't keep the great Holden grill though, every time I see a G8 or any other Pontiac-Holden it always looks like they took a really nice car and made it ugly to sell here.
The Opel Kadett E was also manufactured in Korea by Daewoo. And ended up in the United States, rebadged as the Pontiac LeMans.
And in Canada as the Pontiac LeMans, Passport Optima, and Asüna GT and SE
Opel Germany and Daewoo in South Korea are GM
It was sold in south america as the Daewoo Racer, but it came with Pontiac logos
@@edoslacker Now that was lazy on GM's part.
The OPEL kadett E was developed in Germany in the early 1980's and it was sold in Europe between 1984 and 1991 .. The Pontiac lemans as the Daewoo's were Rebadged Opel's manufactured in South Korea . Pontiac and Daewoo never got the Fast versions of the OPEL kadett E and that's one of the reasons that this car's were so much hatted in US
Aww man, now i desperately want an Aston Martin Cygnet.
Thanks a lot for that.
The OPEL Kadett C was developed in Germany in the late 60's in the GM T- Platform and it was sold in European markets between the years 1973 and 1979 . The first Generation of the Isuzu Gemini (1974-1984) is a Rebadged Opel Kadett C and not the opposite . The OPEL kadett C had also deferent engine line up and it was offered also as a coupe ,as a convertible and a Station Wagon
Actually, the GM T platform was first introduced in Brazil as the Chevrolet Chevette 6 months prior to its introduction as the Opel Kadett in Germany. (March 1973 vs September 1973)
I was locking for both of your comments! William is right about where the Kadett C or Chevy Chevette or whatnot started to drive around, but hardly anyone in Europe knows about it. For the most people in Europe that is clearly a car from Opel Bochum, what it was. But you missed one out, the 'best' one out of the line, the Kadett C City, the cut off hatch back... Back in the days I never liked them, any of them, I was more the VW Golf guy for a while, but they were actually damn good little real cars!
One of the laziest badge engineering jobs I recall was the first generation Escalade. They just changed the badging from a GMC Denali.
…….which was a rebadged Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban.
Hey! The taillights are different! Some Tahoe owners go out and buy Cadillac taillights and mount them to their Chevy as they just bolt on.
@@brianburns7211 .....which uses the same GMT platform that underpins the Silverado/Sierra
Cadillac Cimarron: Hold my beer!
I remember that well. All I saw was a fancy emblem on a Tahoe
The more infamous Rebadging has to be the Cadillac Cimarron which was a rebadged Chevy Cavalier.
Cavalier: $6000
Cimarron: $12,000...but with power windows & leather seats!😜
And the same body where used in Europe as the Opel Ascona / Vauxhall Cavalier :)
And nobody was fooled.
And I have a 1987 Cimarron sitting in my garage > like it > it’s optioned as a Cadillac ☝️
@@Hobok92575 You want to sell it? I'd like one!
I had a Chrysler 300 Touring back in the day. Fun fact, its not only a Dodge magnum with a different front, but the Dodge magnum itself is also more or less a Mercedes E-Class chassis/drivetrain/suspension. And the second generation of the Chrysler 300 was sold as a Lancia in Europe - with a slightly different grill.
The Chrysler minivans. My first new (vs. used) car was a 1987 Plymouth Voyager; as far as I can tell, the ONLY difference between it the Dodge Caravan at the time were the name plates & grill styles. Later on, the "Grand" long - wheelbase versions of the Caravan & the Chrysler Town & Country. I beleive BOTH VW & Mercedes also sold rebaged Chrysler minivans as well. 😄
AFAIK neither VWnor Mercedes ever sold rebadged Chryslers, at least not in Europe.
Just looked it up and VW did but it was only ever sold in North America.
One that I remember also has a twist with its names. The mid-1970's GM's...notice the 1st letter of each name spells NOVA.
Nova - Chevrolet
Omega - Oldsmobile
Ventura - Pontiac
Apollo - Buick
in canada they had the pontiac acadian too before they switched it to the chevette
Interesting.
Eventually they added Cadillac to that group with the Seville. Can't remember if they updated the acronym to NOVAS or not.
NOVAS if you included Seville - Cadillac
Very cool observation!
You left out the arguably most tragic and infuriating rebadge: the Cadillac Cimarron.
That's what I thought the "laziest rebadge" was going to be!
A cavalier with leather interior sold as a Cadillac. Sounds like a bad idea. But Toyota, Nissan, and Honda have been doing it for years. Taking a normal run of the mill car, adding luxury features to it and rebadging it as one of their luxury brands. And it works. And even worse is a lot of people don’t even realize that an Infiniti is a Nissan. That an Acura is a Honda and a Lexus is a Toyota.
@@CamaroAmx And the addition of all the Cadillac touches (electric windows, seats, etc.) was more than the Chevy could handle...
@@GBBIII the car could handle all of the extra options, it’s just that the general public wasn’t fooled. It was far too similar looking to a normal cavalier.
My buddy who actually bought one (he'd always dreamed of owning a Cadillac!) had electrical issues with his car... fuses and the electric motors...@@CamaroAmx
When you fall in love with a car , it better not be because it carries a specific badge , no one cares about that anyone . It's mostly about the fact that it puts a smile 😊 on your face as it gets from A to B in comfort n safety
I'm mostly familiar with Chrysler Corp (now Stellantis) re-badging. Especially between Dodge & Plymouth. In the 50s, the two had different bodies, wheelbases, and interiors. By the 60s, they just had different front/rear clips (compacts were the most similar and full sized the least), by the late 70s & K car 80s, its was grilles, trim levels, and badges. By 2000, they were so close, no need to keep Plymouth so it was dropped. But GM was worse, with the same cars spread 4-5 wide across most all divisions, IE Cavalier, Sunbird, Firenza, Skyhawk, & Cimarron.
I work at the plant where, in the 90s we built a small Jeep competitor. You could literally watch a Vitara, a Tracker, and a Sunrunner go down the line one after another. Up in the stamping department where I worked you'd never know we built three different cars
Groete uit Canada
Depending on the year, the Sunrunner was either a Pontiac or an Asüna, and the Tracker was either a Chevrolet or a Geo.
@@shawncromwell2230 Asüna: one of GM's smallest, shortest-lived brand. I wonder how many people in Canada (who were adults at the time) even remember it existed.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the general motors brand "Geo" as its know here in the US, the true king of the great GM Isuzu rebadge, with classics like: The "Metro" "Storm" "Prism" and of course the "Tracker"
The Prizm was a Toyota, though. To be precise, a sixth gen corolla.
@@damilolaakanni a prior Chevy Nova was a Corolla in the late 1980s.
The Geo Metro is originally a Suzuki Swift/Cultus, not an Isuzu. It was also sold with like 16 different model or brand names, including Subaru Justy with AWD in Europe, Maruti 1000/Esteem in India and Holden Barina in Australia. It was produced in 11 different countries including Ecuador, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Malaysia and Venezuela. You can still find one on almost every street here in Hungary.
And later, GM did the same thing using the Saturn badge. After pulling the plug on Saturn's independent American operations, they just slapped the badge on Opels which might sell in America. There were the Saturn Astra (Opel Astra), Saturn Sky (Opel GT), Saturn Aura (Opel Signum) and Saturn Vue (Opel Antara).
YES! That was a bizarre extreme version of this for sure.
This is probably the greatest video I've ever seen and it kept getting better and better until the very end.
This was a delightful watch finishing with the cherry on top a rebadged* but without removing the badge
During the late 80's in Brazil Volkswagen decided to do a joint venture with Ford, resulting in the "Autolatina". It gave us quite peculiar rebadged cars, like the VW Apollo, a rebadged Ford Verona (which was essentially a Brazilian 2 door version of the European Ford Orion) and the Ford Versailles, a rebadged VW Santana. The joint venture failed, as it was dismantled in the mid-90's.
And the Ford Verona renamed Galaxy por Argentina
@@mrsrmp The Versailles, not the Verona.
Ma'am you forgot about the VW Logus/Pointer and Ford Escort/Verona which were essentially Mazda 323's/Protegés/GLCs/Familias/Ford Lasers.
And before the tie up with Ford, VW in Argentina bought out the remains of the ailing local Chrysler subsidiary, but carried on making some cars which had started life as the British Hillman Avenger (Plymouth Cricket to North Americans) became the Dodge 1500 and ultimately the VW 1500
@@mrsrmp foi o Versailles, já vi um "Galaxie" argentino em Florianópolis
The Gemini was actually rebadged _28_ times across all of its generations BEFORE it was a Honda rebadge itself. What is this 28th Gemini, you may be asking? Well, curious reader, that car is the Pontiac Sunburst.
I don’t blame you if you’ve never heard of this car, or thought I meant to say Sunbird, another rebadged Pontiac from the same time. The Sunburst is completely different, though. It was based on the second generation Isuzu Gemini, and was sold from the years 1985 to 1989. It was only available in Canada, but even then, 88.5% of Canada’s population couldn’t go to their local Pontiac dealer and buy one of these new. How did that happen? Well, for some reason, General Motors decided to only sell this car in British Columbia. A single province with less than five million people in 1985 had its entirely own rebadge for a car that didn’t even need one, as they already had the Chevrolet Spectrum AND Isuzu I-Mark there! As expected, it sold horribly, selling only about 7,000 in its four model years (cannot confirm). Hearing how much of a disaster this was, you’d think GM would decide to not expand on the Sunburst idea even further, right? WRONG! They had the bright idea to rebadge the Chevrolet Spectrum Turbo as the Sunburst Turbo for the 1987 model year. This turbo model is so rare that there are no photos of it anywhere, only two mentions in car listings in 80s newspaper archives, and the only way I was even able to prove this car _even existed_ was by finding an image of a Spectrum/Sunburst Turbo parts diagram that shows roughly what the badges looked like and their part numbers. The Sunburst turbo likely went extinct before the new millennia, but I have no way to prove that any of them even left the dealership before disappearing off the face of the earth. There are only three confirmed Sunbursts surviving today: one is sitting in a driveway, one is/was in Ukraine, and only one roadworthy Sunburst is known to exist. I’ve dedicated way too much time to these cars, but I will continue to search until I breathe my last breath.
Wow, I remember those cars. didn't know this though. I live where they were sold.
But it sure wasnt the same as the Isuzu Piazza as stated, maybe Ed should have researched it a bit better....
@@gjverhoof1336 Isuzu Piazza/Impulse was derived from the Gemini. Maybe that’s what he meant. It’s on a Gemini platform.
This is a truly heroic level of autism. I salute you, sir
You're doing God's work man
I thought I was going crazy, but all the cars were starting to look the same, this explains it, thank you for explanation!
So I was a mechanic for many years and the oldest rebate I have seen was the 1939 pontiac/1939 chevy, same car, different grill. That's it. But my favorite rebadges would be the 1st gen Mitsubishi eclipse, eagle talon, and Plymouth laser. 3 performance sport compacts of the same car, in the same market only difference was the badge and the tail lights.
Wasn't the Pontiac then fitted with a flathead engine, while the Chevrolet already resorted to overhead valves?
just like the Mits 3000gt\Dodge Stealth. All same frame just bolt on several different cosmetic parts.
Didn't Dodge own Mitsubishi for a while or vice versa?
@@lelandclayton5462 no they entered an agreement as partners. Cause Mitsubishi as a foreign auto maker wanted to break into the US market, but laws said they were only allowed to sell so many cars and it wasn't gonna make them money, so they made a deal to have cars made here in the US and sold under both Mitsubishi and Chrysler. Meanwhile Chrysler got free car designs and a cut of the money. Well in 1998 Mitsubishi decided why we giving Chrysler money to sell our cars when we con jut manufacture them in the US and sell them ourselves. And that was the end of diamond star motors or dsm
@@jaydeeeclipse9010 "1998 Mitsubishi decided why we giving Chrysler money to sell our cars when we con jut manufacture them in the US and sell them ourselves." Personally, I think their zenith was at that time. I mean no 3000GT or even Eclipse any more, just compacts and an suv. Obviously their quantity dropped enough they closed the US factory and find it cheaper to ship them over. They even threw a lifeline teaming with a French car company not long ago.
In the mid ‘70s GM Australia exported 800 Holden Premiers, minus their engines, to Japan where Rotary engines were fitted. The cars were rebadged as Mazda Roadpacers.
jeez lmao
Even funnier is that Tomica made a diecast model of it, as they do with most “Japanese” cars!
that car is so underpowered haha
Wasabi Cars' ears are burning! czcams.com/video/mRrm1SHNsfs/video.html
@@zbillster Thanks zbillster for the link to WasabiCars Isuzu Statesman. Could it be that the plush interior fabric is from the Brougham? Also, I don’t remember seeing any Holden Statesmans without a vinyl roof.
Ed, this video get my most points for you teaching us stuff we thought we knew but didn’t! Some good research Ed! Thanks again from Canada!
thank you ! one more reason to love my old father '89 Chevette which I once learned to drive on... and today have a 2.5l swapped engine from another also heavily rebadged Opala 😂😂
I had a customer come into the shop I worked at needing a trailer hitch installed on a VW Routan mini van ... I said it's not available due to it being out of stock it's our most sold hitch ! He was in disbelief how could that be, then I explained he had a rebadged Dodge Caravan .... he was pissed ... He was told it was built in Germany ! lol
My wife worked in the Windsor Ontario assembly plant where they along with a Chrysler and a Plymouth model were built on the same line. From what she remembers the VW had a few additional quality checks.
VW Routan never got build in Germany. Not to get confused with the VW Touran
Dodge caravan was built in Austria by steyr Daimler puch
If he couldnt tell it was a dodge from just looking at it, i have no pity!
@@peterlamarche247 by the time the Routan came along the Plymouth was a memory, they made the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravans alongside the Routan they were however designed by Daimler-Chrysler. Heck at that time most of the VWs you could buy in the USA were made in Mexico. Then the Germans paid to get rid of Chrysler before they started producing Routans. Chrysler LLC appeared soon followed by a bankruptcy. The new Chrysler emerged just long enough to be acquired by Fiat to become FCA (Fiat Chrysler) who eventually got snapped up by Peugeot to become Stellantis. While this was happening in the US in Europe you could by a Mercedes Sprinter with a VW engine, grille, horn cap, emblems and hub caps as a VW. Meanwhile in the USA the big Dodge van went from being a Mercedes based product to becoming a badge engineered version of a Fiat/Citroen/Peugeot/Iveco van. Then there were the US/Canadian cars. Due to Canadian franchise laws and import duties American Auto makers often offered different cars in Canada. Ford made the Mercury for the US market but the same market in Canada was filled with the Monarch which looked a lot like a Mercury but different, while this was happening you could however get Mercury branded truck in Canada but not the USA. Ford came out with their new small car in 1960 named the Falcon, the Lincoln-Mercury dealers got the Comet, not a Mercury Comet or a Lincoln Comet or Edsel Comet but just a Comet, the Canadians got a car closer to the Falcon but it was called a Frontenac. Chrysler was selling both Dodge and Fargo trucks in Canada. In 1960 Chrysler introduced their small car, the Valiant, not a Plymouth Valiant but just Valiant, before to long Dodge got it's version of the small car called a Dodge Lancer and the Valiant become the Plymouth Valiant. General Motors, not to be out done, had different Pontiacs in Canada they were Pontiacs but used the same engine and transmission as the Chevrolet and sold as Parisians or Beaumonts as well as offering a versions of the GM X body called the Arcadian while only Chevrolet had an X body car in the USA.. It's been going on for years, the Cords of the 1930's were produced under several different names as the various concerns folded and someone else bought the tooling and rights. When AMC was formed from Nash and Hudson merging at first the Metropolitan, made in England by Austin could be purchased as a Nash Metropolitan or a Hudson Metropolitan, then when AMC dropped both the Nash and Hudson names they became Metropolitans. The last few years of Hudson automobiles were badge engineered Nashes. Then of course once Studebaker and Packard merged you would see Packards that were Studebakers and vice versa. When Renault divested itself of AMC the Renault designed and influenced cars in production became Eagles and some of them even became Dodges before Chrysler phased out the Eagle nameplate. Then there's stuff like the Hillman Avenger, the first car I bought, licensed and registered in my name only it was a Plymouth Cricket in the USA. Before production stopped it was sold as a Hillman, Sunbeam, Talbot, Dodge, Volkswagen and Chrysler by no less than 3 different manufacturers
In Australia. We have the button car plan, VN/VP/VR Commodores became Toyota Lexcens. The XF Falcon Ute became the Nissan Ute and the Nissan Patrol became the Ford Maverick.
And the Nissan Navara became the now defunct Mercedes-Benz Ute. 👍👍🇦🇺
@@andrewhallett-patterson9778 but in fairness. Merc changed everything bar the cab structure.
@@audoinxr6372 True. But they kept the legendary unreliability of the Nissan driveline just to remind purchasers that all you purchased was a overpriced pimped Nissan. Even the Nissan manufacturing compliance plates installed in final factory inspection are still attached to achieve ADR ! Mercedes attached secondary compliance plates that indicate factory modifications, again for ADR. 👍👍🇦🇺
Nissan pulsar badged as a Holden Astra, later on the Toyota corolla the Holden nova and the Camry as the Holden Apollo. Also got the Daewoo 1.5 still with the Pontiac badge on the grille from when it was the USA model Lemans
Don’t forget the Ford Laser/ Mazda 323 and I vaguely remember a Ford add explaining the difference between the Ford Laser and the Ford Meteor as they looked so much alike it was hard to tell them apart. The Toyota Lexcen (rebadged Holden Commodore) was named in honour of Ben Lexcen, he designed the winged keel under Australia II which won the America’s cup in 1983 after America had held it for 132 years.
I got to know about rebadging really well with the Chevy Captiva. What started off as a joke with my boyfriend about his first hand-me-down car, and me getting a model toy of it led me down to the Pontiac Vue, Holden Captiva, Opel Antara, and so many other names and generations of this line and similar lines of compact SUVs as well as Chevys other flagship SUVs. Very interesting leading down one strain of rebadged cars
Saturn Vue in North America
We have the holden captiva here in Australia. Literally the worst small SUV you can buy with 13 common faults. You can get them for 3 weeks pay although they're 2013 to 2018.
I currently drive a Saturn L200 and it’s definitely a cross platform share with the Saab 9-3, the differences being the far and front ends, and a different engine and transmission. It actually helped me out massively because I found a set of Akebono brake pads for the Saab 9-3 on sale for $30 (normally an $80 set) because the box was crushed during shipping to the distributor, and they were an exact fit. I’ll absolutely take a set of Akebonos for the same price as the cheapo generic brand pads
I had a second generation Saab 9-3 Aero for a few years. I need some new front brake discs. As it turned out to was the same part used in the Vauxhall Vectra VXR. But being in Australia we never got that model here. However, I was able to use the part number and order it through a Holden dealer. Because I didn't have to pay freight, it worked out a lot cheaper to order the genuine part for my Saab via Holden dealership with a Vauxhall/GM part number - who would have thought?
The assembled car predates World War I and could be an episode in and of itself. My favorite assembled car was the Canadian, 'Moose Jaw Standard' of 1917. It's been suggested that you and I might make a good collaboration sometime...
Here in Brazil we had a badge-engineered Willys Interlagos which was an Alpine A108 (the predecessor to the A110) made in Brazil.
Naturally these days they're expensive af. :^(
We also got the chevrolet tracker and suzuki vitara for sale at the same time in the late 90s and early 2000s lol
@@simca5980 That is not correct. It had a 1000cc Renault inline four engine producing a very modest 70bhp.
dude you have alfa romeos in mustang body.
@@CuoreSportivo We also have the only Alfa Romeo built outside of Italy IIRC. :^)
@@simca5980 If we did than I am utterly unaware of it. Perhaps you're confusing it with the Puma, or even with a restored model. Or perhaps I really just don't know any better.
We fell victim to probably the worse rebadge we thought we bought a pleasant Volkswagen minivan called the Routan our car got lemon lawed 3 times we did more research and everytime we took it Volkswagen they took it to dodge, we went to the Volkswagen dealer and asked where's our car? They came clean saying they don't fix our car because they don't know how to it was a rebadged dodge caravan
The two types of vehicle in my garage are all rebadge babies: Morris Major Elite (from BMC, also sold as the Austin Lancer, Wolseley 1500 and Riley One-Point-Five), and Mazda E2000 (A.K.A. Mazda Bongo Brawny, Ford Econovan Maxi, Kia Besta and Kia Bongo.)
In the early 90s Cadillac had a rebadged car based on the Opel Omega from the early 90s. I think it was called the Catera
Right, it's called Catera
Got of a night shift when it had been snowing, went to get in my car and thought the door on my Sunfire was frozen shut. I spent several minutes trying to open either of the two doors. While walking around the back of the car I noticed my spoiler was missing and that's when looked up and I saw my car parked 20 feet away... I have been trying force my way into a coworker's Cavalier.
A Sunfire and a Cavalier, both GM's Caliente Red and Both were the 2-door model. What are the odds?
Pretty high. Wait til you see white ford company cars in Australia or government cars. I think plain white is the cheapest and there's outback towns in Australia where THE WHOLE TOWN is toyotas. Often 2 different models being 90% of all the cars in town
look at the Cadillac cimarron next to a cavalier, they didnt even try...
My MOther used to drive a '74 Plymouth Valient, if you couldn't get parts for it, try to get parts for a '74 Dodge Dart, exact same car, just different badges, right down to the body panels. :D
Let's not forget the Chevy Nova X-body (in Spanish = "No Go") Buick Apollo, Oldsmobile Omega, Pontiac Ventura. Little effort was given to make them look different in the 70's.
I remeber, in the french 90-00's : the Seat Exeo was a rebadged Audi A4, the Polo Flight was a Seat Cordoba, the VW Caddy was a Seat Inca. The Citroen Saxo was a rebadged Peugeot 106. The Mazda 121 was a Ford Fiesta. The VW Sharan & Seat Alhambra where identical to a Ford Galaxy...
I think there is a difference between rebadging (Exeo) and developing together (Galaxy, Sharan, Alhambra)
Well considering how French cars are made...
Well, technically the Exeo isn't a rebadge either: Audi shipped the whole production facilities to Spain when they launched the new generation of the A4. So the Exeo was a real SEAT, manufactured in Spain with the tooling of the previous model A4.
A strange one: Kia Elan - yes a Kia badged Lotus Elan that was apparently also sold in the UK? Also there was that time when Dodge rebadged the unsuccessful Europa S as one of their EV concept cars.
As I recall, that wasn't exactly a rebadge as Lotus actually sold the design to Kia.
Lotus design and handling... with a Kia motor.
Oh, there's another Isuzu related vehicle. The M100 Elan came with the Isuzu 4XE1-WT Turbo 1.6L, as featured in the 2nd generation Isuzu Piazza/Impulse and the 3rd generation Isuzu Gemini.
@@quintessenceSL oh my
The Elan wasn’t a rebadge. Kia actually bought the tooling and design. The Elan originally had a lot of Isuzu parts in it… and the Europa to the Dodge Circut eV concept want a “rebadge”. 🙄 it was cross platform sharing… it was gonna be like the deal with the Tesla Roadster and Lotus. Lotus delivers a rolling chassis, and they were to outfit their own power train, interior and front and rear clip.
When I was a kid my dad had a Talbot Horizon, which was a rebadge of the Chrysler-Simca 1300/Horizon, and rebadged around the world including the USA.
Except... the car had a Talbot badge and nameplate on the back, and the hood/bonnet, but a Chrysler pentastar on the front grille and the steering wheel. Apparently there were a few hundred of these that somehow left the factory like this during the chaos that was the handover from Chrysler to Peugeot.
Surviving examples must be worth a fortune now!
Was fun seeing how often NZ popped up on the Isuzu Gemini rebadge list. I've walked down a street here and seen the same car with four different model names and three manufacturers badges. Helped by the large number of second hand imports from Japan and Australia - You'll see a Toyota Corolla shipped here new 30 years ago, and an identical Toyota made the same year parked next to it that spent it's first 5 years in Japan and so is labelled a Toyota Levin. Or three dealers - one offering an imported Lexus, one an Opel, and one a Holden, and all three are identical, except one had a previous owner in Japan, one in Britain, and one in Australia. I owned a Hyundai Delica van for a while that came with a Mitsubishi owners manual and had colt badging on the rear door from a replacement after damages
Many years ago when I sold cars, I sold a truck that was a Chevy on the passengers side and front then a GMC on the drivers side and rear. Dude loved it.
My Father-in-Law had one like that. What was even funnier he said a GMC was better than a Chevy.
@@williamweddington3140 GMCs were much better in the 1940s and 1950s. The sheet metal was similar, but the engines were as different as night and day. GMCs featured purpose-built truck engines while Chevy was still using passenger car engines (216 and 235). My uncle had a wheat farm in eastern Washington, and all of his trucks were GMCs. He wouldn't have a Chevy on the place.
10:08 In Brazil the Chevrolet Chevette was like that on the picture you showed. The Marajo was a wagon version and the Chevy 500 was a small utility truck, or a UTE like australians say
11:51 "explain _this_ to your customers"
This is exactly it. Customers might not have the in-depth knowledge of what's going on and they may not consciously care, but they have a sixth sense for sniffing out shenanigans. People simply will not value a brand that doesn't value itself.
My parent's car when I was a kid was the 1970 Ford Maverick, introduced in '69. Ford's Mercury division had already launched the Comet, nine years before, which was basically a Ford Falcon, then upsized to become their version of the Ford Fairlane, then shrunk again to become a copy of the Maverick.
One of my favourite and laziest case of badge engineering has to go to the “CAMI” platform of cars such as:
-Suzuki Vitara
-Suzuki Sidekick
-Suzuki Escudo
-Chevrolet Vitara
-Chevrolet Tracker
-Geo Tracker
-GMC Tracker
-Pontiac Sunrunner
-Asüna Sunrunner
-Santana 300/350
-Mazda Proceed Levante
-Wanli WLZ5020XLD
-Guangtong GTQ5020XLZ
I would know about the GMC Tracker because my mom actually owned one!
I had to edit the list because I missed even more of them!
And the Suzuki Swift and its variants, the Geo Metro, and Pontiac Firefly. I had a Swift. Built in the CAMI plant in Ingersol, Ontario, Canada. A fun little car. Unfortunately badly set up by the dealer.
@@irvinmartin9259 Unfortunately, the Metro never got the GT engine. The 3 banger I had was the best car I ever owned. Never had a days trouble with it. Wound up giving it to my sister. I had the 4 cyl. one later on. Piece of junk.
The Fiat 124 which was built in huge numbers in half dozen other countries, notably in the USSR as a Lada.
And the 2008-10 GAZ Volga Sibers are rebadged Dodge Stratus’
Whats also funny (but sad) is the fact that the Lada 2104, 2105, and 2107 models (all based on fiat 124) were produced from the 80s up until 2012.
Lada bought the fiat 124 design so that they could build it in the USSR.
Hi, my name is Allen and I'm an addict. I watched my first Ed's Auto Reviews video today and now I finished this fifth video.
Thanks for another great show!
The Austin mini was rebadged lots, and you noted the Austin, Morris, Riley and Wolsely, but you forgot Innocenti and Vanden Plas versions. British Motors corporation managed a similar feat mechanically: they used the same basic running gear throughout the Mini version and in a series of larger cars. The Austin 1100/1300 series uses all the Mini's running gear, as do the Mini Moke jeep-like cars that are seen in the tropics. The Austin 1100/1300 series also comes in flavors like Morris, Vanden Plas, Innocenti, MG, Wolseley and Riley. They also used the same bodies and running gear in the Austin America, after swapping out the manual transmission for an Automatic for the American market.
I drive one of those Austin Americas with a 1275cc engine and automatic transmission. It's a hoot to drive, but absolutely gutless. the slushbox really saps the small horsepower these cars produce. Austin Americas did not sell well. Americans might like their automatic transmissions, but they want them with enormous V8s and loads of low end torque. 🙂
Interestingly, you could feature rebadging from Western models to models behind the Iron curtian (Renault/Dacia or Fiat/Lada)
Have to butt into this one: While soviets did a LOT of copying back in the day (Moskowitch=Peugeot and Volga=Opel), the Lada IS in fact a different car: While they copied the body of the Fiat 124, they actually (and this is shocking) IMPROVED the car by:
-Redesigning the engine that included an overhead camshaft and an improved radiator valve/thermostat
-Modifying the starter motor
-Adding a hydraulic clutch (Okay, personally, I didn't find THAT to be an improvement.)
-Adding drum breaks at rear of the car
-Modifying the suspension.
This resulted in a car that was much more reliable in the horrible roads and cold climate of Russia and VERY WARM.
@@ladadavidson7926 Plus they made them for decades so even if it was unreliable garbage, they will still survive on spare parts for centuries
@@ladadavidson7926 True that. Also, speaking of Eastern Bloc Fiats, there was 125p, which was a mix of Italian 125 (body and brakes), 1500 (engine) and partially 124 too (partial design of the interior), which may have been more primitive, but certainly FSO managed to make them more versatile with station wagon, pick-up, ambulance and even rally (yeah, no joke) variants. Basically one model became an all-purpose vehicle.
One of my favorite rebade stories is when a car was on the dealer floor with Chevy badges on the front and Pontiac on the back
I remember a Mercury Lynx on the showroom floor with an Escort badge on the dash.
@@shawncromwell2230 Holy shit- you actually saw that!? What'd they say?
The salesman didn't appreciate me pointing it out (I was 14 at the time).
That was actually common in the 70s thanks to poorer quality control and multiple strikes.
Chrysler fixed that issue by not even putting brand logos on many of their K-Cars. It was just the Chrysler pentastar logo on the front and maybe the name of the model on the back, which could be interchanged with whatever they wanted. There was no difference between a dodge and a Plymouth.
@@CamaroAmx They eventually gave Dodge a different grill than the Plymouth, and the Chrysler a unique facia when budget allowed. That was the lean 'bailout" years for Chrysler.
Suzuki Sidekick was the same as the Geo Tracker. Built by NUMMI in Canada. Loved my Tracker!!
In my little town I remember there were also GMC and Chevrolet Trackers.
The absolute laziest case of badge engineering was the neon, the Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth models all looked the same
The Fiat 124 - the silhouette that Ed uses, was also a Lada Riva and a Premier 118NE. Pretty sure it was rebadged in other Asian and African countries by the respective domestic manufacturers.
Most of Fiat models were licensed in eastern Europe.
Yugoslav Zastava produced excusivelly Fiat rebadged models until Yugo in early 80s.
Zastava 750 - Fiat 600
Zastava 1300 - Fiat 1300
Zastava 101 - Fiat 128
Zastava 128 - second series Fiat 128
That probably deserves an episode on it's own. Fiat 124 originaly became VaZ 2101 in USSR. It was not a direct rebadge as the USSR version had some "modifications". The original transfer of technology and tooling led to other models based on the same platfrom 2103, 2104,2105,2107...... There were other rebadges of the same car - It became SEAT 124, Tofas, Kia 124....
The Aston Martin Cygnet still looks awesome in a quirky way
Ikr?? I'd love to have one and just act ignorant and polish my monocle while people are screaming at me that it's a Toyota. xD
I have even seen one in reality, where? Well in a little town but a big international tennis metropol in Sweden, Båstad. Thats the place where you can check every uber luxury status car on your list. Then a Cygnet showed up! Why? Because... because they can.
They are really collectable as they made so few.
Aston Martin DB9. £130000 new. Now £45000.
Aston Martin Cygnet. £35000 nee. Now £35000.
Go figure!
Oh, it’s pronounced Sig-net.
A baby swan.
@@kenneth61 Haha!!! Jag bor ju inte superlångt därifrån, får börja hänga där och spana. xD
The Toyota dealer gave me an IQ as a loaner one time. It had surprisingly good leg room in the front seat. Unfortunately it had zero sound insulation. On the highway, the roar from the tires was deafening.
I had a 78 Chevette with Pontiac Acadian badges. Look at the trouble that caused. In the 60s, my parents had a real Pontiac Acadian Beaumont convertible, a badged Nova. Wish I had it now. They also had a few K cars. Aries, Reliant and LeBaron. Even a New Yorker. A K car New Yorker. Before that I learned how to drive in a Ford Elite, not a Gran Torino. The Elite had 400 cu inches, and could barely spin a tire in the rain. One tire. Stupid smog motors for all of these cars by the way, except the Acadian Beaumont. At one point mom's car was a Buick Skyhawk, that looked the same as a Monza. Our mid 70s LTD Country squires were more than just badges, they had MacTac siding. A bicycle handlebar goes right through that stuff. At one point my grandma had a Bobcat with the benefits of a Pinto. After that a Lynx, which was an Escort. I had a 78 Grand LeMans too. Nearly identical to my neighbour's Malibu.
The black mystery car shape used in the video is also an interesting one. As the USSR lacked quality cars and the technology, they bought a whole factory with everything needed from Fiat and built a suitably named new town (Togliatti). And rebranded the F out of some fiat models, domestically branded as Zhiguli and exported as Lada. True, it was not a straight rebrand , more like tech transfer, they had to beef up the undercarriage A LOT to last in the roadless countryside and make the car as easy to repair as possible. That whole thing would make a cool vid..
After that the USSR licensed the Lada (essentially the old Fiat 124) to Egypt. Egypt was making them well into the 2010's. Not bad for a 1966 design.
yeap the lada is a copy of the fiat my dad had a fiat back in the late 70s early 80s i drove that car in l.A. back in the 80s
They were shipped to New Zealand as deck cargo. At that time i was finalizing my panel beating / painting apprenticeship. We were repairing these cars for rust as they were unloaded from the boats
Right after Rare Classic Cars
Late to the channel, but every episode has been awesome!
Prevalent cases of rebadging in Indonesia:
1. Ford Laser: rebadged versions of Mazda 323
2. The dynamic duos of Toyota and Daihatsu: Avanza & Xenia, Agya & Ayla, Rush & Terios, and most recently, Raize & Rocky. It did came with a caveat: Daihatsu is allowed to sell lower-trimmed types of the cars.
3. Timor: a blatant rebadge of Kia Sephia. Same case as the Oldsmobile/Chevrolet Alero, but with added drama, as the rebadging fiasco led to Indonesia receiving sanctions from the World Trade Organization
Always nice to see a new E.A.R. video
As a young kid in the 80s I asked my dad why are chevys buicks oldsmobiles and pontiacs all the same car? He laughed
Don't laugh. In reality a lot of that goes back to the 50s or earlier. Common platforms with each division putting it's own twist on things. Look at a mid 50s Chevy, Pontiac, Olds or Buick based on the Belair chassis. They all have the same general look and feel to them aside from the trim.
@@mpetersen6 thats true. Pontiacs were always chevys with fancier trim and a pontiac engine going back to the 30s. Best example is the entire 1959 gm lineup where you can see they all have the same body shell windows windshield and doors. Different engines transmissions chassis suspensions steering and brake systems though which can make them feel like different cars entirely. As gm standardized parts more and more badge engineering is what it lead to.
The Moris Oxford is a classic example of this in India, massively popular there even now
I had the worlds largest and smallest SAAB at the same time! Both was 1978 year model. Both had a chassis number plaque by SAAB. Both had the same color blue metallic. Both where sold by the same car dealer in Stockholm SAAB-ANA. They hadn't even bothered to re badge them.
One was originally a Autobianchi A112. I started a conversion into a 24h race car but sold it to another racer.
The other was a Dodge Tradesman 300 318cui 8 lug axles and a gas guzzler. I repainted it grey one night with concrete floor paint, because the police was on the look out for a blue van.
I always placed my self two meters behind a semi to save gas, they never liked it!
I sold that one too! I doubt neither exist any more.
The most famous re badges SAAB was the SAAB 600 that was a Lancia. I owned a couple of those as well.
I have owned a lot of re badged cars. Now I only have a Chrysler Vision and a 1989 Chrysler Voyager, or is it Plymouth, I always get confused. I have to go and check in the garage. I know it has a 2.5L 4 cyl Mitsubishi engine though! It's the only one in Sweden!
My day has been made better knowing there's a new EAR video
The Toyota Lexcen was the worst thing ever badge engineered in Australia.
It is not a misspelled Lexus.
And the nissan "ute" of the same time that was just an XF falcon with a massive NISSAN!!!! stuck on the grille and no other change.
@@watsisbuttndo829
Holden Apollo!
@@d.o.m.494 forgotten about that one. Surprised we don't still see them getting about.
The Button Plan!
yeah we got the better end of the stick there, mate. Over here we got the commodore as a Pontiac G8 :-D Lovely car too, my old man decided to add one to his pontiac collection.
20 years ago my father had a Suzuki Grand Vitara, identical to the Chevrolet Tracker. Once he went to a Chevrolet dealership to buy a belt for his Suzuki and came out with a Suzuki packaged belt right from the Chevrolet dealership!
Chevrolet sold the Suzuki Grand Vitara rebadged as Chevrolet Tracker. If you carefully remove the front badge, you'll see Suzuki's badge under. Still you can see Suzuki logos on the air filter box, sunroof glass and many other places.
Don't forget those massive twins that introduced front wheel drive at GM: the Olds Toronado and the Cadillac Eldorado.
except that both cars were on different chassis, different bodies and different engines. the only thing they shared was the th425 transaxle and the front wheel drive configuration. so no, the eldorado was not a rebadged toronado.