Or how about the Dodge Avenger...made by Hillman?
Canada is great for weird re-badges.
I actually owned this one. Vauxhall Viva rebadged as Envoy Epic.
How about the Asuna Sunrunner? Sold at Pontiac/GMC dealerships. We also had a GMC and Pontiac versions (not at the same time).
1960 Frontenac. Based off Falcon obviously. Canada only.
Then there is the Mercury and Fargo vans and trucks (even the heavy duty ones). Yes there is such a thing as a Mercury school bus!
Based on the Cadillac SRX, only 457 built. Spotted one in a "Find the rarest car on eBay for cheap" contest, and had no idea these things even existed.
petegossett wrote: Does it get any weirder than this?
That took me a minute to understand what was going on there but once I saw it, there was giggling.
Tom_Spangler wrote: The Trollblazer, aka Saab 9-7x:
I actually really wanted one of these with the 5.3. I think it is much better looking than the Trailblazer.
In reply to JohnRW1621:
You've no idea how many of these Equators I see on a daily basis. That said, Wichita had one of the busiest Suzuki lots in America and was the last to give up their franchise.
The Jeep Liberty remained the Cherokee in other markets.
Here is a big list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_badge-engineered_vehicles
Brett_Murphy wrote: The Jeep Liberty remained the Cherokee in other markets. Here is a big list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_badge-engineered_vehicles
So a Scion xB is a Corolla.
Will wrote: I've always wondered exactly what Toyota saw in the Cavalier that made them say, "Why can't we make anything that nice?"
IIRC there was some kind of contract clause related to the Toyota/GM NUMMI plant deal that said Toyota had to sell a GM product in Japan. As you can imagine the take rate was pretty low.
I still think the strangest rebadge thing I've seen was a two door Suzuki (we called them Geo Metros up here) in Mexico with a 'Chevy' badge on it. At first I thought it was a Pep Boys stick on; uh, no.
I can't find a pic of the car itself, but here's a pic of the badge on something different:
Subaru sold a version of the Trooper called the Bighorn. It was also sold as the Holden Jackaroo.
In Britain, they were sold as Isuzu Troopers and Bighorns, there was a 2 door version.
A very few of the late body (92-up) 2 doors were sold here, in all my time with 'Zuzu I saw exactly.... one.
In reply to trucke:
Mitsubishi Raider
What makes it weirder is that in the '80's, Dodge sold a rebadged Mitsubishi as the Raider.
trucke wrote: Mitsubishi Raider
I've always wanted to steal the badge off of a Pontiac Vibe and stick it over the top of its badge.
Sorry, old joke.
Boost_Crazy wrote: In reply to trucke:Mitsubishi RaiderWhat makes it weirder is that in the '80's, Dodge sold a rebadged Mitsubishi as the Raider.
Yep, the little 4x4 SUV.
I saw a D50 extra cab LWB at the solid waste point the other day. Looked like this, but was black with gold stripes and gold wheels. Paint looked like crap but otherwise a solid looking truck.
I can't link a pic on my phone but last year I saw an Opel Frontera being driven in Manhattan by some Dutchmen. It's an Isuzu Rodeo that was sold in Europe. They were driving to the World Cup in Brazil from New York with a group that had shipped their cars over for the trip.
trucke wrote:
One of these popped up on the local Craigslist recently, before that I'd never heard of it.
My hat goes off to the Russians
Everybody knows the Fiat 124 sedan (top) and the Lada "Zsiguli" 1200:
But I always thought the Zaporozhec (Zapo or Zaz) 966 (top) was strikingly similar to the Corvair (bottom). Rear engined and everything
Bonus points for catching one with Vlad Putin?
and my personal favorite: The GAZ 13 (Csajka) top, and the 1956 Packard partician (bottom)
The Lada/Fiat was a license agreement between the Russians and the Italians (they sold all the old tooling) and that eventually became a license agreement between the Russians and the Egyptians. The model line was continued to the 2105 and 2107 in Egypt making it the longest production runs.
The Corvair and Packard were rumored to be bought and exported from Cuba after the Russian involvement there. From there they just reverse engineered the designs and used them accordingly.
Good times
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