Ep. 30 Seeing Double: The History of Badge Engineering 

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

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

Don't forget the Chevy SSR....

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.

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…

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 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

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 😂

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.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SaZqQLpbjFU.html

Somemoby sent me the link of the video, it's hilarious!

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

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

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

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.

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...

​​@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

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.

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.

Aka Simca Horizon and Talbot Horizon and even Saab-Valmet Horizon

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.

Camaro and firebird are rebadging done right

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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!

…….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

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)

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!

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mRrm1SHNsfs.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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

Right, it's called Catera

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.

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

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.

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.

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....

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.

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.

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

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.

In my little town I remember there were also GMC and Chevrolet Trackers.

I remember reading that GM had a shortage of engines in the 60’s, and put a “different” engine in some cars. I think there was a big lawsuit over it.

@@5roundsrapid263 I vaguely recall something in the 1970s about GM putting Cheverolet engines in Cadillacs. This would have been nothing for the other members of the big three as Ford/Mercury /Lincoln and the Chrysler Corporation had already switched to "corporate engines" but GM was still avoiding that level of rationalization.

And that is why I like GM better in the 1980s because by then they started to share engines in other cars, example the Buick 3800

Agree, just put on more chrome/wood/leather to suit!

@@NapalmBond my favourite was the 1100 which was available as Austin Morris, Riley ,Wolseley, MG and Vanden Plas in the UK and as an Innocenti in Italy with plethora of names given through out the rest of the world, the most heavily re engineered the Spanish Pamplona built Austin Victoria

In Spain build and sold under the Authi brand. In Danmark sold as Morris Marina 1100/1300 and in The Netherlands as Austin 1100/1300 Glider.