Between last month’s Paris reveal of the SEAT Exeo, a lightly rebadged B7 Audi A4, and our recent review of the Volkswagen Routan, I began to ponder some of the worst, most nonsense rebadges in recent automotive history. Some were legally or contractually required, others were clearly the work of absynthe-fueled mercury-poisoned madmen. In the gallery below, see pictures and comments of my top nine.
16 Comments on “Top Nine Whacked-Out Automotive Rebadges...”
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My friends don’t like watching television with me anymore because of my outbursts when Brooke Shields exclaims the virtues of German engineering in the Routan.
That whole “pregnant women” thing with the Routan ads is getting under my skin, causing me to change the channel immediately — too bad, ’cause Brooke is still hot.
Finding crappy badge jobs is easy. Could you ever find nine good ones ?
Don’t forget the Pontiac T1000 from the early 80’s, a rebadged Chevette which was a rebadged GM model from Europe that was obsolete by the time they started selling as a Chevy here. Another example of brand dilution(see Cimmaron)from the masters at GM.
Good work on this, I love oddball stuff like this.
Is the Chrysler TC a re-badge? It was on a unique, shortened chassis, with a TC-only engine/tranny option. Plus all that Italian leather and wood lifted it quite ways from the Mopar norm. A friend here in PS has one as a daily driver. The anti-lock brakes are unique to the TC and are very problematic, parts hard to find and obscenely expensive.
And where are the Escalade and Mark LT?
First: The Cimarron is the poster child for horrible rebadges. Whenever I think rebadge, my mind races directly to the small Caddy.
In all fairness, the Chrysler TC was NOT a rebadge, though a dead-ringer for the LeBarons which its development predated (Of course, it didn’t help that the similar-styled third-generation LeBaron beat the TC to the market, and sold for twice as much!). Though the underpinnings are certainly derived from the K-Cars, not many actual parts are shared.
Calling the Chysler TC a rebadged K-Car is akin to calling the Cadillac Allante a rebadged Eldorado, since it was originally a shortened Eldo chassis and engine. In actuality, they’re quite different cars.
Volkswagen Routan. Oh sure, it made perfect sense to the accountants. One problem. Accountants shouldn’t run car companies.
Amen. Why VW didn’t put that Microbus concept from a few years ago into production baffles me. It would have made a great compliment to the New Beetle…
I blame Ford for the Cadillac Cimarron. After GM executives got a look at the Lincoln Versailles shit-box, they must have thought to themselves, “Nobody out shit-boxes GM!” Boy did they ever succeed. Compared to the Cimarron, the Versailles look like a top shelf European product.
Also, the Sterling 825 rebad of an Acura Legend.
Don’t forget the two-gen old Malibu (or Classic) and the Olds Cutlass. So blatant, it probably gave someone a reason to kill Olds.
@akitadog:
That’s a superb example.
Finding crappy badge jobs is easy. Could you ever find nine good ones ?
The Chrysler Conquest and Dodge Stealth were tolerable.
The Cimarron should be retired from contests like this…talk about the proverbial low-hanging fruit. And then there should be some kind of award named after it.
For me, one of the worst rebadges was the Dodge Charger version of the Chrysler Cordoba. Sad.
Saabaru, I knew it before the click.
I’m with NickR. TTAC should propose “The Cimarron Award,” giving the award yearly to the most blatent/redundant rebadge!
I foresee the Routan taking this year’s top honors. I think the upcoming Pontiac G3 has a good shot next year
The trophy, of course, will be a scale model of a Cimarron, by Cadillac, complete with landau roof and continential kit!
What about pretty much any Isuzu product from the last 10 years or so? All rebadged GM junk.
And what about Honda/Acura’s partnership with Isuzu? For the Acura SLX (nee Trooper) or the original Honda Odyssey (nee Oasis)?
100% agreed about the rebadged Dodge Dakota/Mitsubishi whatever they called it… absolutely pointless.
How about the VW Toureg/Audi Q7/Porsche Cayenne? Or while we’re on EU high-end stuff, the new Ferrari California and the Maserati GranSport?
Or the barely warmed-over Dodge Sprinter van (that can be turned back into a MBZ product on eBay very easily). This actually was a boon for ChryCo., so not such a bad badge-engineered idea.
But, as always, GM was always the worst offender.
Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix?
TrailBlazer/Rainier/Bravada/9-7x/Envoy/Ascender?
Cavalier/Phoenix/Cimmaron/Skylark
Cobalt/G5/Ion (?)
Saab 9-5/Saturn L-Series
GMC truck/Chevy Truck (seriously, what’s the point?)
Saturn Outlook/Traverse/TransPort/Lumina APV
Just be glad that the Aztek was never re-badged as anything else. *shudder*