QOTD: Which Model Deserved One More Generation?

We’ve asked you before about the particular brand you’d resurrect if given the power to bring just one back from the dead. A different Question of the Day also inquired which models trumped the previous generation by bringing fresh ideas and improvements to the redesign.

Today, we follow similar lines and ask which model was killed off too soon; which vehicle deserved one more generation.

Consumer tastes flip-flop, company finances ebb and flow, regulations are ever changing, and the names on the doors in the executive suite are not permanent. These are just a few of the factors which can spell an untimely end for a vehicle offering that at its heart is solid, desirable, and good. Here’s where you get to pick a model, and give it a stay of execution with your historical 20/20 vision goggles firmly secured.

There’s only one rule today: The model you’re saving must be continued from the time the final version left off. In other words, you can’t bring back the Honda Prelude for a new generation in 2017. It would have to be a sixth-generation Prelude, for 2002. And speaking of Japanese cars, here’s my example.

The lovely Toyota Camry Coupe deserved another generation. Shown above in final, 1996 V6 SE format, Toyota decided to forego both wagon and coupe formats with the 1997 redesign. This was a mistake. The official successor model (in 1999) was the swoopy and more awkward looking Solara coupe and cabriolet. Neither of those ever had the appeal of the Camry Coupe, nor its simple and honest styling.

Not that it’s awful, per se, it just doesn’t have the same essential goodness. The market for a front-drive midsize Japanese coupe still existed, as Honda proved (right up to 2017) with the Accord Coupe. Nissan played the game for a while with the Altima Coupe, though it never had the mainstream appeal of the Accord or Camry options. But I think I’ve made my point.

It’s now your turn. Tell us which cancelled model really deserved another generation.

[Images: Honda, Toyota]