QOTD: Additional Branding for the Special Vehicular Feels?

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis
qotd additional branding for the special vehicular feels

They used to be commonplace, but the last decade or so has seen this automotive phenomenon fade from memory. Today we talk special branded editions, and how it’s time for them to make a comeback.

Today’s question was generated by a Twitter conversation the other day, when another Twitterer posted some photos of the superb 205 Lacoste Special Euro Yuppie Edition. While branded special editions and trims were used to denote luxurious or sporty versions of vehicles between the Sixties and the early part of the 2000s, they’re much less common now.

Sure, you could get a Fiat 500 Gucci (Jennifer Lopez, stop!) until a few years ago, but such branding just isn’t there any more.

The Nautica trim Villager was very exclusive, as were the Pucci, Bill Blass, and Valentino Lincoln vehicles. General Motors had that ghastly Gucci Seville in the Eighties, but I’m not calling for any of those kinds of things anymore. And perhaps something more subtle than a Pierre Cardin Javelin, too.

And that’s today’s question. What vehicles on sale in 2019 are most deserving of branded special editions or trims, and with which brands? The Navigator Yacht Club comes to mind today — all it needs is the Bill Blass logo. Take my money!

[Images: General Motors, Ford]

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  • STS_Endeavour STS_Endeavour on Apr 24, 2019

    Jack Nicklaus Town Car had a very lovely shade of green. Too bad it was matched with various golf-related colors that took away from the really cool green.

  • Flipper35 Flipper35 on Apr 25, 2019

    Well if Ram ever made a proper SUV again they need a Lone Wolf edition with the Hellcat motor. The commercial would start with it bursting out of the ground.

  • El scotto Will this die a dignified and somber death? Sadly I predict a massive collision between greed, venality, and stupidity to occur. Huge Additional Dealer Markups (ADM)? Of course. Flippers will pay the ADM. Those paying the flippers over the ADM will smugly confirm "they know what they've got". The last owner not realizing that in 20 years their target "Last V-8 Camaro" audience will be between 70 and Dead.Mid-engine Corvette? Just get a Porsche or a Lotus and be done with it. Whatever LS they put in the Camaro might be seen in Silverados which will be sold at a higher profit.Hemi-powered Challengers and Chargers are dead. Well, OK after 18, 484 special editions. Hemi-powered Rams? Not too many buy a second one.Ford will double down on stupidity by raising MSRPs on every Mustang and Ford dealers will ask serious money for a non-serious car. Once Mustangs get expensive enough people will drive performance Japanese and German iron and like it. Three truly sad and ignoble deaths for cars once coveted by the jeans jacket, domestic beer, and Aerosmith t-shirts set.
  • CoastieLenn So the Camaro is getting the axe, the Challenger is belly up, the Charger is also fading out of existence. Maaaaan Michigan better have a game plan on how to inject some soul back into the American carscape. The Mustang and Corvette can't do it on their own. Dark times we're living in, bro's. How long do you think it'll be before the US starts to backpedal on our EV mandates now that the EU has rolled back their ICE bans with synthetic fuel usage?
  • Duke Woolworth We have old school Chevrolet Bolts, only feasible to charge at home because they are so slow. Travel? Fly or rent luxury.
  • Styles I had a PHEV, and used to charge at home on a standard 3-pin plug (240v is standard here in NZ). As my vehicle is a company car I could claim the expense. Now we are between houses and living at the in-laws, and I'm driving a BEV, I'm charging either at work (we have a wall-box, and I'm the only one with an EV), or occasionally at Chargenet stations, again, paid by my employer.
  • Dwford 100% charge at home.
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