Car re-badging, euphemistically known as badge engineering, is one of those things that tends to baffle me, like using a yo-yo without getting a fat lip or the continued popularity of circus peanuts. I’m never exactly sure how money gets made by offering basically the same car with slightly different trim and a different name, but hundreds of thousands of Ford Pintos/Mercury Bobcats and Dodge Omnis/Plymouth Horizons and Volkswagen Sharans/SEAT Alhambras and other badge-engineered wonders are surely proving me wrong. Most badge engineering efforts either re-badge a car on roughly the same level of status or take a lower-tier car and upgrade it to a higher tier, like, say, a Toyota Land Cruiser becoming a Lexus LX or a Chevy Cavalier becoming a Cadillac Cimmaron. Very rarely do we see a premium marque re-badging a car as a budget brand. But there have to be a few of those, right? I can think of a few, but I wonder if there are more?
First, let’s just think about the low-to-high status rebadges we know about. There are many, once you start to think about it.
In fact, many carmakers have entire separate brands that are about doing just this sort of thing, like Lincoln and Mercury to Ford, or Lexus to Toyota, Acura to Honda, Infiniti to Nissan, Audi to Volkswagen, and so on. This is really quite a common practice, taking one car and up-contenting it, making a few design and detail changes, and calling it a whole new, fancier name. Oh, and then selling it for a lot more money.
But the opposite direction, that’s a lot more unusual! Probably because it’s a lot harder to make money by taking a car sold as a premium brand and making it cheaper. And, my sources in the industry have told me that this “making money” business is a big deal to most, if not all, automakers. And yet, this premium-to-basic re-badging has happened a few times! Here’s the best examples I could think of:
So, these three basic examples were all I could come up with for a universally-accepted premium carmaker re-badging a car that they initially designed and sold under the nameplate of a clearly more downmarket brand. They include the most obvious one, I think, the Kia Elan, a re-badged Lotus Elan, the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, which was also sold as a Puch G-Wagen (Puch did the engineering of the four-wheel drive system), and the Peugeot P4. Then we have the Land Rover Discovery, which was sold for a period in the ’90s as a Honda Crossroad.
There’s one other example that I’m not quite sure how to classify:
In non-American markets, the Porsche 914 was sold as the VW-Porsche 914. So, here, Porsche just said what the hell and put both up- and downmarket brands on the car! Does that qualify or not? I’m not really sure, and I can’t think of another example like it.
Am I missing some examples of this rare and beautiful riches-to-rags sort of badge engineering? Is it really just those three cars? I bet there’s a few more, and if there’s any group of car geeks who can figure it out, they’re right here, all you Autopians. So if you know of any, please, shove them in the comments!
Opel Kadett to Pontiac Le Mans via Daewoo. Turned an OK European car into a terrible American car while taking a,dump on a revered name plate.
Euro-market “Chevrolet” aleros
Large part of the Pyeonghwa Motors catalog?
Mercedes W201 -> Keangsaeng 88/Pyongyang 4.10
Wait, does it count if you’re sourcing a bunch of Mercedes 190 from god knows who and tacking some new badges to it without any sort of licensing deal?
Mercedes W116 S class –> The Ford Granada
What, isn’t that the same car? 😀
That’s a deep one that I’m proud to say I understand.
As you should.
Ford Sierra –> The Mercqkur!
Since the last one didn’t have ANY brand value at all, regular Ford must be tha fancy one in that equation! 😀
And I guess you could do the same take with the quite fancy and beautiful luxury car the Renault 25 ending up as that most generic car of any anytime, that canadian AMC thing I can never remember the name of… Ahh yes, the Eagle 😉
Audi 50 -> VW Polo
The first Skoda “Superb” from before it got it’s own body, was also just a rebadged VW Passat.
Not that any of those are real fancy, but Skodas tend to be cheaper, so I think the VW Corp sees it as a lesser brand?
It wasn’t quite. It was inherited from a stillborn “super Passat” project
Interesting. I just thought it was the same one. Looked a lot like an old Passat at the time. But went on Wikipedia, and of course you are right 🙂
Some faint recollection that the mk1 Superb was related to a Chinese market long wheel base thing. As in Passat Lang?
Pa Sat Lang. Sounds more Chinese 😉
But yes, that is what it says: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_B_platform#B5_(PL45)
The BMW R75 to the Dniepr K750 (Motorcycles)
The Morris Oxford to the Hindustan Ambassador
(Maybe I’m being car racist here? I really don’t know which brand is “worst”…)
The Fiat 124 to the Lada
B7 Audi A4 became the Seat Exeo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_A4#B7;_(Typ_8E/8H;_2004)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEAT_Exeo#Overview
VW Up! to the Skoda Citigo?
Seat Mii too?
The first gen front engine water cooled VWs were Audi derivatives. There was a Audi Fox in the US and Canada, maybe elsewhere too. Years later VW imported a VW Fox from Brazil to Canada. That apparently was an evolution of the original Audi.
Not a car rebadge, but VW engines ending up in Omni/Horizons. Seems like a downmarket total re-car of an engine. That would probably applies to many engines including Chrysler’s use of Mitsubishi power plants.
The late 80s VW Fox is derived from the Brazilian VW Voyage, which in turn was a watercooled version of the VW Gol which used a Beetle engine inan FWD application. Any relation to the Audi 80/Fox was coincidence. FWIW the B5 Passat was on the Audi A4 platform so there was a move down market to make the Passat
Dodge Rampage->Plymouth Scamp
Toyota Corolla->Chevy Nova
Toyota Corolla->Geo/Chevy Prizm
Isuzu I-Mark->Chevy Spectrum
Isuzu Impulse->Geo Storm
Suzuki Sidekick->Geo/Chevy Tracker
Dodge 600->Plymouth Caravelle
Dodge Shadow->Plymouth Sundance/Duster
Dodge Spirit->Plymouth Acclaim
Kia Pride/Mazda 121->Ford Aspire
None of these seem like up- or down-market transitions. Just sort of sideways.
Well it depends. Geo was created by GM for customers who otherwise would look at Honda or Toyota for an entry level import vehicle.
Alot of the Ford/Lincoln/Mercury were rebranded
Ford explorer = Mercury Mountaineer
Ford Escape = Mercury Mariner
Ford Crown Vic = Mercury Grand Marquis
And the list goes on. Same body panels, powertrain. Someone’s gotta make money!
Oh, and don’t forget about the Ford Lobo which is only available in Mexico aka F-150.
Ford Explorer to Mazda Navajo? I think the Mazda was only available as a 2 door ala the Explorer Sport
Mercury villager and a Nissan van. Forgot what the Niss was.
Dodge Custom 880, a cheaper Chrysler Newport trotted out to fill in the missing middle after DeSoto got the axe and Dodge’s other cars were downsized for ’62.
(Mind, the ’62 Newport and Custom 880 were basically ’61 Dodge Polaras with some reworked sheetmetal.)
Also, if the Yugo, various Marutis, and Volga Siber count (I reckon the VAZ-2101 was too worked-over to be a true rebadge) I’ll nominate the Iran Khodro Paykan, a Hillman Hunter built under license in… you guessed it.
How many of these down market badges kept the same engine/transmission and perhaps in some cases suspension as their up market counterparts?
Uhh….. All of them? If you change the engine, transmission, and suspension, then it’s not badge engineering. That’s actual engineering.
The G-wagon to Peugeot didn’t have a Merc engine, I think the Lotus to Kia got a Hyundai engine or one sourced from Mazda, I don’t remember. Call it badge engineering call it re-engineering, call it whatever you like. I’m just wonder how often, when this happens, there are significant changes that make the down market car, different or perhaps even “less than” the original. Perhaps to preserve the higher status of the premium brand, or for any other reason.
the most ardent 86 fans called the rebadge of the Toyota 86 into Scion FR-S a riches to rags situation, regardless of how identical the two cars still were.
Truth be told, They only made the Peugeot P4 so that it could be built in France for the French Army. It used the engine from the 504 and the gearbox from the 604. The civilian sales were incidental (and mostly to administrations) as they were still expensive, had less cachet and anyone wanting one could get the real deal from Mercedes.
The competitors of the P4 for the french Army contract were Renault’s SAVIEM TRM500, a rebadged FIAT nuova Campagnola with an engine from the Renault 20, and Citroën’s C44, a Volkswagen Iltis with the engine from the CX Athéna.
Whether these are an upgrade or downgrade is debatable.
Ford Pinto-Mercury Bobcat
Ford Maverick (the car,not the pickup truck)->Mercury Comet
Ford Escort->Mercury Lynx
Mazda 323->Mercury Tracer(1st generation)
Ford Tempo->Mercury Topaz
Ford Contour (Ford Mondeo in certain markets)->Mercury Mystique/Mercury Cougar coupe
Ford Taurus->Mercury Sable
Ford Thunderbird->Mercury Cougar
Ford Mustang->Mercury Capri
Mercuries were marketed by Ford as a step between Ford and Lincoln. My dad was a Mercury Man, so he made this quite clear to me.
I know, I had a couple of those that I posted(Tracer & Topaz).
I did the smart thing and got those with manual transmissions though.lol
A couple other “honorable mentions”to boggle your minds..
Nissan Quest->Mercury Villager
Ford Explorer->Mercury Mountaineer
Audi A4 (B7) to Seat Exeo
I forget the model name but my uncle had a Skoda that was essentially a B6 A4
Best example yet! One of the worst ideas ever, IMHO.
I’m going to throw out the Chrysler Sebring to Volga Siber out there. Can this be considered a downmarket rebadge? I’m not sure which brand would hold higher “value”.
Also,
Mitsubishi Eclipse (depending on generation and platforms)-Plymouth Laser/Eagle Talon,Dodge Avenger coupe or Dodge Stratus coupe & Chrysler Sebring coupe.
Mitsubishi Mirage-Dodge/Plymouth Colt,Eagle Summit (depending on generation and platform).
Mitsubishi 3000GT->Dodge Stealth