Automotive history is littered with brands that didn’t make it. Some of these marques remain cherished today, which is why you’ve probably read so many articles about how Pontiac was kinda maybe but really not actually coming back. That’s still pretty sad and the Big Three remain shells of what they used to be. But if you were in charge of a company, what car brand would you bring back and why?
If you have no idea what I’m talking about in that lede, I’ll explain. The GMnternet, that’s the Internet for GM fans, lit ablaze when May/June’s issue of Car and Driver hit the shelves. At the end of the 104-page issue was a story involving an Alfa Romeo Milano. Past that is the magazine’s back cover, which would normally host some advertisement that you’re going to ignore.
This time, Car and Driver printed something on its back cover that nobody could ignore. Just take a gander at this:
Now, at the very bottom of the “ad” is fine print stating: “Do you need to be told that this advertisement is fake and not to be taken seriously? Our lawyers think you do.”
Despite that, the rumor mill went from 0 mph to 100 mph in an instant. People began dreaming about what a future Pontiac could be like. Eventually, GM pumped the brakes and confirmed that it had nothing to do with that back cover advertisement. Still, the ad may have been fake, but it showed that the enthusiasm is still out there.
Similar enthusiasm is out there for other brands. Sticking with General Motors here, I’d love to see Saturn brought back. Wait, hear me out.
Long before Saturn meant a European car with an American badge, the brand was ahead of the curve. Saturn got to play with experiments that would have been too spicy for stodgy Chevrolet or the other brands. The cars weren’t just Chevys with new badges, but their own designs that tried to solve real problems. Saturn was right there with the likes of CarMax with the so-called “no haggle” model that buyers loved, and Saturn dealers tried to build rapport with its customers rather than just sell them a car and kick them out of the door.
We got a glimpse into a possible future for Saturn when it was Saturn dealerships handling the leases for the GM EV1. But that future didn’t happen. Instead, the brand just withered on the vine, burning piles of cash. I’d like to think that GM’s electrification efforts from the Chevy Volt to the Ultium platform would have been perfect fits for Saturn.
Of course, I’m not a corporate executive or a business major, so I have no idea if making Saturn the techy brand could have saved it, but a woman can dream, right?
Here’s where I turn this to you, dear reader. If you were in charge, what brand would you bring back? While I have you here, why would you bring it back? Give me any answer, no matter how silly!
“While I have you here, why would you bring it back? Give me any answer, no matter how silly!”
Pontiac is my answer and with a giant screaming chicken – and when I say chicken I mean an ACTUAL chicken – on each and every hood. And the horn needs to BAWK!!
Pontiac! Because someone like you just DGAF!
Simple. Holden.
GM really messed this one up.
In 2005 they decided to bring in budget Daewoo cars and badge them as cheaper Holden’s. This was the Holden Viva – it was a sold as a cheaper alternative to the Holden Astra, they then scrapped the Opel Corsa based Barina and replaced it with the Daewoo Kalos and called in the Holden Barina. Instead of replacing the Holden Vectra with the new really quite good Mondeo fighting Insignia, they replaced it with possibly the worst mid-sized saloon of the ’00s – the Daewoo Tosca, calling it the Holden Epica (this did not sell well) which they replaced with the Malibu (which sold even worse). Then sacrilege of sacrileges they killed the Holden Astra replacing it with the hugely unreliable Cruze – although they did bring the Astra hatch back in 2016. Of course the Commodore stayed Commodore.
What GM should have done, is kept Holden in the Opel/Vauxhall family of cars but at the same time launched Chevrolet (like they did in Europe) – which has fantastic brand recognition down under, as the cheaper brand selling the Daewoo stuff. They would have had two full lines of cars, and even sold a re-badged version of the Commodore as a Chevrolet.
Of course by the time the Commodore was executed – which was inevitable there was no viable way to keep that car in production – GM would have had two well performing brands in Australia and New Zealand. Holden would have been sold off along with Opel/Vauxhall to PSA and would have stayed alive selling Opel products with Holden badges is it always sorta has.
GM could have kept Chevrolet selling Daewoo products as it does now in the US or it would have killed it off when it killed off RHD production.
The dealers wouldn’t have been screwed over, an Australian institution would still be alive and we wouldn’t have had the friggin Holden Epica on our roads!
For purely etymological reasons, Mors:
https://hprints.com/s_img/s_md/42/42790-mors-cars-1910-monna-delza-d2f47a1f9fc2-hprints-com.jpg
Apparently like many others, I’m tempted to say Pontiac. I’d love to see an American car company with a sporty lineup, sort of a more reliable less shouty version of present day Dodge…though you know what as I write this I realize Dodge kind of has filled Pontiac’s niche haven’t they? And if they did come back now it would probably be as some tacky overstyled EV crossover brand that was mostly sporty in presentation and not in substance.
(Note: This comment is actually written by VanGuy 5 years in the future.)
Chrysler
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…..but seriously, from “general vibes” I gather Saab and Pontiac are two of the “most-missed” marques, with Saturn a somewhat distant third. (And Holden up there for the Aussies among us.) I don’t really have any arguments to put anyone else ahead of this selection.
Chrysler will disappear from sheer neglect and stupidity if they don’t add about four models to their lineup. Rebadge some of the better European stuff, maybe a luxury version of a Dodge pickup, anything, hell, a hybrid something and an electric something else.
Holden.
Give Australia it’s locally produced market back and build something fun enough that it has the knock on effect of reviving Pontiac as well.
I realize they’re still alive and making cars but I’m saying Mitsubishi anyway, they might as well be dead to me
Also Sunbeam.
SAAB
Holden. Bring back the Ute, and start shipping those modern automotive mullets to the US.
When I was a kid, Howard Cunningham on Happy Days drove a DeSoto, so I thought DeSotos were frumpy cars for doddering old men.
Later in life I got into Mecum, and learned that DeSotos were actually badass, with Hemi engines, gold trim, and serious road manners. I think they’re the best-looking cars from the 50s.
So, DeSoto.
I’m not the first one to bring these two up, but a one-two punch of Saab and Saturn could work. They could share platforms. Saturn would be the down market cheap and cheerful version while Saab would be the higher trim, quite luxury version. Sell them out of corporately owned “Experience Centers” to capture the same kind of lifestyle appeal that Rivian is going after.
I’d also love to see a Studebaker/Packard conglomerate come back in much the same vein… but with an added luxury performance Avanti sub-brand. Studebaker would offer economical cars and utility/offroad minded trucks and SUVs. Packard would be all about smooth, classy comfort. The Avanti brand would be built around practical performance with a 2+2 coupe and a Macan-fighting SUV.
Why not both as SAABturn?
it really depends on if said return from the dead would include autonomous engineering vs the Badge engineering foibles that caused many a great brand to fall away in the end.
BOP is a great start, though I do realize Buick of China is a bit there already and that is likely why they are even still a brand.
Wow, the Saturns and Saabs are really popular here. Not that I disagree, but…
VW is already bringing back the Scout, we’ll see how it looks when they start building them.
GM hosed so many brands over the years it isn’t even funny. Long before 2008 they killed Oakland and LaSalle to name a couple.
How about one that was revolutionary for it’s time, Tucker. The Tucker pioneered seat belts as standard, and the pop-out windshield. The design was light years ahead of anything back then and still looks good. Rear-engined, great performance. Seriously, all things being equal, I’d have Tucker give it another go.
Barring that, how about Tatra? They actually made decent cars for a Soviet-block country, with that rear-mounted V-8.
I like that you went for Oakland and LaSalle instead of Oldsmobile
If it’s just branding, it’s all about looks. Facel and Delahaye.
I too want Saab- but not for the branding, for the engineering.
Dude, I love going back to some of the obscure brands! Facel and Delahaye would be awesome!
Saab for the engineering, Saturn for the dealership model.
I’d suggest some other car brand purchasing the rights bring back something from the British-Leyland umbrella, with the slogan, “You don’t know how good you have it.”
As in, you don’t know how good you have it with everything else.
I know too many British and Scottish ex-pats with very unfavorable memories of some cars, mostly Austin Maestros and Allegros. I’ve heard too many stories.
On the other hand, I’m an American who owns both a Maestro and an Allegro and I’m happy with them. My standards may not be the highest, though.
Alldays & Onions
Why wouldn’t you?
Honestly, none, I’d rather existing brands develop new models that suitably capture the style and spirit of well-loved models from defunct brands rather than reviving the brand itself. If you do that, you need to flesh out a full range of models to fill the showroom, some of which will have to be boring and mediocre (want a new Pontiac GTO? Well, there’d have to be a new Torrent and a new Montana CSV to go along with it), and, when you’ve taken the step of reviving a brand, that means you’re now locked into 5-7 year product cycles, so if you get your product right the first time, you have to replace it eventually and run the risk of diluting the brand with each revision (MINI), whereas a tribute model launched under an existing brand can justifiably be built as a one-off.
Also, it seems like everyone always expects some sort of carry-over styling cues, like Bugatti’s horse collar grille, but, depending on how long the brand has been defunct, that might not really be feasible on a modern car, in reality, brands change their design language over time, a 2024 Cadillac looks nothing like a 1959 Cadillac, it doesn’t even have the same logo, but if Cadillac had gone defunct in 1959, everyone would probably want a 2020s revival to have 1959 styling cues.
Look at the aborted 1999 Packard revival attempt or the various efforts to create modern Duesenbergs for examples of how it can make a storied brand into a caricature of itself.
I imagine that down under they are missing the Holden’s about now.
I guess that’s a different case, toward the end, Holden was just a marketing organization for globally sourced GM product, if GM ever decided they wanted to sell cars somewhere other than China and the Americas again, Holden would be the rational choice for Australian reentry, vs creating something from scratch or trying to make Chevy work
Gilbern. Just because their logo was awesome.
TVR.
I love those delightfully deathtrappy little hoonables built by these clowns in a shed in Blackpool.
You want to bring a brand known for making death traps back from the dead? Presumably to kill other cars/people? A never ending cycle of death!
It was supposed to happen. There was a drivable show car and lots of empty promises, but the whole thing was never funded properly and nothing has been heard of it for a couple years now.
Well he makes his very own death traps so….
Point taken.
This.
Although I never owned one I think Saab. I think they would fit well in today’s odd ball EV space and an ignition button in the center console is easy with an EV.
I just want to say that while the first gen Saturns were ok, I would never resurrect that brand. Never. Ever. Ever. I’d sooner have a Corvette EV Crossover (that apparently is coming).
Really?!? 30+ comments in and no one suggested AMC?!?
Gimme a modern Javelin complete with the swoopy fenders. (calling The Bishop!)
Let there be actual production versions of the AMX II and AMX III.
Revive the Spirit AMX 4WD sport coupe.
I suspect this has to do with the age/generation of the commenters. Few if any saw AMCs in their proper glory I bet. I mean, I wouldn’t mind seeing a resurrected few older brands than that… IH & Hudson pickups. And give me a modern Austin Healey 100-6 thank you very much!
“And give me a modern Austin Healey 100-6 thank you very much!”
Sure:
https://www.woodleyhealey.com/#products
looks like a resto-mod or kit car. Not what I had in mind. I mean, it’s nice for what it is.
It’s likely as close to a modern big Healy as you’re likely to get.
I like this thinking. I was initially thinking Pontiac, but really they would continue to just be badge-engineered Chevys. AMC had some interesting ideas, and I have often wondered what the Javelin would have evolved into had AMC lasted until today. Less so about the AMC Eagle, though, since it was in many ways the first CUV.
AMC in the 70’s was fully parts bin specials. But they made do with surprising acceptability.
Eh, every volume mfg shares some parts among different models. I like the fact that AMC used different names rather than just calling the Gremlin the Hornet hatchback, or calling the Eagle the Concord CrossX.
True, but AMC had the guts to be using parts bins from other manufacturers, which I always found novel and quirky.
I would love to see what the Bishop would do with the Pacer. For that matter have him update the Citroen DS 21 and I will buy one.
Reminds me, I totally forgot the Pacer-based AM Van! The world needs an AM Van EV.
The DS21 cannot and should not be updated.
AMC! Where would Jeep be without them? Sure, Chrysler manufactured most of the jeeps we know and love, but the plans were laid by AMC.
I loved the look of the 73 Javelin I had but my god the AMC 360 it had did not sound good when it got going only time it sounded decent was at idle hah
What the hell. We could have an eGremlin!
It’s gotta be saab
I would love to see how Saab’s 1980s – 1990s engineers would design an EV or plug-in hybrid today. It would probably have a V-twin diesel generator mounted between the rear seats, an electric motor borrowed from an Airbus A380 hydraulic pump or something, and a power plug with an internally-spooled cord you could unwind like a vacuum cleaner then zip back into the car when you’re done.