What Two Unrelated Cars Look Strangely Alike?

Aa Dopplegangers
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Doppelgangers are everywhere. You’re totally unaware of it, but somewhere in a far off place like Serbia or Taipei there’s a person that looks nearly identical to you. You could be walking down a street in Buenos Aires and all of a sudden they appear; it’s like looking in a mirror. Who knew?

Cars are the same way. Often it’s intentional, but other times it’s mere coincidence. I think it’s the case above, since the cars shown are from such different times and places, yet I guess it’s still possible. The two vehicles shown above are a French Matra 530 and the very American Buick Reatta, both of them sort-of sports cars (the Buick definitely more sort-of).

Matra’s 530 was a mid-engined targa-topped coupe that still managed to find space for a tiny rear seat. The rear glass lifts to access the Ford Taunus-sourced V4 engine, and a trunk exists at the very rear of the car. If you’ve never heard of it, the 530 was the successor to the Djet that Jason has driven and the predecessor to the more well known Matra Bagheera with three across seating.

Matra
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Buick’s Reatta was a two-seat coupe based on the front drive Rivera; The space where you’d expect to find the rear seat was just utilized for extra cargo to complement the trunk (yes, the Matra was far more space efficient).

Reatta1
Streetside Classics

The Reatta shared much with that overly downsized Rivera, including the chassis, V6 engine and the infamous CRT touch screen in the middle of the dash.

Built decades apart and in different sides of an ocean, it’s quite surprising how similar the overall profile of these two cars is. It’s also rather uncanny considering that the drivetrain layouts of the pair are totally different. I seriously doubt that any copying was going on at GM; at most maybe tangentially some designer subliminally penned a shape similar to some cool French coupe he’d been exposed to years before. Yet the similarity is there.

27475603 1990 Buick Reatta Std 1

This is an odd occurrence, but surprisingly there is another Buick near-doppelganger in a far-off European nation. However, this one was almost certainly an intentional rip-off. You might not know of the Fiat 130 coupe, but in the image below you’ll be shocked at how much it looks like a certain big Buick.

Buicks
Ranmore / Barn Finds

Always a fan of Italian design, GM creative leader Bill Mitchell told Motor Trend in 1977 that he thought Paulo Martin’s Fiat 130 Coupe was one of the finest designs he’d ever seen from Pininfarina. It’s no surprise then that one of the last cars Mitchell worked on bears an uncanny resemblance to that not-sold-in-the-US coupe. The 1977 full sized B-bodies were some of the most popular and durable cars GM ever made, and the coupe versions of the Chevy (with hot-wire-bent rear glass) and Buick were notably nice designs. It is with the Buick Lesabre- particularly the black-out-trim Sport Coupe shown- that the aping of the Italian car is most evident. Come on, Bill, could you have at least tried to change the taillight design a little for Chrissake? I mean, there’s “inspiration” and there’s downright copying.

What cars (or trucks, or vans) can you think of that, despite not being badge-engineered variations or same-maker platform mates, look like they’re related? The Autopian is asking!

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100 thoughts on “What Two Unrelated Cars Look Strangely Alike?”

  2. This is not the design but more a specific design detail – when Toyota facelifted the Camry in 2015, they rounded out certain design details but the basic structure wasn’t changed. So the doorframes were the same, but they added a black plastic piece behind the rear doors to round out the greenhouse – from this to this. Plenty of cars have such fillers of course (original Chevy Cruze comes to mind), but not as often adding one as a refresh during the same model generation. It did remind me though of the GM A-bodies when they added the rounded rear window and took them from a 6 window to 4 window design and added a filler piece behind the rear doors, to smooth out the look.

  4. The 2015-2021 Hyundai Tucson looks a lot like a Mazda CX-5. Also the early six window Ford Tempo can look a lot like Ford Sierra with the right trim.

    1. i mean the fords are the same corporate umbrella, so i am not sure that really counts.

      Also, the first Subaru B9 Tribeca and the current Kia Sportage

      1. Since the only common parts of a Sierra and Tempo are the blue Oval I think it’s fair game. Especially when you consider how different most European and US Fords were. No one would mistake a P100 for a Ranchero and the two Ford Granadas look like products of completely different companies.

  7. This one has gnawed at me over the decades, and I’m sure even mentioning it will somehow summon Adrian to berate me (“you wanker you don’t know what you’re on about!”) at length, but here goes.

    Our ’80s Mercury Ca-pri with the bubbleback hatch and the concurrent Ford Cap-ri from across the pond in the UK.

    Totally different cars, plenty of different styling cues BUT the overall shape of our Foxbody Capri always seemed to be an attempt to, within reason and manufacturing economics, replicate the lines of its UK cousin.

    1. You’re not totally wrong. Jack Telnack moved back to the US after heading up Ford of Europe design and one of his intentions with the Fox body was to introduce a more European, aero styled car.

      1. Hey look at that – I got off with a mild talking-to! The new year’s startin’ off good/shouldn’t push my luck so I’m not offering any more opinions on the Ford Capri for awhile…

      1. My uncle owned one back then even! The lines were beautiful, and then in the ’80s after Ford stopped importing them, they got more angular but still retained that science flask, narrow in front/bulbous at the rear, look. Which our Foxy Capri seemed, to my eyes anyway, to kinda mimic when in that odd-for-the-States hatch trim.

  9. The Renault 21/Medallion vs the first-gen Camry
    https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/gallery/RENAULT-21-Sedan-2048_21.jpg
    https://hassanjameel.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2017/01/1983-Toyota-Camry-1024×680.jpg

    and the Dodge Monaco vs the early 7th gen Camry:
    https://www.automobilesreview.com/gallery/2012-toyota-camry-hybrid-trifecta/2012-toyota-camry-hybrid-trifecta-05.jpg
    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3bSHh3yDvgM/UV1BB_TjpuI/AAAAAAAEZeo/DTZopeB_F4Uuf3TBkcORbewMcDjQ2QcCgCCoYBhgL/s1600/90_92_monaco_002.jpg

  11. I might get laughed out of the room, but WTH:

    • Fiat 128
    • BMW 2002

    And:

    • Renault 12
    • VW Passat B1

    And:

    • 1969 Maserati Ghibli Spyder
    • 1968 Camaro RS convertible (RS had hidden headlights, and the SS didn’t)

  12. Does this count? The first-gen Ford Fusion, and the Mondeo that Ford sold in Europe and elsewhere. They look the same but share no parts. The Fusion is a rebadged Mazda6, while the Mondeo is a completely different car.

    https://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2013/03/03/21/10/2006_ford_fusion_sel_v6-pic-631402583476524334.jpeg

    https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzY4WDEwMjQ=/z/0nUAAOSwvTRdhhcT/$_86.JPG

    I always thought the first-gen Neon and Impreza looked kinda similar. They do both have head gasket problems in common! 😛
    https://momentcar.com/images/subaru-impreza-1995-1.jpg
    https://momentcar.com/images/dodge-neon-1995-6.jpg

    Also, don’t forget the Kia Rio Sports Pac and the Subaru Impreza WRX STI 😀
    Yes, they really did make that Sports-Pac, though only for Australia.
    https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/2005-subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-vs-kia-rio-comparison-review-classic-motor

    https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fbown27ihjvv51.jpg

  13. The 2005-2009 Buick LaCrosse looks a lot like a 2000-2005 Ford Taurus with the front-end of the ovoid Taurus.

    The BMW M8 also looks like a bigger S550 Mustang

  14. The scale being a bit off but I always thought the early Chevrolet Bolt looked like a Honda Fit. Probably blatant copycatting on the part of GM, and a lot of 5 door hatchbacks look alike, but something about the proportions of the doors/body/etc.

  15. Side view, the retro T-Bird always reminded me of the original Mazda Cosmo. However, from the A pillar forward and from the front, the Cosmo looks a lot like the Lotus Europa, too.

  17. Jungle Book was my favorite Disney movie growing up and a few years ago an Indian friend of mine was pointing out that the characters in that story are just the Hindi words for whatever animal they were. Baloo = bear and Kaa = snake and so forth so Bagheera = Panther.

    Now looking at the side profile of the Reatta vs the Bagheera above they do look a lot alike, but somehow the Bagheera looks more panther-like while the Buick (that’s so you!) doesn’t at all. Weird.

  18. How about the 2013 Ford Fusion and many of the current remaining available sedans from the last few years? Particularly Kias.

    In its own way, that Fusion’s look influenced an entire market segment, just like the Taurus did back in the ’80s. The Fusion’s athletic but not angry front end and esp. its quasi-fastback rear…it all helped bring a sport coupe look to a previously staid type of car. Even the current Accord sedan has these elements.

  19. Without checking comments I’ll just add my snarky answer “every CUV out there.” For supporting evidence I submit the times law enforcement has asked us to help identify a vehicle, most often – you guessed it – a crossover.

    1. Anyone who tells me they can tell a RAV4 from a CRV from a Blazer from an Escape when identifying a hit-and-run vehicle within mere seconds is a dirty liar and I’m calling them out in front of the entire internet.

  20. Saw a Reatta on the trip home from my folks house this weekend. Pointed it out excitedly to my wife & kid. Got side-eye from the wife, no response at all from the kid.

  22. It’s amazing how much details matter. The 130 is really pretty and the Buick — although I feel warmly toward it because of nostalgia — is a fail. I think it’s because they raised the trunk so the beltline goes nowhere on the Buick and I wonder why they did that. Golf bag capacity? Meanwhile the beltline on the Fiat flows beautifully into the rear end, on which the taillights are perfectly placed. The Buick, because the trunk has been raised, is forced into a weird ramp down to meet where the beltline would’ve been had they not raised it in the first place.

    1. Which was also totally intentional on the part of Chuck Jordan and his staff, the Jaguaresque details started with the 1989 Buick Park Avenue Essence concept car, and hit the market with the 1991 Park Avenue and 1992 LeSabre

      1. It started way before that. The front of the 1968 Jaguar XJ influenced the 1970 Camaro. As Bishop says, Mitchell being a New Yorker was obsessed with European cars. His chosen replacement upon retirement was Chuck Jordan, but the GM board overruled him and promoted Irv Rybicki instead. Jordan didn’t get his chance until Rybicki retired, but it stands to reason being a Mitchell protege he was influenced by Europe as well.

  25. This might be a stretch, but as the owner of a ’68 4-4-2, this one jumped out at me and I can’t unsee it. The headlights on the ’68 Cutlass/4-4-2 and their relationship to the turn signal lights between the quad headlights… well, when only the outside headlights are on, they look just like the headlight/turn signal light setup and spacing of the first gen Dodge Neon.

    Weird. True.

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