These Are the Worst Examples of Automotive Badge Engineering

I want to nominate the collective badge-engineering that occurred when GM killed off Saturn and Pontiac in the course of the 2007-2008 monetary disaster and subsequent chapter.

The Saturn Outlook changed the GMC Acadia (regardless of being the identical automotive). Sure, GM actually rebadged a automotive as a alternative for its nearly-identical platform-mate. The Saturn Vue ‘turned’ a Buick — however GM by no means truly shipped it to anybody and as a substitute rebadged it a third time because the Chevrolet Captiva Sport and bought it to Hertz. The Pontiac G2, already a badge-engineered model of the Chevy Aveo, turned a trim line of the Aveo in the midst of 2010. Additionally future Saturns all turned Buicks with no regard for the way they’d match into the lineup which is how the Opel Insigna turned the Buick Regal.

A lot of bizarre issues occurred when the clock ran out on Saturn and Pontiac as SamTheGeek reminds us — Opels-turned-Saturns-turned-Buicks, in any case. However the Saturn Outlook successfully being revived because the first-gen GMC Acadia’s mid-cycle refresh was one of many weirder ones I didn’t discover. Kyree has the main points:

You’re appropriate , and most of the people don’t discover that. The Saturn Outlook shared most of its form with the GMC Acadia, however with some distinctions, just like the wheel flare form, rear gentle apertures, and wraparound rear windscreen. Total, the Saturn was extra chiseled.

The Saturn Outlook was discontinued with the remainder of the Saturn model in 2010. However, when GM determined to facelift the remaining three Lambda crossovers for 2013, it determined that the Saturn’s form higher match GMC’s then-new blocky, chiseled theme…and so quietly switched to utilizing the Outlook tooling. Even the rear bumper cowl, in its entirety, was snatched from the Outlook for the 2013 Acadia.

So far as what occurred with Saturn and Buick, I’m certain GM realized it was extra worthwhile to promote the rebadged Opels as Buicks than Saturn, they usually principally match fairly effectively into the lineup. Buick wanted compact and midsize sedans, and the Opels match the invoice properly. The Encore was a very good thought.

The Cascada, nevertheless, was an attention-grabbing indulgence in a world the place such automobiles (which additionally included the late 200 Convertible and Eos) had been dying off left and proper.

Urged by: SamTheGeek, Kyree