What is the Worst Instance of Automotive Badge Engineering?

Like loads of issues invented within the twentieth century, badge engineering was terrible however I sort of miss it. Automobile corporations — sometimes American, however not solely so, because the picture above signifies — would take a car from their arsenal, make minor visible tweaks, and promote it underneath a very completely different make and mannequin. Typically that may end in extra premium options, like leather-based seating, for instance. Different instances it will be the precise similar rattling automobile. In both case, no person was ever actually fooled. Right this moment, we’re polling the room for the worst badge-engineered vehicles within the historical past of the trade.

There are a pair methods you possibly can reply this query. Possibly you’ll select a automobile that was dangerous already, whose badness was multiplied because it was marketed underneath a number of manufacturers. Or you possibly can choose a automobile that was actually simply mediocre, however offered in far too many incarnations, flooding the zone for no deserved motive. For the latter instance, I’m considering of the Chevrolet Uplander/Buick Terraza/Pontiac Montana/Saturn Relay crew. The identical bar of cleaning soap, 4 instances, offered concurrently in the identical market.

For my selection, although, I’ve gone with a automobile that wasn’t essentially dangerous, simply flawed. The one motive Aston Martin ever purchased up a bunch of Toyota iQs and turned them into Cygnets was to slide proper underneath the European Union’s common fleet emissions guidelines. That’s unhappy by itself, however even when you’re not conscious of the Cygnet’s motive for present, seeing one kind of sullies the model. And it appears everybody felt that method, as a result of Aston solely offered 150 examples of the rattling factor over two years — the corporate had hoped to maneuver 4,000 items yearly. Apparently, Aston did construct one with a V8, although. That’s badge engineering completed proper, buddies.

Sufficient from me. What, in your eyes, is essentially the most egregious poster youngster of this trade advertising and marketing phenomenon? Inform us proper down there within the feedback.