13 Fantastic Badge-Engineered Cars
Badge engineering is quite an enigmatic, but still fascinating process in the car industry. To save money on development and engineering costs, (more often than not) unrelated automakers will band together and build cars that use a majority of the same mechanical components, but feature different styling.
In theory, everyone wins. The two or more automakers that are involved get two or more separate cars, and the public is getting a choice that ultimately boils down to personal preference. Admittedly, some badge engineering jobs were quite blatant and silly, but there are some fantastic badge-engineered cars that kept the best parts of the donor car.
Saab 9-2X
This Swedish* station wagon was colloquially nicknamed the Saabaru, and with very good reason. During the time when GM had a controlling stake in Subaru, they borrowed the WRX station wagon and made it perform its best impression of a quirky Swede.
Borrowing its chassis, engine, and most of the bodywork from the Impreza WRX wagon, the Saab 9-2X added a good amount of luxury, including better soundproofing and more sophisticated drivetrain components. It flopped hard, but it has a significant cult following these days.
Chevrolet Lumina
Most Americans will recognize the Chevy Lumina as a forgettable mid-size sedan from the 90s. However, the Chevy Lumina meant something totally different in the Middle East and South Africa. Something much cooler, actually.
For a while in the 2000s, the Holden Commodore and Monaro, aka the Pontiac GTO, one of many forgotten V8 sports cars, were exported to the Middle East with their steering wheels on the left side and called the Chevy Lumina and Chevy Lumina Coupe, respectively. Yes, a naturally aspirated V8 and manual transmission was available on both. If you want a Holden Commodore but don’t want to deal with RHD, this could be a perfect alternative.
Lexus LBX
You’re probably tired of small crossovers like the Lexus LBX, but in today’s automotive world, this type of thing makes a lot of sense. Under the skin, the LBX is based on the more humble Toyota Yaris Cross, a vehicle not offered in North America.
The LBX also borrows its hybrid powertrain from the Yaris Cross, but it dresses all that up in a fancier suit and gets a much plusher interior for good measure. Lexus currently doesn’t offer the LBX in North America, but they really should.
Pontiac G8
North America was denied the wonderful V8-powered Australian sedans for the longest time, until GM finally started importing the VE Commodore to the United States, badging it as the Pontiac G8. For lovers of V8 power, the Pontiac G8 GXP and its small block V8 were the way to go.
The G8 was a fantastic offering from Pontiac when it debuted back in 2008, but almost immediately after it was launched, Pontiac went bankrupt. The G8 is becoming a pretty rare sight nowadays, and it’s unfortunate that GM’s bankruptcy issues led to it being dropped so early on. We can all agree that it should have never been discontinued.
Chevrolet SS
Mercifully, GM gave the imported Commodore one last shot for the North American market in the mid-2000s with the SS. This time, the SS was based on the VF Commodore, and it was one of the sweetest performance car deals on the market.
It is an unassuming full-size sedan with an optional naturally-aspirated V8 and a six-speed manual transmission. Very few cars like the SS were available at the time, but sadly, the SS didn’t last too long either.
Mercury Marauder
Another scarce example of excellent American badge engineering. Ford’s Panther platform underpinned police cars, taxis, fleet darlings, and cars loved by the elderly for decades. Ford’s Mercury brand decided to squeeze one more type of vehicle out of the Panther platform: a performance sedan.
Yes, really, and that came in the form of the Mercury Marauder. Under the long hood was the 4.6-liter Modular V8, essentially the same as what you’d find in a Mustang of the time. With 300 hp on tap, the Marauder was one of the few cars of its kind at the time.
Skoda Citigo
Volkswagen’s most recent attempt at an A-segment city car for the European market finally paid off. After the underwhelming Fox, the VW Up! set the car market ablaze due to its grown-up nature and its ability to do basically everything, just in a much smaller form factor.
The Up! spawned two siblings, one of them being the Skoda Citigo. In almost every way, the Citigo was the same as the Up!, but with a slightly different design and even lower base price. As far as city cars go, it was basically impossible to beat.
Peugeot 107
Similar to the VW Up!, Toyota’s city car joint venture with the PSA Group also spawned three nearly identical cars. Toyota’s Aygo proved to be a huge success in Europe, due to its much smarter way of going about the engineering and design process.
The Peugeot 107 was basically the same as the original Aygo, with the only major difference being badging and a slightly different front fascia and taillight design. That meant a super reliable, spacious, and well-equipped small car that, for a lot of people, would be the only car they’d ever need.
Ford Ka
In what can only be described as a super unlikely partnership, the second-generation Ford Ka was not developed exclusively by Ford. Underneath the characterful exterior, the Ka was actually based on the Fiat 500.
It also offered a bunch of Fiat powertrains, but the design made it clear that the Ka wasn’t after the retro crowd. It was much more modern both inside and outside, but it didn’t lose any of its charm. The low weight and sorted chassis also made it pretty good to drive, not to mention cheap to maintain.
Opel GT
In the 2000s, General Motors finally put together a worthy competitor to the Mazda Miata. The original Pontiac Solstice, a bonafide car for drifting pros, was a great little car in its own right, but as this was GM in the 2000s, it also spawned a few siblings.
One of those was the Saturn Sky, which was essentially the same car as the Solstice but with significantly different styling, as well as the same option of a turbocharged four-cylinder. This car would eventually reach Europe as the Opel GT.
Alfa Romeo GTV (916)
After the RWD Alfetta GTV was retired, Alfa decided to revive the GTV as its own separate model in the 1990s. This one was FWD, which didn’t exactly please everyone, but the more interesting thing is the GTV’s platform.
Underneath that quirky, but super lovable exterior, the 916 GTV was based on a modified version of Fiat’s Type Two platform, a version of which also underpinned the Tipo and the Coupe. Instead of a five-cylinder, the GTV’s flagship powertrain was the Busso V6, and you probably want one after reading that.
Saab 9-5
One of the last-ever models to be produced by the great Saab before the catastrophic bankruptcy, the 9-5 NG, as it’s known, morphed into a gorgeous mid-size sedan with styling that was definitely ahead of its time.
The turbo four-cylinder and turbo V6 sweetened the deal even further, not to mention the fantastic experience behind the wheel. With Saab being an integral part of GM, the final 9-5 borrowed a version of the same Epsilon platform that underpinned the likes of the Opel Insignia.
Suzuki Across
This is a bit of a wildcard. In order to get fleet emissions down in Europe, Suzuki struck a deal with Toyota to sell a handful of frugal Toyota hybrids with Suzuki badges and minimally revamped styling. One of those is the Across.
Aside from being difficult to say, the Across is very obviously based on the Toyota RAV4, specifically the plug-in hybrid. The RAV4 PHEV, also known as the Prime in North America, is a cracking SUV, so this is no bad thing. Shame that no one seems to be choosing the Suzuki version.
