10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
News

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

Rebranding is a quick and cost-effective way for car manufacturers to try and market a new model. In theory, it looks great - the company takes the finished car, changes the design a little, puts new logos on it and puts it up for sale. However, in practice, this approach has led to some of the most serious failures in the automotive industry. Even their manufacturers are embarrassed by these cars, trying to forget about them as soon as possible.

Opel / Vauxhall Sintra

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

Back in the late 1990s, with Opel / Vauxhall still under General Motors, both companies decided to take over the U platform that underpinned the Chevy Venture and Oldsmobile Silhouette vans. A new model was built on it to compete with the largest vans in Europe. The result was the Sintra model, which turned out to be a huge mistake.

First, most Europeans were completely satisfied with the existing Opel Zafira minivan offer. In addition, Sintra proved to be terribly unreliable and too dangerous. Eventually, logic prevailed and Zafira remained in the range of both brands, while Sintra was discontinued just 3 years later.

Seat Exeo

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

If Exeo sounds familiar to you, there is a good reason for it. In fact, this is an Audi A4 (B7), which has slightly redesigned Seat design and emblems. This car came about because the Spanish brand urgently needed a flagship model to increase its appeal at the end of the first decade of this century.

In the end, the Exeo didn't generate much interest, as people still preferred the Audi A4. As a mistake, Seat should take into account the fact that they did not immediately offer the “indestructible” 1.9 TDI engine from Volkswagen.

Rover CityRover

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

The British brand Rover found itself in dire straits at the start of this century. At that time, small cars with fuel efficient engines were becoming more and more popular, and the company tried to cash in on the import of the Tata Indica compact car from India. To succeed in the market, it was turned into an all-terrain vehicle.

The result is one of the worst small cars Britain has ever seen. It was cheaply made, terrible in quality and smoothness, very noisy and, most importantly, more expensive than the Fiat Panda. One of the former Top Gear presenters, James May, called this car "the worst car he has ever driven."

Mitsubishi raider

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

While Mitsubishi was still in contact with Chrysler, the Japanese manufacturer decided to offer the pickup to the US market. The company decided that there was no need to spend money on developing a new model and turned to Dodge, where it received several units of the Dakota model. They bore the Mitsubishi emblems and hit the market.

However, even most Americans have not heard of the Raider, which is perfectly normal, since almost no one bought this model. Accordingly, it was stopped in 2009, when even Mitsubishi became convinced of the senselessness of its presence in the market.

cadillac bls

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

At the turn of the century, General Motors was serious about launching the Cadillac brand in Europe, but it didn't have the compact cars that flourished at the time. To tackle German offerings in this segment, GM turned to Saab, taking the 9-3, slightly redesigning it and putting Cadillac badges on it.

This is how the BLS appeared, which differs from all other models of the brand in that it is the only Cadillac specially designed for the European market. Some versions used a 1,9-liter diesel engine borrowed from Fiat. BLS's plan wasn't all that bad, but it failed to gain a foothold in the markets and ultimately failed.

Pontiac G3/Wave

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

Using a Chevy Aveo/Daewoo Kalos as a starting point is a terrible idea in itself, but the Pontiac G3 is actually the worst of the three. The reason is that he is taking everything that made the American sports car brand GM a legend and just throwing it out the window.

GM is probably still ashamed to have the Pontiac name on one of the worst compact cars of all time. In fact, the G3 was Pontiac's last new model before the company's disbandment in 2010.

Folk tales Routan

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

This is one of the most mysterious cars that arose as a result of the rebranding idea. At that time - in the early 2000s, Volkswagen was a partner of the Chrysler Group, which led to the appearance of a minivan on the Chrysler RT platform, bearing the VW emblem and called the Routan.

The new minivan has received some of the design features of Volkswagen, such as the front end, which is also present in the first Tiguan. In general, it is not much different from the models of Chrysler, Dodge and Lancia. In the end, Routan was unsuccessful and was stopped, although its sales were not so bad.

Chrysler aspen

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

At the turn of the century, luxury crossovers were becoming more popular and Chrysler decided to take advantage of this. However, for the sake of simplicity, the successful Dodge Durango was taken, which was slightly redesigned and became the Chrysler Aspen.

When the model hit the market, every car manufacturer in the United States had a similar SUV in its range. Buyers never liked the Aspen, and production was halted in 2009 and Dodge brought the Durango back into its range to fix the mess.

Mercury Villager

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

Would you believe Ford-owned automaker Mercury would partner with Nissan in the 1990s? And so it happened - the Americans took the Quest minivan from the Japanese brand to turn it into a Villager. From an American sales point of view, it seemed like the right move, but people just weren't looking for a car like that.

The main reason for the Villager's failure is that it is much smaller than its American competitors Chrysler Town & Country and Ford Windstar. The car itself isn't bad, but that's not what the market is looking for.

aston martin cygnet

10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand
10 unsuccessful attempts to change the brand

The European Union's decision to cut emissions from all car manufacturers has led to the creation of one of the craziest and relentlessly derided Aston Martin models of all time, the Cygnet.

It's based almost entirely on the Toyota iQ, a small city car set to compete with the Smart Fortwo. Aston Martin then supplied emblems, lettering, additional openings, new lighting and an expensive leather interior to create the very expensive and useless Cygnet in what turned out to be one of the biggest failures in automotive history.

Add a comment