Top 10: Classic cars made from bits of other cars
Badge engineering and cost-reduction are rife within the car industry and have been for many years. Look closely, though, and there are certain models where you can see the external influences, or just the bits that were used in order to keep costs down.
Here are 10 of the more peculiar examples…
Saab 900
GM’s first take on the Saab 900 came in 1993 and was based on the platform and running gear of the Vauxhall Cavalier. Not a bad car, but not the most auspicious start for a model that, traditionally, had been celebrated for its solidity, performance and uniqueness.
Being a Saab, the new car needed to be better built and better equipped than the humble Vauxhall on which it was based, and thanks to the significantly heavier body shell this had a negative effect on the 900’s ride and handling. The solution? GM needed to find a stiffer rear suspension set-up that would bolt straight in. Luckily, it had one. From the Astravan.
flying_porker on 27 March 2017
Sounds typical of British Leyland. The wife of a teacher at school had one. She heard a funny noise and took it to the main dealer (the car was three months old). The engine had come from its mountings and was completely loose in the engine bay.flying_porker on 27 March 2017
And I thought the Sierra was ugly...paul jenkins on 27 March 2017
I wouldnt say the sierra was ugly i think it looked good and it was the family car that launched todays more rounded shapes
flying_porker on 27 March 2017
Most of these lash-ups were British.AQ on 27 March 2017
The Honda and Rover alliance actually started some years earlier when an older generation Honda Ballade (a booted Civic) was marketed by BL with revisions as the Triumph Acclaim. It is said that the Acclaim was the most most reliable BL product ever and also the most profitable, presumably because BL wasn't crippled with warranty work on this model. Of course, all this happened before Honda moved into Swindon.WilliamRead on 27 March 2017
Motoring Which? invariably gave BL cars a (justified) poor rating for reliability, until the Triumph Acclaim came along; this was by far the most reliable BL car the magazine had tested. The reason? As you identify, it had a Honda Japanese manufactured engine.....
Edited by WilliamRead on 27/03/2017 at 23:46
Roarke on 27 March 2017
My old dad once nearly bought a early Mk2 Maxi, but heard that the one he nearly went for was bought by a friend, who found the gearbox failed within weeks of purchase. Brilliant visionary design, like so many of BL's not matched by the engineering. The only competition at the time was the Renault 16, surely one of the greatest rotboxes of all time, and just a collection of parts roughly heading in the same direction albeit with very comfy seats.Howard Buchanan on 27 March 2017
Bought a Maxi 1750 new in the early 70s. Tank-like Volvos apart, it was the best car going for bulky load-carrying with the tailgate shut and comfortable saloon, all in the same package. We even camped and slept in it.Sadly, though, it finished me for British cars: just after 10K miles and the expiration of the 1 year warranty, the front tyres had to be junked on account of uneven wear following the failure of metalastik suspension bushes. BL refused to cough up and their franchised dealer later showed me a bin filled with the duff bushes from other Maxis.As I put it in my letter to BL: "Can you imagine BMW and Mercedes fitting a part they knew was no good and then refusing to deal with the consequences?"
I couldn't, and still can't, which is why, despite being super-patriotic in every other respect, I've stuck with those two marques ever since.
on 13 October 2017
the Ford tempo shared nothing with the Sierra except a vague side profile and it was front wheel drive where the Sierra was rear wheel drive. Engineering wise it was a stretched Ford escortAdd a comment