With Halloween upon us, you’re no doubt seeing all kinds of amazing costumes on whatever social media channels you frequent. Have you seen the super-clever Transformer costumes that actually transform? Incredible. As I kid, I once dressed up as a pinball machine, with eye slits where the score readout would be. [Ed Note: I’ll ask The Bishop why exactly he decided to be a pinball machine and get back to you. I love it, but it’s such an unusual choice, like dressing up as Asteroids – Pete]
Still, as impressive as getups like this are, you won’t receive much applause if you show up at work dressed as a cyborg in, say, late August. [Ed Note: You will if you work at The Autopian. – Pete]
Cars are the same way. Things that might have been runaway successes today just tanked miserably when they were released years ago. We’ve read much about the Scout recently; this sport utility was dropped by International Harvester in 1980 when the big company realized that off-roaders like this just weren’t popular or profitable. Yes, hindsight is really 20/20 ain’t it?
Also in 1980, American Motors released a line of modified passenger cars with an early all-wheel-drive system and a slightly raised chassis to allow them to do mild overlanding or, at the very least, easily cope with snow and mud that an average car couldn’t. Many buyers scoffed at this look, labeling it the “Hornet on Stilts” because of the AMC car that it was based on. Who, they asked, would buy this odd-looking thing that “crosses over” from a Jeep to a car? Today, it’s apparently everyone, but not back then.
By 1990, aero-looking cars and all-new luxury brands like Lexus, Infiniti and Acura were not just accepted, but desired by consumers. This was not the case five years earlier in the pre-Taurus days. The Ford Sierra XR4 was launched at Lincoln/Mercury dealers in 1985 under a new brand called “Merkur” to a truly befuddled world. Why does it look like a used bar of soap? How do you even pronounce “Merkur?” What is an “Exratee?” Wait, this thing has a turbo four-cylinder? I could get a V8 car for that kind of money!
Now, you’ll be the toast of Radwood if you approach the lot in one of these things, but it’s a bit too late to save what became yet another failed attempt by Bob Lutz to bring European enthusiast-type cars to American brands.
Can you think of more cars that arrived at the party way too early and had to leave way too soon?
In the US, the VW Phaeton was released 3-4 years too early. Affluent people in the market for a car would have lined up if that was on sale during the recession. They could have been driving a hand-built car on a Bentley platform and most people would think it was just some VW.
Speaking of the hornet nowadays how sick would it have been if instead of the blah we got, it was a lifted (and updated) dodge magnum lifted wagon looking thing like the old one.
Pontiac G8.
Cadillac XLR (the engine reputations did NOT help, and it could have used a detuned Corvette engine and destroyed the SC430 in performance still…, but I guess cannibalization of sales would have been an issue). It has issues with the sunroof however…
The ninth generation Pontiac Bonneville, especially the SSEi. Too little too late. Excellent car… For 1987. By the time it came out in 1992 it was already well outpaced by the second generation Ford Taurus SHO (more horsepower at 220HP versus 205HP for the SSEi), Lexus GS (better interior room and more horsepower at 227HP), and Eagle Vision TSi (same advantages as the GS, plus better basic options, all for much cheaper) for the “high tech touring cruiser sedan” subcategory it was dropped into. The ninth generation Bonneville is what the eighth generation Bonneville was supposed to be. Not what it should have been — what it was supposed to be.
But just like the W-bodies came out in 1989 instead of 1985 like they were supposed to, the H-bodies got delayed as well because GM instead spent time and money rebadging Canadian Chevrolets as Pontiacs in a gap measure that turned long term solution. What really bites is that the H-bodies were ready in 1984, but GM was so scared of losing customers over axing the B- and G-bodies that they only let Buick run an H-body LeSabre in 1985 (followed a few months later by Oldsmobile with the Delta 88) for a platform they’d essentially finished designing in 1983. The Pontiac got the benefits of the LeSabre and Delta 88’s testing, but also got the shortest design period out of all of them.
The Eighth generation only ran for four years because it was already late. That cut into what should’ve been the first two or three years of the ninth generation Bonneville. It was another victim of Roger Smith’s deer-in-the-headlights response to the end of the 1970s that stalled what little jittery momentum Tom Murphy instilled into GM in 1977.
We had a champagne gold Ford Sierra estate (Wagon for you yanks,) growing up. It was an absolutely hateful vehicle to own, and didn’t last very long at all. The Cosworth was an incredible variant though, but I imagine it was plagued with all the same kind of issues that the regular one was.
Honda Element / Pontiac Aztek.
Both are really good crossovers that were released before the crossover craze took off.
The element especially is a much more utilitarian crossover than anything out today. If honda brought it back but with normal rear doors it would probably sell extremely well.
Honestly the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice twins. Absolutely fantastic little cars released right before economic downturn.
Infiniti FX. Pretty much everyone has a similar sporty fastback SUV now.
Chevy Avalanche is the answer. Four door trucks weren’t the standard at the time. It offered some different functionality from a typical truck. Still love seeing one on the road on rare occasions.
Rare occasions? You can’t sneeze without hitting one in Florida.
Kia Borrego and Pontiac G8, 2 different vehicles but largely for the same reason. The Kia a competitor to the Explorer, Grand Cherokee, and maybe Pathfinder and 4Runner of that day. The G8 a direct competitor to the Charger. Both vehicles released to market just in time for the economy to tank during the Great Recession and gas to skyrocket to or past $4.00/gallon. Naturally the death of Pontiac was a condition of receiving a government handout for GM. For Kia it was a brief period in time when nobody wanted an SUV for a change.
The Chevrolet Volt. People are clamoring for this type of vehicle now and GM killed it 5 years ago. Those were fantastic cars from first hand experience.
AMC fuckin Eagle. God I love that car.
I’d like to nominate the SUX 6000… for a car from the near future, it sure looked like some early 80’s garbage with ugly plastic appendages stuck on. Much like KN Tasman.
I’m gonna say the Studebaker Avanti. The company was so much on its last legs then, but clearly the car had great halo potential being how it stuck around after the company that made it collapsed.
Some people here said the Monaro-based GTO’s. But those were always going to be a 3-year deal because of crash standards. I will say the G8- It was just getting good, giving pontiac a cool flagship. There was going to be a Ute. Then the recession, and poncho died.
Is there any answer more correct than the pontiac gto? They’d finally gotten back into the groove, they had an awesome product, and GM, who’d gotten used to sowing but not reaping, couldn’t find it in them to look beyond one quarter ahead so it was dumped. And we never even got to see the Ute version…
Anything with a Jatco CVT. The hate was undeserved. The world wasn’t ready for it.
Someday, they will be.
I submit the Saabaru. For those who forgot, the 2005/2006 Saab 9-2X is a Subaru Impreza WRX restyled by Saab. It looks more refined, inside and out. I think it could have sold well in the present era. Subaru has gotten much more popular, but is still known for rugged styling. I’m sure some of their customers would prefer a more refined version.
They gave a similar treatment to the Chevy Trailblazer (Saab 9-7X, as you can read here on the Autopian!). But both products launched while Saab was close to bankruptcy, and did not get much exposure.
Given Subaru’s increased prominence and desirability, the refined 9-2X just might work today.
First one that comes to mind is the Subaru Brat. Of course if its modern interpretation is the Subaru Baja, then let’s forget that one. Dodge Rampage and Volkswagen (Rabbit) Pickup would be runners up.
Two minivans also come to mind: Vanagon Syncro Westfalia and Toyota Van 4wd. Both of these vans are mini-versions of the Sprinter 4×4 that is so popular with the overlander crowd. They had the Subaru Outback look before the Outback existed. Today’s AWD minivans don’t seem to be trying to appealing to that crowd.
I really liked the Suzuki Kizashi, but no one wanted or bought them. I really hoped this took off because if Suzuki were still in the US, they could have brought us the Swift and Jimny.
There’s a team from Wisconsin that races one of these in Lemons. Despite the CVT, that thing just refuses to die race after race, year after year. Story behind it is something like they run a dealership and got it as a trade in, but there was an issue with the title or something so they couldn’t re-sell it, scrap it, etc.
Kizashi’s were extremely popular here in Erie, PA, at the time our local Suzuki dealer was the number one sales Suzuki dealer in the country. Kizashi’s and SX4s were everywhere, then 5 years later the basically didn’t exist, I’m not sure where they went. It was the perfect car for this market as we got a lot of snow and they were the cheapest way into an AWD vehicle, plus they looked good and were quite capable with excellent fuel economy. I think if Suzuki has stuck around they could have done great riding the AWD craze as well as sell tons of Jimnys.
I lived in Erie from 2016-2020 and remember there being a freakish amount of Suzukis on the road. I also remember a ton of Nissans and Mitsubishis. Since 2016 was obviously a number of years after Suzuki left the US, where was the Suzuki dealer and what did they become?
I submit the Lincoln Blackwood. Released 10-15 years later, this would have been the ultimate suburban cowboy vehicle. A decently executed luxury truck that the world just wasn’t ready for.
They did try a decade later with the Mark LT which was also a failure until they finally realized that the buyers of luxury trucks want the plausible deniability of “It’s just a [Platinum] F150”.
The Mark LT was nothing more than a high-trim F-150 with a Star logo. The Blackwood at least had the image of being different from an F-150. Carpeted bed, wood laminate and an optional nav system at least gave the illusion of not being a badge-engineered F-150. I think that would have resonated in today’s market better than it did 20 years ago.
I don’t, because the reason the Mark LT and Escalade EXT failed still persists today. People love their luxury trucks…but they want the blue-collar badge. Never mind that an F-150 Limited, Sierra 1500 Denali, Ram 1500 Tungsten or Tundra Capstone is far, far nicer than any of those luxury-badged trucks ever dreamed about being…they still have Ford, GMC, Ram and Toyota badges on them, which makes them approachable and respectable. All three of the domestic automakers and Toyota have internalized that important lesson.
Had the Jaguar X-Type been released 6 months prior to the Ford Mondeo/Fusion rather than 6 months after – it would not have been perceived as a “Fancy Ford”.
I believe the narrative would have flipped to “Look at all the Jaguar bits you can get for the price of a Ford”
This same methodology could have served Lincoln’s perception in the market as well since all the way back to 1969 – When the new Fords and Mercurys rolled out an entire year before the Lincolns.
Lambo LM002 Offroader, if they could have reintroduced that when the Hummer H2 Fad kicked in, they could have easily been a contender.
EW, the Merkur is still atrocious.
based upon this sight and other youtubers , the aztek is mking a comeback, but still trash with it’s 3.4 GM V6 and lackluster offroad chops.
The original Chrysler Airflows were decent cars, just a bit too ahead of the times.
Upvote for the Airflow. Aztek, no so much.
If it would’ve retained the sierra cosworths trick all wheel drive system i feel like it would’ve been fantastic. It was a rally champion while we simply got the rear wheel drive version.
But it was pretty ugly. I know in the UK it was a darling, but they really could have done a bit more to clean up the styling to appeal to this market a lot more.
I am going to submit the Plymouth Prowler.
The truth was that the V6 was the best option at the time. Chrysler’s iron LA engines were physically huge and could not have reasonably fit into the Prowler’s cone-shaped nose without throwing abandon to safety standards and other real-world constraints. They were also heavy and didn’t make much power, especially compared to the V6, which was quite potent and modern for what it was.
However, the HEMI that arrived a half-decade later, was physically much more compact and theoretically could have fit, with respect to production-car realities, and I guarantee you Chrysler would have done exactly that. And it would have been a Chrysler-branded car, too, since Plymouth would have been gone by then.
People, especially in the intended market, made a huge deal about Chrysler’s new hot-rod roadster not having a V8…and that cast a serious shadow over its desirability, then and now. But had it arrived some 5 years later, they wouldn’t have had to make that compromise.
Likewise, had the Prowler come a decade or more later, people would have been ready to accept a V6, especially one with turbos or a supercharger, in a halo car. Hell, Ford sold the latest GT with an EcoBoost V6, and got away with it.
those Prowler sixes had massive heads. they were still not a great fit, but they did make more HP than the 360 at the time and the size of the vehicle did not necessitate v8 torque to get moving. However the prowler was a paper queen, looked hot rod, did not make hot rod sounds and on paper seemed to be 2 cylinders short.
Glad I looked in comments section 1st. Prowler is right answer. Hemi was still a few years out. No one really wants a V6 in an American hot rod like this.
The howler concept did have a v8, but was the 4.7 engine.
Perhaps.. if they woulda made that too and had production along with the prowler, it mightve kept them going longer, maybe allowed for the pronto and the spyder to come to fruition, with just maybe, the demon/copperhed concepts.
I mean, who’d say no to a convertible hotrod truck before the ssr came to be.
Let’s go back in time, shall we? It’s 1929 and the stock market is booming…for now. Duesenberg had a supercharged straight 8 coming out that would make 300 HP, Cadillac had the V-16 just about ready to go, and Lincoln was working on their V-12. All just in time for that booming stock market to crash, banks went insolvent, and the Great Depression hits.
For that matter – The Cord 810/812.
Terrific car – completely wrong for the time.