Cadillac’s Escalade is getting the same treatment, too, according to Car and Driver. Both moves make a lot of sense; the Escalade has always kind of been its own thing within the Cadillac lineup, even with a unique name when the rest of the brand went to stuff like XT5 and ATS; plus, America loves trucks and SUVs, so more of those will print money for GM. The Camaro is a more interesting proposition. Everyone knows that name. But the current, sixth-generation Camaro has been a sales disaster, the poster child for the declining sports car market. GM might as well use that valuable name, styling and history for something else, purists be damned. Plans for the Camaro brand could include an electric coupe and convertible, another more high-end sports car, and a performance crossover; I’d put my money on options one and three, personally, but this is all “under evaluation,” as C/D says. It’s an interesting thought experiment and it brings me to this question: What car, or cars, deserve to be their own brand? (And hopefully in a more successful way than poor Edsel, pictured up top.)
We’re already seeing automakers do this more and more. GM, of course, has huge plans for “Corvette” as a standalone brand. SEAT’s Cupra nameplate is becoming that VW Group’s performance brand in certain markets; I saw ads for Cupra all over the place when I was in Mexico City recently. Ram split off from Dodge years ago. The Grand Wagoneer doesn’t wear a Jeep badge. And the Ford Mustang Mach-E is kind of doing this; I haven’t heard if more Mustang-branded models are coming beyond the EV crossover and the traditional coupe, but I wouldn’t be shocked if things go that way.
Let’s use Toyota as an example here. The smart-brain play, an idea that came from our own Thomas Hundal in Autopian Slack this morning, is to turn Land Cruiser into a brand and give Americans a bunch of weather-ready SUVs of multiple sizes and shapes to enjoy. You know that would do well—I doubt Akio’s worried about putting his grandkids through college, but a Land Cruiser brand would ensure they’re squared away. But I woke up and chose violence this morning instead, so here’s my suggestion: make Supra a brand. I think the current Supra is a better car than people give it credit for, but I still recognize its many flaws. If people still aren’t happy, Toyota could Supra a bunch of stuff—another Supra flagship coupe, a Supra performance crossover, a bigger Supra performance crossover, a Supra performance minivan, you name it. Make Supra the Japanese performance brand—think Lexus, but it wants to punch you in the throat. I could get behind that. Your turn. What car deserves a family of like-minded cars of its own to hang out with? The 2023 Subaru WRX Miraculously Only Costs $31,625
Big In Japan: 1982 Toyota Crown Super Deluxe vs 1997 Suzuki Alto Works Turbo F Limited ie/s A Professional Car Designer Explains What Makes The Honda e So Wonderful This Was The Best-Looking Car At The LA Auto Show Made By An Energy Infrastructure Company Presently, Cadillac has decided on two future EV models branded as Lyriq and Celesestiq. Note the presence of the ‘iq” at the end of each of these names. GM would be well served by rebranding all future Caddies simply as ‘IQ.” The marque IQ is simple, catchy and rather smart in a clean double entendre sort of way. Likewise, at one point in our country’s history American presidents were admired and held in high esteem. Well, no more. Time to move on. Lincoln needs to go. Ford already has a history with the previously used model name of “Futura.” This would be an ideal name for its new EV marque. You heard it here first! Or, end the silly experiment and fold Ram back into Dodge, one way or another. Ram’s success isn’t because they Spun off Ram and distanced themselves from dodge. Rams success is because in 2009 they redesigned the ram and it was actually a better truck than the competition. It caught on. I really don’t think anyone is buying the Mach E because of the mustang name. Moreover, I think it could have been such a better car if they would have just designed it as the next Flex. I also don’t buy into this whole design language thing. I feel like they’re partially using these spin-offs to break free from established brand design themes. Look at Kia and Hyundai. They seem to just build whatever they think would be badass and proudly throw their badges on it. And guess what? They’re KILLING IT. The Corvette is a special car for Chevy. It would be a shame to see it on a “sporty” SUV. Oh? DO tell! First things first the Jeeps should come with Dana 44s front and rear at the minimum. Standardization should cut down on costs. Get rid of the aluminum BS that is causing lots of dissimilar metal corrosion, it kills Land Rovers all the time and it will kill Jeeps. Carpet is not an option. It’s a Jeep. Seats are waterproof by default, it’s a Jeep. The Jeep Wrangler/Gladiator could be made into so many things. It could be a new FC with a short stubby hood. The Gladiator platform could be used to make a Suburban type extended length SUV via deleting the bed and putting on a new body. The Wranglers and the Gladiators would be a great basis for a new 4X4 van. Bring back 2WD Jeeps like the old DJ series. The savings from having no transfer case and no driven front axle could easily pay for a new beefy dana 44 in the rear as standard, and it would allow you to have a very tight turning circle, or you could option it with a bolt on electric straight axle that would drive the front wheels. In doing so you’d have greater efficiency, AWD, while avoiding the complication of a traditional hybrid setup. Long bed Gladiators obviously. “Compact” Wrangler pickups to compete with the new FWD unibody pickups. Electric drivetrain option, that way you can get ANY model with an electric drivetrain, not just a specific model like how Jeep does their Hybrid Wranglers that you can only get in a 4 door variant. Range extender optional. Honestly I wonder how much money Jeep would save long term by getting rid of all the other platforms and just putting all that money into further developing the Wrangler and the Gladiator platforms. The Wrangler and Gladiator are the halo that sells all the Compasses, Libertys, etc, and brings people in for the Cherokees, Grand Cherokees and Wagoneers. It’s the Wrangler off-road credentials that sell the ones that are actually decent but not great to drive on-road. Economies of scale would reduce the price of the Wranglers/Gladiators and with further development of the platform you could make them pretty comfy with the proper options. The only two things I think the platform is severely lacking is a heavy duty frame variant and an IFS variant (because Jeep doesn’t make DJ style Jeeps anymore). It wouldn’t be all that hard to make a prerunner style long travel Jeep Wrangler provided they have a proper IFS setup for it which would make it more comfortable to drive in than most cars on road and off road. Jeep moving from a Commercial vehicle market to a consumer vehicle market is arguably the dumbest decision they could have made and sadly they made it. Now you gotta spend ~$45K at the minimum to get a New Jeep with Dana 44s front and rear. 😉 https://youtu.be/JFeZz6U-cG8 The main issue is that branding can’t lead. The great car marques and models were built on the back of excellent products. When you try and bundle a bunch of crapola cars under the auspice of a great model’s brand, you might get a temporary sales boost, but customers will figure it out. Now instead of being two separate models in customer heads, the fortunes of all those models are tied. And by the way — it will always be crap cars bundled under these sub-brands, because good cars don’t need to ride on the coattails of better models. None… not a single one. And while on the subject, Ram trucks should be folded back under the Dodge name. They should never have been separated from Dodge in the first place. Then, another weird take of mine is to split the Mini brand in two: rename Mini’s current lineup to “Maxi”, and introduce an actual A/B segment supermini called “Mini” Then, based on the trim level, each car gets a suffix badge: “-Cooper” is returned to just the “sporty” trims, (also the roadster has to be called “Roadcester”) The enlarged crossover remains the “-Countryman”, with the clubman renamed to “-Traveller”, “-Van” is all that’s needed for the cheap commercial trims, “-Moke” could even be revived for either a wacky Torchinskian beach buggy, or more cynically, another crossover variant. Then, to get really wacky, either “-Wolseley, -Vanden Plas or -Princess” could potentially become a line of tarted-up luxury versions with a goofy chromed front grille and a stumpy saloon bodystyle, even a hackney carriage bodystyle is a possibility.
