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Question of the Day: Most heinous act of badge engineering?

Badge engineering, in which one company slaps its emblems on another company's product and sells it, has a long history in the automotive industry. When Sears wanted to sell cars, a deal was made with Kaiser-Frazer and the Sears Allstate was born. Iranians wanted new cars in the 1960s, and the Rootes Group was happy to offer Hillman Hunters for sale as Iran Khodro Paykans. Sometimes, though, certain badge-engineered vehicles made sense only in the 26th hour of negotiations between companies. The Suzuki Equator, say, which was a puzzling rebadge job of the Nissan Frontier. How did that happen? My personal favorite what-the-heck-were-they-thinking example of badge engineering is the 1971-1973 Plymouth Cricket. Chrysler Europe, through its ownership of the Rootes Group, was able to ship over Hillman Avanger subcompacts for sale in the US market. This would have made sense... if Chrysler hadn't already been selling rebadged Mitsubishi Colt Galants (as Dodge Colts) and Simca 1100s as (Simca 1204s) in its American showrooms. Few bought the Cricket, despite its cheery ad campaign. So, what's the badge-engineered car you find most confounding? Chrysler Dodge Automakers Mitsubishi Nissan Suzuki Automotive History question of the day badge engineering question

Junkyard Gem: 1977 Dodge Colt Mileage Maker Coupe

While Ford and GM each had the resources to develop their own Michigan-designed subcompacts for the dawn of the 1970s— the Pinto and Vega, respectively— Chrysler couldn't afford the huge price tag for such a project. Instead, Chrysler's European operations were tapped for a couple of models that sold well enough on the other side of the Atlantic, giving us the Plymouth Cricket (known as the Hillman Avenger in the UK) and the Simca 1204 (aka the Simca 1100 in France). American car shoppers gave those two models the cold shoulder, but then Chrysler found genuine sales success by making a deal with Mitsubishi to sell the Colt Galant with left-hand drive. This became the Dodge Colt, with sales beginning in the 1971 model year. Though the 1971-1978 rear-wheel-drive Colts were once as commonplace as Corollas or B210s on American roads, they have all but disappeared today. That makes today's Junkyard Find, discovered in a Denver-area yard last week, particularly interesting. This car shows signs of having been in the hands of a speed-crazed enthusiast owner, including an aftermarket steering wheel and one-piece racing seats with slots for five-point harnesses. The primer-gray paint is another clue. The rear-wheel-drive Colts were reasonably quick for their time, and they could be made genuinely quick with basic engine upgrades. This Mitsubishi Saturn four-banger has a tube header, hot-rod ignition system, and a two-barrel (Mikuni-made) Solex carburetor. We can assume there's probably some kind of cam upgrade under the valve cover, too. The shifter is gone, but the original transmission in this car was either the base four-speed or optional five-speed manual. A three-speed automatic was available for $270 (about $1,275 today). Later on, front-wheel-drive Colts (and Mitsubishi Mirages) could be bought with the Twin-Stick overdrive rig, which gave drivers eight forward speeds and the opportunity to make Twin-Stick beer taps. The 1977-1978 Dodge Colt two- and four-door sedans were based on the Mitsubishi Lancer and were a bit smaller than the 1971-1977 cars, while the wagon version moved to the Galant Sigma platform. The build tag shows that this car started life as the cheapest 1977 Colt model, the "Mileage Maker" two-door sedan (Dodge dealers called it a coupe, so that's what I'm calling it in the title).

Junkyard Gem: 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse with Lambo Doors

Front-wheel-drive sporty cars with wild body kits and eye-searing graphics became increasingly popular in North America during the 1990s, but it took the enormous mainstream success of the first Fast and Furious movie in 2001 to place bewinged sport compacts with giant tailpipes in every town from Nome to Naples. No doubt due to the narrative-enhancing role of the cop-purchased 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse and its Robo Car Aero Armor body kit in The Fast and the Furious, the second-generation Eclipse (and its Eagle twin, the Talon) built by Diamond Star Motors in Illinois became the car to have by the middle 2000s… and the only way to improve on a full complement of flares, scoops, and wings was the conversion of the doors to use scissors-style aka Lambo hinge mechanisms. You'd think a car so equipped would be sufficiently desirable to stay on the happy side of the boneyard fence (Those are the doors of a billionaire, after all. -Ed), but such was not the case with this '98 in the Denver area. As we all know, there's no point in going to the expense and trouble of installing Lambo doors in your Eclipse if you haven't got a wing big enough to keep a Mitsubishi F-2 fighter plane aloft. Check! I find these graphics a bit too subdued, but then I'd have chosen a Mitsubishi Debonair AMG for customization in the first place. The body kit looks plenty mean, but hard times appear to have befallen this car quite a few years back. A bit over 150,000 miles show on the odometer, which is non-shabby for a DSM product. The engine is the Chrysler-sourced 2.0 DOHC unit originally designed for use in the Neon, rated at 140 horsepower. A 210-horse turbocharged Mitsubishi 2.0 could be had in the 1998 Eclipse/Talon, but the real gone cats added 14,000 horsepower worth of NOSSS. Someone loved this car enough to put plenty of sweat and dollars into it, and I felt saddened to see it come to such a fate. If it had had an automatic transmission, at least I could have consoled myself that it was built entirely for show. Nope, five-speed manual. The aftermarket wheels look rough, but they may have been sold anyway. This car has been crushed by now, but perhaps the Lambo door hardware got sliced out before then. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. So fast, it destroys wholesome farmhouses. The final model year for this generation of Eclipse was 1999.