Badge engineering: Why rebadging is like plastic surgery for cars.

Today we’re exploring the under-discussed world of automotive badge engineering.

Ever catch yourself doing a double-take when you see a car that looks oddly familiar? Maybe it looks like a Subaru, but it has a Toyota logo. So it must be a Toyota. Right?

Rebadging is a scheme where twin cars are separated at birth and sold under completely different brands. The practice is relatively unknown, and far bigger than people realize.

In this issue, we’ll uncover the history of rebadging, its driving forces, and some of the most interesting examples out there — including one car company which has taken rebadging to a whole new level.

It’s time to peek behind the curtain and learn how the auto industry really operates.

Let’s take a ride 👇

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What is rebadging?

Sometimes auto manufacturing is about doing something new, and sometimes it’s about making the most of what you already have.

Put simply, rebadging is when an automaker uses the same car under different names.

While it’s a cost-effective strategy for automakers, it has a complex and controversial impact on brand perception and automotive innovation.

When executed well, it allows companies to expand their market reach through what is essentially a hidden licensing agreement.

When poorly executed, it can lead to brand confusion, erode trust, and damage a brand’s reputation.

History of badge engineering

One of the earliest examples of rebadging goes back to 1926, with the ​Nash Motors Company​. They had this brand new car, the Ajax, which was selling pretty well.

But in 1926 the head honcho, Charles W. Nash, decided to simplify things. He wanted to focus just on their Nash brand.

So they took all those Ajax cars, gave them a makeover, and simply changed the name to Nash Light Six.

At first, other companies were slow to follow suit. Back then, the automobile industry had far more competition. The big players hadn’t yet crystallized, and there was a surge of new car companies, each striving to establish themselves and outmaneuver rivals. Sharing designs between brands was counterintuitive.

By the mid-1900s, you had these giant companies like GM popping up & creating multiple brands all under one roof. Chevy, Buick, Cadlliac — there was something for everyone.

And they quickly figured out that rebadging could be very useful. They could maximize what they had and appeal to different types of buyers while saving tons of cash.

Take the ​Chevy Corvair​ for example. When they designed it, Pontiac (which was owned by GM) thought about releasing their own version — the ​Pontiac Polaris​, which would be identical.

They ended up going with a slightly different design, but the idea stuck. They realized they could appeal to brand loyalty while saving money.

This wasn’t just a US thing either. Over in Britain, the ​British Motor Corporation​ (BMC) was big on rebadging too — especially with the Mini Cooper.

Depending on where you lived, the Mini was sold under ​all sorts of different names​. Austin Mini, Morris Mini, Riley Elf, and half a dozen more.

Same car, different badges, maybe a tweak here and there. A Mini Cooper in disguise.

Rebadging really kicked into high gear during the 1980s — the era of globalization and huge car conglomerates. These conglomerates began to acquire multiple brands, creating a structure where badge engineering made economic sense.

Prior to the 80s, each division in a company maintained separate tooling, engines, and interiors, ensuring some level of distinction between their products.

However, once globalization took off and car companies spread manufacturing around the world, rebadging was the perfect way to quickly adapt cars to local tastes and rules. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Famous examples of rebadging

Okay, you may be thinking, “What’s the big deal here?”

Don’t ice cream companies make the same ice cream in a bunch of different flavors? Don’t Proctor & Gamble own both Tide & Gain, which are basically the same product? Isn’t this type of brand creation pretty standard?

Well, yes and no.

While automotive rebadging is effectively just offering variations of the same product, here’s where it gets really interesting..

Badge engineering isn’t just practiced within the same company — designs are also shared across companies!

One great example of this is the Isuzu Oasis. In the mid-90s, Isuzu wanted to get into the minivan game quickly, but they had never made one before, and didn’t want to engineer from scratch. So they partnered with Honda to ​rebadge the Honda Odyssey​.

It worked out great. Isuzu brought a minivan to market quickly without any development headaches. They also got to “keep their brand.” Honda earned a fat licensing fee. And the public never found out. Win-win!

Another cool partnership was between Subaru and Toyota.

In the early 2010s, the two Japanese icons joined forces to make an affordable, fun sports car.

Subaru, known for its ​rally racing​ history, brought the base and the engine. And Toyota, known for its ​reliability​, brought the engineering magic.

The result was the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT 86 (sold as the Scion FR-S in the US).

The most rebadged car ever

Isuzu is a big fan of rebadging. The most rebadged car of all time is the ​Isuzu Gemini​.

This thing went by 27 different names around the world.

This extensive rebadging is attributed to General Motors’ close collaboration with Isuzu in the 1980s, aiming to create “world cars” — economical compact vehicles suitable for a wide range of markets.

The Isuzu Gemini was rebadged as:

1. Isuzu Gemini: Japan and New Zealand
2. Holden Gemini: Australia, Indonesia, and New Zealand
3. Chevrolet Chevette: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, US, Venezuela
4. Pontiac 2000: US
5. Isuzu Impulse: US
6. Pontiac Acadian: Canada
7. Asüna Sunfire: Canada
8. Passport Optima: Canada
9. Opel Kadett: Germany, Western Europe, and the US
10. Opel K-180: Argentina
11. Amisa Condor: Ecuador
12. Chevrolet San Remo: Ecuador and Venezuela
13. Vauxhall Sintra: UK
14. Saehan Bird and Max: South Korea
15. Grumett 250M: Uruguay
16. …and 12 more

When rebadging goes horribly wrong

Occasionally, this strategy can backfire spectacularly, and damage a brand’s reputation. The best example is the ​Cadillac Cimarron​ — a.k.a., the car that wanted to be a Cadillac.

In 1985, Cadillac was feeling the heat from European luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes. They need a car to compete — preferably something entry level. And they needed it fast.

So did they import a sleek luxury car and rebadge it? Not quite.

Instead, they took the Chevy Cavalier — a “good enough” car, but definitely not luxury — and tried to give it the Cadillac treatment. They added leather, a fancy grille, a Cadillac badge, and priced it higher.

It didn’t go over well. Buyers weren’t fooled. They might not have known exactly how they got bamboozled, but they knew something was wrong.

Instead of boosting Cadillac’s sales, the Cimarron contributed to a huge decline in Cadillac’s market share. From 1980 through 1998, Cadillac saw its market share drop by almost 50%.

The debacle cast a long shadow over Cadillac’s subsequent attempts to introduce smaller, more affordable models.

Today it’s considered one of the most ill-conceived and controversial examples of badge engineering in the American automotive industry.

Does rebadging happen on the high end?

Can you slap a luxury badge on any car and call it high-end?

Luxury companies rebadge for all sorts of reasons, just like mid-market brands. Heck, the ​Lexus LS​ is basically just a Toyota Camry. And the Infiniti M45 was just a ​Nissan Gloria​.

But it gets more complicated the more upmarket you go.

Remember the ​Aston-Martin Cygnet​? Aston-Martins are big cars, but they wanted to build something smaller and more appropriate for Europe’s narrow streets.

So instead of building from scratch, they teamed up with Toyota, taking the Toyota IQ, a car known for being good on gas, but not exactly a head-turner, and basically put an Aston-Martin logo on it.

So did it work?

No, not really. Even though it donned an Aston-Martin logo, people weren’t sold on a small luxury city car with a high price tag.

It didn’t help destroy the brand the way the Cadillac Cimarron did, but in the end it sort of fizzled out.

A car brand that doesn’t make cars?

So if car companies are regularly rebadging with each other anyways, what’s to stop a new company from taking an existing vehicle, rebadging it, and creating a new car brand out of thin air?

As it turns out, there is a company doing exactly this. It’s a South Korean company called ​Brenthon​.

This company takes Hyundais and Kias, and for a price, they’ll give you new badges, grills, trim, to transform your car into a Brenthon.

To be clear, Brenthon is not a tuning company like ​BRABUS​, which applies enough modifications to a car that it warrants a completely new name.

Instead, Brenthon focuses on transforming existing Kia and Hyundai models into “Brenthon cars” by swapping out highly visible components & creating a new, ​superficial brand identity​ for these vehicles.

That’s right — they’ve managed to become a recognized car brand without actually making any cars!

Tariff engineering

Tariffs are big news these days. President Biden recently placed a whopping ​100% tariff on electric vehicles from China​. And if elected President, Donald Trump wants to impose a ​universal tariff of 10-20%​ on goods from all countries.

But companies often use trickery to get around tariffs.

During our ​investor trip to Mexico​, we learned how “nearshoring” is on fire, as US manufacturers are moving production away from China and towards Mexico — specifically Monterrey, where Tesla announced that ​Gigafactory Mexico​ will be constructed.

Nearshoring has helped Mexico overtake China as the leading supplier of goods to the US.

But the lesser-told story here is what China is doing. See, a lot of the increase in Mexican exports is not from Mexican firms, but rather Chinese companies who simply ​moved production to Mexico​.

And there’s another variation of this phenomenon that will blow your mind: The Subaru BRAT.

The ​Subaru BRAT​ (Bi-Drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter) was a unique and funky compact truck produced from 1978 to 1987 in the US.

It was designed specifically to counter the infamous “​chicken tax​,” which created a 25% tariff on imported light-duty trucks in the US. This tariff significantly burdened imported trucks, making them less appealing to Americans.

However, Subaru found a clever workaround through what’s known tariff engineering.

By incorporating rear-facing jump seats in the BRAT’s cargo bed, they successfully reclassified it as a “passenger car“, subject to a much lower tariff rate of just 2.5%

This strategic move allowed Subaru to market the BRAT at a more competitive price point and gain a foothold in the US market.

Closing thoughts

Rebadging is more than just a quick fix; it’s become a global strategy for auto makers.

But is it smart business in the long run? Or is it misleading to customers who are loyal to brands? It all feels like a bit of a trick.

Then again, the public doesn’t realize what’s going on. And even if they did know, would they really care in an era where ​all cars look the same​?

Regardless, expect this practice to continue in the future:

• Volkswagen is working on this electric platform called ​MEB​. This platform will be the base for a ton of electric cars across all their brands: VW, Audi, Skoda. Even Ford is in on it!
• Rivian has also ​partnered with Ford​ to help with manufacturing, and even use some of Ford’s hybrid tech in their vehicles.

Developing electric car tech is expensive. With badge engineering agreements, everyone can share the cost, get those EVs out faster, and maybe even make them more affordable for everyone.

To many buyers, a car brand is more than just a badge; it represents the history, the dedication to quality, the experience, the technology, and the feeling it gives you.

Ultimately, a brand is a “promise.” And in an industry built on aspirations and emotions, betraying customer trust is a costly mistake.

As Cadillac learned the hard way, once that trust is broken, it’s incredibly difficult to get it back. 🚗

That’s it for today!

See you next time,
Stefan

Disclosures

• This issue was written and researched by Stefan von Imhof, and sponsored by The Car Crowd.
• Thank you to Altea member Tom Ellsworth for inspiring this issue.
• Neither Alts nor ​Altea​ has any current holdings in any companies mentioned in this issue, but we are preparing to invest in ​The Ferrari Collection​.