ˆ AZ-Wagon: Mazdaspeak for "Suzuki Wagon R"

tags : az wagon , az-wagon , azwagon , custom style , customstyle , kei , mazda az-wagon , mazdaaz-wagon , rebadge , stingray , suzuki , wagon r , wagonr

Late Sunday night, Mazda issued a press release from the mothership in Japan touting the arrival of the new home-market AZ-Wagon kei car. Those of you who paid attention to Autoblog last week may be experiencing twinges of deja vu as you look at the enclosed photos. Yes, you have seen this car before: the new Mazda AZ-Wagon is simply a rebadged version of the new Suzuki Wagon R, just like it was before. The regular AZ-Wagon is the standard Wagon R, while the AZ-Wagon Custom Style (above) is the Wagon R Stingray. We'd happily sign up for one, but alas, Mazda's Stateside rebadge-o-rama is limited to the Tribute and B-Series.

posted : 10/5/2008 @2:29:20 PM

ˆ 2009 Pontiac G3 Wave: Excitement has left the building

tags : aveo , breaking , g3 , pontiac , rebadge , wave , waveo

For a little while there, it looked like Pontiac was getting its mojo back. The G8 is terrific, the Solstice GXP Coupe is ready to join the roadster, and the even more awesome G8 GXP is waiting in the wings. All rear-drive. All meant to be fun. And then GM goes and does this. Behold, friends, the 2009 Pontiac G3 Wave. Yes, that's an Aveo5 with Poncho nostrils, and it reeks of product strategy that's more 1989 than 2009. Why not just call it G3 Le Mans? You know, in honor of the last Daewoo-sourced trashback that helped turn that whole "We Build Excitement" thing into a punchline. By comparison, this makes the equally distressing Pontiac G5 look like a Corvette ZR1 on the cool meter -- and trust us, this is the only scenario in which you'll ever see those two models mentioned in the same sentence again. The press release after the jump explains that, "More than ever, fuel economy is an important factor in Pontiac's formula of style and performance." In the G3 Waveo, "performance" means red gauge lighting and 106 horsepower channeled through a 5-speed manual or cutting-edge 4-speed automatic. It also gets over 30 mpg highway, so we're supposed to bust out the Veuve Clicquot and celebrate this new era of efficiency at the Pontiac division. Thanks, but we'll skip this party. The G8 and Solstice are genuinely exciting, desirable cars that had restored some luster to the Arrowhead, but this...

posted : 9/24/2008 @11:01:12 PM

ˆ Weekend Photo Fun: Adventures in re-branding

tags : bowtie , ford , funny , identity crisis , identitycrisis , ranger , rebadge , rebrand

Identity crisis? Repressed brand allegiance? People who intentionally rebrand their rides have reasons all their own. Take this pickup I encounted on my drive home yesterday. Maybe the giant bowtie on the tailgate is trying to compensate for something, but size doesn't matter here; there's no hiding the fact that this thing's still a Ford Ranger. Bowtie stickers also get applied to the front fenders, but the proverbial cherry on top revealed itself when I pulled ahead. Yep, that's a genuine gold bowtie badge where the blue oval ought to be. If you want to make your car or truck a member of the transbranded community, all you need is a few badges, some adhesive, a sense of humor, and maybe an ASE certified technician. Hey, everybody's doing it.

posted : 8/8/2008 @7:09:16 PM

ˆ Maximum Bob talks about Invicta and how not to rebadge cars

tags : auto china , auto china 2008 , autochina , autochina2008 , beijing , beijing 2008 , beijing motor show , beijing2008 , beijingautoshow , beijingmotorshow , bob lutz , boblutz , buick invicta , buick invicta concept , buick lacrosse , buickinvicta , buickinvictaconcept , buicklacrosse , gm fastlane blog , gmfastlaneblog , rebadge , rebadging

GM Vice Chairman Bob "Maximum" Lutz published a new post today on the corporate GM Fastlane Blog that addresses the automaker's newest concept that debuted recently at Auto China 2008 in Beijing: the Invicta. The concept heavily hints at what the next-generation Buick LaCrosse will look like, but Bob points out that the global architecture underpinning the vehicle will be the basis of new cars for Chevy, Saab, Opel/Vauxhall and more. In the past, we would've expected those accompanying models to be rebadged versions with different grilles, headlights and taillights, but Bob explains how GM's new global platform sharing process is different than the rebadging of old. In a nutshell, he says that the money saved from sharing common platforms see will be put into making everything that customer's will see - exterior and interior design, specifically - completely different. While it's great to hear Bob talk about how GM finally "gets it" when it comes to producing common products across an empire of brands, it's something that other automakers like VW/Audi have been doing for years while the General kept feeding us "triplets" of every model it made. So kudos to GM for finally getting it, but it took 'em long enough.

posted : 5/2/2008 @2:39:45 PM

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