Car names that got dropped, for no apparent reason

[Iklwa]

What is it with major car manufacturers deciding to do away with the very models that built their company in the first place?

Toyota had the biggest selling car of all time with the Corolla. If you mentioned Toyota, you thought of the Corolla, yet they made the decision to drop the name everywhere bar specialist retailers in Japan. Why?

Ford's Escort was a hugely successful car in the UK market, but when it started to lose ground on it's competitors, instead of releasing a completely updated new Escort they decide to drop the name entirely.

Mazda user their 626 name for years, and that was what you knew their mid range saloon as, but they dropped that too, no doubt trying to refresh their image.

Surely dropping the biggest selling, most widely known model in your range is a bad idea?

You don't see VW dropping the Golf name (can you imagine?!), or Porsche deciding the 911 name needs updating. I don't even think Honda would drop the Civic name (though they probably should), yet some massive names of automotive history are resigned to the bin for no apparent reason.

Some manufacturers seem able to make the most of their heritage by using the name and updating it, keeping it class leading and developing a niche. Toyota and Ford had all the ingredients to do the same, but somewhere along the line decided to take a left turn and leave the heritage behind. Any other massive names I've missed?

[C.A.R.]

A lot of those cars you mention are the constantly-refreshed White Goods models manufacturers turn out.

Changing from
Vectra to Insignia
Escort to Focus
Nova to Corsa (They should've given the 'Adam' the Nova model name!)

It makes potential buyers think it was something much fancier, and they instantly forget the woeful cars that came before and with it any bad previous experiences. It's marketing / branding at a very basic level, however there are some which I'd like to see come back-

Calibra - low-slung coupé version of the Insignia VXR?

Celica - (could have used the GT86 for that name?)

[kambites]

Two-door 3-series to 4-series springs to mind as a recent one.

[lamboman100]

Low-end sub-brands like Corolla and Escort drag down the mother-brands. So they get nixed and replaced with (theoretically) fancier ones.

[Mandat]

I don't know about other manufacturers, but Vauxhall changed their models to be consistent with the Opel models being sold on the continent:

Nova -> Corsa
Cavalier -> Vectra

Conversely, the European Opel Kadett became the Opel Astra, taking the Vauxhall model name.

[pits]

Well Nova is Spanish for Not Going and to be fair they just brought it into line with the European models

[HonestIago]

Subaru Impreza

[OllieC]

Nissan Cedric

Mazda Bongo Friendee

I'm doing this wrong

Escort was dropped I imagine because the mk5/6 was so st, and the focus has been a resounding success for ford, job well done.

[sebhaque]

The Skyline name. I used to love that.
(note: that wky Infiniti Skyline doesn't count)

ETA: I could actually see the Skyline name coming back in a few years. As the GT-R develops its own brand name and becomes bigger and more hyper, the Skyline name could be used on something smaller and a bit more evisceral - the 4C of the Nissan world, if you would.

[vtecyo]

Iklwa said:

trying to refresh their image.

There's your answer.

[daemon]

vtecyo said:

Iklwa said:

trying to refresh their image.

There's your answer.

+1

They've decided that a particular name has gone out of fashion or sounds too "old".

[r11co]

OllieC said:

Escort was dropped I imagine because the mk5/6 was so st.

It was not st. Excellent underpinnings very badly marketed.

The thing you have to remember about a car name is that for the most part it is a product entirely of the marketing department. Car names get changed to leave the reputation of the previous name in the past, usually because it has grown up with a certain generation of purchasers that the next generation of would-be purchasers the manufacturers are targeting do not want to associate with.

This is why the Opel Kadett name was dropped in Europe in favour of Astra (as per the Vauxhall equivalent) because the Kadett had the reputation of being bought by old men who wear hats when they drive.

Vauxhall achieved the same thing a generation of car earlier when the Chevette name was dropped.

For a car name to survive it has to have an appeal that breaks those sorts of boundaries (think MINI or Golf - bought by all ages).

Edited by r11co on Friday 21st March 12:59

[mnkiboy]

r11co said:

OllieC said:

Escort was dropped I imagine because the mk5/6 was so st.

It was not st.

The first release of the Mk5 was a dire car. Before the mechanical updates and release of the Zeta/Zetec engines it was widely regarded as being the worst in class. The Escort name was tarnished from that point forward.

Ford did the right thing by dropping the Escort name. The change of name had already been very succesful going from Sierra to Mondeo 5 years earlier.

[Iklwa]

That's fair enough that they want to distance themselves from previous cars that may be perceived as a mistake, but there have been some pretty dire Golfs, and BMW 3 series, yet those names are synonymous with the brand, and by keeping them, they seem to create a sort of sub market within a specific category.

I can understand some of it, but surely if you have produced a bad model of an Escort for example, the best approach is to produce a fantastic one, and still keep the heritage of the name.

Definitely agree with the GT86 one, that should have been a Celica, then they should have taken it rallying.

Some manufacturers stick with the name and weather the storm, and ultimately can use the heritage associated with it to get more sales, surely a better practise then saying "we built something so bad, we're never going to call another car that name again", hardly inspires confidence.

[OllieC]

r11co said:

Excellent underpinnings

[RizzoTheRat]

Iklwa said:

Toyota had the biggest selling car of all time with the Corolla. If you mentioned Toyota, you thought of the Corolla, yet they made the decision to drop the name everywhere bar specialist retailers in Japan.

Is that a recent thing? I know they've not been in the UK for a while but I had a new corolla as a hire car in south Africa recently, and I thought they were still on sale in the US too?

[Hooli]

mnkiboy said:

r11co said:

OllieC said:

Escort was dropped I imagine because the mk5/6 was so st.

It was not st.

The first release of the Mk5 was a dire car. Before the mechanical updates and release of the Zeta/Zetec engines it was widely regarded as being the worst in class. The Escort name was tarnished from that point forward.

Ford did the right thing by dropping the Escort name. The change of name had already been very succesful going from Sierra to Mondeo 5 years earlier.

Escorts went wrong at the Mk3, then downhill even further with the Mk4 Fisher Price dash.

[P-Jay]

Ford dropped Escort, because by the time they'd given up on it, it was a sub-bargain basement horror story of vehicle that was about as desirable as leprosy AND because, whilst it looks mainstream now the Focus looked like a spaceship when they first wheeled it out, not many people believed it would actually look like the concept when it finally arrived but it did. - Clarkson did a funny little sketch walking through a pool type thing on a trade stand mouth wide open at how other worldly it looked and for the time pretty bloody hansom, there's no way they'd saddle that with the Escort name.

Porsche almost dropped the 911 completely in the 70's or 80's didn't they? I'm almost certain they stopped using the name '911' for a long time too, but everyone kept calling them 911 anyway.

The rest I would imagine depends on what you might want to do and weather you want your new car associated with the old one - Ford almost called the Probe Capri, some people will tell you that they didn't because some bearded types moaned it was FWD and not a 'real' Capri and that's why they didn't, but the truth is by the 90's the Capri was associated 70's and about as cool as putting on a spash of Brut.

[Mr Gearchange]

OllieC said:

r11co said:

Excellent underpinnings

No laughing matter.
Escorts with excellent underpinnings charge in excess of £200 per hour.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Anyone seen a Ford with a "Ghia" badge recently?

Or how about a nice "Vanden Plas"?