What Cars Would Have Turned Out Better If Different Brands Had Built Them?

It’s time once again for you to plumb the depths of your piston-power psyche as you ponder a speculative automotive scenario and return a well-honed reply when (pause for dramatic effect) The Autopian Asks!

This time, we’re talking about those great car concepts that fell short of what they could have been (or heck, never even made it to production) with the brands that originally spawned them, but would have been better/great/not garbage if another maker had the opportunity to manufacture the machine in question.

I asked the gang …

Thomas Hundal

The new electric Dodge Charger Daytona is an interesting proposition. Unfortunately, due to recent marketing efforts around V8s and traditional muscle cars, it’s also seeing some serious pushback from the community. However, you know what American car manufacturer could use a big, fast, electric three-door or five-door liftback and doesn’t have the baggage of the Hellcat engine? Chevrolet. Build in the budget for a brand new Chevelle with plenty of power and grand touring sensibilities, and GM would have a halo car for the Ultium platform that isn’t a completely unattainable handbuilt Cadillac.

The Bishop

I still think the Allante is a nice-looking car that never should have been flown by 747 to Detroit to be burdened by Cadillac underpinnings Also, nobody went to a Subaru dealership in 1992 for a $30,000 sport luxury coupe.  SVX was doomed at the start Mazda 929 shoulda been a Jag.  It would have sold.  Again, nobody goes to a Mazda dealer for a big fancy luxury sedan.

Stephen Walter Gossin

The Crossfire should’ve actually been made by Chrysler, rather than brought to showrooms as a restyled Mercedes R170 (first-gen SLK) built by Karmann and badged as a Chrysler. The Chrysler guys could have used whatever plan/parts/chassis they were going to use for the Dodge Razor or Dodge Slingshot (or the other, similar prospects/concepts of the day) and made a car that wouldn’t require you to finagle discontinued $800 keys (In certain cases) from old Mercedes suppliers for a security system nobody supports 10 years after the cars were made om top of a myriad of parts and service-related challenges as a result of the divorce.

Which car (or cars) do you wish had come out of some other brand’s factory? To the comments!

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