This is what GM has done for decades. This is also what British Leyland (owner of Jaguar and Land Rover for years) failed to do. At one point in the seventies BL had cars in the mid sized saloon market including the Morris Marina, Austin Allegro, Austin Maxi and Triumph Dolemite, and they all had unique platforms and engines. Ditto the larger saloons by Austin, Rover and Triumph.
Triumph spent lots of money building their own 3.0 V8 for the Stag even though Rover had a fantastic 3.5 V8 already, and the Triumph engines unreliability doomed the Stag.
Jaguar engineers developed a new XJ range and deliberately made the engine bay too narrow to take the Rover V8 since they had decided not to use their V12, only straight six's, and they didn't want BL forcing them to fit a Rover engine. Then BMW bought out a V12, Mercedes bought out a V12 and Jaguar had a brand new model that they couldn't fit their V12 in...

czetie: Flint Ironstag: This is what GM has done for decades. This is also what British Leyland (owner of Jaguar and Land Rover for years) failed to do. At one point in the seventies BL had cars in the mid sized saloon market including the Morris Marina, Austin Allegro, Austin Maxi and Triumph Dolemite, and they all had unique platforms and engines. Ditto the larger saloons by Austin, Rover and Triumph.
Triumph spent lots of money building their own 3.0 V8 for the Stag even though Rover had a fantastic 3.5 V8 already, and the Triumph engines unreliability doomed the Stag...

BL was, IIRC, even worse than that. Not only did they studiously avoid sharing engines and transmissions, whenever they *did* do sharing, they took it to the other extreme of badge-engineering. Growing up I recall my father having a succession of Austin Maxis (Maxii? Maxen?) as company cars, because the other choices were even worse, and there was a Morris that was absolutely identical apart from the badges.

Oh, and who could forget the Austin/Morris/Wolseley Princess?

I saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps the most impressive part of the period setting was the number of BL cars that were still moving -- although now that I think about it, it's possible that the crew just gave a Morris Marina a good shove from off-screen and then filmed it as it rolled across the shot...

Yeah, they made some hideous badge engineered cars, like the Mini with a boot Riley and a "luxury" Vanden Plas version of the Allegro. And the TR7 was based on the Marina IIRC.

But that was their failing. They either didn't do it or did it so pathetically. There were too many divisions who hated each other and refused to cooperate, and no strong CEO to knock heads together. A V8 Rover P6 with a new skin and a Jaguar badge would have been fantastic. The Stag with the Rover V8 (originally a Chevy engine) would have been fast and reliable. The Maxi was years ahead of its time being a five door hatchback, but they screwed it up. Ditto the Dolemite Sprint which had a twin cam 16v engine.
Even the Range Rover spent the first ten years of its life without an automatic option or five doors. Several independent companies offered conversions for both but BL just weren't interested in meeting such an obvious demand.

And a fantastic big Rover design was killed because Jaguar didn't want the competition.

And BMW continued the trend after they bought BL. They killed the more powerful version of the MGF because they didn't want it to compete against their Z3.

padraig: The most ridiculous thing I've ever seen on the street is this :



Yes, this is an Aston Martin, an Aston Martin Cygnet to be precise, which is actually a rebadged Toyota iQ. It sells for 48.000 dollars, almost three times the price of the iQ. The only changes are tweaks to the exterior and interior.

Wow, it's like a modern day Cadillac Cimmaron.

Re: Headline.

WUT?

BHShaman: LandRover International versions are still true to their heritage

I'm the only person I've ever met in the US who had a V-8 Discovery in stick shift.

Axel_Gear: Now buying a stick in an SUV means you get the least powerful engine and no options. Stick has become a cost saving feature rather than a driving feature.

It was a mean off road machine, let me tell you. The body roll would freak people out on any kind of side hill, but the manual made that thing for me. I do wish they had brought the Defender to the US as anything but a luxury jeep, every farmer in England had a variant of it, and they seem to run forever.

Biness: [www.motorstown.com image 640x480]

This is what Land Rovers ought to be. I hate that they ruined the range rover. The disco was alright at first, but now its just a soccer mom car.

shame.

from your post to god's ear. they really were a manly beast at one time. they were a survival tool with a fine lineage. now they hunt for school children and lattes at Starbucks. dammit to hell.

I miss Pontiac.

I've owned quite a few of them over the years, and currently have a 2007 Grand Prix GT. Supercharger and everything. Yes, they lost their way quite a few times over the years - we can never forget the Aztec - but I liked the idea of performance cars with a bit of class and luxury. And occasionally way too much horsepower. I've owned a Trans Am with the Pontiac 455, and once the engine was reworked a bit to remove all the limiting factors, it was awesome.

GM did a good thing, I think, by involving their Australian Holden division in the G8. My roommate has a 2009 G8 GT with the 6.0L V8, and loves it half to death. GM really screwed up the Holden-based GTO, though. The car looked as bland as mashed potatoes.