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Wiesmann, or any other small-scale German sports car manufacturer for that matter. It seems like all sports car brands are owned by big conglomerates nowadays, and nearly all of them are pretty boring and generic as a result.
I know that Wiesmann is still around but they're nothing but a shell of what they once were.
Shoutouts to Roland Gumpert.
Holden and Ford Australia. Partly for personal nostalgic reasons but also because of local engineering and manufacturing. A bit of our national identity disappeared when they shut down, although they were owned by US companies they were still a source of Aussie pride. Nowadays we have no local industry and it all just feels a bit hollow. Like watching sports when you have no local team.
I doubt they'd be able to make them these days but seeing as we're talking hypotheticals, there's something about a big cube V8 or turbo 6 thatβs missing from everything since. Yes I know on here the hive mind demands we boo ands hiss if someone dares to like anything ICE, and when our current runabout goes it'll likely be replaced by an EV of some sort. But for us, cars are a hobby and a source of enjoyment too, and I dare say we'll have at least one ICE vehicle for a long as it's feasible for us to do so. And if I can get a semi-modern nod to the past that would be perfect.
And if the Japanese car industry could go back to the 90s I'd be pretty stoked about that too!
100% this.
Another thing that disappeared with Holden and Ford Australia are normal sized utes, nowadays it's just all gigantic pick-up trucks.
Well said!
At least bring back the Barra! I must swap it into so many things.
Barra the world!
SAAB, great looking cars with futuristic features!
And they were build super well.
SAAB, the car you buy, because, um... ...?
Specifically, pre-GM Saab.
SAAB is dead?? Damn
SAAB Automotive got killed by GM, resurrected by Spyker, subsequently killed again by debtors, resurrected again by Chinese investors who lost the rights to the brand, turned into NEVS (National Electric Vehicles Sweden), ran out of money again due to COVID, and has since been in "hibernation"/limbo. Most recently Stenhaga bought the remainder of the factory in TrollhΓ€ttan, and EV Electra were considering to buy what's left of the production models. That deal fell through and, last I heard of it, whatever is left of the NEVS were like 20 folks who got fired in 2024.
So yeah, to quote McCoy "He's dead Jim".
Pontiac
I always tell my wife that if they found a secret warehouse full of old Aztek parts and pumped some new ones out, I'd get one on the spot. I loved that car.
The Swedish Volvo and not the chinese Volvo. I feel like we would have had a power house for electric vhicles with Volvo. Now we are stuck with the French cars. Renault is doing really great. But isn't Volvo. I feel like Saab would had gone Volkswagen as well, and come too late for the party and die out anyways. But they made good cars as well.
In Chinese Volvoβs defense they have built an entire manufacturing plant in South Carolina to build nothing but EVs, but the whole place is stuck in second gear.
Still don't know why, but the 240 series will always have a special place in my heart.
(funny detail: Ask any kid around the world to draw a car, and they draw a volvo 240)
I still want one, even though they've all been driven ti hell and back.
They were designed to do that on the regular. Especially Volvo's polar editions were built to withstand just about any condition and kept simple and barebones for that reason.
Yeah, but even the most durable cars wear out eventually. And most of them were probably not taken care of super well, especially by like the third or fourth owner...
The Swedish Volvo died the day Ford took over, Geely is just there to trot around the remains.
Although, let's be honest - Volvo had been on the verge of bankruptcy like three times before Ford bought them so it's likely they would've died on their own too. Turns out making cars that are incredibly reliable is not a sustainable business model.
Duesenberg. They made incredibly stylish and well engineered cars that were ahead of their time. I'd love to see a true competitor to Rolls Royce (Bentley doesn't really compete with Rolls anymore. Sure they're expensive luxury cars, but they aren't anywhere near as bespoke as Rolls Royce cars are).
Avions Voisin - monocoque chassis as soon as 1923. The man behind (other) revolutionary cars as the Traction, The 2cv and the DS, Lefebvre, started there. For engineering marvels that the Voisin cars where, never forget that Monsieur Voisin graduated in ...Fine Arts. Explains the bankruptcy I guess.
I had a Saturn which was a really nice car except for all that stuff under the hood.
Maybe have an EV company buy the branding from it.
I had an Ion, 5speed manual, no power windows and I loved it. The only thing that broke on it in 6 years/90k miles, was the driver door latch.
My Aura had the brakes go bad, and after putting a ton of money into fixing it, the transmission (Automatic) failed.
It technically still was drivable (I found a way to force it to shift) so I was able to sell it to one of those online car buying sites.
Oh snap. No good at all. I believe the Aura and Astra were rebadged Opals. I was considering an Aura. I was going to replace the badges lol.
TVR, but only if they're allowed to be as bonkers as back in the day.
Oh yes. TVR circa 1998 / speed 12 nonsense would be magical if they had the budget and freedom today that they did back then. I feel like a modern TVR would build something like a 4 motor EV with a manual transmission somehow. I'd be there for it honestly.
Someone already said SAAB so Mitsubishi
RIP Lancer Evo
Isn't Mitsubishi still around and kicking? I have no idea how that brand solders on with such low volume and price points.
only SUVs for you now
I'm honestly kind of surprised Ford hasn't re-released the Mercury or rebranded some cars as Mercury brand.
They weren't good cars, but they had songs and brand appeal. And who knows, maybe somebody would think well of them.
That was one of the last old people brands, especially with the vinyl top.
I know that consumers now mainly care about power and fuel economy but I would very much welcome Ford bringing Mercury back as their old people car subsidiary...as much as I doubt there is enough of a market for it.
My 98 Grand Marquis is my 5th car and it's the comfiest daily I've owned (the others being a 1999 Civic SI, 2001 Cavalier, 1997 Tercel, and 2003 A4 in that order. I know they're entirely different classes vs. a full sized sedan). Just give it an updated powertrain with better fuel economy and some QOL features (folding rear seat plz) and I'd drive one off the lot.
The death of the touring car, and even the sedan really sucks. We need more large 4 door cars that can fit four adults comfortably with reasonable trunk space. My first car was an old Chrysler LHS and it's still the most comfortable car I ever drove.
Agreed.
Those old boats with big trunks would fulfill the needs of probably 90% of truck and SUV owners, it's a shame we've moved away from the full sized sedan.
Oh well. As long as I can continue to source parts easily and cheaply I'll keep this thing going until it dies, and at less than 170,000km, it's got a lot of life left in it.
Wrangle out of the clutching, greedy hands of marketing departements the names "Abarth" and "Cooper", then give them to actual performance workshops working on bettering affordable cars.
British Leyland. Specifically so we can have a boogieman.
Volkswagen. Pre-2000s Volkswagen. In the 90s and earlier, their aircooled and watercooled cars were amazing junkyard tuners, that just wouldn't die.
I asked a manufacturer how long it would take them to design and build one of my favorite cars and they said 6 months. I was surprised and asked, "Dat soon". (Old Datsun joke)
they still make trucks, but their "regular" where one of a kind with it's variomatic
Austin, always had a soft spot for them & my grandmother learnt to drive in one.
Zaporozhec' (I have one lol)
