SAAB, great looking cars with futuristic features!
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 Volvo’s 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.
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.
Still don’t know why, but the 240 series will always have a special place in my heart.
(fun 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.
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 Royca cars are).
TVR, but only if they’re allowed to be as bonkers as back in the day.
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.
British Leyland. Specifically so we can have a boogieman.
Auburn
Volkswagen. Pre-2000s Volkswagen. In the 90s and earlier, their aircooled and watercooled cars were amazing junkyard tuners, that just wouldn’t die.
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.
