Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!

“Badge engineering”…have you heard the term? It’s when a car manufacturer tweaks an existing model and sells it under another line for any number of reasons. The incredible costs associated with research and development, licensing a vehicle for sale by another manufacturer, creating a brand for foreign markets, sharing product to bolster another brand’s line-up…all can figure as reasons for selling the same vehicle under a different moniker.

Lately, GM has come under fire for their use of similar vehicles sold as different products. No doubt you’ve noticed:

• the GMC Sierra resembles the Chevy Silverado
• the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5 look a little like each other
• Chevy Equinox and Pontiac Torrent could be twins

To be fair, GM is not the only parent passing off one kid as another. When Isuzu needed a minivan, they threw a badge on the Honda Odyssey and when Honda needed an SUV, they grabbed the Isuzu Rodeo and called it a Passport. The Dodge Caravan, the Chrysler Town and Country and the Volkswagon Routan are all the same animal. Volkswagon, to be fair, also shares their Sharan with Ford’s Galaxy and, not to be outdone, the Toyota Corolla and Matrix are dead ringers for Chevy’s Prizm and Pontiac’s Vibe, respectively. Look closely and you’ll see Lexus ES and LX have some strong familial resemblance to the Camry and Land Cruiser from Toyota. And you really would have to be related to spot the difference between a couple of Acuras and their Honda cousins.

The practice isn’t new and it has, seemingly, toned down a bit. At one time you could have stood in front of the Opel Kadett (UK), Vauxhall Astra (UK), Chevrolet Kadett (South America), Isuzu Gemini (Japan), Pontiac LeMans (US), Asuna SE (Can), Passport Optima (Can), Daewoo Nexia (Europe), Chevy San Remo (Colombia) and Daewoo Racer (Chile)…and SWEAR you were looking at the same car.

CNN is reporting that GM may throw the Pontiac brand in the same trash bin they tossed Hummer and Saturn. I’m waffling about how broken up a guy should be for not having the Pontiac brand on the road while knowing I can still buy the vehicles. Henry Ford started this free-for-all when he mentioned you could have a Model T in any colour you want…as long as it’s black. Years after Henry, Flip Wilson refined the Ford marketing strategy in a skit about the Good Time Ice Cream Company. Flip was extremely proud of the company’s 27 exotic flavours…but…he only ever had chocolate and vanilla. Maybe there’s an option in here for the car manufacturers? Instead of telling us the vehicles are all different, just make one truck and one car and sell them with a box of interchangeable nameplates. If the badges had Velcro on the back, we could drive a Hyundai one day…an Audi the next…and who wouldn’t want a Ferrari?