Let's play "automotive plagiarism court"!

Knurled. said:

Other way around, BMW sued Pontiac.  Pontiac had precedence dating back to the 60s, though.

First split grille on a Pontiac was 1959 - they skipped 1960 and went back to it in 1961.

This isn't as blatant as I remembered, but still a decent amount of similarity.

I kid, I kid.

Since people complain modern cars all look alike, let's turn the page back to 1967.

AMC Rambler

Chevy Nova

Dodge Dart

Ford Falcon

Knurled. said:

paranoid_android said:

Dodge Omni and VW Rabbit?

That would be the Simca Horizon, which was Chrysler of Europe's answer to the Golf.

 

A few years later, Chrysler made it struts instead of torsion bars, bought 1.7l engines from VW, and sold it in the US as the Omni.. and Horizon.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simca-Talbot_Horizon

 

I find it funny that practically every example of "crappy American compact" is actually borrowed from Europe or the UK.  I think the only truly American compacts were the Corvair, Pinto, Vega, and EEK/Neon.

Mostly, the issues arose from those imports because they took a good vehicle and ruined it with cheaper parts and poor assembly.  Then they rarely updated them outside of trim packages and the like.

The Horizon overseas had 3-point seatbelts in the rear, among other improvements.  The American version was a tincan on wheels (I love them dearly, but yeah they weren't great compared to the Asian imports of the time).

Stefan said:

Knurled. said:

paranoid_android said:

Dodge Omni and VW Rabbit?

That would be the Simca Horizon, which was Chrysler of Europe's answer to the Golf.

 

A few years later, Chrysler made it struts instead of torsion bars, bought 1.7l engines from VW, and sold it in the US as the Omni.. and Horizon.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simca-Talbot_Horizon

 

I find it funny that practically every example of "crappy American compact" is actually borrowed from Europe or the UK.  I think the only truly American compacts were the Corvair, Pinto, Vega, and EEK/Neon.

Mostly, the issues arose from those imports because they took a good vehicle and ruined it with cheaper parts and poor assembly.  Then they rarely updated them outside of trim packages and the like.

The Horizon overseas had 3-point seatbelts in the rear, among other improvements.  The American version was a tincan on wheels (I love them dearly, but yeah they weren't great compared to the Asian imports of the time).

Wasn't the simca rear wheel drive too?  Or am I mistaken on that?

Edit: nope, not rwd. I was mistaken.

pinchvalve said:

 

 

I kid, I kid.

Replace the Pontiac with a Gillette razor and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the razor and the civic

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

I think there was a different European Chrysler product that was very similar looking and was RWD. I had this same confusion until I realized what was going on.

Ah, here's the one I'm thinking of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Sunbeam

wheelsmithy said:

 

wvumtnbkr said:

In reply to wheelsmithy :

I believe the same guy actually designed both of those.

For some reason this knowledge made me laugh. Dude has one hit and just sort of rides it out. Sort of like in the 90's Brady bunch movie where Mike designs every building that looks exactly like the house.

Jumper K Balls (Trent) said:

For some reason this knowledge made me laugh. Dude has one hit and just sort of rides it out. Sort of like in the 90's Brady bunch movie where Mike designs every building that looks exactly like the house.

Or every Nickleback song.

I present the Bangle Accord

wvumtnbkr said:

Stefan said:

Knurled. said:

paranoid_android said:

Dodge Omni and VW Rabbit?

That would be the Simca Horizon, which was Chrysler of Europe's answer to the Golf.

 

A few years later, Chrysler made it struts instead of torsion bars, bought 1.7l engines from VW, and sold it in the US as the Omni.. and Horizon.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simca-Talbot_Horizon

 

I find it funny that practically every example of "crappy American compact" is actually borrowed from Europe or the UK.  I think the only truly American compacts were the Corvair, Pinto, Vega, and EEK/Neon.

Mostly, the issues arose from those imports because they took a good vehicle and ruined it with cheaper parts and poor assembly.  Then they rarely updated them outside of trim packages and the like.

The Horizon overseas had 3-point seatbelts in the rear, among other improvements.  The American version was a tincan on wheels (I love them dearly, but yeah they weren't great compared to the Asian imports of the time).

Wasn't the simca rear wheel drive too?  Or am I mistaken on that?

 

Edit: nope, not rwd. I was mistaken.

The Group 4 version was real wheel drive.  Henri Toivonen made his name in rear drive Horizons before getting signed on to Lancia.

I'm not exactly certain of the mechanical genealogy either.