For a number of years—I’m thinking someone more knowledgeable than I will be able to say exactly what number comprising which years—the Jeep Wrangler was not sold in Canada. After the CJ came the Wrangler in the States, but in Canada that same model was called the YJ and its successor was the TJ.
Like this TJ, for example.
Yep, it’s a Jeep TJ, full stop; the W-word does not appear. How come? It’s because GM used the Wrangler name in Canada before the Jeep of that name went on offer.
This what you’re looking at is a nineteen-eightysomething GMC Wrangler pickup truck. I spotted it the other day in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive.
Looks pretty much like any other Chev or GMC truck of its vintage, but there’s that prominent Wrangler emblem on the fenders. I could swear a popular aftermarket truck parts cattledog used to have this in their range of replacement badges, along with the “Sierra” “Scottsdale”, and “Cheyenne” ones. Maybe they did, but it’s not there now. An Ebay search likewise comes up dry. This page on an enthusiast site gives a quick sketch; it says the Wrangler package could be had—in Canada only—on both Chev and GMC pickups.
It appears some kind of deal was arranged (or some kind of trademark expired) before the Jeep JK Wrangler came along in 2007; that model and its 2018 replacement the JL were and are offered as the Wrangler in Canada and the States alike.
It’s barrels o’ fun to play bingo with badge-engineered Canadian models—the Pontiac Tempest and Parisienne (Chev Corsica and Caprice), the Fargo (Dodge) trucks and vans, the various Meteors and Laurentians and suchlike. But what other Canada-specific trim package names can we think of?
I have gotten pretty good at following along with Canadian Car Bingo, but this one was completely new to me. It would be awfully fun to go up to a NAPA parts counter and ask for something for a GMC Wrangler.
What would be fun is to get GM-sourced ‘WRANGLER’ emblems, attach them to a Jeep, and see if any Jeep enthusiasts catch the difference.
I knew about the GM Wrangler but never knew it was Canadian only thing. They were quick common back in the day. I bet if I went on a hunt I could find one in a reasonably short period of time even today.
As far as trim goes sometimes Canada got special cut rate lower level trims offered. Or the low level trim was offered lower or with a different badge.
For example for many years our Honda Civic Si was not as special as the US one.
Or the Chevette Scooter was sold right up to the end rather than to just 1984 in the US. https://www.flickr.com/photos/daveseven/39257652574/
Or with classic VW Beetles Canada had the Standard models that the US did not. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/my-ex-curbside-classic-1962-volkswagen-beetle-canadian-standard-another-canadian-market-oddball/
Around 1987 and 1988, there was a version of the Plymouth Horizon/Dodge Omni, called the ‘Plymouth Expo’. I think it was sold only in Canada, I’m guessing to tie in with the Expo 86 World’s Fair in Vancouver? It appeared to be identical to the standard five door hatch Omni/Horizon. I remember newspaper ads calling them the ‘Expo’. And the ones I saw on the street had the ‘Horizon’ logo on the hatch replaced with an ‘Expo’ badge. Otherwise, they appeared to be standard L bodies.
Interesting. Never heard of that one. I wonder if it was only sold in BC.
Another weird one was the Kia Besta van in the mid 80s. Sold only in a few spots in western Canada at Mazda dealers. Well ahead of the Kia coming to North America. Basically a Mazda Bongo van.
The Expos I saw were being sold new at Chrysler-Plymouth dealers in Southern Ontario.
Never saw a Besta in Ontario. Even the Toyota Vans, which it could be mistaken for at a distance, were somewhat rare.
I don’t imagine they’d’ve had much luck selling an Omni America or a Horizon America in Canada.
Dropping the model name entirely was the unusual element.
Plymouth Horizon Expo sounds fine. When nobody knows what a Plymouth Expo is.
FWIU it was the same thrust as what was marketed as the Omni/Horizon America south of the border. Make most of the popular options standard, drop the rest, cut the price and reposition the popular but aging model in the then-burgeoning cut-price segment.
Or, come to think of it, the Chev Bel Air: a B-body specced below the Impala, all the way up through ’81 in Canada. And the ’62 Dodge Dart 220, specced below the American bottom-of-the-range Dart 330. This one remained available in ’63 and ’64 as the Dodge 220 as seen here.
You mentioned the Scooter, but don’t forget the Pontiac Acadian Scooter (1976-87). I used to see a lot of those growing up. It was a combination of a T-1000 and a Chevette. I remember my mother test driving one in the early ’80s, before settling on a Dodge Colt instead.
I live in New Brunswick (part of Acadie/Acadia), so that could explain why I saw so many around here. Not nearly as many GMC Acadia’s today though.
I’m not sure but wasn’t the Mercury Monarch (50’s version ) a Canadian market only model ?
Monarch was a Canadian Brand, not a Mercury Model, even though they were a rebadged Mercury. Meanwhile in the next town over you would have a Mercury-Meteor dealer selling rebaged Fords. Here are some of the period signs including the Frontenac the Canadian cousin of the Falcon sold at Mercury dealers.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/unclegal/3171780056
Very cool ..Thanks for the link. The Frontenac ! My grade 5 ( yes I did make it that far) teacher drove a Black Frontenac
I remember the GM Wrangler pickups in Ontario. They were not uncommon. I recall one in particular being in medium blue with a white lower body side and roof. Only remember them with two wheel drive.
The long-wheelbase version of the Ford Expedition, which was called the EL in the US from 2007-17, was called the MAX in Canada. The explanation I read someplace was that Honda held the trademark for the “EL” in Canada, as it was used on the Acura EL (aka Honda Civic in a fancy suit) until 2006.
Curiously, from 2018, Ford has adopted the MAX label for all markets, abandoning the EL.
When Jeep dropped CJ in favor of Wrangler for ’87, someone mis-read the news and thought that there would be no more Jeeps, period. Went to Toledo plant to protest and he made the news, saying “Jeep’s been around since WW2, why are they dropping it!?”
According to fake news, that person singlehandedly save Jeep from extinction. Had it not been for his efforts, Jeep would have been gone.
Based on the grille (if original), that’d be a 85-87. GMC Wrangler’s weren’t uncommon in my part of Ontario. The Chevrolet’s may have had the Wrangler package, but I don’t remember any of them with the Wrangler tags like the GMCs. My brother had a ’86 C-1500 regular cab long box with the Wrangler D-package, in two tone blue. It was well equipped for it’s day, with a nice cloth interior, A/C, tilt wheel, and a sliding window. It was an okay truck, but the 305 with a 3-speed auto meant it drank a lot of gas, and boy did it rust like crazy. So much so that the frame actually cracked,
Here’s a special edition Wrangler. An ’86 GMC Stampede Edition, after the Calgary Stampede.
The emblems:
And don’t forget the Olympic Editions in 1976. Here’s the Chevelle:
The Pontiac’s Olympic marking:
The Pontiac Lemans:
Thanks for these pics Vince. The GM Montreal Olympics tribute cars (and pickups) were quite popular. I also remember a Ford Pinto Montreal Olympics edition as well. These were not so popular..
A pic…
That Pinto almost looks like a dealer tape and sticker package.
This is one for Daniel. As memory serves we had a lot more Valiant trim levels here in Canada than the States.
We had a V-100, V-200, Custom 200 and Signet.
The States I think only had 3 trim levels.
You’re thinking of the enormous ’65 Canadian Valiant range available in six series:
V-100 (substantially same as US V-100, 106″ wheelbase all models)
V-200 (rebadged US Dodge Dart 170, 111″ wheelbase except wagons)
Custom 100 (rebadged US V-200, 106″ wheelbase all models)
Custom 200 (rebadged US Dodge Dart 270, 111″ wheelbase except wagons)
Signet (rebadged US Dodge Dart GT, 111″ wheelbase)
Barracuda (106″ wheelbase, substantially same as US except badged as “Valiant Barracuda” rather than “Plymouth Barracuda”).
Within these series (except Barracuda which had only the 2-door fastback) there were 4-door wagons, 4-door sedans, 2-door sedans including a sheetmetal variant not sold anywhere but Canada, 2-door hardtops, and 2-door convertibles.
This was a one-year-only deal; for ’66 the model range was trimmed way down. There were three series, named the same as in the states, Valiant 100, Valiant 200, and Signet, but in ’66 the US-type 106″ wheelbase Valiant sedans and hardtops were not offered in Canada, only rebadged Darts (111″ wheelbase except wagons).
I can think of a couple – 2003-05 Dodge SX – Chrysler Neon rebadge. Also the Colt DL – we got the previous generation ones long after the Mitsubishi Mirage was redesigned in 1989 (it was a low-price leader similar in price to the concurrent Hyundai Excel but with much better reliability but even more dated inside and out)
Ah, yes, the Dodge “SX 2.0” (was its full designation). And you skated over another one there: the Chrysler Neon (which was the Dodge/Plymouth neon in the States). Same deal with the Chrysler Intrepid and Chrysler Dynasty (Dodge in the States). And the Plymouth Caravelle, a Canada-only rename of the M-body Dodge Diplomat.
Great topic, and some of these cars sparked some old memories. I do recall the GM Wrangler pickups now but if I hadn’t seen this I doubt I would have ever remembered.
That Olympic Pinto? A buddy had a Bobcat with the same graphics so I suspect it might have been a factory package.
Western Canadians might remember seeing Ford pickups with the “Wildrose Special” graphics which seemed to be everywhere in the ’80s/90s. Possibly an Alberta dealer package but if so they sold a lot of them. There were probably others aimed at other parts of Canada that I’ve forgotten.
As noted above Honda trim levels between the 2 countries don’t line up, and most manufacturers offered paint colors in one country not available in the other.
We even had our own heavy trucks at one time in the form of Hayes and Pacific , both now long gone.
As you recalled, the Olympics edition Mercury Bobcat. Looks a bit gaudy with the Bobcat grille and roof rack.
Another pic…
Looking at the skewed logo on the fender, and imperfections in the lower body ‘tape stripes’, this image appears to have been photo edited at time. Perhaps as a proposal of the final production version.
That’s it! Takes me back to about 1979.
For some reason now I feel like cutting afternoon classes, picking up the girls and heading down to the lake for a “smoke”.
I wonder how many of these were actually sold?
You, David and Vince might enjoy this link. It is a pictorial history of Ford of Canada. It’s a low res PDF, but still enjoyable for Canada only models, plus some interesting bits of info:
http://www.theoilspoteh.ca/ebook/JCMaysFordRollCall.pdf
Thanks for sharing Daniel, great stuff. I love to collect Canadian material. I have some other stuff written by James C Mays.
Thanks for posting that link, that was a good read.
Proposal/prototype or not, looking at the skewed logo on the fender, and imperfections in the lower body ‘tape stripes’, this image appears to be an accurate rendition of American car build “quality” at that time.
I’m just saying, is all.
We had a 1963 Pontiac Strato-Chief wagon back in the day. Pontiac also had the Grande Parisienne, a riff on the Grand Prix on a Chev chassis, as well as the 2+2, a sporty, full-size car.
We also got Mercury pickups until 1972 or so.
Until recently, the Buick LaCrosse was sold in Canada as the Buick Allure – it seems someone at GM Canada found out that LaCrosse was slang for, ahem, self-pleasuring in Quebecois French. Evidently Buick are no longer concerned about offending buyers and have switched to the LaCrosse name now.
I remember those Wranglers….nice looking at first but like most GM pickups of that generation the rust set in quickly here in the Maritimes. Even the pinstripes couldn’t hold them together.
I also seem to remember a trim level of the K car called the Canada K – maybe our version of the Aries America?
Cool stuff, but what I find amazing is that there may be a 6.2 GM diesel still running.
Not necessarily. When this truck passed me as I was parking, it sounded and smelt like a gasoline V8, not a diesel.
Could the time have come for CC to have an index page for all of the Canada-specific models that have been featured here over the years? It certainly seems to be a richer topic than I ever suspected, and it’s getting hard to keep it all straight!
Yes, that would be most appropriate. Now we juts need to make a portal find someone to sift through them all. Hopefully soon.
A few Canada-only trim levels I recall from my frequent visits there in the ’80s, all which I noticed because they were variations of cars I drove:
– I saw a 1982 Pontiac Phoenix PJ hatchback drive by; it looked to be a poverty-spec model not sold in the US which only got base, LJ, and SJ versions. I’m guessing it had the standard Citation inner door panels rather than the fancier ones used by the other three brands. But what struck me was that they chose the designation PJ. The Phoenix Pajamas.
– There was a top-level LX trim available for the full run of the ’86 to ’89 Mazda 323 two door hatchback in Canada; in the States it was dropped after being offered in 1986 only. The LX had many luxury features not found in the mid-level DX, including those cool armchair-like seats in back that wrapped around smoothly to the side panels. This seemed the reverse of what I had come to expect at that time – a *low* level Canada-only trim. Also, there was at least one model of the 4-door hatchback sold in Canada for at least the first year, a body style the US never got.
– I was distressed at the cancellation of this model in the US since I was planning to buy one in a year or two. Fortunately for me, by 1989 I could buy a Mercury Tracer two-door that had most of the features of the discontinued-in-the-US, still-available-in-Canada 323 LX, along with a few Tracer-only features even the 323 LX didn’t have, with the added bonus of lower cost because (a) Mexican labor was cheaper than Japanese labor, (b) it wasn’t subject to the “voluntary” Japanese import quotas, and (c) almost nobody knew about the almost-Mazda being sold by Mercury dealers. (I just checked Wikipedia which claims two-door Tracers actually were built in Japan rather than Mexico which I don’t recall reading at the time; if so it didn’t seem to affect pricing. I think I recall reading the placard in my car stating it was built in Hermosillo, Mexico). Anyway, Canadians got the Tracer a year before the U.S. did (1987), and there were three trim levels (base, GS, LS) rather than the single trim level Americans got which went without a designation but was similar to the Canadian LS (the base and GS levels corresponded to the 323 base and DX). Another difference: Canadian Tracers were built in Taiwan rather than Mexico (and maybe Japan too).
The Toyota Echo was a dumpy looking sedan in both markets, but sold as a 3-door and 5-door hatch in Canada-only for ’04-’05 (Americans got Scion, which we did not until much later). The hatch certainly looked a lot nicer than the sedan – almost Peugeot-like.
I was under the impression that Scions were never officially offered in Canada. I’ve seen the odd one or two on the roads, often with a clue or two that they were privately imported. Didn’t realise the Echo hatchback was Canada-only!
Scion was not available in Canada until 2010 – unusually because the xB and xA suited Canadian sensibilities very much. Now, of course, Scion exists in neither country.
Another Maple market oddball was the ’95-only Mazda 323 hatch. I don’t think it was sold for the full model year – I remember reading that it had been abruptly halted a few months into the model year. I used to see one quite regularly north of Toronto, but only a couple others apart from that. The slab-siding of the rear 3/4 was certainly odd.
That is an interesting one, isn’t it. Sort of makes me think “Oh, so that’s what the Chev Cadavalier 2-door might have looked like if it had been the product of people who gave a crap”.
There’s something similar in Australia called the Ford Laser Lynx. Round headlamps help a lot on the front end
OK, last one, I promise – this one you may disqualify because it was sold in the US for one year – 1990 only, but continued to sell well in Canada every year till through the end of 1995. The Nissan Axxess easily beat Chrysler in terms of being a van with two sliding doors and was a tidy, compact design that was ideal for urban families. Unbelievably it was available as a 7-seater, but most were 5-seaters. I test drove a used one and found it to be dangerously skittish in handling and wound up getting a larger ’98 Odyssey instead.
I think a unique thing about the Jeep Wrangler line since the YJ is how those two letter codes – YJ, TJ, JK, JL etc – have become commonplace in the US to differentiate the generations. Sure, enthusiasts will talk about F Bodies, but that is still not very specific. But ads for aftermarket parts, magazine articles etc in the States, use the Jeep model codes with the expectation that people know what they are. Perhaps the BMW community is similar with the Exx designations but for Jeeps it’s ubiquitous.
Wasn’t there a Pontiac Firefly, aka Geo/Chevy Metro in CDN?
Also, the Pontiac Astre and Mercury Bobcat appeared up there first.
Yes, the Pontiac Firefly was a Geo Metro twin as well – fairly popular actually. In Canada, GM dealers were dualed: Chevrolet+Oldsmobile, and Pontiac-Buick-GMC, with Cadillac appended to one or the other in some markets. Chevrolet got the Geo captive import brand, which made Pontiac-Buick dealers demand theirs, so they created the ill-fated Asuna brand. Just imagine what you saw when you looked through the paint on the windshield!
The Asuna Sunfire = Geo Storm; Asuna Sunrunner = Geo Metro; Asuna SE/GT = Daewoo/Pontiac Lemans.
So much work for a market less than 1/10th the size of the USA.
I remembered one more – the Acura EL, which was based on the Civic to give Acura dealers a model with more volume to sell than the Integra. Introduced in 1997, it sold quite well, and was replaced by the CSX before the ILX came to both markets.