(first posted 3/4/2014) The car business sometimes creates strange bedfellows. When an automaker lacks the knowledge or expertise to build a car in a previously unexplored segment, they will often go knocking on doors they’ve never looked at before. In the American market alone, we’ve seen Ford pair up with Nissan to produce the Mercury Villager; GM and Subaru producing the Saab 9-2X; and Honda and Isuzu sharing Odysseys, Rodeos and Troopers. But those examples are almost boring compared to what we have here today, in the second installment of Obscure Rebadges From Around The World!
Mazda Roadpacer AP
It’s always a bit jarring to see a plebeian family sedan being repurposed as a luxury flagship by another automaker, like the rebodied Dodge Aspen known as the Monteverdi Sierra. Here we have a Holden Belmont/Premier/Kingswood with Mazda badges slapped on so that Mazda could compete with the Toyota Century, Nissan President and Mitsubishi Debonair. Only, Mazda didn’t take the easy way out and put their badge on just anything. They had to make their mark more strongly than that, even if from outside you couldn’t tell.
The 1975 Mazda Roadpacer AP (short for anti-pollution) was the only GM vehicle ever brought to market with a rotary engine (sorry, Chevy Monza, it wasn’t meant to be). Mazda’s USP at the time was rotary engines, which they put in everything from coupes to pickup trucks to even busses, and they felt their flagship sedan should also get in on that high-revving, low-displacement action. So, HJ-series Holden Premiers – the most upscale of the short-wheelbase Holdens – were sent on boats to Japan without their standard 3.3 six. That cavernous engine bay was [barely] filled with a 1.3 twin-rotor 13B rotary engine. Added niceties over the Premier included a dictation system, audio controls for rear-seat passengers, and speed-activated central locking, as well as fender-mounted mirrors. There was also an available fridge!
Holden HJ Premier
The Roadpacer was considerably larger than the Cosmo, previously the brand’s flagship, yet utilized the same engine. 130 horsepower was a solid output from a small-displacement engine in 1975, rivaling the output of the Holden donor’s original 3.3 six. The difference is, you had to rev to 6,000 RPM to access that horsepower, and torque was 135 ft-lbs at 4,000 RPM (contrast this with the 3.3 six’s 194 ft-lbs at a comfortably low 2,000 RPM). This high-strung engine also had to lug around 3,472lb of Australian metal. You can see where this is going. Mazda put a rev-hungry, small engine in a large car intended to be executive and government transportation. Even if the 13B rotary had decent low-end torque, which it didn’t, the nature of the engine certainly didn’t suit the car. For chauffeur-driven transportation, you want smooth and quiet with nice low-end torque. The Holden bones could provide you with a fairly smooth ride, but the powertrain actively sabotaged the driving experience by forcing the poor driver to rev like hell to move this sled around. Did I mention the only transmission was a three-speed automatic? The end result was a car that could barely pull double-digit MPG. The original six got better gas mileage, and I’m sure even the V8 available in Holden Premiers would have achieved better fuel economy.
This thoroughly uneconomical and unpleasant to drive sedan had launched right after the first fuel crisis and thus, between 1975 and 1977, only 800 units were sold. Awful powertrain aside, the Holden bones were competent, providing a fairly smooth ride and a reasonably spacious interior. However, the HJ Holden wasn’t renowned for its handling and the interior, although well equipped, didn’t look as fancy as that of the rival Century, President and Debonair. Most Roadpacers were purchased by government departments and ended up crushed, so remaining cars are somewhat of an obscure collectors’ item and occasionally end up on the internet.
Isuzu Statesman de Ville
Some of you may have been wondering why Mazda chose the everyman Holden Belmont/Kingswood/Premier as the basis for their luxury flagship. After all, the short-wheelbase sedans weren’t the most prestigious Holdens available at the time, and were definitely less grand in appearance than the long-wheelbase Statesman series introduced in 1971. Statesman was, until the WB-series’ death in 1985, a sub-brand sold by General Motors Holden. They were sold in Holden dealers but marketed as “Statesman by General Motors.” Unlike the “Cimarron by Cadillac,” Holden used this marketing tactic to underscore the exclusivity of their most expensive sedan. The Statesman series rode on the 3 inch longer wheelbase used by mainstream Holden wagons, totaling 114 inches. The inaugural HQ Statesman series came in Custom or upscale de Ville trims. Yes, as well as Chevrolet and Cadillac styling cues, Holden was quite prone to using American market names such as Calais, Caprice, Brougham, Apollo, Sunbird and Nova. Engines ran the gamut from a lowly 3.3 (202 cubic inch) six, through 4.1 (253 cu in), 5.0 (308 cu in) and the range-topping small-block Chevy 5.7. These large Holdens were exported to South Africa as the Chevrolet Constantia and de Ville, but also to Japan to fill a gap at the top of Isuzu’s lineup: a flagship sedan to rival the Toyota Century.
The Isuzu Statesman de Ville was sold from 1973-74, for a total of only 246 units. A sedan this large and expensive was never expected to shift many units in Japan, and it’s likely most were driven by Isuzu executives (or rather, their drivers). All came with a column-shifted automatic and the 5.0 V8, as well as rather fancy interior trim and the requisite fender-mounted mirrors. There’s not a lot of information specifically on the Isuzu Statesman, other than this excellent series of notes and scans, but the car was changed little from the Australian-market model and even kept its Holden lion badges.
The HQ series Holdens were very successful, which was fortunate as they were the most ambitious Holden in some time and the first ground-up redesign of the Holden since the 1940s. They featured new bodies and a brand new perimeter-frame chassis with coil suspension all round. The HQ Statesman was an elegant flagship sedan–even with its taillights Holden cleverly pilfered from lesser utes and wagons–and was tuned for a pillow-soft ride, thanks to then-Managing Director George Roberts insistence on Holdens riding like Cadillacs. Holden’s 1977 HZ update (confusingly, HJ and HX launched in the interim) brought Radial Tuned Suspension, as Holden called it, which vastly improved their handling. Softly sprung or not, though, the Isuzu Statesman de Ville was a very brief and obscure footnote in both Holden and Isuzu’s history and disappeared as quickly as it came, without any replacement.
Honda Crossroad
Honda and Rover’s tie-up began with the Japanese company licensing the Honda Ballade to beleaguered British Leyland in the late 1970s. Rover saw the value in that tie-up, and their next venture was the co-developed Acura/Honda Legend and Rover 800/Sterling. Rover’s lineup eventually consisted almost entirely of Honda-derived cars, with the 200/400 (Civic/Concerto) and the 600 (Accord). If it seems like Honda wasn’t getting much in return, you would be close to the mark but likely forgetting about the Honda Crossroad. This Discovery clone was sold from 1993-98 in Japan and came only with one engine: the only eight-cylinder engine ever available in a production Honda, a 3.9 V8 with 180 horsepower. It filled a hole in Honda’s lineup, serving as a less reliable rival to the Toyota Landcruiser and Nissan Patrol, and was yet another example of Honda’s continued aversion to developing its own trucks (see: Acura SLX, Honda Passport).
Sadly, I wasn’t able to track down any sales numbers, but it would appear the Crossroad was not very successful. Two theories for this are: one, the Japanese preferring the cachet of both British nameplates–witness, for example, the success of the MG RV8 there–and two, for more exclusive cars to be in LHD format. Despite being an unusual trend, as Japan is a right-hand-drive nation, it has enjoyed an enduring popularity, especially with members of the Yakuza. For all the average Japanese consumer knew, the Crossroad had no English heritage and was simply a thirsty Honda with flighty reliability and the steering wheel on the right side. Many Crossroads ended up in New Zealand, which has quite broad car importation laws. The nameplate ended up being recycled on the awesome-looking box pictured above, apparently too obscure to have earned a really bad rap.
Alfa Romeo Arna
If you were to enlist two manufacturers to build a car together, who would you pick? Perhaps one company would be one renowned for the reliability and quality of its cars, such as a Japanese automaker like Honda. The other company should be one that makes fun-to-drive cars that ooze style and grace. Perhaps an English brand like Jaguar, or an Italian brand like Maserati. After all, it reasons that if you enlist a manufacturer known for quality and reliability and one known for style and excitement, you should end up with a pretty good car!
Or an Alfa Romeo Arna. This small hatchback combined the stylistic excellence of Nissan, along with their unparalleled handling genius, with Alfa Romeo’s brilliant quality control and reliability. Well, something like that. The Arna, which stood for Alfa Romeo Nissan Autoveicoli, was launched in 1983. Now, because this was a co-venture and not a simple case of licensing, there was actually some Alfa Romeo DNA infused in this anonymous hatchback. However, it still qualifies as a rebadge as the Arna was also sold with only detail changes as the Nissan Cherry Europe, or Nissan Cherry Milano in Japan. So, fair game!
Nissan Cherry Europe. Photo courtesy: ratdat.com
Flashback to 1983. State-owned Alfa Romeo hadn’t earned a profit in five years. European automakers were becoming increasingly nervous about the threat of Japanese automakers gaining a foothold on the continent and eating their lunch, so various European governments had engaged in protectionism to keep the imports at bay. With government approval, Alfa Romeo and Nissan built a plant together in Pratola Serra and each owned a 50% stake. This facility would build 60,000 Arnas and almost identical Nissan Cherry Europes annually, and Alfa Romeo would learn some Japanese manufacturing practices much like General Motors would intend to do a few years later with its NUMMI facility. Nissan, in return, would get more of a foothold in the European market. Under the strict terms of the contract, Japanese workers would provide 20% of the labor, which amounted to the body and most of the interior, and Alfa Romeo would provide a significant amount of components including the use of Alfa Romeo engines. Despite these specific terms, Fiat and the European Economic Community were thoroughly aggravated by this joint-venture, fearing Nissan would somehow use loopholes to flood the market with its own vehicles.
Although the EEC and European automakers were wise to fear Japanese competition, they misjudged the Arna. See, the Arna wasn’t quite as terrible as all those wretched “Worst Cars” books pumped out by bitter British authors claimed it to be. It’s very easy to just roundly criticize everything if you don’t have all the facts (which those books so rarely do!). The fact is, the Arna did have Alfa DNA. Underneath the plain-jane but modern body, the only major Nissan componentry was an independent rear suspension. Up front, the Arna had the Alfasud’s engine, five-speed-manual transmission and front suspension. That engine was a 1.2, 63hp flat four, which would be joined later by a tweaked version with a handful more horsepower, and then finally by a sportier 1.5, 94hp flat four in the Ti version. It handled quite competently and the engines were nice, although the overall driving experience was diluted from the Alfasud. Of course, much to European automakers’ collective relief, it had two fatal flaws.
Ooh, I’ll take mine in Olive Drab, please!
One, it looked like this.
For perspective, here’s a picture of the Alfa-designed and more upscale 33, which the Arna slotted below.
And two, it still had the same indifferent build quality and capricious electrics that Alfa Romeos had been known for. By 1987, Alfa Romeo had shifted only 53,047 units, which fell far short of sales expectations even if its Nissan Cherry Europe sibling had been a sales success (unlikely). The end result was Alfa Romeo was put up for sale in 1986 and scooped up by Fiat. One of the new owner’s first decisions was to can the Arna and end the Nissan alliance. Although the Arna had vastly better rustproofing than its Alfasud predecessor, there aren’t many out there now. The British website How Many Left (don’t you wish there was an American version of it?) had only one, non-running Arna listed as being in existence in the UK in 2013. Maybe in the south of Italy there are still some Arnas pottering around, a reminder of when the Japanese used to own half of a factory in Pratola Serra.
And I almost forgot. Jeremy Clarkson blew one up on television!
Ssangyong Kallista
Ssangyong is a South Korean company best known for its range of boldly (and sometimes bizarrely) styled SUVs that often use Mercedes mechanicals. There’s the odious Rodius…
The striking Actyon…
The first popular Ssangyong, the long-running Musso…
And then there’s the Ssangyong Kallista.
Wait, what? One year before the Musso was launched, Ssangyong bought the license for the neo-classical Kallista roadster from British boutique automaker Panther. Panther was experiencing a cash flow crisis as they tried to bring their modern, mid-engined Solo sports car to market. They chose to axe the Kallista, and Ssangyong was happy to take its first steps into automotive production and pick up after them. Only 73 units were produced in 1992 by the Korean firm and it is very hard to find information on how they were sold or marketed.
The real question about this automobile is probably: what the hell is underneath? Ford Capri mechanicals mostly, with Ford-supplied engines ranging from a 1.6 four to 2.8 and 2.9 Cologne V6s. This retro, aluminum-bodied roadster hit the American market in small volumes in the mid-80s powered by the 2.3 Lima four doing duty in base Mustangs. Surprisingly, the Kallista was reasonably popular in the UK for a boutique automaker offering coach-built cars, shifting 400 units in its best year. The ease of servicing and the low parts costs afforded by using Ford mechanicals no doubt contributed to its relative success. The US Kallista, though, was a disaster: would you pay $23k in 1986 for an 88hp two-seater?
Had you heard of any of these Obscure Rebadges before today? The Arna and Roadpacer enjoy quite a deal of infamy today, but I must confess I knew nothing of the Crossroad, Isuzu Statesman and Kallista until very recently. Better yet, have any of you actually seen one of these in the metal?
More obscure rebadges, there the Hyundai Galloper, a rebadged of the first and 2nd-gen Mitsubishi Pajero (the 2nd-gen was also known as Dodge Raider).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Galloper
The 2nd gen Mitsubishi Charlot alias Expo alias Colt/Vista wagon was sold as Hyundai Santamo until 2002.
And the cherry on the sundae is the 1987 Ford Huksy, a Mitsubishi model badged as Ford in South Africa and sold thru the company Samcor. http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiefordadverts/5656243716/
You’d have to be a completist to want the Arna in your collection. Nice stuff on the JDM Holdens, a great read. Cheers.
I’d love to have a set of badges for the Crossroad to convert over an American Discovery. It’d be interesting to see the double takes.
There are people who’ve ordered Toyota Cavalier badge sets as a novelty item since they’re normal Toyota emblems (one “pretzel” and one script) in a sealed plastic bag with “Genuine GM Parts” printed on it.
Saw a Cavalier last week Toyota on the back on a green car, red front sheet metal with a bowtie on the grille a wrecking yard rebuild.
I desperately want to rebadge my Hyundai Getz as the Venezuelan version, the Dodge Brisa!
The Arna seems to be made with the bits left over from what they should have built.If they had an Alfa Romeo with a Nissan engine and electrics that would have been a great car,Italian looks and Japanese reliability.
Great article! Many of these were completely unknown to me. Who would guess that a GM engine designed in the late 1950’s would eventually make its way into a 1990’s Japanese-market Honda through Rover?!
All new information. As for most of them, I can see why they are obscure.
The Mazda is pretty cool on paper but likely completely awful to drive. If you could equip one with a turbo 2-rotor or 20B and an overdrive auto, it would probably make for a pretty interesting driving experience as well.
Aside from the Honda Land Rover and Arna, I had no idea any of these existed!
Not enough torque? Why not a triple or even quad rotor?
I don’t think Mazda made a triple rotor production engine until the 1990’s Cosmos (CC-featured a few months ago). Then again, this would have been a perfect test-bed apart from the loss of face that would have been incurred if there were any failures.
Interesting how the ad for the Statesman deville has a blonde Caucasian pitchman, like many other JDM and Korean market car ads.
I believe it’s Jack Nicklaus.
I’m a little young to instantly recognize Jack Nicklaus but have seen many other examples of white celebrities and models in Asian advertising. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/10/adventures-in-marketing-mr-tredia/
That’s who I would pick too. Perhaps a bit too early for them to have used Greg Norman! (who doesn’t look like Nicklaus of course)
The Holden/Mazda is quite the kludge of Chevy styling. ’71 Impala front end, squashed ’73 Monte Carlo rear end and the Mazda version is wearing ’73-’74 Nova/Malibu wheel covers.
A facelift of the early Pontiac-inspired front end, compare to the Statesman sheetmetal. Those wheel covers were the Premier version. Externally that blue car is very similar to a car one of my relatives owned, eg mirror location.
The curb weight figure at 3472lb is very high – a base model Holden was 2920lb, even a Premier V8 was 3150lb (may exclude a/c?) so the extra Mazda ‘gingerbread’ has added a lot.
Excellent article! I knew of a few of these but the Isuzu threw me!
It’s pretty easy for me to see the relationship of the Alfa to my Nissan Pulsar. The Arna can’t hide it’s connection to the sedan version of the Nissan, which I think was called, oddly enough, the Langley in Japan. Not sure of the correlation between pioneer aviator and the Nissan. Great article, though!
I had known about the Arna and even the Honda Land Rover, but the rotary Holden and Isuzu DeVille were new to me. In the US, at least the Saabaru’s are fairly well-known, but I always liked the Chevaru, the Indian-market Forester http://www.gii.in/autos/images/C/Chevrolet-forester-6.jpg
Looks like Honda would go to bed with anyone. I have always enjoyed knowing about the Honda Passport being Isuzu. Despite the obvious lines which so far as I can see were not changed at all, people didn’t seem to want to believe it.
I had always thought Isuzu was “stand alone” on the rodeo but turns out they used a few GM V6s. Always seemed better going the other direction like the Honda engines in the Saturn Vues. Badge engineering seems to turn me right off.
For several years the Ssangyong Musso and this Korando (see picture) were popular as cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Land Cruiser-Nissan Patrol-Mitsubishi Pajero. Most of them had an older generation Mercedes diesel engine, which was mentioned in big letters on the rear window. A lot of them are still driving around.
I assume people stuck Mercedes badges on them over there too?
I only see the “Powered by Mercedes-Benz” stickers on the rear window. The Musso and Korando diesels are plain workhorses to pull trailers around. Just like their competitors from Japan.
Unfortunately, they neglect to mention ‘electronics and everything else by Daewoo’ which is why they sadly tend to fail in service.
Not sure, but I think “Powered by Mercedes-Benz” was a factory or dealer sticker. The “Electronics and everything else by Chevrolet formerly known as Daewoo” sticker was probably too long. Or fell off right after warranty.
The engine is a licence built clone not an actual Mercedes engine.
The Mazda Roadpacer is quite the collectors item these days some are still alive in NZ they alledgedly corner slightly better than the nose heavier V8 Premier and the 253 engine is much more economical than the 6 so way better than the rotary
, One little nit Those statesmans did not feature Holden lions on any model anywhere they were Stateman by GM not Holden and the Constatia was a Premier not Statesman two different models, Ive heard of the Isuzu rebadge but Ive never seen one and the scan shows debadged cars as opposed to where Holdens fitted badges.
Ssangyongs are sold here Rugby great Colin Meads has taken on advertising them and I see lots about,
Nissan Sentras that old are quite a rare sighting these days not many of the originals left going and Arnas nope none there are some Alfasuds nearby in a backyard but none in going order that Ive seen.
honda rebadges are legendary some you wont be able to discover like the Orthia, as my BIL told me read the glass and the lights to find the original maker, Honda Orthias have Toyo- Kogyo written on the windows or Mazda in your language the Crossroads are here exJDM as is everything else Japanese makers swap between themselves and dont let on about.
Kiwibryce
The Constantia was originally based on a Brougham, then a Statesman not a Premier. I also recall a wagon version, based on a HJ wagon. I haven’t seen one for ages.
KJ
The HQ-onwards Kingswood/Premier sedan and wagon was badged the Chevrolet Kommando in South Africa. The ute was the El Camino and the one-tonner was the El Toro. We got the Constantia new in NZ (I photographed one recently for a yet-to-be-written article), but not the others.
I know you’re never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story, Bryce, but could you please stop peddling the Orthia = Mazda misinformation? As I’ve said before they have absolutely nothing in common. Now I finally understand where you’ve become confused. You’ve based your assumption on a Japanese brand name on a tail light. A quick investigation shows that Toyo Seiki Kogyo and Toyo Kogaku Kogyo are both Japanese glass and plastic lens manufacturers now part of the Toyotec company. None of the above have any link at all to Toyo Kogyo (Mazda).
If you are correct why are the Honda Orthia replacement panels sold through Mazda dealers? i was told this information by somebody in the Mazda panel supply business.
Either they’re pulling your leg, or they’re mistaken. Or maybe they are particularly creative panel suppliers!
John Andrew Ford’s/ Mazda panel rep was who told me, there is also one model of Nissan van with panels supplied by Mazda get a look at the panel reps laptop, compare the two cars side by side I have and they are the same only the wagon though you can see which pieces were changed to make them fit the Civic lineup. Honda didnt want to tool up a wagon so got one already done, its not like they havent done it before or that they are the only ones to do this.
Bryce, the Nissan van IS a Mazda, the Bongo/E2200/Spectron series. They’re 100% Mazda with Nissan badging, known in Nissan model coding as the S20 and S21 Vanette.
Re the Orthia, bollocks. See my comment below. And last time you claimed it, you said your BIL told you. As per my comment below, I rang John Andrew. You were told huge porkies by whoever it was.
Bryce, you don’t mean the Mazda Familia Van and Nissan Wingroad do you?
Nissan Wingroad shares most of its structure with the Sentra I have in my driveway, its only an upmarket Sentra the doors etc match. Mazda familiar is the JDM 323.
Bryce, last time you said the your BIL told you the Orthia panels were sold through Mazda dealers I rang John Andrew Mazda in Auckland. Long story short, the Orthia is nothing to do with Mazda and your BIL was pulling your leg something shocking…
Bryce, the equivalent model to the arna was the N12, sold as a Pulsar, NNZ didn’t start calling them Sentras until the N13.
In regards to the parts of a car showing different manufacurer names, by your rationale most Nissans are really Mitsubishis, as there are Mitsubishi elecrical components all through them.
Yes my father stocked them in Nissan and holden flavours, and there are none left
Sorry mate, you’re mistaken, there were no N12 Sentras, they were all badged Pulsar, the N13 was the first badged as Sentra in NZ. Trust me, I worked in the Nissan dealer network for 10 ears, and at NNZ for about 5.
No minor items like that do not make a clone, my Citroen has a mitsubishi alternator fitted which is a good thing in my experience, Japanese electrics are the best its what “made” their cars.
I think the picture there is a “normal” european market Cherry, not a Cherry Europe, which looked identical to the Arna. They were relatively common when I was a kid.
I seem to remember the UK motoring press thought the concept was quite sensible, as they thought that while Alfa engines were excellent, the Nissan body would be more rust resistant.
You are absolutely right. I will change the picture as soon as I can. When I was a kid, all the way up to today, I’d get so frustrated when the incorrect picture was used for a car in a magazine and here I’ve gone and made the same mistake!! My apologies.
“See, the Arna wasn’t quite as terrible as all those wretched “Worst Cars” books pumped out by bitter British authors claimed it to be.”
True. It was far, far worse.
I had one of these turds while at University in the mid-’90s. It was purchased for the princely sum of £30, which soon turned out to be approximately £30 more than it was worth.
Granted, this was a car that had led a hard life before I got my hands on it – but it was clear that its hard life was out of the previous owners’ spite for the generally crap engineering (or lack thereof) that went into it. It drove like the worn-out Cherry that it was based on, and fit every Alfa-Romeo reliability stereotype with remarkable accuracy – all at around 63,000 miles on the clock.
Electrical issues galore. Instruments worked if and when they felt like it, including the speedo. The few journeys that I subjected myself to with it typically began with ‘will it start?’ and ended with ‘how long will it diesel for when switched off?’ The interior misted up alarmingly when it rained, yet it was strangely rust-free for the most part. Gears more or less worked, but the clutch was awful to use. The brakes… The less said about them, the better. The parts of the interior that weren’t already missing fell off, including a sun visor that once deposited itself in my lap at 60mph. At least it more or less handled like a Cherry, which is to say that it was basically dull, but dull in a way that only tired suspension can make unpleasant.
I will give full credit to the seller for managing to hide about 80% of these issues just long enough to get me through the test drive and to the point where I handed over three tenners. He’d wanted a full fifty for it, and his slightly-too-quick acceptance of an offer of thirty pounds should have set alarm bells ringing. For some reason, it didn’t, and I still kick myself to this day.
In the roughly four weeks that I owned it, two things became apparent: one, that the only sucker in the area likely to buy it back out of the local Auto Trader was me, so its target buying audience had already been saturated; two, that I could get my money back plus return bus fare out of it by scrapping it. Which is exactly what I did with it, and with absolutely no regrets.
No-one should ever get overly-sentimental about these vehicles. They were awful, just awful. If I remember correctly, it was replaced with a 1984-ish Vauxhall Nova with the 1.0-litre engine – which was a nasty little car in its own right, but at least it mostly worked and was eventually sold on for a small profit to another student.
Hi William,
great feature, and a lot o detailed research too.
My first thought when I saw it was “I wonder if he’s got the Crossroad?” and yes, you did. Personally, I find the “SS” design in the logo on advert toocloseto comfort for sn earlier SS logo…..
I always considered that Nissan and Alfa had the Arna the wrong way round – ask Nissan to build the Aflasud and you’d be there for ever!
I recall in Australia the 80’s Pulsar hatch (Langley) had a black panel across the rear and if you looked real close you could see “Langley” embossed in big letters.
The SsangYongs are real solid trucks, most buyers seem to keep them for a long time. Only problem is the name, most folk baulk at the Ss and call them Samsungs, Samyangs and other names. I sold these things for a while and just went along with whatever the customer called them. It’s interesting that spellcheck suggests did you mean ‘Singsong”!
KJ
I remember the square Musso being popular with toorak tractor types because it was the only SUV/family 4WD available at the time with a Mercedes engine.
Only the early Mussos had the Benz engine, then they had a Korean produced version of the same engine. Seems they forgot gaskets and they leaked a lot. This was when the MB dealer I was with gave them the flick.
Now they are using an Italian designed engine in the Actyons and Korandos.
If you have a opportunity to drive a new Actyon dual cab you would be amazed at how quiet and refined it is. And I don’t sell them anymore…
KJ
Early prototype of the Musso.
I just snorted my glass of water all over the place, thanks Don… 😉
Now that I’ve cleaned the water up, that early prototype bears a remarkable resemblance to the actual Actyon Sports that litters our roads here and terrifies our children:
On the Roadpacer: First, apart from the Roadpacer, Mazda’s JDM flagship was the Luce (a.k.a. 929), not the Cosmo (a.k.a. 121/RX-5). The Luce was a big four-door while the Cosmo was a personal luxury car — the LTD to the Cosmo’s Thunderbird, if you will. The Luce of that vintage is actually a little bigger than the Cosmo, although they had a lot of commonality.
I assume the reason Mazda opted to use the Premier rather than the Statesman was that the Premier was already enormous by Japanese standards — excepting a handful of very expensive imports, I think it was the widest car sold in Japan by about a 50mm margin.
As to why it existed at all: Around the time the Roadpacer was developed, there was a big public and political battle going on over national emissions standards with the major Japanese automakers and the Japanese AMA insisting that the proposed standards were technically impossible. Honda and Toyo Kogyo, seeing an opportunity, chimed in to say, “Well, we can meet them.” The Mazda rotary engine had its faults, but it could meet the proposed Japanese (and U.S. federal) NOx standards, which were a big headache for reciprocating engines. For a while, there were also government tax credits for purchasing a vehicle that met the upcoming standards early, which is why Toyo Kogyo was quick to apply the “AP” (anti-pollution) label to so many of its rotary-engined cars.
Toyo Kogyo didn’t have a six or a V-8 at that point and for a while I’m sure it looked like it wouldn’t be a good investment to develop a six, since bigger reciprocating engines were going to have a hard time passing the emissions standards in Japan or the U.S. Also, I think Toyo Kogyo wanted to demonstrate that they could apply rotary power to just about anything — there was even a rotary-engine bus, the Mazda Parkway.
So, I don’t know that the Roadpacer was a serious commercial proposition (although they did sell some to government officials who, I assume, were under some political pressure to choose environmentally responsible home-market cars) so much as an attempt to demonstrate that Mazda would be happy to take over any market segment other automakers decided were too hard to make work from an emissions standpoint, including the prestige limousine class.
Obviously, it didn’t work out that way, although Mazda continued using rotary engines in the Luce and Cosmo for many years and got into turbocharging, at least in part to make up for the low-end torque shortfall.
Hyundai’s very first car back in the 80s’ was a re-worked 1970s’Triumph Avenger. The company bought the tooling from British Leyland and made quite a successful go at it. It was the very first locally produced car and look where the country standing now in the motor industry. My father worked there in the 80s’ and had one as a company car. He was in the ship building industry and Hyundai was the foremost shipping manufacturer in Asia at the time. Imagine one company building ships of 250,000 tonnes and cars of 1.2 tonnes.
Cro$$road sounds like an accurate description of the ownership experience.
I’m surprised the Japanese trade ministry never “suggested” a Honda/Isuzu merger since they rebadged each other’s vehicles so much, and there’s so little overlap between their lineups. Especially with GM no longer owning its’ share of Isuzu.
Isuzu were certainly one of automotive magpies of the 80’s and 90’s at least. The Aska was an interesting case, being a rebadged Honda Accord and Subaru Legacy (fwd only I believe) in quick succession. And as I mentioned elsewhere, Subaru in turn also rebadged the Nissan AD (Pulsar/Sentra/Sunny Wagon) as a Leone to please their light commercial customers.
The Aska was also a J body and rebadged as a Camira for NZ my fathers one is on wiki apparently very rare but I saw one last week.
I thought I recognized the Statesman from “Muriel’s Wedding.” Bill Heslop, corrupt local politician and callous, uncaring father of the heroine drove one. Its “brougham-ness” seemed a good match for his character!
Wow, somehow I missed this first time around William (but spotted the link on the Part 3 article), so am rather late getting here. Another great write up, thank you! Most of the rebadges above have turned up in NZ – except the Isuzu Statesman. Our Arna was the JDM Milano version, all that turned up here were used imports. Haven’t seen one in years. There’s at least one Honda Crossroad in town here – in British Racing Green, as they all seem to be. We have all those hideous, hideous Ssangyongs here – the Musso was replaced by an Actyon ute, every bit as frightening-looking as you’d expect. Every time I see a Rodius around I think ‘Rodent’. In fact, my parents rang me one day to say they’d seen the world’s ugliest car, and did I know what a Rodius was so they could avoid everything made by that manufacturer.
Re the Roadpacer, I’ve seen two in the metal here, a white one and a blue one. The blue one was in a car museum in my home town of Putaruru (New Zealand) for a year or three, and I spent plentiful time poring over every detail of it. The engine bay was particularly fascinating – the tangle of wires was rather horrifying, and looked like it would induce fear in any auto-electrician! Here’s the engine bay of the car I pored over:
In fact, I just realised the Roadpacer interior photo is of the actual car I saw! The photo come from when the owner had it for sale on our Trade Me internet auction site. So when you asked in your last sentence of the article if anyone had seen one of the rebadges in the metal, yes, I’ve seen the actual one you posted the interior pic of! Do I get a prize? 😉 Here’s the car as I saw it in the museum:
A couple more snaps of the Roadpacer in 2011:
I bet the Japanese were amazed at the thickness of the steel used in those Holdens’
the HQ series Holdens of the 70s were very strongly built cars.
I learn something new about cars every day. Never heard of or seen quite a few of these.
Yay! The “excellent series of notes and scans” are the ones I did for our Isuzu Bellett forum many years ago. I’d just spent about $250 on buying the brochure but felt it should be viewed by all with a Holden or Isuzu bent. I’m glad I was obliquely referenced by Curbside Classics.