Until a few weeks ago, the phrase “Camaro brand umbrella” meant the actual Camaro-branded umbrella your stepdad Steve has to go with his Camaro hat, his Camaro T-shirt, and the 2019 Camaro ZL1 in his garage with 9,000 miles on it because he’s secretly too terrified to drive most of the time. Soon, however, it’s about to carry a more figurative meaning at General Motors: defining the Camaro as a sub-brand, of sorts, that includes an assortment of cars that reflect its persona.
Cadillac’s Escalade is getting the same treatment, too, according to Car and Driver. Both moves make a lot of sense; the Escalade has always kind of been its own thing within the Cadillac lineup, even with a unique name when the rest of the brand went to stuff like XT5 and ATS; plus, America loves trucks and SUVs, so more of those will print money for GM.
The Camaro is a more interesting proposition. Everyone knows that name. But the current, sixth-generation Camaro has been a sales disaster, the poster child for the declining sports car market. GM might as well use that valuable name, styling and history for something else, purists be damned. Plans for the Camaro brand could include an electric coupe and convertible, another more high-end sports car, and a performance crossover; I’d put my money on options one and three, personally, but this is all “under evaluation,” as C/D says.
It’s an interesting thought experiment and it brings me to this question: What car, or cars, deserve to be their own brand? (And hopefully in a more successful way than poor Edsel, pictured up top.)
We’re already seeing automakers do this more and more. GM, of course, has huge plans for “Corvette” as a standalone brand. SEAT’s Cupra nameplate is becoming that VW Group’s performance brand in certain markets; I saw ads for Cupra all over the place when I was in Mexico City recently. Ram split off from Dodge years ago. The Grand Wagoneer doesn’t wear a Jeep badge. And the Ford Mustang Mach-E is kind of doing this; I haven’t heard if more Mustang-branded models are coming beyond the EV crossover and the traditional coupe, but I wouldn’t be shocked if things go that way.
Let’s use Toyota as an example here. The smart-brain play, an idea that came from our own Thomas Hundal in Autopian Slack this morning, is to turn Land Cruiser into a brand and give Americans a bunch of weather-ready SUVs of multiple sizes and shapes to enjoy. You know that would do well—I doubt Akio’s worried about putting his grandkids through college, but a Land Cruiser brand would ensure they’re squared away.
But I woke up and chose violence this morning instead, so here’s my suggestion: make Supra a brand. I think the current Supra is a better car than people give it credit for, but I still recognize its many flaws. If people still aren’t happy, Toyota could Supra a bunch of stuff—another Supra flagship coupe, a Supra performance crossover, a bigger Supra performance crossover, a Supra performance minivan, you name it. Make Supra the Japanese performance brand—think Lexus, but it wants to punch you in the throat. I could get behind that.
Your turn. What car deserves a family of like-minded cars of its own to hang out with?
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It boggles my mind that GM is making a new Pontiac (by turning Camaro into a brand). I just want Saab back. Give me any of them as a brand. Please, just give me back Saab.
Snorts 8 ball of Pixy Stix
There was once a time when GM’s Truck & Coach division absolutely dominated the bus market. Perhaps millions of people were given mobility through New Look buses, RTS buses, and so many gorgeous PD parlor coaches.
What if GM got back into buses? DO IT, GM!!!! 😀
Mirage. Hear me out! I just want cheap cars to be a thing again, and I think there’s an opportunity here, because of the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance.
The Mirage is already known to be inexpensive. So, the Mirage brand would continue that, bringing over Dacias via Renault (Mirage Duster!) and cars like the Renault Kwid and create a whole exciting category of cars that all sell for well UNDER $20K. Ideally, most are between $13K-$15K.
Maybe even a Mirage Twizzy?
People need cars like this. Will they be able to make money? That’s their problem, right?
Pickup trucks could all be their own brands. Dodge did it with Ram (I would pulled Dodge to only be trucks).
Silverados and Sierras usually have the maker dropped when being discussed. They could roll in the Canyon & Colorado as the 700 or something.
Though Ford would be stuck trying to market a single letter! Big sign out front of the “F” dealership that’s just a f.
Other than giving the Toyobarus a brand of their own, I think the best play for spin-off brands is to pick something like Corvette–a vehicle that is in a different class than most of the vehicles, whether it is the cheaper, more expensive, or just different type of vehicle. Toyota is coming close to this with the Corolla and Corolla Cross, and they could probably do the same with the Crown, except for the obvious overlaps with Lexus. That said, if they just had the Crown and Lexus nameplates compete a bit, it might even mean they just take a larger chunk of that market from Infiniti and the like.
Heck, they might be able to make a whole line of Tacoma pickups. It works for Ram, I guess.
I feel the whole move is exactly backwards. There should be fewer brands, not more.
Since virtually everything is crossovers now, each manufacturer (not BRAND) simply needs to offer 9 crossovers. I’m suggesting a 3×3 matrix. On the horizontal axis is:
Small crossover | Medium crossover | Large crossover
and the vertical axis is:
Plain trim
—
Mid trim
—
Fancy trim
And that’s ALL. For example, GM should offer exactly NINE passenger vehicles. Or Toyota. Or Hyundai.
That’s all we need, that’s all people who want passenger vehicles need to choose from. Thus ends my rant.
3×4 matrix: also offer each with a bed and you’ve got a pickup/ute lineup.
Honestly? None of ’em.
Why spend all this time building brand loyalty to spin off a new brand comprised of a sub-brand-that-isn’t-really-a-brand-because-it-used-to-be-a-car?
I still think the Mach-E was a poor decision. Spinning off the Corvette into its own nameplate will likely harm the ‘vette. The Camaro couldn’t even make it as its own car multiple times, and they’re going to make it its own brand? I’d buy that for a dollar!
There are enough dead brands already. Spin them back up instead of spinning off something existing. Give that Oldsmobile or Pontiac fan something to be excited about. Get some Mercury momentum moving.
Drilling down and specializing works well in the natural world, at least until a disruption in the environment occurs. Once that invasive species moves in it is lights out for the native species. In this time of EV and environmental change, do you really want to specialize or do you want to diversify your brands?
As a Ford guy, at the very least, I’d like to see Mercury as the designation for high-end Ford trim levels. Enough of the precious metals tomfoolery – I can’t mentally figure out if Titanium or Platinum is the higher one!
I really think the downfall was corporate Engines. it made some sense to have separate engineers trying separate designs so the failures taught the others while not sinking the whole ship.
The problem is that you won’t get a single engineer to admit that their pet project is the failed project.
That’s why it took GM so long to come up with the LS series, or to even realize that such a thing would be good to do. Nobody concluded that the Chevy small block was the best GM engine of its time until long after it was proven in the market many times over. The same for the big block series.
And even recently GM has had such side project silliness like the Northstar V8, the LT1, the LS5 and the Blackwing instead of simply developing their core products into something even better, or simply developing extra branches for special uses.
Diverse motor development work is great for learning, but not enough care was taken to ensure that only the best engines were produced. GM has always had more powertrain engineers than they’ve needed for developing good motors and transmissions. But never enough focus on actually manufacturing only the best.
Tough call here. I would like to the specialty cars like WRX, TRD, NISMO, AMG, given the SVO treatment. Not a particular model, more of a let the team go nuts on the line. Sell them as a sub brand.
As mentioned, SVO for Ford, then other other America manufacturers like MOPAR (Dodge), Storm series (think Cyclone, Typhoon for GM, add in other in the line up).
To me that would sell better than a single one shot brand. Wait a couple years until the repairs hit and if you can afford it buy and fix.
So GM is gonna make sub-brands out of Corvette, Camaro, and Escalade? That’s a lot of sub-brands.
I imagine they can only do this because the ICE daily things are going away. so the things that kind of need a Gas motor somewhere in the line up will stand alone for a while so the others can make their own stock money to fund Hydrogen or whatever the next big thing is after BEV fails.
I’m gonna be That Guy and dispute the premise of this one. I don’t want to see legendary nameplates turned into sub-brands, especially since it always ends up meaning, “We’re gonna make a crossover.” It might be a fine idea from a business perspective, but as an enthusiast I see it as the dilution and bastardization of beloved cars.
Does anyone really want a Corvette crossover? Should the Wrangler really be watered down into a unibody crossover that competes with the Bronco Sport? Does anyone really believe that sequential taillights is all that it takes to make a crossover worthy of the name “Mustang?” Would the Escalade still be as prestigious if there were a smaller, lower-end crossover rolling around with the same name for half the price?
All of those ideas might make money for the manufacturers, but as an automotive enthusiast that’s hardly my top priority. The crossoverization of all vehicles is not anything to get excited about.
A related thing that I do wish would come back though is one model of car offered in multiple body styles. As a (rare) recent example of what I mean, you could get the Mk7 Golf as a three-door hatch, a five-door hatch, a front-wheel-drive wagon, a lifted four-wheel drive wagon, and (in Europe) a van. All very much the same car, but in five distinct flavors—and that’s without counting the GTI and R. This sort of thing used to be very common, and I think it should be again.
You make a great point – that sub-branding these days is mostly about trying to appropriate something from an existing (or once-existing) vehicle unto something new with no history, in the hopes buyers will transfer their good feelings about the existing one unto the new one.
If automakers would set out to make a sub-brand of entirely new things, I’d be intrigued. Like if instead of calling it “Mustang Mach-e”, Ford had instead announced “the all new Amp lineup by Ford. The Amp Urban is available now, new models coming soon!”
If Ford had any balls at all, they should start a Galaxie sub-brand. Galaxie 500 for the top tier.
Or just call the Mach-e that. It’s going to be even sillier in a few years when a fully-electric regular Mustang comes out.
Making a new brand isn’t always the right call, like I drive a RAM 1500 but to me it will still always be a Dodge Ram 1500, just can’t get the dodge out of my head
If anyone could have spun off a pickup brand, it should have been Toyota. Tacoma Hilux, Tacoma Classic (or whatever), Tacoma Hilux. They could have also brought the 4Runner if they wanted. Dodge and Ram are both limited enough that it didn’t make sense to separate them. If anything, they needed to bring in Chrysler or something to fill in their models.
I think that making RAM separate was more about restructuring the dealership network than anything else. It didn’t accomplish anything positive on that front, and weakened Dodge a lot. It was a dumb move.
I was going to say Land Cruiser – but then you covered it in the article…but I still vote for it.
Miata. Give me an entire range of small, affordable, rear wheel drive, engaging driver’s cars. We can have the classic MX5 roadster, a coupe to compete with the Toyobaru twins, and a 4 seat convertible for a viable pony car alternative. They can have the Miata’s NA 4 as the base engine or the 2.5 from the 3 turbo and CX50 as the upgraded engine. Maybe we could get the upcoming straight 6 in the 4 seat drop top? A man can dream.
You do know they would just go straight to making a Miata-branded crossover, right?
Don’t you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby
MX-30
These four comments(3:20, 3:23, 3:33 pm & 8:05am) should start a new feature: Exchange Of The Day. Or maybe it’s just me. Either way, the cat was PISSED OFF as I blotted my spewed coffee off of her.
Well done, you two!
If the Kia Stinger had sold better, a sport-luxury Stinger brand would complement the luxury-luxury Genesis brand as a one-two premium punch from Korea.
Fortunately the Stinger will live on as the Genesis G70, at least for the time being. It’s a really sharp and well reviewed car but it has some stiff, household name competition. Also as much as I like the Genesis brand on paper I have to admit that their designs are a lot less striking in person.
There are a couple of GV70s and GV80s in my neighborhood now and they just look like something is missing to me. I can’t quite put my finger on it…but for some reason they don’t add up design wise for me. Also the GV70 has a pretty inexcusable panel gap…the hood looks like it’s always popped.
None! It still think it was stupid pulling Ram from Dodge. Even though every hillbilly dipshit in my neck of the woods have called their Dodge Ram 2500/3500’s with the diesel, a Dodge Cummins, along with Ford Power Strokes or Chevy D-Max’s.
Well for sure any carmaker that use numbers or a mix of numbers and letters should not have an unique brand. I have enough explaining what is a Polestar, I have to say its a Volvo
Mercedes commercial vehicles, at least in the US.
I mean it’s objectively funny to have cargo vans for sale in the same showroom as S-classes and AMG GTs, but it probably isn’t ideal from a sales and marketing perspective.
Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Just wait until I get to the part where I suggest they bring the Unimog over here.
And economy-wise, aren’t we kinda at exactly the right time for this now?
I mean, I think back to the Hummer crazy in the mid-2000s, right before the crash…
I don’t know if everyone else got the Simpsons reference…but I did.
I agree, they should be Unimog, and there should be a more basic version of the G wagon in that brand and of course unimog brand trucks and vans.
I mean, Mercedes used to do that with the Sprinter! For a while, Sprinters were sold by Dodge and Freightliner, but not by Mercedes-Benz.
The best explanation that I’ve seen is that American buyers didn’t know what a Sprinter was, so DaimlerChrysler chucked them off to Freightliner and Dodge. But by 2009, the Sprinter had established itself (and owners started swapping MB badges onto them, anyway) so Daimler took the brand back. It seems that according to the report below, MB USA felt confident that it could do a better job selling them, too.
https://www.autoweek.com/news/a2016996/mercedes-sell-sprinter-vans-through-its-own-stores/
My local MB dealers don’t put Sprinters or Metris in their showrooms. Instead, they’re in the backlot. Oh, and apparently, you could still buy a Sprinter as a Freightliner until 2021.
Yeah the Freightliner thing is what I was envisioning, but maybe inventing a new name.
Not exactly an answer to the question, but related; I feel like with Buick going full throttle into a strictly EV lineup, every vehicle being named the Buick Electra Throatpunch and the Buick Electra Yourmom is just redundant. Either have the brand be Buick, or Electra, but not both. I get why they’re doing it, to tug at the warm fuzzies of nostalgia, but it just sounds stupid
Buick has such a great repository of names they could use. Le Sabre, Rivera, Roadmaster I don’t know why the don’t lean into that more even as trim levels.
Buick is *desperately* and completely ineffectively trying to shake it’s boring old fogey image, and that includes introducing a ton of new monikers to try to sound sewwwwww fauncey
They don’t even have an image anymore, the cars are so lifeless and bland no one in the commercials recognizes them.
I like the incoming Envista a lot. I think it looks sporty and closer to a 5 door hatch than a crossover
Yes… they should come out with a new Le Rivieramaster
I think that’s going to be an issue with every brand that brands their EVs differently, when every Mercedes is an EQ, every Toyota is an bZ, every Hyundai is an IONIQ, etc, and is a primo opportunity to replace proper names with flavourless alphanumeric. There are already talk about a VW “ID. Golf”, which is essentially what the ID.3 is supposed to be, but the Golf name is too strong to ditch.
Obviously the Corvette has stood on it’s own for a long time and could in theory Be a Standalone Ferrari/Lambo competitor with multiple types of cars and SUV’s. Everyone will complain, but it makes a little sense if you look sideways enough. Also it disconnects the basic Chevrolet name from the Performance name Corvette.
Polaris Makes the Slingshot On road and Razor, Off-road things and could pretty easily Make Slingshot sports cars by adding a 4th wheel, or by safety certifying Razors, they could make Slingshot Off Road street legal mini trucks/SUV’s
I feel like the Wrangler is popular enough and has adequately different styling from the rest of the Jeeps. I could see that style become it’s own thing and make things like the old Jeepsters for Car like things. The Gladiator makes an ok small truck, but a Wrangler shaped full size truck like say an old school power wagon with a cummins diesel might be a thing people would buy.
For me it’s WRX/STI, always thought it was shame there wasn’t a Crosstrek WRX or a STI Baja.
I don’t really like the idea of separate brands for vehicles (seems inefficient, but I get it’s about generating emotional connection in the 21st century marketplace) and it pains me to say it, but such a strategy might be the only way Lincoln makes it long enough for me to get one when I’m old.
So how about “Continental” for the few vehicles it would produce?
While I want to come up with something clever, the hidden marketing guy in me thinks it’s the electric arm of any large brand. It segregates EVs from ICEs, protecting both arms of the brand. It also gives the opportunity of one of the big three (okay, two at this point) to compete with Tesla for prestige. GM is already doing it with their painfully cringy ad campaign that’s EVerywhere or EVeryone or whatever it is. Ford could do the same. VW could do the same. Split the EV business into its own brand, without the baggage of a hundred years of ICE progress.
Thomas almost had the right answer. It’s the Wrangler.
It’s its own culture. Jeep tries to rub the wrangler on all the other models on the showroom floor in the hopes that the success rubs off. But the Wrangler is a brand that stands alone. Cults, waves, aftermarket branding, buildups, meetups, shirts, hats, vinyl decals, angry eyebrows.
They’ve got 2 doors, 4 doors, trucks. May as well through a 3-row in there and call it good.
I don’t even like the Wrangler, but it can stand alone for a lot of people.
They’ve already done this with the Wagoneer, but that’s not exactly at, like, anybody’s price point lol
I came in to offer the same contribution, so I’m glad to see I’m not alone in my thinking.
Here’s how I see it going down: the Wrangler would be a standalone brand with its own locations, replete with outfitters, an on-site 4×4 Wrangler Certified shop to fast track installation of specialized mods and adjustments for your rig, and an off-roading course on site for field testing to make additional tweaks. Obviously, the course would make for a great sales tool, so one of the staff would be a Jeep Trail Rated® Certified to take customers on a guided demonstration of capability.
And if that is too radical for you, let me suggest this: if you want to keep the rest of the Jeep lineup intact, pull the Wrangler (I think you’d have to include the Gladiator…maybe rename it with the J series nomenclature) and the Wagoneer into their own unified brand. The facility would be along the lines of the above description for the Wrangler and Gladiator/J Series. But on the same site, a separate building, sales floor, waiting room, and service area that’s as luxurious as the Wagoneer’s interior for that marque. For the Wagoneer owners who align more with the rough and ready image, the off-road test course is available for their use too. There could even be a separate, lighter route that’s more akin to something you’d see on a manufacturer road test presser. Here’s the best part, even if it sounds a little cynical – what’s the name for this Jeep sub-brand? Jeep Heritage Brands.
I would also settle for the Compass and Renegade disappearing from the lineup. Bonus points for a Cherokee redesign that’s even somewhat reminiscent of the XJ.
I would be fine with a rebadged Suzuki Jimny in place of the renegade.
Ooh, good suggestion. I’d love to see that.
This is an interesting one, because even though Wrangler is that model’s official name, it’s still the model most people think of when they say “jeep.” So to strip the jeep name off the Wrangler and leave it with the renegade and current Cherokee would almost be a step backward.
Come to think of it, jeep is already an example of turning a “model” name into a full brand. It’s just kind of funny because they then gave the original a new name with the Wrangler badging.
And the Wrangler brand stands alone, but it stands as “Jeep.” Although “it’s a Wrangler thing” does have a humorous ring to it.
I agree Wrangler could be spun off, but Jeep NEEDS Wrangler for credibility. It’s the face of the franchise. I think separating the pure offroader from the rest would eventually sink the whole Jeep brand.
If it’s me, I think I’d go back in time before GM ruined the nameplate and do what Ford has done with “Bronco” to the Blazer. I want a Trailblazer as the small one;a Blazer as the medium one; and a King Blazer as big, seven-passenger off-roader.
You beat me to it LOL
The current Blazer and Trailblazer make me irrationally angry. There isn’t really anything particularly offensive about them, they’re just such shameless, lazily engineered commodity cars with a name that carries some history with it. There is absolutely nothing about them that stands out or separates them from the competition and yet NPCs still line up to buy them.
I think the Trailblazer is pretty snappy looking honestly. I like the incoming next gen Trax even more. And while I like the Blazer, I do agree that it’s pretty generic
Gimme a Jimmy! My grandfather had one, least-comfort-ever plaid seat covers and everything. I had such a good time riding on the back bench with all my siblings with no seat belt. It’s amazing we all survived to adulthood.
Upon reflection, maybe the Blazer marque would be a better idea from a marketing perspective.