tram.
De Tomaso
Tucker! They never really got their footing but had some really innovative features that took decades for the industry to fully adopt. I’d be interested to see what they would be producing if they were around today.
Delorean Motor Company.
I’d love to see a modern take on the classic Delorean. Something that isn’t a fugly ass cybertruck dorkmobile.
Delorean Motor Company.
They’re (kind of) back. A new company was formed after acquiring the old company’s branding. So far they’re only providing parts to owners of vintage DMC-12s (and I think a few “new old” DMC-12s), but they’re working on a new EV inspired by the classic model.
I feel like amc was pretty innovative for its time. Most brands I can think of would probably succumb to the blob crossover trend because of how the us markets are set up for cars, but I feel like amc could still put an interesting twist on things.
Ugly but dependable.
Geo.
My Dad had a Geo Metro 5-speed that was getting 49 MPG in the 90’s. Bought it brand new for like 10k. Sure it was a 3 cylinder that went 0-60 in … eventually, but it’d be nice to be able to get that kind of mileage without paying out the nose for a hybrid.
My first car was a Geo Metro that I learned to drive in. One time I got pulled over and the cop claimed I was going 80mph and I told him I didn’t even think it could hit 80mph if you dropped it out of a plane. He decided against writing a ticket.
Studebaker so we can bring back the jet engine nose style.
The pedestrian poker. Still less worse than all the brodozers around now.
I wish Ford had more regular cars in North America, they got rid of all except the Mustang
Based on what it sounds like they’re doing to their trucks in terms of privacy and your ability to actually own your vehicle, I’m not mad that I can no longer get a newer Ford sedan.
I feel like the answer is different if I am just resurrecting them as they were when they died, vs if I am magically in charge of the brand with funding to start “fresh”…
I’d bring back Reliant to make an electric version of the three wheel Reliant purely for meme purposes.
Fancy a pick-up truck? I saw this abomination / Chad-Wagon a few years ago:
I got a lift in a Reliant Robin once, and going round corners was terrifying.
Did you keep an eye out for Mr Bean?
Isnt this the one that flips over if you look at it too fast? I also pick this one
Only if you weight it wrong on purpose like they did on Top Gear…
Holden and Ford Australia. Partly for personal nostalgic reasons but also because of local engineering and manufacturing. A bit of our national identity disappeared when they shut down, although they were owned by US companies they were still a source of Aussie pride. Nowadays we have no local industry and it all just feels a bit hollow. Like watching sports when you have no local team.
I doubt they’d be able to make them these days but seeing as we’re talking hypotheticals, there’s something about a big cube V8 or turbo 6 that’s missing from everything since. Yes I know on here the hive mind demands we boo ands hiss if someone dares to like anything ICE, and when our current runabout goes it’ll likely be replaced by an EV of some sort. But for us, cars are a hobby and a source of enjoyment too, and I dare say we’ll have at least one ICE vehicle for a long as it’s feasible for us to do so. And if I can get a semi-modern nod to the past that would be perfect.
And if the Japanese car industry could go back to the 90s I’d be pretty stoked about that too!
+1 for Holden - the true Aussie car brand. Such a shame that it has been owned by GM for longer than I’ve been alive, and they killed it when it wasn’t profitable enough. Fuck the USA.
100% this.
Another thing that disappeared with Holden and Ford Australia are normal sized utes, nowadays it’s just all gigantic pick-up trucks.
At least bring back the Barra! I must swap it into so many things.
Barra the world!
Well said!
SAAB, great looking cars with futuristic features!
And they were build super well.
Specifically, pre-GM Saab.
SAAB, the car you buy, because, um… …?
They would just last forever
SAAB is dead?? Damn
SAAB Automotive got killed by GM, resurrected by Spyker, subsequently killed again by debtors, resurrected again by Chinese investors who lost the rights to the brand, turned into NEVS (National Electric Vehicles Sweden), ran out of money again due to COVID, and has since been in “hibernation”/limbo. Most recently Stenhaga bought the remainder of the factory in Trollhättan, and EV Electra were considering to buy what’s left of the production models. That deal fell through and, last I heard of it, whatever is left of the NEVS were like 20 folks who got fired in 2024.
So yeah, to quote McCoy “He’s dead Jim”.
Pontiac
My first car. I still want to try out a G8 sometime.
I always tell my wife that if they found a secret warehouse full of old Aztek parts and pumped some new ones out, I’d get one on the spot. I loved that car.
The tent add on would fly these days
Wiesmann, or any other small-scale German sports car manufacturer for that matter. It seems like all sports car brands are owned by big conglomerates nowadays, and nearly all of them are pretty boring and generic as a result.
I know that Wiesmann is still around but they’re nothing but a shell of what they once were.
Shoutouts to Roland Gumpert.
The Swedish Volvo and not the chinese Volvo. I feel like we would have had a power house for electric vhicles with Volvo. Now we are stuck with the French cars. Renault is doing really great. But isn’t Volvo. I feel like Saab would had gone Volkswagen as well, and come too late for the party and die out anyways. But they made good cars as well.
Still don’t know why, but the 240 series will always have a special place in my heart.
(fun detail: Ask any kid around the world to draw a car, and they draw a volvo 240)
I still want one, even though they’ve all been driven ti hell and back.
They were designed to do that on the regular. Especially Volvo’s polar editions were built to withstand just about any condition and kept simple and barebones for that reason.
Yeah, but even the most durable cars wear out eventually. And most of them were probably not taken care of super well, especially by like the third or fourth owner…
In Chinese Volvo’s defense they have built an entire manufacturing plant in South Carolina to build nothing but EVs, but the whole place is stuck in second gear.
The Swedish Volvo died the day Ford took over, Geely is just there to trot around the remains.
Although, let’s be honest - Volvo had been on the verge of bankruptcy like three times before Ford bought them so it’s likely they would’ve died on their own too. Turns out making cars that are incredibly reliable is not a sustainable business model.
