The American automotive industry is best known for its large vehicles, be they pickup trucks, large SUVs, or big muscle cars. Most American automakers sold small cars up to now, but some folks is probably not aware that many small “American” cars were actually designed and/or built by other corporations in other countries. American imperialism forced itself upon the shores of Eastern countries like Korea and Japan under the guise of “civilizing” and “helping” them out, and these countries conveniently helped Americans get low cost, efficient, well-built products in return. The newest MotorWeek Retro Review showcases how Ford’s Festiva was actually designed by Mazda in Japan and produced by Kia in Korea, and former Retro Reviews show how the opposite two players in America’s Big Three carmakers have done the identical for over 50 years.
Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler don’t sell any small cars within the U.S. anymore. Consumer purchase habits have shifted enough that the three corporations don’t see much, if any value in selling non-crossover vehicles. Even now, small and reasonably priced American vehicles, crossovers or otherwise, are hard to come back by. GM is the one company of the massive three that sells a subcompact vehicle within the U.S., the Chevrolet Trailblazer crossover, and it’s actually designed and built by GM Korea.
Apart from the Ford Festiva, there have been many other small cars sold by American automakers that were actually designed and/or inbuilt other countries. The Chevrolet Sprint of the ‘80s was a rebadged Suzuki, the Chevrolet Spectrum was a rebadged Isuzu, the Chevrolet Nova was a rebadged Toyota, and the Chevrolet Spark and Aveo were rebadged Korean Daewoos. The Dodge/Plymouth Colt was a rebadged Mitsubishi, and the Chrysler brands were once deeply intertwined with Mitsubishi, using its engines and rebadging other models for many years. Ford also used its foreign entities to supply other models through the years, including the Ford Aspire and later versions of the Ford Escort.
American automakers did occasionally produce successful small cars of their very own, like Chrysler’s Neon, Ford’s Focus, and Chevrolet’s Cavalier, but each company relied heavily on the respective lessons learned from their colonized Eastern counterparts. The history of American automobile corporations and the American automotive landscape is heavily intertwined with the proliferation of American imperialism. Ever since we realized that the Ford Pinto and Chevy Citation were garbage in comparison with their imported market competitors, American corporations used the old adage, “in the event you can’t beat ‘em, colonize ‘em.” Within the words of Biggie Smalls, in the event you don’t know, now you realize.
This Article First Appeared At jalopnik.com
