Top 10s: Cars That Need Resurrection

By John LeBlanc Recently, BMW of North America CEO Jim O’Donnell said he wished the automaker had never replaced its 5 Series Touring wagon with the 5 Gran Turismo hatchback model in North America. With expected annual sales of 4,000 to 8,000 units in the U.S., BMW sold just 2,848 GTs in 2010 and only 720 in the first four months of 2011. Oops. “The disappointment I have is that I thought a lot of our 5 Series station wagon customers would go with the GT,” O’Donnell told Automotive News. “That is not happening. We have lost those customers to the competition — mainly to Mercedes-Benz.” But of course, BMW isn’t the only automaker that could be regretting dropping a model or two. Alphabetically, here’s my list of 10 cancelled cars I’d like to see brought back into production:

1997-2001 Acura Integra Type-R

You only have to look at Acura’s current what-were-they-thinking ZDX crossover coupe to see how far the once-dominant Japanese brand has dropped. But one surefire way to get back many of the brand’s former fans would be the return of one of the most iconic Japanese sports compacts of the 1990s: the revered Integra Type-R coupe. A high-performance, low-volume halo car like the Type-R never sold in great numbers. But it did help establish Acura with a younger crowd, and drew a lot of traffic into showrooms. Heck, even Toyota is trying to get back to its sports compact roots by resurrecting its Corolla SR5 coupe in the form of the new FT-86/Scion FR-S.

BMW 5 Series Touring

In a market dominated by tall-in-the-saddle utility vehicles, station wagons may be seen as follies for automotive writers and enthusiasts. But as BMW is woefully discovering with its awkward 5 Gran Turismo hatchback/crossover/thingee (see above), there is still a hardcore (dare I say, rational and intelligent) sport wagon fan base out there. While BMW’s O’Donnell says it may be too late for this generation of the 5er wagon to be sold here, despite a planned Gran Turismo version of the next-gen compact 3 Series already signed-off, he says he doesn’t want to lose even more wagon sales to rivals — BMW will keep the 3 Series wagon in its North American lineup.

Chevrolet El Camino

We were this close to seeing a Pontiac version of Chevy’s iconic coupe-utility-vehicle only a few years ago. As part of the launch of its G8 sports sedan (a car based on General Motors’ Australian rear-wheel-drive platform) in August 2008, Pontiac announced that a “G8 ST” (Sport Truck) based on the Aussie Holden VE Ute-based pickup truck would go on sale in the U.S. in late 2009 as a 2010 model. Of course, we all know what happened next. Pontiac, along with Saab, Saturn and Hummer, fell victim to GM’s bankruptcy woes. But today, Chevrolet is importing a version of the G8 as a police interceptor. Why not a new El Camino as well?

2011 Ford Ranger

You’re a 20-year-old male. You just got your first full-time job. You want a new car. But you don’t want to be seen driving around in some little bottom-feeder hatchback. Enter the Ford Ranger, “the most fuel efficient pickup in Canada” that can be had for as little as $13,999. But not for long. Ford has confirmed that they will end production on the Ranger in 2011, and have no plans to offer the next generation in North America. Why? Officially, Ford says the small pickup market has been declining for the past 15 years. If this sounds like BMW’s rationale with its canning of the 5 Series, get in line.

1990-1993 Infiniti Q45

Ever so slowly, Nissan’s luxury Infiniti is clawing back from its near-disappearance at the turn of the millennium. It started with the decision to better differentiate itself from mainstream Nissan products with a dedicated rear-wheel-drive platform, resulting in the G and M sports sedans and EX and FX crossovers. But if the brand truly wants to take on the Germans, the one product Infiniti is woefully lacking is a flagship sedan: i.e. a return of the very first Infiniti, the 1990 Q45. While seen as a sales flop at the time (mainly because of a confusing TV ad campaign that focused on waterfalls and rocks instead of the product), a new Q could be a distinctive and value-laden alternative to the BMWs of today. Trust me.

1990-2002 Isuzu Trooper

With the former body-on-frame Ford Explorer SUV becoming a car-based crossover for 2011, the options to buy a relatively inexpensive new SUV seem to be dwindling. That’s where a resurrected Isuzu Trooper would surely fill a gap in today’s market. Regarded in its day as a “poor man’s Range Rover”, the second-generation Trooper was larger, more powerful and more refined than the bare-bones first-gen models. But the Isuzu SUV was still rugged enough to take off-road.

1961-1968 Jaguar XK-E

Why Jaguar abandoned what some consider the sexiest, most beautiful car ever made by man I’ve never understood. That the original XK-E was also one of the fastest and best performing cars of its era only makes its absence hurt more. Imagine if Jaguar had taken the same approach Porsche did with its evergreen 911 by simply polishing and evolving the XK-E over time. Regretfully, Jaguar has offered a string of not-as-good-as-an-XK-E GT cars, from the 1975 XJ-S to the current XK that came in 1996.

Lincoln Town Car

Lincoln’s Town Car model was first seen as a top-rung 959 Continental Mark IV sedan trim line. But the Town Car that I know and love is the current version, which, after 30 years of production (along with its V8 engine, body-on-frame design, rear-wheel drive Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury marquis Panther platform mates) is going out of production at Ford’s St. Thomas, Ont., plant. After countless chauffeured trips in airport limousine Townies, and seeing too many rerun episodes of the Sopranos, it’s hard to believe Ford is ditching an American road icon for a livery version of the Lincoln MKT crossover. Meh…

1993-1995 Mazda RX-7

Mazda recently launched an advertising campaign bragging about its driver-focused approach to designing and building vehicles that are fun to drive. So, to add any product legitimacy to Mazda’s redefined brand ethos, it needs to bring back the RX-7 two-seater, specifically in the mold of the early-1990s third-generation model. Unlike the current RX-8, which suffers from the added complexity, height and weight of having a pair of occasional rear seats and suicide doors, the 1990s RX-7 was much purer. Its lightweight body was shrink-wrapped around a tight-fitting cockpit. Combined with a beer-keg-sized Rotary engine placed front-mid-ships, the third-generation RX-7 was a sports car driver’s dream. Sweet.

1966-1974 Volvo 145 Wagon

After being bounced around from Ford to China’s Geely, Volvo is looking to regain some of its old, stolid, Swedish brand qualities. What better way than to go right to the image many of us conjure up when you say “Volvo”: the styled-like-the-box-they-were-shipped-in 140 Series wagons. First arriving in the mid-1960s, the rear-wheel-drive 140 wagons ended up becoming some of the first quasi-sports wagons in North America. Before it became burdened with the heavier look of the 240 Series, or the fussy handling of the front-wheel-drive 850/V70 wagons, it’s hard not to love the cleaner styling of the 145. Yes. A mid-1980s 245 Turbo may be your idea of the perfect Volvo wagon to resurrect. But a modern interpretation of a 145, powered by one of Volvo’s new diesel-hybrid set-ups, would attract some Volvo customers other than soccer moms.

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