Things They Should Have Made...

[pogweasel]

Got to thinking, about some manufacturing missed opportunities... in these days of a niche model for everything, we are spoiled for choice, back in the day you could not have cake and eat it...

 

I like these:

Hoofingly fast, quadra 4x4 for sure-footed-ness. Basically a sierra cosworth for those whose knuckles do not drag along the ground.

 

I like these:

Properly big estate, with 7 forward-facing seats. Bit dull in the engine dept mind.

 

Put the two together and it's possibly all the car I could ever need.

Why didn't they do this? WHY!!!!???

 

Anyone else think of good Things They Should Have Made....

[dollywobbler]

Similar vein (and I think one or two actually exist, so that scuppers me) MG Montego estate.

 

I do wish Holden had been given a chance to design a half-arsed estate based on the Mk3 Cav too. I love them 'meh, that'll do' styling of the Mk2!

 

Ultimately, my biggest 'why didn't they build it?' is probably the Project Iceberg V8 diesel for the Range Rover. Probably drank almost as much fuel while delivering much less performance but a V8 diesel!

[Richard]

A bit more prosaic but I always thought the Renault 9 or 19 would have made a nice compact estate car.

[Cavcraft]

Sorry it's predictable but I always thought they should have made a Cavalier Mk3 estate and a three door hatchback.

Maybe the three door hatch idea was considered but the Calibra was in the pipeline and they didn't want the tooling costs for what probably would have been a poor seller.

[Pete-M]

I remember seeing pics of a Mondeo Coupé that they really should have made.

 

Unfortunately, they brought us the Probe instead.

 

 

Other mistakes involve migrating from RWD to FWD, and fitting diesels to anything that doesn't work on a farm.

[Torsten2001]

The Daimler Corsica, just stunning!

[ashmicro]

Rover 55

 

 

Jagurover - there was talk (came to nowt) of replacing the X Type Jag with a Rover-badged car:

 

 

 

 

2 litre T series 16v Turbo Montego, 4WD. Its not as if the firm was a stranger to 4wd!

[eddyramrod]

Other mistakes involve migrating from RWD to FWD, and fitting diesels to anything that doesn't work on a farm.

So true Pete! And universally so nowadays, they're all doing it.

 

How come we never got a Dolomite with a Stag V8 and auto? Dolomite estate might have been fun too... oooh, wait a minute, what about a V8 estate???? Count me in! Or perhaps a Dolomite Coupe using the 2-door Toledo shell? (Would have killed the TR7 instantly, I suspect...) Look at that, a whole premium-priced luxury/performance range, made in-house from existing components. Another missed opportunity from BL.

[Guest]

Datsun Stanza T11 with a sub-1549cc engine for "low tax" purposes. I reckon some old pushrod thing retooled for FWD would be good, perhaps the old A12 out of a RWD Sunny.

[Tayne]

.

[ashmicro]

Or Signum, Or Vel Satis. Think that Rover was about 2003 if memory serves.

[ashmicro]

 

With a 1.1 8v on a carb, preferably.

 

 

With 4.0 K V12

[Father Ted]

Mini Metro Estate.

 

Nova Beating Mini Metro Saloon

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

 

With 4.0 K V12

[mattblack]

SD1 estate.

 

http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?sd1estatef.htm

[Guest]

Dacia Shifter with a wood-burning engine.

[Formula Autos]

A crude drawing of a potential missed opportunity.

 

How many giffers would have bought a Rover 25 saloon?

 

[Cavcraft]

A crude drawing of a potential missed opportunity.

 

How many giffers would have bought a Rover 25 saloon?

 

Wouldn't they have bought the 45 instead?

The Rover estate someone pictured before looks ace and probably would have sold reasonably well.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

The 25 is all Rover though, the 45 isn't. I'm sure Rover were paying Honda for the rights to the design up until the end.

[Lord Sterling]

Rover CCV

 

[Gompo]

Sierra 2-door/Coupe.

 

I cant find pics of the one that somebody made, but it looked cool.

[barrett]

Moskvich 408 Tourist

 

Wartburg 313 S

[seth]

How come we never got a Dolomite with a Stag V8 and auto? Dolomite estate might have been fun too... oooh, wait a minute, what about a V8 estate???? Count me in! Or perhaps a Dolomite Coupe using the 2-door Toledo shell? (Would have killed the TR7 instantly, I suspect...) Look at that, a whole premium-priced luxury/performance range, made in-house from existing components. Another missed opportunity from BL.

Kinda on that subject they did make a few prototype 2000/2500 shells with the Stag V8.

 

My constant wish is that everyone should have made more medium size/large 2 door saloon shells in the '60s. Especially BMC.

[eddyramrod]

How far ahead of its time did the Citroen DS look in 1955? How far ahead does it still look in 2010? I'm no Citroen fan, and my views on FWD are pretty well known by now, but I always felt the DS was crying out for a better engine than the four-pot it was stuck with.

 

So let's imagine... DS body, possibly Safari, with added mod-cons such as central locking that weren't around in the day; modern "intelligent" automatic gearbox (can you imagine what it just cost me emotionally to write that!) and a properly-developed, properly-built Mazda rotary engine. Seems to me that would be the car it always should have been.

 

How much is a project-DS? How much is a project/write-off RX7? Come on someone...

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

The intended engine for the DS was a flat-six, so surely a Porsche or Subaru conversion is required.

[eddyramrod]

Nah, still has pistons. If you're going for futuristic, don't be a chicken!

 

Subaru conversion on a Minor might be interesting, as Issigonis originally envisaged a flat-4 and FWD....

[warren t claim]

MG EXE. I'm sure Honda turned this into the NSX.

[Spiny Norman]

Rover 600 coop, anyone?

 

[eddyramrod]

BMC were red-hot badge engineers, so why didn't they work their magic on the little A40? MG version with twin carbs and LCB exhaust; Wolseley with big leather seats and real wood dash; really basic downtrimmed Morris (not that the Austin was exactly luxurious anyway). As we were saying about missed opportunities...

[warren t claim]

Rovers biggest missed chance was the designing of the Rover 75. Their target market was people my age who's view of Rover was not as a retro car maker but the builders of advanced looking kit that was great to drive like the SD1. If they had designed a car that updated the design like Citroen did with the C6 then I'm sure it would of been a success.