The auto industry is quite Darwinian. All cars evolve over time, changing to meet consumer demand and growing with the march of technology. Over the years a car can end up quite different from its original form–witness the long-term growth and upscaling of a car like the Honda Civic or Toyota Camry. Some cars undergo sudden, radical changes, from one generation to the next, however, and putting the two side by side offers next to no clue as to how the designers got from Point A to Point B. Sometimes it’s because a nameplate is retired for a few years; other times it reflects new ways of thinking on the behalf of the manufacturer. Sometimes it’s pure desperation. Here are the top six most suddenly reinvented cars we’ve seen over the years.
1. Mercury Cougar: The Mercury Cougar never did seem to settle down and decide what it was. Introduced in 1967 as a more luxurious clone of the Mustang, it left that platform in the 1980s to become a big, Thunderbird-based boulevard cruiser. In 1997, the Cougar was transformed from a rear-drive, V8 luxury coupe to a sporty, front-wheel drive hatchback. We imagine Cougar fans were quite confused.
2. Dodge Charger: The Dodge Charger went in the opposite direction. When the nameplate went on hiatus in 1987, it was a sporty front-wheel drive subcompact hatchback. The car returned in 2006 as a rear-drive full-size sedan. Fans of the Charger’s muscle-car forebears were skeptical, until the Charger sedan proved its performance mettle.
3. Pontiac Grand Am: Pontiac’s Grand Am was another car that went dormant and returned in a much different form. The original Grand Am was a large special-edition coupe/sedan, based on the full-size LeMans. When the Grand Am came back for the 1985 model year, it was a front-wheel drive compact, and it quickly became a mainstay of Pontiac’s lineup.
4. American manufacturers aren’t the only ones to make sudden, unexpected changes. Take the Isuzu Impulse. This Giugiaro-designed Japanese sport coupe went from being a classically-proportioned rear-drive sports car to a stubby GM-based, front- or all-wheel drive coupe seemingly overnight in 1990.
5. Mercury Capri: Mercury always had problems with product indecision. The Capri, originally introduced as a captive-import coupe from Europe, moved onto the Mustang platform (into the spot vacated by the Cougar, actually) for most of its life. In 1991, the Capri suddenly became an Italian-designed, Australia-built front-wheel drive convertible that hoped to compete with the Mazda Miata.
6. Cadillac SRX: Cadillac’s first crossover SUV stuck pretty closely to the usual SUV template, with a long, wagon-like body and lines similar to the DHS sedan. The second-generation SRX, however, became a much more city-friendly compact crossover with short overhangs and a high roof.
