This is a thread about cars that were designed and slated for production, but somewhere along the way, they got cancelled. Here's a list I compiled for a different forum: Spoiler: List The 2000s Mini reboot was originally meant to be a kei car-style microvan, before turning into a premium hatchback. In the 60s and 70s, British Leyland worked on a hatchback that would replace the original Mini. However, such a design had never reached production. Instead, a bigger hatchback was designed and released in 1980 as the Austin/MG Metro. Maybach cars were originally meant to have a biturbo V24 engine, displacing 15 litres and making about 1000 HP. Due to packaging issues and problems with deigning a durable enough gearbox, the biturbo V12 from the Mercedes S600 and CL600 was used instead. First design sketches for the 1993-2000 Mercedes C-Class depicted a car with a more rounded appearance. The Mercedes CLS could have never seen production, if not for an executive seeing an employee-made drawing of "a Jaguar built by Mercedes" and deciding to put it into production. 1962 Dodge midsizers were originally meant to be fullsize cars, but instead got downsized to compete with new GM A-body vehicles. Cadillac originally planned their 1967 models to have an OHC V12 engine. The 1980-2003 Fiat Panda was originally meant to be built on a streched platform of the 126. Its name was originally planned to be "Rustica", but someone pointed out that given Fiat's reputation for corrosion, a name containing the word "rust" shouldn't really be considered for any of the brand's products. The 2003-2012 Fiat Panda was planned to be an experimental lightweight low fuel consumption 5-seat small car, but ended up as a more traditional city car. Also, the vehicle's name was originally meant to be "Gingo", but the protests of Renault, makers of the Twingo, blocked the change. The 2007 Fiat 500's original designs depicted a 5-door car with styling similar to the VW New Beetle, but with a more toy-like appearance. Volkswagen could have not existed at all, if not for the British major Ivan Hirst reopening the KDF-Wagen factory after World War II and renaming the product to "Volkswagen Type 1", colloquially known as the Beetle. The VW Beetle's original replacement was a project codenamed "EA271", a mid-engined hatchback with the motor below the front seats, However, technical difficulties and the high projected cost of producing such a vehicle made the EA271 not enter production. Instead, the VW Golf/Rabbit debuted in 1974 as a Beetle replacement. Between 2010 and 2014 Porsche worked on a roadster slotting below the Boxster, but the idea ended up getting abandoned. The Porsche 928 was planned as a 911 replacement, but ended up being a more luxurious alternative to it. In the late 1980s, BMW was working on the idea of a V16-powered car. There even were a few prototypes of a 6.6 V16 7-Series built, based on the 750i and nicknamed "766i" or "Goldfish", but such an engine ended up being too complicated for a production car. The BMW 8-Series had a 550 HP version called "M8" considered, so that BMW would have a rival for the Ferrari 456GT. However, the car never ended up hitting production. In the mid-2000s BMW wanted to release a range of 3 crossovers being the middle ground between their wagons and the X SUVs. These vehicles were meant to be based on the 3-Series, 5-Series and 7-Series, respectively named V3, V5 and V7. The 7-Series-based vehicle never saw production, whiule the 3-series and 5-series-based ones morphed into the GT versions of these cars. Caterham tried to release a car based on the 2017 Renault Alpine, being in an alliance with the latter. Unfortunately, the British company did not have the money it took to design the new model and the car ended up existing only in the digital form and as clay models. The alliance also wanted to make a Caterham-branded subcompact and small crossover in order to get more appeal in the Asian markets. These vehicles never went further than the general idea Lamborghini wanted to release a mid-engined 4-seater coupe called "Espada" in 2008. The car was planned to be built using a stretched Gallardo spaceframe and mechanics, but never saw a release. Later, the company was tooling with the idea of building a front-engined 4-door sedan, like the prototypical Estoque, but instead settled on developing an SUV, the Urus. DeLorean Motor Company wanted to release a 4-door counterpart of the DMC-12, but the vehicle never made it into production, due to a lack of funds for engineering it. The Land Rover Series I's prototypes had a single seat and the steering wheel in the middle, due to the buyer demographics being perceived as having familarity with that layout, driving tractors as part of their work. The final production version ended up being equipped with 3 front seats and a normal left- or right-mounted steering wheel. The 1964 Ford Mustang was originally meant to be a 2-seat roadster with a rear-mounted V4 engine. In the 80s, Ford decided that the 4th generation Mustang would be a Mazda 626-based FWD coupe. Instead, due to public outcry, the 4th generation Mustang was an RWD car, and the FWD coupe was released as the Ford Probe, slotting below the Mustang. Early prototypes of the Ford Pinto envisioned it as a highly safe car. However, the production version had many of the safety features removed. The Mercury Comet was designed as an addition to the Edsel lineup, but the cancellation of the latter brand got it put in the Mercury lineup in the last second. The 3rd generation Ford Focus had a Mercury counterpart, called "Tracer", originally being develeloped alongside, but the 2010 discontinuation of the Mercury brand led to the cancellation of the Tracer. Rover originally planned to introduce a model called "55" in 2003. The car would have been an RWD compact/midsize sedan, competing against the BMW 3-Series. However, it had to be shelved, due to financial problems. In the mid-80s, MG Rover worked on an aluminium-bodied 3-cylinder small car that would replace the Metro, but it was deemed too ambitious, and the more conventional Metro stayed on sale. The 2nd generation Rover 400 was being designed as an all-new car. Instead, financial troubles led to the final version being just a Honda Concerto with different badging. During the preorder stage,the Jaguar XJ12 was advertised as having a naturally aspirated 542 HP V12 engine, based on the one used in the XJS and XJ12. However, due to yet unknown reasons, the final version delivered to customers ended up getting a 510 HP version of the 3.5 twin turbo V6 from the MG Metro 6R4 rally car. In 2010, Jaguar showed the C-X75 concept, a turbine-engined hypercar. A year later, the turbine engine concept was shelved, due to too high CO2 emissions, and replaced with a hybrid 1.6 powertrain, making 888 HP. Unfortunately, that was also cancelled, because of a lack of a big enough target market. The Jaguar XJS was originally meant to be mid-engined. A styling cue left over from the original design is the C-pillar shape, made to accomodate vents for an engine behind the seats. The same car also had a Daimler version considered in the 1980s, colloquially called the Daimler-S and having normal-styled C-pillars, but it did not reach production. Rover was thinking of introducing a mid-engined sports car with their V8 for 1973. Unfortunately, that idea was cancelled to avoid competition with Jaguar, which was planning to make the XJS such a car, as described above. Triumph planned to introduce a redesign of the TR7 in 1983. However, British Leyland decided to discontinue the Triumph brand altogether in 1983. An alternative design for the Austin Allegro was a large redesign of its predecessor, the 1100/1300. However, such a design never got into a production. For some time, Peugeot was thinking about building a replacement of the 607, the 608. At some point, the car was even meant to share many mechanical components with the Ford RWD cars (e.g. Lincoln LS) - and the Ford 5.0 V8 would be the top of the line engine! However, in the late 2000s, Peugeot decided to cancel the idea of a 607 replacement. The Peugeot 309 was originally going to be sold as the Talbot Arizona, but the cancellation of the Talbot brand led to the change. The Chevrolet Vega, notorious for its shoddy materials, was originally envisioned as being built out of higher-quality stuff. In 2010, Lotus released 5 sports car concepts, intending to put them into production. Unfortunately, financial troubles made only one of the cars, the Elan, have any chance of getting a release, and this is because it would be a replacement to an existing model. In 2015, Volvo showed a shooting brake concept, intending to put a similar design into production if the public reception is good enough. However, the estimated demand ended up being too low to justify production, and the design isn't going to be mass-produced. Packard's 1957 line was originally planned to have its own styling, but ended up being rebadged Studebakers, due to budget constraints. The McLaren-Mercedes partnership had 3 cars planned after the SLR: a mid-engined supercar, codenamed "P8", competing with the Ferrari F430 or Lamborghini Gallardo, a more powerful version of the P8, codenamed "P9" competing with the Ferrari 599 or Lamborghini Murcielago, and a completely different car, codenamed "P10" and replacing the SLR. However, the partnership ended up splitting, due to different visions on it, and only the P8 ended up hitting the market as the McLaren MP 4-12C, and with McLaren's own 3.8 twin-turbo engine, not the AMG 6.3, as originally planned. The Honda Fit/Jazz's name was meant to be "Fitta". There even were commercials and press photos showing the car with such badging, but the mockery by Scandinavian press (as "fitta" sounds similar to a few Scandinavian vulgar terms for female genitals) led to a name change. The Daewoo Matiz's design was drawn for the Fiat Seicento. However, Fiat turned the offer back, and instead, the design was bought by Daewoo, with a pair of rear doors added. The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow's original nameplate was "Silver Mist". Fortunately, someone noticed that "mist" means "manure" in German, and the car was quickly renamed, with new badges fitted just before the debut. In order to turn the Rolls-Royce Phantom into "the ultimate luxury car", BMW was considering fitting it with a 9.0 V16 engine. However, such a car would be too expensive and compliceated for production. The only publically-seen prototypes were the ones starring in Johnny English Reborn. In 2008, a start-up called Carbon Motors showed the E7, a prototypical purpose-built police car, powered by a more durable BMW straight-6 diesel and with special safety capabilities. The original production date target was 2012, but the car was first delayed, and then the company went bankrupt in 2013.
2nd gen Škoda Roomster. It's essentially a rebadged VW Caddy, with some changes. Around 100 examples were built, and Škoda decided to cancel the Roomster II due to strong demand for SUVs, and focus to Kodiaq production.
Ford Five Hundred: Once was a full-sizer made to replace the Taurus, it lasted for a few years before it was killed off by what it was meant to succeed from. It was originally getting a new generation in it's 2007 concept, but the CEO later decided to rename it to Taurus, and the Taurus was re-introduced to Ford's line-up.
The Lada 2107 was originally meant to have a wine cooler. An LS1-powered version of Opel Omega B was planned, but it turned out that the seemingly mighty V8 may overheat if driven flatout for a long time on an Autobahn. Thus, the car was declared unfit for German driving conditions and never reached full-scale production. Several prototypes were built, both in sedan and wagon forms. After acquiring Rover, BMW began to rebuild the model range. 3 models were planned: compact 35, midsize 55 and executive 75. The 75 was the only one to see the light of day, while the 35 was converted into BMW 1-series and the 55 was cancelled. In 2000s, AvtoVAZ and Magna International formed a joint venture to develop and produce several middle-class C-segment vehicles. The project was called Lada C. Several concept cars were created and the final design took the shape of a sedan called Lada Siluet/VAZ 2116. Hatchback and wagon under 2117 and 2118 names were planned as well. The project was meant to incorporate everything Ladas lacked: style, safety, build quality and power. First prototypes were ready in 2006, while production was scheduled to begin in 2015. In 2009, Renault-Nissan acquired a 25% share in AvtoVAZ and the work on the Project C was stopped, as R-N feared it would cannibalize the sales of Renault Fluence. In 2014, the project was officially declared cancelled.
Zastava presented the Florida sedan and wagon on Belgrade Car Show in 2002. Both were cancelled due to "terrible design." Also, on the same venue restyled Yugo was presented. Also cancelled.
Pontiac could've had their own version of the Corvette known as the Banshee, but Chevrolet was scared of it killing the Corvette, so it never happened. Because of the Chrysler Turbine, I seriously wonder what would the automotive world look like if the jet age took it on by storm, rather than fading into history. I've heard that the kind of jet engine found in the Turbine could run on a bunch of things and not just one type of fuel.
It probably would've suffered the same fate. Gas mileage, interest for small, reliable, and efficient Japanese cars and the fact that Ford had a peculiar reputation in the 70's would've still killed it.
Yeah, but it will always be better than the 7th gen Thunderbird. Here's another one, what if the Cadillac Cyclone was made into a real car? My best guess, the XLR for the C2-C4.
The technology on that car might've actually become common or even standard, I doubt it would've sold well though.
The 82-92 firebird was supposed to have a redesigned 301 turbo, there is a site that has a simulation of how fast it would be... turns out it would destroy the corvette and play with super cars The DeLorean was supposed to have the twin turbo V6 instead of a N/A one which would have put it in the same class as the corvette The fiero was supposed to be a proper sports car with an aluminum V6 and space frame construction Oldsmobile wanted the f body platform and Pontiac was given it instead of getting the banshee In general what if GM just wasn't stupid --- Post updated --- The EPA killed the future iterations of it by mandating it test on gasoline when it could run on cleaner fuels that where about the same price, Chrysler could have encouraged owners to run it on LPG or something by saying it is better for the car
Or "what if CAFE wasn't a thing, and GM wanted to make their own multiple sports car designs compete fiercely with each other" You don't need fast cars, you just need ones that would sell for more than operating costs
The Toyota Fine-X/Fine-T was the last of the Toyota Fine-series concept cars, yet never got a production form. It was actually a pretty neat concept, having gull-wing doors and a 4WD system where all the wheels can turn. Plus, it had 4 independent engines on the same fuel cell hybrid system.
Yeah, but I'm saying it never received a official production successor car to the concept. BTW, this is the concept I'm talking about:
Ford was considering selling a Barra-powered, LHD Falcon in the United States. That would have been amazing.
