Badge-engineering has been around for a while, and sometimes it can lead to the coolest cars. The definition, however, can fog things up. Badge-engineering, at its core, is simply taking a car and slapping a different brand on it, with little to no changes to the body and drivetrain. Of course, this isn't always the case, as some companies have changed the car so much that it can hardly be associated with the car it's based on, like Saab's 9-5 that actually had a longer wheelbase than the Chevy Impala.

GM is notorious for rebadging cars to the point you could buy the same car as an Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Cadillac, or even a Toyota! And they were all pretty much the same car, but with this or that changed to make it fit within a particular market. Some of these cars were absolute flops, though, like the Cavalier-based Cimarron.

With some of the uncertainty and crisis in the new millennium, we have seen some beloved companies close their doors forever, though we've seen doors open and new companies rise from the ashes of the past failures. Where Oldsmobile and Pontiac fell, Scion and Tesla have come forward to try to market different cars to the populace.

Whether it be overseas or right here in the USA, this practice has lead to some strange cars being produced. I want to concentrate on the rarest cars that have been the subject of infamous rebadging—some that are amazing machines, others that are nothing but commercial flops. Enjoy this list of the 24 rarest badge-engineered cars of the 2000s!

24 Scion xA Release Series - Toyota ist (5,350 Built)

GTCarLot

When Scion came around as Toyota's branch to sell their compact Japanese cars to a younger crowd, the RS was made for three years. The first year, the RS 1.0 was offered only in Absolute Red and came with some sporting options including a sunroof that wasn't fitted to any other xA trim. The second year was much the same, but instead, the car came in Spectra Blue Micra. For the xA's final year, the RS had changed again and now included a ground effects kit and was painted Stingray Blue Metallic.

23 Cadillac XLR-V - Chevrolet Corvette (2,188 Built)

Mecum

Though not a direct rebadging of the famous sports coupe, the XLR was much the same, a two-door roadster with signature Cadillac styling and the Northstar V8 in place of the LS Corvette motor. In 2006, Cadillac was tuning their whole lineup with the V-badging and the XLR was no different. The XLR-V had a supercharged, 4.4-liter V8 that put out almost 450 horsepower and could do 0-60 in 4.3 seconds. Those are some attractive-looking numbers until the original $110,000 price tag put a damper on anyone with skinny pockets.

22 Opel GT Roadster - Saturn Sky (7,519 Built)

Wikipedia

The Opel GT name has a legacy of sporty, lightweight cars that were around in the 1960s. The model was reintroduced in 2009 as a rebadged Saturn Sky. The Opel GT came only with a turbocharged, 2.0-liter inline-four putting out 260 horsepower. Though the Opel is most definitely the rarest, with the Pontiac Solstice being the most popular, it is overlooked, as the nameplate is often associated with the 1960s sports coupe, leaving this generation as nothing more than another rebadged flop.

21 Pontiac G3 - Chevrolet Aveo (6,233 Built)

WheelWell

Towards the end of Pontiac's life, it was littered with nothing but GM rebadges. The G3/ Wave was an Aveo, that's all. For a “performance” brand, they were given an Aveo that only lasted a couple years, until Pontiac's demise in 2010. Only 6,233 G3 hatches were made in this short period, as sales weren't that good and, if anything, it did nothing but hurt the brand and push it further into being discontinued altogether.

20 Saab 9-7X Aero - Chevrolet Trailblazer SS  (554 Built)

LS1Tech

It doesn't take much to see what the 9-7X is based on, and though many were made, it's the Aero package that's the most alluring and desirable to any fan of the brand after the GM takeover. Where the base 9-7 series is based on the Trailblazer, the Aero package is a derivative of the SS trim. Though unassuming from the outside (as the body is very conservative), the Aero has the same SS-derived 6.0 LS2, but the biggest difference is where the SS had an optional 4WD, the Saab came standard with full-time AWD, making this another example of Saab making a GM product better.

19 Oldsmobile Silhouette Final 500 - Chevrolet Venture (360 Built)

Drive2

When Oldsmobile was phased out in the early to mid-2000s, they built one more special edition across the range, named the Final 500. These final cars were all built the same with a dark cherry red paint job, custom embroidery, and custom Final 500 badging. Every model got this treatment, except for the Silhouette. The Silhouette production line ran out of capacity, as fleet-ordered vans took over and extinguished the model prematurely, only making 360 Final 500 editions that were released to the public.

18 Chevrolet Colorado Xtreme - Isuzu I-Series (About 4,700 Built)

DragTimes

The Colorado was built and designed alongside the new Isuzu I-series pickup. Though the I-Series has died off here in the states, the Colorado and its twin, the Canyon, still rule the mid-sized truck market. Many trims have been offered, but none more recognized and or as rare as the Xtreme package. The very same as it was offered on the S10, it was the Colorado Xtreme that came with a little bit more get-up due to a Vortec 3500 straight-6 engine block that only put out 220 horsepower. Though the name is kind of misleading, as the truck isn't really extreme at all, no one can deny the rarity and fan-base. One such fan-base is currently trying to work out the production numbers for each body style of each year.

17 Saab 9-2X Aero - Subaru Impreza Wagon (3,628 Built)

Wikipedia

Affectionately nicknamed the Saabaru, this odd rebadging can only have been done by GM, as they owned Saab at the time, as well as having a share in Subaru. The 9-2X was only produced for two years and only 9,292 examples were produced, which makes it eligible for this list already, but it's the Aero package, that came with a turbocharged, 2.0-liter boxer engine, that I want to talk about, as only about a third of total production featured the Aero package.

16 Lincoln Blackwood - Ford F-150 (3,356 Built)

CarScoops

Lincoln's first-ever pickup truck only lasted one year and left us with nothing more than a more-expensive F-150. The biggest oddity that separates it from it's Ford counterpart is the bed, or is it a trunk? The bed was covered by a factory bed cover and accessed by a split tailgate. Also, the truck had a 1,200-pound payload, which is just barely enough for four adults, never mind the groceries. This truck shows up repeatedly on lists of the worst cars of this decade, and as bad as it may have been in practice, it most likely seemed just as confusing on paper.

15 Pontiac GTO W40 - Holden Monaro (794 Built)

GTCarz

The moment the GTO went on sale, fans were split down the middle. Purists hated the car because of it being just an imported Holden, where others loved it for its potential as a muscle car. The GTO was only made for three years getting discontinued in 2006, however, and the rarest of the bunch is the W40 package that was only offered in 2004 to celebrate the GTO's 40th Anniversary. The last cars built in 2004 were all a special Pulse Red (79U) color that was painted on 794 W40 GTOs.

14 Pontiac G8 GXP - Holden Commodore (1,829 Built)

Wikipedia

Another Pontiac that got cut down in its prime, the G8 may have been an imported Commodore, but it had a trim that could give the Dodge Charger SRT8 a fight. The GXP was the top-of-the-range trim package that replaced the base 3.6-liter V6 with a 6.2-liter LS motor found in the Corvette. And the muscle didn't stop there, as the LS3 could be mated to a six-speed manual, the only time you could get such a thing in the G8. The GXP may have been discontinued, but a sort of spiritual successor came along in the form of the Chevy SS.

13 Ford Contour SVT - Ford Mondeo ST200 (2,150 Built)

ZombDrive

Though the Ford Contour was first produced in 1995, the SVT trim level came along in 1998 and lasted up through 2000, when the Contour was replaced altogether by the Focus. The Contour, as a whole, has been laughed at, but the SVT is a hidden gem. Only 11,445 SVT Contours were produced in the three-year period, with the 2000 model year being the rarest among them all, with the Tropic Green color being even more rare, with only 207 made.

12 Pontiac Solstice Coupe - Saturn Sky (1,266 Built)

SteveMcKelvie.Wordpress

The other half of the Saturn Sky rebadging stretches the definition much farther than the Opel. The Solstice coupe is a bit of a redesign, as no other model came with a hardtop variant, making this car extremely unique and likewise extremely rare. These cars were only made for two years, from 2009 until Pontiac's end in 2010. In the time since, a complete break down of every Coupe built between 2008 and 2010 has been made by a contributor on the SolsticeForum website.

11 Suzuki Equator - Nissan Frontier (8,733 Built)

TruckTrend

Though produced for six years, the Equator didn't sell especially well as it's more famous Nissan-branded brethren. In just the first year, only 45 of these were built, with the most being built the following year (only 2,515). In 2010, sales of the Equator discontinued in Canada after a mere 471 units sold. Sales in the US continued until 2013, when 448 were sold in the final production year. Suzukis are no longer sold here in the States, and this pickup truck is most likely the reason for it.

10 Lincoln Aviator Kitty Hawk Edition - Ford Explorer (865 Built)

BubbaHats

With this model making a return in a couple years, a look back into the brand's history will reveal a flop Explorer rebadge that didn't sell well due to the success of the full-sized Navigator. In the first year of production, a special commemorative edition was produced to celebrate Ford's 100th Anniversary, as well as the 100th Anniversary of the Wright Brother's famous first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This rare special edition has long been forgotten, much like the Aviator model itself.

9 Mercury Grand Marquis LSE - Ford Crown Victoria LX Sport (Around 3,000 Built)

CarSpecs

Out in left field is this masterpiece that was a Marauder before they rebadged that Crown Vic. The LSE came with the same 4.6-liter V8 found in the Mustang, along with a floor shift automatic and the sweet sounding dual exhaust. They were only built between 2001 and 2003, with some more built in 2005 after the Marauder was discontinued. The exact numbers of this special trim are up for debate, as dealerships tried to sell LS packages as LSEs, but according to owners who spoke about it on CarGurus, a few thousand of these were made in the short period.

8 Daimler Super V8 - Jaguar XJ (2,443 Built)

BridgeClassicCars

Also sold as the Vanden Plas in the states, the Daimler Super V8 was an upscale rebadge of the Jaguar XJ series and was built from 1997-2003. It was offered with a 3.2-liter V8 or a 4.0-liter V8 with a supercharger option, in either a short or long wheelbase platform. The number I found was for the Daimler Super V8 only and doesn't include the Vanden Plus rebadge. These cars are fantastic and are as luxurious as they are powerful, all wrapped up in a conservative package that doesn't look much different from any other Jaguar XJ.

7 GAZ Volga Siber - Chrysler Sebring (9,000 Built)

PlatesMania

Produced between 2008 and 2010, the Volga was actually built in Russia using a factory line that was modeled precisely to the same specs as Chrysler's was here in the States. Though the plan was to build 10,000 of these cars, they only produced a fraction of that. Built with a 141-hp, 2.0-liter engine that no one seemed to want, even when an upgraded suspension was installed to better handle the roads in Russia. The Sebring may have continued its life in Russia, but it continued being just as bland as it was here in the US.

6 Chrysler Prowler - Plymouth Prowler (4,578 Built)

Auto-Database

The Prowler was released in 1997 under the Plymouth name. The car was meant to be the beginning of a restructuring of Plymouth to create a more distinguishable image. This, of course, fell through with the end of Plymouth in 2001, even after a slew of exciting concept ideas, some of which became Chrysler products (like the Pronto Concept becoming the PT Cruiser). In mid-2001, the Prowler continued production under the Chrysler nameplate until it was discontinued after the 2002 model year, after only a few thousand sales over the year-and-a-half period.

5 Toyota Voltz  - Pontiac Vibe - Toyota Matrix (Around 10,000 Built)

Wikimedia

This particular model has a very strange story of how it came about. Here in the States, we got the Toyota Matrix, and since at the time both Toyota and GM had a joint factory together producing the same cars with both badges on them, we got the refaced and rebadged Pontiac Vibe. Neither cars were offered in Japan, and instead of Toyota importing the Matrix from the States, they imported the facelifted Pontiac as a Toyota and called it the Voltz. Altogether, this makes the Voltz the most confusing case of rebadging I've come across, as it just doesn't make sense to rebadge a rebadged car with the original maker's badging.