Manufacturing cars is usually seen as any other business—a means to earn profit and become wealthy. Automobile manufacturers tend to come up with the most efficient way to make sturdy cars that will serve their customers right, and they succeed more often than not. Making a car more utilitarian, more attractive, or more fun to drive as their selling points are seen as win-win conditions as we get what we want and the manufacturers earn a hefty profit from selling lots of them. Cars such as the Toyota Prius, Ford F-Series, Honda Civic, Mazda MX-5 Miata are prime examples of that.
But manufacturing a supercar or a hypercar is a whole different ball game. Companies like Pagani, Koenigsegg, Bugatti, and Rimac tend to go for quality over quantity. For the exclusive and rare cars, we expect the manufacturers to leave no stone unturned. But that’s not always the case. What if we told you that your NA Miata has the same taillights as the Aston Martin DB7?
Even the most exquisite of manufacturers resort to some cost-cutting measures or even the most unique supercars roam around with universal parts. Stuff like tail lights, radio buttons, and side mirrors are commonly shared between a supercar and a beater. Here are 10 such examples.
8 Lamborghini Diablo And Nissan 300ZX (Headlights)
Some say that the Diablo is one of the greatest cars Lamborghini has ever made. It looked iconic, came with a big V12, and was not practical at all. The Diablo is a true enthusiast supercar of its time and costs way more than $150,000 to buy today. But you’ll have to thank Nissan for illuminating the road while driving your Diablo at night.
Funny thing is, Lambo tried to make the headlights look bespoke by hiding the ‘Nissan’ logo with a small carbon fiber strip. To be fair, the 300ZX was pretty revolutionary. It was the first car designed using computers and using the Nissan headlights saved Lamborghini a lot of development costs and time.
7 Maserati Ghibli And Dodge Dart (Various Interior Parts)
Maserati is a unique brand. It gets so many things right that it makes us want to love it, and at the same time, it gets so many things wrong that it makes it hard for us to love it. The Ghibli is an Italian midsize luxury sedan, but it’s often considered a supercar due to its price, performance, and impeccable Italian Styling.
Speaking of which, it looks phenomenal from the outside. On the inside, it looks exquisite, but Dodge Dart (or many Dodge vehicles from recent history) owners will recognize the switches, knobs, and trim pieces. They took the infotainment screen straight from the Dart.
6 Porsche 996 911 and Porsche Boxster (The Whole Front Panel & Interiors)
Porsche is known to make driver cars. But their journey over the years was not smooth or easy going at all. They had suffered from a lot of economic hardships along the way. When Porsche decided to ditch the air-cooled engines and revolutionize their flagship 911, they did something radical to change their fate.
But they didn’t have enough money, so they took the interior and a bunch of the body panels straight from their entry-level Boxster. Just look at the headlights, bumper, and interior and you’ll know what we are talking about. Thankfully, the car(s) look great and if it helps keep maintenance costs down, then who are we to complain?
5 Noble M400 And Ford Mondeo (Tail Lights)
British manufacturer Noble is known for making old-school high-performance sports cars. If you’ve never heard of them, think of them as Lotus, but less popular. Their lineup has two cars that are rear-wheel-drive, mid-engine two-seaters: M600 and a smaller M400.
The M400 uses a Ford V6, but that’s not why it’s here, high-performance cars using engines that are used in pickups and sedans are very common. It’s the taillights that stand out here. If you take a mid-1990s Ford Mondeo and park it next to the M400, turn down the lights, and let both cars’ tail lights shine, it’ll be impossible to say which is which.
4 Lotus Esprit and Toyota Corolla Coupe (Tail Lights)
Lotus and Toyota are pretty close to each other. Lotus helped design the first Celica Supra after all. But the Esprit, the car that James Bond drove, and the Corolla Coupe, an everyday next-door car you see in your neighborhood are completely different. Or are they?
Turns out that they do share a common part. And it’s the tail lights again. But that’s not all, the Esprit’s transmission is from outside the house too. Citroën’s C35 five-speed manual and Renault’s UN-1 manual with the same number of gears can be found. The Series 4 Esprit also used Citroën side mirrors.
3 Jaguar XJ220, Rover 416, And Citroën CX (Tail Lights And Side Mirrors)
The story of the XJ220 and how it got made is an amazing one, worth a read. And if you know about it already, you know that it was intended as a supercar in the purest form. And yet, you can find Rover and Citroën parts if you have a keen observation.
The taillights (I know, again) are from a Rover 200 or a 416 which makes sense as Jaguar is associated with them. The side mirrors, though, are from the Citroën CX, which is a large front-engined, front-wheel-drive executive car, the complete opposite of the XJ220.
2 Hella 4169 Series And Multiple Supercars (Tail Lights)
You see these lights in the image above? They cost about $25 and can be seen in lots of affordable cars like Toyota Corolla, Ford Think City, a couple of Fiats, and also most of the Tractors we see. They can also be found in cars like the $1.4 Million Pagani Zonda, a Million dollar Saleen S7, the aforementioned Diablo, and a slew of other expensive supercars.
Automakers like Pagani and Saleen were probably too busy optimizing the performance and driving dynamics of their cars to spend time and energy designing tail lights. So why not just get a reliable universal set of tail lights and call it a day?
1 Aston Martin And Mazda And Citroen (Multiple Parts)
Like many carmakers in this list, Aston Martin was in a spot when they were designing the DB7 so it makes sense that they’d borrow some parts to save time and money. Well, get ready for the list: The rear lights are from a Mazda3 series, the side mirrors are from a Citroën CX, door handles are from a limited edition Mazda 323. Aston asked themselves, ‘Where should we get the lights from?’ and the answer was and will always be Miata, even for door handles.
Moving on the inside, there are Ford universal switches and electrics everywhere on the dash. The dash buttons are from a Ford Scorpio. Still, we can’t complain as this car went on to save the company and feature in a James Bond movie.