Six times manufacturers couldn't think up a new name

Well evidently not, as many cars from entirely different brands end up wearing the same name. Countless examples of this exist, many of them due to market localisation. There's a tonne of cars in America, too, wearing badges more associated with humdrum family runabouts here. Chevrolet Nova, perchance?

We've picked out six particularly interesting examples below. 

1. Mazda 323 (GLC/Famlia) and Mercedes GLC

The Mazda 323 and the Mercedes GLC are two very different cars, but both have played instrumental roles in the fortunes of their respective makers. In the case of the 323 hatchback – which was called the GLC (Great Little Car) in the North American market where it was wildly popular, this was the car to modernise Mazda’s image. It laid the foundations for a family hatchback lineage that stretches all the way to today’s Mazda 3. In the case of the Mercedes GLC, the nameplate itself is far more recent, introduced in 2015 as a replacement for the GLK-Class we didn’t get in Britain. However, it’s one of the main reasons why half of all Mercedes-badged cars sold these days are now SUVs.

2. Caterham 7/DS 7

Quite a jarring pair-up, this. One is a lightweight sportscar that’s refused significant redesign during a 50 year production run. The other is a large, heavy, modern SUV that’s just been given a thorough overhaul as the DS brand attempts to redefine itself for the second time in half a decade. However, it is the DS SUV’s recent facelift that makes it a perfect namesake for the Caterham – it’s dropped the ‘Crossback’ part of its name to now be known simply by the name of DS 7. Could these two form the basis a useful two car garage, we wonder?

3. Volkswagen Bora/Maserati Bora

The Bora is a wind felt on land in areas near the Adriatic sea. It’s also a name applied to two quite different forms of four-wheeled transport. Maserati was first to the name, applying the Bora tag to its stunning Giugiaro-designed two-seat mid-engined V8 sports car of the '70s. In fact, it’s just one of a long list of Maserati models named after various winds. Quite how both Maserati and Volkswagen decided on a wind-based naming strategy without upsetting each other remains unknown, and similarly, it’s quite surprising that Bora is the only name shared between the two marques despite this oddly specific overlap. Volkwsagen applied the name to its Mk4 Golf saloon derivative in much of the world, before returning to the more well-established, North-American approved 'Jetta' nomenclature. 

4. Volkswagen California/Ferrari California

And the Bora isn’t the only Volkswagen to share its name with something well beyond its league in terms of performance, though not outright appeal, we’d wager. After all, who doesn’t love the California camper van? With prices starting from more than £80,000 for the enormous ‘Grand’ California variant, it’s the most expensive passenger vehicle in the VW line-up. Quite a different story to the Ferrari California, then, which was Maranello’s tepid ‘baby’ model during the late 2000s and much of the 2010s.Though Ferrari executed the front-engined, retractable hard-top 2+2 format in much more convincing fashion with its Portofino replacement. 

5. Kia Elan/Lotus Elan

Usually, when one manufacturer makes a car designed by another company under a ‘badge engineering’ agreement, the first thing the company on the receiving end of their shiny new car they’ve not had to spend a penny developing will do is change its name. Kia didn’t bother doing that with the Elan though. When Lotus replaced the M100 generation Elan with the Eilse in 1995, Kia bought the rights to the car in a bid to inject a bit of sporting appeal into its line-up. Only sold in South Korea and Japan, it kept the Elan badge in its native market but swapped out its turbocharged 1.6-litre Izusu engine for a home-grown 151PS (111kW) 1.8-litre twin-cam, along with redesigned taillights and some choice updates in the cabin. 

6. Volkswagen Golf R32/Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32)

The R32-generation Nissan Skyline GT-R and the Volkswagen Golf R32 (based on either the Mk4 or Mk5 Golf, though we think we prefer the latter), actually have quite a lot in common beyond their shared use of the ‘R32’ tag. In fact, the nomenclature linkage between the two isn’t exactly the strongest example of the genre. The ‘R32’ designation carried by the Skyline GT-R is a contraction of its chassis code, and it isn’t worn as a badge or name anywhere on the car. The Golf wears the R32 designation with pride – a blunt reference to the 3.2-litre VR6 engine found under the bonnet. But like the Golf, the Skyline also features six-cylinder power (2.6-litres in a straight configuration, with turbocharged assistance) and sends power to a four-wheel-drive system.

The R32 Skyline would go on to dominate Group A touring car racing in Japan. The Mk5 Golf doesn’t have any real motorsport kudos to speak of, but the R32 and indeed the rejuvenated GTI of that era were both cracking road cars.