Inadvertant Body Doubles

It amazes me how often car companies make the mistake of introducing two cars that have nothing to do with each other, but which the general public assumes are just rebadged versions of the same machine. Okay, I guess I should modify that. Right now it's mostly Nissan that's doing it. It started with the Murano and Infiniti FX, which came out around the same time.

Because of their similar shapes and release timing, most people just figured they were the same vehicle, especially when they never saw them side-by-side. They even had basically the same featured color, rust orange. To more knowledgeable car fans, it was obvious this wasn't the case, due to the Nissan's front-drive layout vs. the Infiniti's rear setup.

Now Nissan is attempting to damage the G37 by introducing an Altima coupe with many of the same styling cues. The same principle goes for these two regarding FWD and RWD, but most consumers don't know the difference, so odds are the G37 will be called a "glorified Altima" by many a layperson.

The funniest example of this was when Mercedes debuted the R-Class, and my old boss insisted that it was just a rebadged Pacifica. Once again, back to the whole FWD/RWD thing. But maybe that's the reason there are so many of those damn ugly things stacked up at Merc dealers.