What are some cars that are unusual where you live that you've never seen in person (or just see very, very rarely), and that you would find interesting if you did see one? Suzuki Equator: Apparently, there's a Nissan Frontier hiding under there, and it's not a half-bad off-roader, but it sold very, very poorly and was eventually discontinued. I don't think I've ever seen one in person. Mitsubishi Raider: I'm pretty sure I have seen one or two of these in real life, but they aren't at all common. It was a rebadged Dodge Dakota, but with no Hemi - or any V8 at all, later on. The 2009 and 2010 production figures on the Wikipedia article for this truck were vandalized fairly obviously in August 2014 (2010 figure) and December 2015 (2009 figure) and had still not been corrected (I corrected them from edit history while writing this post), which should give some indication of how much anyone cares about this truck (though the original source link leading to a 404 and redirect might have something to do with it as well). If the pre-vandalism figures are correct, Mitsubishi only sold three of the dang things in 2010! Lincoln Blackwood: Ah, the Blackwood. Surely one of the most useless pickup trucks ever built, whether you consider it a luxurious F-150 or a pickup truck Navigator. Sales were abysmal, and these "trucks" are very difficult to find today as a result. I'm not sure if I've ever actually seen one in the flesh; if I have, it was a long time ago. Chevrolet Optra: (Philippine version pictured, because you try to find a good picture of the US Pacific Islands version) If you've seen Top Gear, you know this car as the Chevrolet Lacetti. If you're an American and you don't watch Top Gear, then you probably don't know this car as the Suzuki Forenza (or Reno, for the hatchback version), because seriously, who remembers that thing? Thing is, it was sold, for unknown reasons, as the Chevrolet Optra in sedan form only on Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. From a certain perspective, it's kind of surprising I haven't seen one yet, considering that I live within convenient driving distance of Anchorage with its strong military presence, and considering all the different bases that are on Guam... Surprisingly enough, however, at least one (not necessarily in very good condition) seems to have found its way into Ontario, Canada. Maybe. Any Canadian-special-branded version of an American car: (no image because there were a bunch of different ones back in the 1950s and 60s). Examples include "Fargo" for Dodge pickups, "Acadian" for Pontiacs and "Frontenac" for Fords. I've legit never seen one in the flesh that I know of. They might be more common in border states on the other side of Canada (though I don't remember finding any at that Goodguys show in Washington I went to back in 2009), as Alaska doesn't get a lot of cross-border migration, either of cars or of people. For what it's worth, I did once see a Toyota Vitz driving around with the Japanese plates still on it; that was years ago and I haven't seen it since, so I have to assume it was the property of a tourist that decided to bring their own car instead of renting one here. More recently, I've seen a Ford Transit (I'm guessing from the late 80s or early 90s) that's been hackjobbed into a custom pickup truck. Any more ideas for this list? Anything that's rare where you live that you'd like to see?
I'm surprised I've never really thought about this before. I saw a lot of unusual cars (from a Canadian perspective) when I was in Costa Rica last year, like the international version of the Toyota Corolla, Toyota HiAce, and Toyota Hilux, and took a short ride in a Daihatsu Terios, which actually seemed like a really nice little offroader. Had to convince the driver that Daihatsu wasn't Chinese I think I'd like to see some more European cars, like Citroën, Renault, Škoda, etc. In response to @Shotgun Chuck's OP, the Chevrolet Optra is actually quite a common car in Canada, though I'm not sure if it's the same as the version sold in US territories. There's one just like this that lives right near me: I also used to live right next door to an Acadian. Not sure which model, but it looked something like this: We also had the Nissan X-Trail, which is a neat little SUV that was never sold in the US:
I've seen a couple of those Blackwoods down where I live, although one had chrome rims, and another one had been repainted silver, which actually looked pretty decent. Another thing to add to the Lincoln trucks are what replaced them, the Mark LTs, they sold pretty decently for a few years, until the Escalade EXT sales killed them off, and Ford decided to only sell the updated models based on the twelfth gen F-150 in Mexico badged as Lincolns, while US/Canada only got the Platinum trim. My uncle actually owned two of these a while back, a silver 2005 "base" and later upgraded to a gray 2008 top of the line trim. Too bad he sold it, truck had no problems and it was a rarity compared to the Escalade EXT. And kinda regret not taking more pics of it before it was gone.
Some other Canada-but-not-US cars you might be interested in are the Chevy Epica, Chevy Orlando, Lada Niva, Signet, and Samara, and 1st gen Nissan Micra. Back in the day, European cars were also a lot more common, has clearly demonstrated in the 1969 photo of Halifax below. You can see some Austins, British Fords, Fiats, and Renaults scattered around. My grandfather owned a 1960 Vauxhall Velox at the time.
Dang, I completely missed that that article had a separate section for Canada. I'm so used to the US and Canada getting roughly the same cars that I just sort of forgot the possibility. Same with the X-Trail, I had no idea it was ever sold in Canada. Same with everything in your subsequent post. I did see an Acura SLX recently, which is an Isuzu Trooper, but actually US-specific and not very common at all.
Huh, that is weird. I didn't even know Isuzu and Honda had a thing, though it doesn't surprise me. You might like this YouTube channel. He's got some weird stuff, and he's in Canada.
There are a few. There's one in the LeMons rally right now being run by SpeedyCop https://speedycop.com/2017/01/19/moscow-pa-to-paris-tn-the-lemons-rally-is-in-just-a-few-weeks/ SpeedyCop is also the guy who made the upside-down Camaro, the racing Helicopter, and the racecar plane.
Land Rover and Honda had a bit of a thing as well for a brief time with the Discovery, rebadged as a Crossroad on the JDM market with some making their way to NZ as well. Of course with Land Rover's reliability at the time, there were issues getting it to sell decently in the JDM market, and it pretty much all ended when BMW bought Rover.
I have never seen one of those in my life, That or i have but have forgotten about it. but then they must of been crap. I think people just stuck Land rover badges on them.
I have more than this. Ural 4320, UAZ 469, Jaguar XJ220, Mclaren F1, Mclaren F1 LM, Mclaren F1 GT Longtail, Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR AMG Road Version, Chrysler ME Four-Twelve Chrysler (concept only 1 ever made probably scraped.)
This hilariously abysmal car that drives by my street once a week... (It's a beat up wagon in light blue and has a handicap license plate) The 1984-1989 Chrysler K/Dodge Aries Wagon (like this... just a different color)
This, ive seen 3 and I bet I can get one in the U.S if I look hard. Not Exact model but I will look into it.
