What I mean are the cars that were developed and supposed to be made by one company, then suddenly changed identity and were lauched with the badge of another brand with most people, in particular the customers, being completely unaware of the fact. Automotive history is littered with them.
Here are a few examples.
Lancia Beta Montecarlo
Fiat needed a replacement for the ageing 124 Spider. As usual they entrusted the development to Pininfarina, but ultimately settled on a Bertone design, the X1/9. Pininfarina's Project was called X1/20 and they continued to develop it, but used the carryover Twin Cam Four instead of the planned Fiat 130 V6. The oil crisis, you know. When Fiat finally pulled the plug, Lancia snapped it up.
Ford Corcel
It's actually the bastard child of Willys Do Brasil and Renault. Willys went to bed with la Regie during Project M, the upcoming R12. However, Willys ran away with the readily developed platform and drivetrain, clad it with their own bodywork and wanted to launch it in 1967, two years before Renault deemed the R12 suitable for consumption. However, Ford bought out the company just before the launch and thus inherited a ready to roll car in the pipeline. So they renamed it and launched it in 1968. It is thus the first FWD Ford built on the American continent.
Peugeot 309
Well, it's a Simca.
Volkswagen K70
The NSU logo is actually cast into most parts.
Volvo 300 Series
They are DAFs.
Eagle Premier/Dodge Monaco
This one is interesting. It involves a hostile takeover and an assassination.
The car was jointly designed by AMC and Renault as Project X58. A new factory was set up in Canada to build it. However, shortly before its launch, Chrysler's Lee Iacocca sanctioned talks with Renault to buy AMC off them. A few weeks into these talks Renault's George Besse was killed by 'an extreme anti-capitalist group' and in the ensuing chaos, Iacocca bought Renault’s majority shareholding in AMC for $1.1bn, a bargain considering he got their North American dealership network and the highly profitable Jeep brand in the bargain. AMC became Chrysler’s Jeep/Eagle division in 1987 and only 172 actual Renault Premiers were built before the car was rebadged, initially even only externally.
