I goofed yesterday. Multiple times, actually, mostly because it’s a day that ends in Y. Specifically, I goofed with yesterday’s Autopian Asks question, which should have clarified that I was looking for cars that were never made, not merely ones that didn’t come to the States. No wrong answers, though! The Ask is always yours to answer as you like.
Now, about those cars that coulda, woulda, shoulda gone into production, but did not. As usual, you Autopians do not disappoint, and every missed opportunity ya’ll clocked was indeed a very sad what-might-have-been. And a nice treat, as I had forgotten about quite a few of your picks! Which reminds me, I need to pick up some Prevagen. And stop drinking a gallon of Aspartame a day, probably.
Let’s dive in.
Max Headbolts
The Ford SHOgun is the best car no one ever got. May not be the spirit of the question, but it’s the right answer.
Jay Leno, like you, is a man of impeccable taste, and not just in denim-on-denim combos. Amongst his many other conventionally super, muscle, and vintage cars are wonderful weirdos like this, the Shogun (or SHOgun) that Max mentions – a Ford Festiva with Taurus SHO’s Yamaha 3-liter V6 and plopped into the cargo space to drive the rear wheels. I’m sure you can imagine how much fun that is, and Jay’s video (click the pic to watch, or right here) will only reinforce just how wonderfully nuts a production SHOgun would have been. And here’s the kicker: it DID go into production! Kinda. Special Editions, Inc. made seven of the cars after the prototype. So, not exactly “find yours at your local Ford dealer” production, but still. 
AM
Ford – GT90 hands down, GM – Indy Corvette mid-engine 4 decades before this one, Chrysler – Portafino it would have given the modern Maybach a run for the money.
How did I forget about the GT90? This stunning supercar would still look shockingly different than anything else on the road in 2026, so you can imagine how wild it was in 1995. As its name implies, the GT90 took inspiration from the GT40, but not nearly as much as the Ford GT would ten years later. One can only wonder what direction Ford’s supercar would have gone in if the GT90 went into production ahead of the much more retro 2005 design.
Melanie Fuhrman
The Buick Avista concept from like ten years ago. A jaw-dropping beautiful twin turbo V6 coupe based off the Camaro would have been an amazing halo car to show that Buick is back.
Great pull, what a beaut. This 2016 Alpha-platform concept car could have easily been a production item, and while some might prefer V8 power, the concept’s 400-horsepower turbo six would have been plenty. Would Buick buyers have gone for it? Maybe not. Would new customers have gone with a Buick for the first time to get one? Maybe so.
Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard
I’m going to go with one of my favorite stillborn cars, and it’s from the era when Japanese automotive companies could burn money with reckless disregard up to and including fully redesigning cars that haven’t even come out.
The Nissan MID4 II was a mid-engined 4WD twin-turbo 6-cylinder sports car with four-wheel steering years before the Acura NSX debuted. They only didn’t come out with it because they thought it’d lose money. Great looking, most likely wonderful to drive—and a peak into an alternate universe where Nissan actually did launch that expression of what it was as a company at that time, something Honda and Toyota have done more successfully over the years, at least with higher-end sports cars.
It doesn’t look like it’s from the 80s.
No, it does not look like it came from the 80s. I think IMUS (I’m not typing out that long-ass user name, I’m on a deadline here) has nailed it with that write up, what more can I add? Besides my wish to live on Earth II where the MID4 II went into production and started a sensible-supercar battle with Honda that never cooled.
M SV
The US production car I was most interested in that never happened was the Elio. I always knew it was a scam but it was interesting.
You know what? YES. I’m not sure it was a scam, though; I think Elio just failed. Anyway, there is still a place in my heart for the super-efficient-commuter-pod concept, especially on three wheels. Related: though not currently in the “failed to go into production” category, you can park an Aptera next to the Elio in my dream garage of three-wheeled weirdos. I’m rooting for you, Aptera.
Jack Trade
Ford Mach 2 from the late 60s. An amazing two seat mid engined sportscar that did what the Corvette is doing now. A single one was produced, it was featured in period ads, but not only was it never put into regular production, that single example has been missing for decades.
I think we need to tell the full story of the Mach 2, that is one fantastic-looking piece of mid-engine American muscle right there. It’s pure eye candy and looks very not-1960s from its pop-up headlights to its tapered tail, and look at those flying sail panels – reminds me a bit of the second-gen Ford GT, albeit in a much more restrained and smaller-scale treatment. And it’s missing? What an enticing mystery!
Frosteeman
The answer for this will always be the Nissan IDx. A RWD sports coupe with 510-inspired styling and over 200hp in NISMO trim? Yes, please! Oh, the things that could have been!
Hold up, it’s been 13 years since Nissan dropped this 510-flavored concept? Man, time flies. And I imagine a production IDx would have flown off dealer lots, even if it had to lose its side pipes along the way (but hopefully not). Sigh …
Next, soon: a fresh Autopian Asks!
Top graphic image: Nissan
I have no words (except maybe, for the four I just typed).
Pontiac G8-ST. Then, when Pontiac was cancelled, just swap it back over to Chevrolet as the El Camino.
G8-ST
The GXP version that never was could then have became the El Camino SS. Think Holden Maloo, but for the U.S.A.
Ton of gorgeous Cadillac concept cars, but the Sixteen is one of the most bold statements of their design language and that came out over 20 years ago.
Also a big fan of the Chevrolet SS concept from 2003.
Subaru has always had cool concepts that then great disappointed us when their production variant was released. I think the WRX concept from 2013 looked great.
I don’t know how the Ciel concept didn’t make this list
You posted pics of the MID4 not the MID4 II!!!
I was absolutely smitten with the IDx concept and was willing to make bad financial decisions to get one if it were to make it to production. Instead I’ve never owned a Nissan sooooo, yeah, there you go.
The IDx was one of the few concept cars I had multiple conversations about with people who aren’t car enthusiasts. I know we overblow the potential success of small sports cars here all the time, but I really think Nissan would have had a hit with the IDx, and it would have done absolute wonders for their image, which was nosediving into “cars for felons” phase. There’s no way it would have hurt anyway.
I wonder if it was just tucked away in the Ford Rotunda and went down in the fire?
Also, I threw the SHOgun out on a lark, but am please to know you are also a man of taste Pete!
I too really like that NISSAN.
The IDx pictured above was the Nismo. There was also the IDx Freeflow that was more or less as you described. Contributes to the hurt of Nissan never coming through with production.
AMX/3.
That is all.
That Nissan IDx would still look great today.
Holy CRAP that Mach 2. I’ve never heard of this car before; I would love to see a deep dive on it.
I have never been so gutted that a concept car didn’t make it to production as I was over the Nissan IDx. I would have loved to see them on the road.
Yep. SHOgun, but with a 1000hp motor.
Late to the game. Pontiac Banshee XP-833.
I’d love to see a revival.
Oooh, content actually based on one of your asks. Great! 🙂
It’s often it just doesn’t amount to anything. And we start to wonder why you ask in the first place? So nice one this time. Thanks.
Since it was about cars that never made production, I’ll say the Plymouth Backpack and the concept version Aztek (it was too shittified for production and different enough that it should count).
Maybe the SEMA green Malibu turbo 3.5 and the supercharged Vibe GTR count (yellow never made it to production, though it was available on the Matrix). Lotus offered a supercharged 2ZZ on the Elise/Exige, and some Euro and JDM Corollas have it too, so offering on the Vibe would’ve been easy.
https://smallcarsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/542-1024×791.jpeg
I’ve always liked the Mosler Ram Chop too
https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWheels/comments/qm3n5w/mosler_ram_chop_electric_van_based_on_a_1990s/
And yeah, I hope you do more QOTD answer articles 😀
I just looked up the Plymouth Backpack. Wow! Talk about ahead of their time! Imagine making it a hybrid and slotting it as an entry level vehicle at $20,000. They’d have to market it as a Jeep but that still fits.
Do it Stellantis!
Y’all should try and get David and Griffin down the coast a bit and do an article on the Aptera if it ever gets closer to being real! Pulling for them to make it to production.
That Isuzu is fantastic. It doesn’t look 80s, but it looks like concept art for a future Lotus Esprit
I forgot about the Avista. Holy crap on a cracker, I want one now.
Some cars that I think should have made it into production:
-The 4 door GM EV1 with the NiMH battery pack (this would be in a world where the EV1 program was never shut down and GM hung on to Ovonics)
-The hybrid EV1 using a Suzuki 1L 3cyl engine
-The 1997 Jeep Dakar
-The 2002 Lincoln Continental concept car
-The Lightyear One – they produced a few and then stopped… and now the company is focusing on making “scalable cutting-edge solar charging systems to create grid-independent solar electric vehicles”
–The Aptera – Yeah yeah… they claim it’s gonna go into production, but let’s get real… it’s not likely to happen
I’d have to agree 100% with Frosteeman
The Nissan IDx was the best looking/most practical/most reasonable seeming concept that could have made it to production. Even in regular, production car guise (i.e.: no sidepipes, etc…) it would have been great: a simple 3-box design with good (510ish) proportions, the right number of doors (2), and (hopefully) good picks from Nissan’s parts bin in terms of a decent (and not overly complex or plastic-laden) drivetrain (preferably not something sourced from Renault).
Oh, what could have been…
it hurts even more that they said they would make it and then poof! I’ve never driven a 510, but I adored the couple of B13 SE-Rs I had. I imagine this would have gotten me pretty dang close to that sweet spot.
We truly need a car like this. It breaks my heart Nissan backed out of this
It kills me too.
I’ve never owned a Nissan, and it’s been years since they made and sold anything that I even remotely desired to buy and own.
Like you Sammy, I never drove and have only rarely even seen a 510 in person, but how could any sentient male mammal not lust for the IDx, even accounting for the usual amount of potential change from concept to production.
Just F Carlos Ghosn or whomever was in charge when Nissan nixxed the thumbs-up for the IDx. 🙁 I can’t help but feel we missed something good.
This damn timeline! Why did we wind up in the sucky one?!
Elio always set off my scam/impossibility alarms. Several outlets gave it more attention than it seemed to deserve for a vaporware project, and not in a “this doesn’t add up” way. I couldn’t tell if people were genuinely excited for this thing or if they just weren’t interested in asking tough questions.
PETER. How about a trigger warning next time? You can’t just go show a picture of the IDx like that without letting us decide if we want to see it or not!
Now I’m going to be depressed the rest of the day. Thanks.
I should have put the Elio in there
The IDx has always been amusing to me because I knew someone on a forum who claimed to work for Nissan that insisted for like 8 years that everyone just needed to have patience because there would be news about it soon. No real preproduction mules were ever seen running around. No news was ever made about it after the concept that suggested there were plans to put it into production. No explanations were given for how Nissan could have feasibly build it.
He did this as Nissan continued to basically collapse on itself. He did this as Nissan stretched the GT-R out over 18 years through increasingly questionable facelifts. He did this as Nissan left the 370z out to rot completely. He did this as Nissan made financial decisions that even at the time were obviously dumber than if they had just been setting the small amount of development money they did have on fire.
And when it finally became patently obvious during COVID that it never was going to come out (and was probably never intended to in the first place) and he was basically doing an “My Uncle Works at Nintendo” schtick the whole time (I’m sure he does work at Nissan but he acted like he sat in boardroom meetings)? Crickets.
The Mach 2 looks like what would happen if you went back in time and described an NSX to a comic book artist. (This is not a bad thing.)
Hard Top Mach5
Go Speed Racer Go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5XmMWnsiqU&list=RDe5XmMWnsiqU&start_radio=1
Wow, yes