It’s no secret that the car industry’s in a big moment of upheaval. Between instances of financials strife and big shifts in business plans, a number of cars have effectively been swallowed up by the void. Given the sheer volume of cars appearing and quickly disappearing like America’s Got Talent contestants, it’s worth taking a moment to pause and reflect. We’re living in an obscure car gold rush and while not all of these models are interesting right now, they’ll be neat things to see in the future.
This automotive shower thought came after learning that the Nissan Rogue Plug-in Hybrid, a rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, might essentially be a one-and-done proposition. A new conventional hybrid Rogue is on the horizon by year’s end, and Carbuzz reports that the plug-in Roguelander “will most likely be phased out after 2026 to make way for the new 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid e-Power.”
Why launch a badge-engineered model for what may be just a single model year? I kid you not, search engine optimization. As Nissan global product head Richard Candler told The Car Guide, “It was important to quickly offer a hybrid SUV in this segment, which also allowed us to rank higher in online searches.” This is undeniably a weird reason to homologate a car, but it sort of makes sense as a way of priming the pump.
If the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid gets discontinued after just a single model year on sale, it won’t be the only recent car with an exceptionally short-lived production span. While typical model cycles generally go for five-to-seven years, save for the Chevrolet Express van which has been in production since Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men topped the Billboard Hot 100, recent topsy-turviness means there are more one-model-year wonders in recent history.
Pretty much right after unveiling the reborn 2027 Chevrolet Bolt, GM announced that its most affordable U.S.-market EV would soon be dead again. With conventional crossover production expected to take the Bolt’s place in GM’s Fairfax Assembly plant early next year, this restyled, repowered EV will also be a one-year-wonder. There’s something a bit frustrating about an automaker bringing back a highly-desired vehicle, only to lay it to rest. Especially when the new model gets significant improvements like roughly three times the peak charging speed and a proper NACS port.
Then there’s the tragicomedy of the Acura ZDX. No, not the first one, which was a less practical MDX; I’m talking about the second one. The one that was essentially a Cadillac Lyriq with Apple CarPlay and window trims that look like landau bars if you squint hard enough. Acura actually sold 19,396 of these GM-built EVs before pulling the plug last autumn. The weird part is, it had already skipped the 2025 model year at that point, meaning all second-generation ZDX crossovers are 2024 models. This thing’s obscure enough that you’ve probably already forgotten its existence, and with Honda’s great U.S.-built EV push cancelled, the ZDX left showrooms without a proper successor.
While we’re on the subject of GM, we need to talk about the BrightDrop electric step van. I’ve driven one, and it’s great, feeling more like an overgrown minivan than a massive commercial vehicle. The refinement and creature comforts are light years ahead of the rattly step vans of old, but saying demand wasn’t enormous was an understatement. Through the end of 2024, GM managed to sell just 2,172 of them in America, making this delivery vehicle supercar-rare. Granted, a production pause from October 2023 to April 2024 affected things, but last autumn, GM pulled the plug for good.
Of course, the poster child for short-lived cars of recent history is the Fisker Ocean, a quirky electric crossover tethered to a business plan that crashed and burned spectacularly. In the beginning, it sounded promising: Fisker would design the crossover, and Magna would build it in the same Austrian assembly plant as the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Toyota GR Supra. It lasted just two model years before Fisker 2.0 went bust, but these things are still out there making the streets a little bit weirder.
Want more? You’ve got it. The Volvo EX30 is one of those vehicles where I wish it were better than it is. The form factor’s great, the use of color is fun, but the software is rather infuriating. Maybe economic concerns from the get-go should’ve been a sign. Volvo initially planned on shipping these entry-level EVs to America from China, only to be met with a 100 percent tariff roadblock. After nearly two years, a second line was up and running in Belgium, and EX30s were finally making it to America for the 2025 model year. Good news, right? Well, last month, The Drive reported that 2026 would be the last model year for the EX30 stateside. According to the report, “All current orders in the system will be produced with production winding down for the U.S. after the summer.”
Oh, and then there’s the gloriously weird Hyundai Ioniq 6, a streamliner sedan that’s going into a refresh with an unusual strategy for America. There will be no standard models sold in the United States, with only the high-performance 641-horsepower Ioniq 6 N making the boat ride over from Korea. It’s a shame because beneath the charmingly quirky exterior, this was a big, comfortable sedan with serious range and properly fast charging.
This whole trend makes me wonder, will these short-lived recent cars be nostalgic hits a quarter-century into the future? Just look at Radwood, a show for cars from the ’80s and ’90s. Sure, the big-ticket poster cars are cool to see in person, but the big crowd-pleasers are the obscure weirdos of the automotive landscape. Strange models like the Eagle Premier-based Dodge Monaco, the Nissan Vanette, and anything with a Citroën badge. Likewise, it’s not uncommon to experience a weird sort of glee seeing a Suzuki Verona or a Daewoo Nubira out in the wild. Cars that weren’t hugely common or massively special when new, but now triumph as surviving examples of chapters in automotive history.
A couple of decades from now, if I were to stumble upon a Nissan Rogue PHEV or a Chevrolet BrightDrop out on the street, I’d probably want to take a picture and send it to my friends because it’s a living reminder of a crazy-ass moment in automotive history. In a weird way, the shifting landscape around electrified vehicles might actually make some of them future classics. Not in a blue-chip way, but in a “Bro, look at this!” way. And isn’t the implausible survival of obscure vehicles often more interesting than seeing cars that were always meant to be cherished and preserved?
Top graphic image: Nissan, Acura, Chevrolet
Mazda MX-30 E-REV would be a rare bird. A slow, small, expensive, rare bird. An e-rev turkey !
“We’re In A New Golden Age Of Obscure Cars And Barely Even Know It”
obscure
/əbˈskyo͝or/
Obscure – IGN
Obscure refers to something unknown, unclear, or hidden, often describing little-known facts, ambiguous language, or dim lighting
Well something of a tautology if you ask me.
It would be a golden age of obscure cars if the obscure cars I wanted were legally available less than 25 years old while their manufacturers still made parts and maybe the threshold of ownership in this country were reached that made specialist support available. Sure it’s possible to import 25 years old Renaults, but it’s not like a 70 year old Renault that anyone with a Haynes book can fix, or a 1960s hand made car that you can hand make the parts for. Support for Jenson Healy
The various types of metal 3d printing are getting cheap a good enough to make print to order parts
economically viable. Water pumps come to mind. It used to be that almost and water pump could be rebuilt, just replace a couple of press fit bearings and seals and the impellers were easy to reproduce. Borgward or Rambler made no difference. Why isn’t that still a thing.
“automotive shower (spaghetti) thought”
Mazda MX-30!
A guy down the road from me bought one of those Chevy EV vans and loves it. I went and took a look in it and it seemed really well-done. A shame the plug was pulled.
“We’re In A New Golden Age Of Obscure Cars And Barely Even Know It”
obscure
/əbˈskyo͝or/
Obscure – IGN
Obscure refers to something unknown, unclear, or hidden, often describing little-known facts, ambiguous language, or dim lighting
Well something of a tautology if you ask me.
It would be a golden age of obscure cars if the obscure cars I wanted were legally available less than 25 years old while their manufacturers still made parts and maybe the threshold of ownership in this country were reached that made specialist support available. Sure it’s possible to import 25 years old Renaults, but it’s not like a 70 year old Renault that anyone with a Haynes book can fix, or a 1960s hand made car that you can hand make the parts for. Support for Jensen-Healeys, Corvairs, and Delorians is easier than recent cars that were never sold here.
On the other hand
The various types of metal 3d printing are getting cheap a good enough to make print to order parts
economically viable. Water pumps come to mind. It used to be that almost and water pump could be rebuilt, just replace a couple of press fit bearings and seals and the impellers were easy to reproduce. Borgward or Rambler made no difference. Why isn’t that still a thing.
I believe VinFast would like a word.
Another niche car, one I considered buying at one point, is the Cadillac ELR. Expensive Volt derivative with non-consecutive model years. If I could find one cheap enough and/or ideally with a fresh battery pack I’d probably still consider it.
The words VinFast would like to share are probably “We’re not obsolete yet!”:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vietnams-vinfast-reports-61-rise-first-quarter-ev-deliveries-2026-04-22/
I’ve seen a couple of them. In the same driveways. Never underway.
I’ve also looked into ELRs and, out west at least, they seem to be like manual SS sedans and clean, detective-spec Caprice PPVs: interesting GM cars I’d hoped might be a bargain but are listed for big bucks.
I’ve seen one on the road moving under its own power and everything!
VF3 is the car of Vietnam. Any city outside Saigon or Hanoi is full of them . Add in the vingroup taxis and Vinfast all over. Now they are doing well in other Asian countries. NC built vf3 could be interesting sort of like a modern bev samurai. They were teasing a little pickup at one point too.
Another one to add is the 2020-2021 Nissan Frontier. It had the new V6 and nine speed that was for the finally updated 2022 Frontier but in the old body style that came out all the way in 2004.
Our local ice cream guy graduated from an old P30 to a Brightdrop. It’s a complete unit. Pink in color with aluminum wheels, a mini-split A/C unit on the front bumper and towing a trailer mounted generator, also with aluminum wheels.
I think the Fiata is going to be a legend in 15-20 years.
My best joke right now: Fiat stands for “Fix It Again, Takahashi”
People collect weird obsolete tech and weird old cars so maybe the two meet for weird bevs. In 20 years I wouldn’t doubt what started as hotrods went to tuners will be hot rodded / tuned bev. JDM fascination turned to CDM fascination. KDM is happening now and might flop around a bit then go under. Or stay with the JDM crowd. Like the hot rodders sort of separated from the tuners 30 years ago or so.
Weird newish cars would be even nicer.
I sometimes fear the general population of new car buyer are too boring that or lack of weird cars. Its a real chicken or egg situation. At least the Asian countries embrace weird cars.
I saw a Suzuki Kizashi the other day.
I like that car, it still looks good.
Agreed; so muscular. I saw one in Nagoya and it looks downright menacing in a Japanese setting, like a mini Dodge Charger.
So true! Even stuff like the Cybertruck, Rivians, and Lucids are legit being produced and sold but in very small numbers when you look at total numbers sold so far. Many other examples. Love it!
The last people who still think Cybertrucks are cool are 7-9 year old boys. A few might get their dream car as a deeply depreciated first car, and the rest will make them as cherished as classics as Edsels became by the end of the ’80s.
Spot on!
Minor dispute: the Lyriq had CarPlay. It still has it. Source: I leased one.
It’s the other GM EVs that do not.
The ioniq 6 is still high on my list of things that might be my next car, though the smallish trunk is maybe a problem. If the ZDX were 800V architecture, I’d be seriously looking at those, as the depreciation on them is INTENSE.
I genuinely wish it was a liftback; as it is, it’s an awkward sedan.
If this iccu extented warranty doesnt’t have any 1st owner nonsense. They claim it wont but I haven’t seen anything saying definitive.
I’m thinking about picking up one of the off lease used ones. They are going for $12k to $15k now. I’m still suspect of dealers. They likey to be just as terrible with the iccu as they were with the engines. I’ve lucked out on one of those but still a worry. Still a 15y 180k mi warranty sounds pretty good.
I’m looking for the Limited trim, which are going for $25-30K for AWD in a good color.
They pop up for around $18k sometimes. Most tend to be white black or silver though.
Exactly. The good colors tend to be at a premium.
Announced today for the US the ICCUs are now warranted for 15 years and 180K miles. Our 24 CPO had the ICCU replaced before we purchased it. New ICCU, new firmare, new fuse. I’m not expecting it to fail (again). Hopefully Hyundai has enough faith in the recall/update they’re not updating the update.
IF you really want one, try autotempest.com. It’s a dangerous website as it will help you find exactly the car you want (search for 24-25 Ioniq 6 AWD < 20,000 miles < $25,000, Limited trim)
Yeah, I saw they announced it yesterday. Just not sure if they are doing the first owner thing. The battery and motor warranty are apparently with the car and not the first buyer so logically the extension plays by the same rules and similar to the engine recall. They know they would be looking down the berrel of another lawsuit . So save the expense and extend the warranty. They claim its only 1% effected but it has to be more. Lots of theories around what is causing it but time seems to be a factor. Many vehicles have it replaced multiple times. The dirty power theory seems as good as any others.
I have one, the trunk is very okay. I even keep an aftermarket space saving spare slipped inside an Amazon Christmas wreath storage bag. Jack+ stuff tucks in under the false floor. The Ioniq 6 even came with little velcro bump stops that let you secure items on the floor of the trunk where they don’t slide around. We haven’t found it too small for our trips to the store/Costco, etc.
Both rear seats fold 60/40 to open up more space with the releases in the (power-operated) trunk.
I’ve got a 24 Limited AWD long range. It’s wicked quick (0-60 around 4.5 secs), and has good driving dynamics, a nice ride, and is well appointed. My gripes are few and very first-world..
Overall I give the car a 9 out of 10, and an 11 out of 10 for bang-for-the-buck (ours was a 1 yr old CPO with only 6K on the clock, the ICCU recall already done, and I paid only 1/2 the $56K sticker!).
PS my neighbor thought it was a Porsche! Get one while you can!
Funny thing – I already have a Porsche sedan (’14 Panamera 4), and I think the Ioniq 6 does a better job of looking like a Porsche than my actual Porsche. My specific concern on the trunk is being able to fit my shooting cart into it (a modified jogging stroller). I have to take the cargo cover out of the Panamera to get it to fit, so that’s a bit of a challenge. I suppose that when I’m ready to start shopping for real (around the end of the year), I’ll just take the cart and see if I can find an 6 locally and try to fit it in. Though they are difficult to find in the OKC area. I have resigned myself to having to look pretty far afield to find anything I want.
I agree that less automation would have been preferable. I don’t like pop-out doorhandles and auto-folding mirrors, and powered charging doors. That’s just more weight, more complexity, and more things to break. The only reason I am looking for the Limited instead of the SE is that it’s the only trim with ventilated seats, and those are a must-have for me. I’m going to fit anything I buy with either a set of recycled SE wheels or some other ultra-light aero wheels, though, to get back some of the range.
I own on of the predecessors to the Volvo EX30, the C40. Also short lived (3 years in the US), but I really like it. It’s definitely not appealing to a wide market. I’ll just sit back and watch it slide into obscurity.
When markets change rapidly, a lot of weird solutions litter the path. That’s now with the EV transitions.
My neighbor has had a C40 he bought new, for going on two or three years. He seems to like it. His prior car was a Gen. 2 Volt.
Almost got a C40 but went with a ZDX instead.
What a genuine shame about the Bolt. I see the older ones all the time in my area, almost as much as Teslas. I figured with the updates to it, while still being reasonably priced, it would be a good seller. Guess not.
A good seller? Did we fast forward through 2027 already? I bet manufacturing gets moved to another plant and Surprise! it’s re-un-discontinued, after most of the currently produced cars have already sold. Artificial scarcity works these days.
It was my prediction it would’ve been a good seller. I guess we will see. I do hope you’re right though.
I don’t think they’re going to move it again, after what a mess it was moving it the first time. GM significantly overestimated the simplicity of tearing down, moving, and re-assembling a bunch of lines, plus moving stamping dies and integrating things into the pre-existing main line that’s partially existed in some form since they were still building Saturns in Fairfax.
GM probably regrets every decision they made with the Bolt starting with killing it in the first place and repurposing Orion for something that they ended up putting on indefinite pause.
I actually saw my first Fisker Ocean recently at work! I was pretty impressed and also scared for the owner (not that I talked to them or anything) since, ya know, there’s support from the automaker anymore….
The Fisker Ocean might be the exception to the rule. There’s an indie co-op that has a) figured out it’s built almost entirely from off-the shelf, b) fought for and won the rights to the source code for the car’s myriad computers, and c) has genuinely figured out how to solve a lot of the quirks.
It might actually be a smart buy for the tinkering EV enthusiast. Just don’t expect to be able to get a conventional auto loan for one.
I was in Austin a few months ago and seen probably 4-5 of them and was wondering what their future looked like. Interesting to know!
Lots of them are in NYC being used as what use do be called black cars. One company bought all that were available.
Amusingly, my local FedEx delivery hub just recently changed out their delivery vehicles to Brightdrops – I mean within the last few weeks. I walked by one of them a few days ago looking at it with fascination when I made eye contact with the delivery driver and realized they had no idea why I was looking at their truck. I wanted to vocalize the novelty of their vehicle when they just shook their head and drove off.
Late last year I saw a Chevy dealer offloading their allotment of Brightdrops pretty cheap.
A fascinating mix of cars. My reactions range from “Aww, too bad” to “Good riddance”.
I still like Ioniq 6 a lot.
Making a car for SEO purposes makes me want to scream at this absurd world.
As a Product Manager for an auto parts manufacturer I completely agree.
I mean even higher volume cars from the big three are getting a fair number of parts obsoleted if the vehicle they are for is over 15 years old. I have a pretty rare H3, and the water pump and power steering resevoir are bespoke for no real reason. it is kind of insane that there is a wait from gates on a water pump or an ebay used only option on the plastic resevoir.
Knowing GM, they were different for A reason. Likely a reason you find ridiculous, but still a reason. There was some clearance number or requirement the carry over part didn’t meet, so a new one had to be made specifically for it.
One of my friends worked for a metal stamping company that did number of pieces for that platform. From what he said there were a decent number of differences between the radiator supports for reasons unknown to him.
I suspect packaging. The Silverado unit fits, but it is tight.
It would be really interesting to see the financial forecasts to back this up. It screams “ego driven decision” and not “solid business case”.
I was always this way. I’m 81 years old and a life long motorhead. We called them orphan cars – From my high school days – in no particular order:
Tucker
Allstate
HenryJ
Willys Aero, etc
Kaiser
Frazer (had to look up the spelling on this one)
Hudson
Nash
Packard
Desoto (1961)
Probably missed a couple. Somehow, Studebaker hung in there until 1966. The Studebaker dealer in Winooski, VT switched to Fiat (I bought a new Fiat 850 Spider from him).
p.s. With the exception of the Tucker, I’ve seen all of these “out in the wild – not in a museum”
And how could I forget the Edsel (1960)
Crosley, Bantam, not to mention all the Electric car startups from the 70’s on.
How in the heck did I forget Crosley? We actually owned a 1950 Crosley station wagon about 25 years ago – A project vehicle that we never “bonded” with…
much like the motor seams I am sure.
I think that place is still in business as a repair shop, or was until recently, Vermont having chosen to celebrate the post-Covid reopening with multiple yearslong road construction projects in multiple downtowns.
I left the area in 1967. You sent me down the rabbit hole… Google Earth showed a very different building. After some googling ended up with Facebook: Winooski Vermont Historical Society.
“In 1973, Myers Auto Service was one of many businesses displaced by the Model Cities Urban Renewal program which demolished dozens of structures east of Main Street. Archie continued to deal in automobiles from his warehouse among the former mill buildings on West Canal Street.”
Back then, Archie showed me a large collection of antique vehicles that he had purchased in the 40’s and 50’s. Most looked in good, restoreable condition. Most of them were headed for the scrap yard.
And a bit more depressing, my ex-wife was from that area (Burlington, VT)…
OK, I was thinking of another shop further up the hill.
I’m 50 and amazingly enough I’ve seen all of these makes sort-of in the wild in that several were at car shows, but they were at car shows one had to drive to. I even spotted a Kaiser-Darrin tooling down I-35 one sunny afternoon a few years back.
Going back earlier and things get even more interesting with the likes of Brewster, Maxwell, Oakland, Marmon, Pierce, Graham, Essex, Franklin, Hupmobile, and Cord to name a few.
For the US market add Opel to the list
And probably DMC and Bradley
I wonder if those Acura/Honda EVs are going to depreciate like a Honda or like a Chevy. From my understanding the GM EVs have been pretty solid. So to get one with unique styling and apple car play for similar money could be a good buy.
I’ve heard the Honda versions are way behind on software updates compared to the GM versions so that probably foreshadows something about future Prologue/ZDX ownership.
What a hellish world we live in where besides my phone, laptop, printer, router, and everything else, I now need to worry about my car getting the necessary software updates. Which like all electronics is completely out of my control and entirely based the whim and good graces of the tech overlords. I’m tired of sounding like a Luddite, but this future sucks.
I was filling out a survey recently, and one of the questions was along the lines of how I liked the technology in my car. The answer was the software sucks, and I try to avoid using it as much as I can.
It’s definitely a brave new world. The only software updates my cars will see is when I replace the head unit or swap in a stand alone ECU.
We need a new term for Luddite that encapsulates the modern day and more properly describes what many of us are feeling—it’s not a rejection of modernity automatically or want for a return to the past, but a proper calling out of the BS tech that’s only apparent purpose seems to be to make things worse. We want real technical progress that progresses, that makes things better for everyone involved, not just the seller, and a sensible position on retaining long-solved technology rather than reinventing it poorly.
On that last part, I worked on a rehab/physically challenged multi-power trike that could be run by either legs or arms or both, but the steering (or maybe it was braking) mechanism I came up with had already been patented, so I thought up a few inferior workarounds to avoid patent violation and abandoned the project as profitability would be a long shot even with the proper mechanical solution. Today’s tech has far too many inferior workarounds for no reason at all.
I always find these borrowed products so fascinating. They are rarely integrated into the namesake automaker’s internal systems and usually require dealers to subscribe to additional diagnostic and documentation software. Eventually they stop doing that, especially if the project was a one-time partnership.
I once watched someone in front of me at the VW service center get told that no, they could not make a new key for her 2012 Routan and that the CJDR dealer down the road would be a better fit because it is in fact a Chrysler with minor alterations.
Another one to watch for is the Toyota Supra, especially because Toyota has indicated the next Supra will not be BMW-based.
Last year on my local FB marketplace someone was selling a Lordstown Endurance pickup. I forget how much they had it listed for, but it was way too much. I wonder what happened to it.
I think aging wheels may have bought it. He had a tease in a recent video making me think he has an endurance.