Captive import is a marketing term and a strategy for an automobile part or entire vehicle that is foreign-built and sold under the name of an importer or by a domestic automaker through its own dealer distribution system.
The foreign car may be produced by a subsidiary of the same company, be a joint venture with another firm, or acquired under license from a completely separate entity. The brand name used may be that of the domestic company, the foreign builder, or an unrelated marque entirely (this is one type of badge engineering).
This arrangement is usually made to increase the competitiveness of the domestic brand by filling a perceived target market not currently served by its model lineup, that is either not practical or not economically feasible to fill from domestic production.
Read more about Captive Import: American Market, Other Markets, Reasons For Failure, Exceptions, Recent Models, List of Notable Captive Imports in The United States, List of Notable Captive Imports in Japan, List of Notable Captive Imports in Europe
Famous quotes containing the words captive and/or import:
“There a captive sat in chains
Crooning ditties treasured well
From his Afric’s torrid plains.
Sole estate his sire bequeathed,—
Hapless sire to hapless son,—
Was the wailing song he breathed,
And his chain when life was done.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The intellectual life may be kept clean and healthful, if man will live the life of nature, and not import into his mind difficulties which are none of his.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)