Captive Import - American Market

American Market

In the American market, captive imports "blurred national distinctions" because they have been designed and built elsewhere, but wear a domestic nameplate. The chief reason domestic automakers market captive imports is because "it is cheaper to import those cars than to produce them" in the United States.

The Nash Metropolitan, sold in the U.S. from 1954 to 1962, was an interesting example because it was a captive import for Nash Motors (who designed it themselves, unlike most captive imports built by another company) produced by Austin in the UK specifically for sale in the U.S. By entering into a manufacturing arrangement, Nash would avoid the expense associated with tooling, body panels, and components. When this two-seater sub-compact car was launched, it was the first time an American-designed car had been only built in Europe, having never been built in the United States. Unlike typical European cars of the era, its look was "American" and it had a design resemblance to the large or "senior" U.S.-built Nashes. It became one of the few small cars to sell well during the most bulk-obsessed period of U.S. automotive history.

When Mercedes-Benz was seeking entry into the American market, the company signed a marketing agreement with Studebaker–Packard and briefly became a captive brand in their showrooms. Around the same time, in a venture now largely forgotten, Pontiac dealers briefly sold Vauxhalls.

Ford, who had invented the modern captive-import system in 1948 with the British Anglia and Prefect, added its own European Ford Capri to its U.S. Mercury line in the 1970s and saw strong sales.

During the same period, Dodge did quite well with several small Mitsubishi models, mostly sold as Dodge Colts (versions of which would later also be sold under the Plymouth and Eagle brands as well).

However, some others, such as the Plymouth Cricket (born Hillman Avenger) and Ford's entire Merkur line, gained a reputation as being poorly suited to American tastes and faded away quickly.

Other experiments, such as GM's sale of Opel models like the Kadett through Buick dealers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, yielded ambivalent results; the Opels were generally well-regarded and sales were decent but never substantial. In the 1970s, when Buick decided to phase out its Opels and sell small Isuzus instead, the result was a handful of cars carrying a truly global but very amusing brand, Buick Opel by Isuzu. Buick was not the first to rebadge Isuzus — Chevrolet did the same with their LUV pickup truck in 1972.

In the late 1980s, GM consolidated its various captive imports of the time (the Daewoo-built Pontiac LeMans notwithstanding) under the Geo brand, which was exclusively handled by Chevrolet dealers. The cars, built variously by Toyota (the Prizm), Isuzu (Spectrum, Storm) and Suzuki (Metro, Tracker) were generally well received, but the company decided to fold the line back into Chevrolet in 1998.

In 2004, GM began marketing the Chevrolet Aveo subcompact, a rebadged Daewoo Kalos (now a rebadged Daewoo Gentra) assembled in South Korea. In 2008, GM started marketing the Saturn Astra, which is a rebadged Opel Astra, assembled in Belgium. And, prior to the brand's phaseout, Pontiac also returned to the captive idea by selling Holden vehicles, first as the Pontiac GTO and then as the Pontiac G8. Pontiac dealers also briefly received a version of the Kalos/Gentra/Aveo, which was sold in Canada as the G3 Wave and in the U.S. as the G3.

In 2011, GM once again used a Holden model, the WM Caprice, as a captive import for its Chevrolet Caprice, but designed for law enforcment agencies in the United States and Canada.