Hearing that an exciting new car has been canceled kind of feels like someone just broke up with you.
Are you still crying into your beers over the cancelation of the insane Jaguar C-X75 Hybrid supercar? I'll admit I've been shedding some manly tears over it too. To make things worse, I've been left wondering what might have been all week after I learned about Porsche's ridiculous 914 hatchback that never saw the light of day.
If you're up for some heartbreak, let's take a look at some other great canceled cars that would have been amazing but just weren't meant to be.
Cars get canceled for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, an automaker decides that a concept just isn't going to be viable. Sometimes they're hit with financial setbacks, which we saw quite a bit of during the Carpocalypse. And sometimes, car companies decide they just want to go in a different direction, even after a concept becomes a smash hit.
The cars on this list were all planned to have been put in production at some level, or were feasible, high-profile concepts that just never made it into our driveways. Being without them has left us sad and depressed.
Obviously, it's not a comprehensive list, but rather some of our favorites. There are tons of amazing canceled cars out there. Now tell us — what are your favorites?
Top photo credit GM/Shutterstock
The V10 Acura NSX
No, not this NSX. And not the one that Tony Stark drives around in either. Those of you who have been hanging out here for a while probably remember that in the late 2000s, the planned successor to the legendary NSX was to be a legitimate supercar with a V10 engine up front, a company first for Honda. Then-CEO Takeo Fukui said his goal was to give it a better Nurburgring lap time than the Nissan GT-R.
Why it got canceled: Carpocalypse. In December of 2008, Fukui announced the program was canceled so Honda could focus on green technologies. Its legacy lives on, kind of, in the HSV-010 that Honda races in the Japanese Super GT series, although that has a 3.4-liter V8. And remember, the NSX is supposedly coming back as a mid-engined hybrid with all-wheel-drive.
Photo credit KGP
Pontiac G8 ST
Technically, this one never got canceled. General Motors just never saw fit to sell it in the U.S. You Australian bastards should count yourselves lucky for being able to buy the Holden Ute, a small, V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive pickup truck.
GM flirted pretty heavily with the idea of selling us this Sport Truck version of their ill-fated G8 sedan, including releasing these images to the media and saying that as many as 5,000 would be sold in the U.S. starting in 2010.
Why it got canceled: The El Camino revival was probably doomed for a lot of reasons. Maybe GM just didn't see enough people wanting to buy it (those people would have been stupid and wrong!); maybe they were too strapped for cash in the latter part of the 2000s before going bankrupt to even try; or maybe they knew there was no point with the looming death of Pontiac. Either way, we feel especially cheated out of this one.
Photo credit GM
Aerovette
A few months ago, I did a feature on some of GM's crazy aborted attempts through the years to make a mid-engine Corvette. One of the very best is the Aerovette, a concept from the late 1970s that came about as close to pulling that idea off as any other car.
Basically, GM took their gull-winged XP-882 concept out of storage, ripped out its zany four-rotor engine, and put in a more fitting 400 cubic inch V8. The result is the Aerovette, which was actually approved for production for 1980.
Why it got canceled: In the end, GM decided that they were already selling as many traditional front-engine Corvettes as they could, and so a new mid-engine 'Vette would be too expensive and risky. We can only speculate today as to whether a malaise-era midship Corvette would have caught on or not, but it sure was cool.
A New RWD Ford Sedan
We like the Panther platform in a more-than-friends kind of way. They're ancient but they're awesome, and they're still ubiquitous as taxis and cop cars. So it only makes sense that Ford was developing a big rear-wheel-drive sedan platform to replace it, and one that Lincoln could use to compete with Cadillac, right? Of course it does. And that's exactly why Ford axed the program. Now New York taxi cabs will be tiny Nissan mini-minivans. The Ford Interceptor concept above shows what the car might have looked like.
Why it got canceled: Ford design chief J Mays announced in early 2009 that the new Ford RWD program was shelved permanently due to rising gas prices. Edmunds reported that Ford "is completely focused on fuel efficiency, a change in strategy which leaves no room for large rear-wheel drive sedans." Now, cop cars are Tauruses, which are nice, but they're just not the same.
Photo credit Ford
Cadillac V12
I think it's fairly safe to say that the Cadillac Sixteen was the best Cadillac concept to emerge in modern times. Maybe ever, actually. Ever since it was unveiled in 2003, people have been clamoring for the 16-cylinder insanitymobile to see production. It never did, though its design lives on through all the modern Cadillacs.
But wait — it's Bob Lutz to the rescue! He said in 2007 that a new V12 engine would be developed for Cadillac in Australia and then inserted into a new flagship car for the company. This is going to be great!
Why it got canceled: Except it never happened. GM announced in 2008 that the program was canceled. Like the rest of the industry, GM's engines are getting smaller with fewer cylinders and more forced induction, so a massive engine like that didn't really make any sense. Kind of a shame, though.
Photo credit GM
Lamborghini Estoque
The four-door Estoque concept made waves when it debuted at the Paris Motor Show in 2008. The boffins in Sant' Agata went kind of nuts with this one, saying it could be powered by anything from the Gallardo's V10 engine to a turbo V8, a hybrid V8, or some kind of diesel. The Estoque never came out, but their cousins over at Porsche launched their version of the same idea, the Panamera. Minus the good looks, obviously.
Why it got canceled: Did it get canceled? What the hell happened to this thing, anyway? The last we checked, this Lambo was in a kind of Lambo Limbo, having been reported as axed, then given a "maybe," and then green-lit. That was two years ago, and there's still no four-door Lamborghini on the roads. Since then they've unveiled the Urus SUV concept, which they say they are going to make. We're still holding out for our sedan.
Photo credit Lamborghini