These Cars Should Never Have Been Killed Off

The Honda Element. It was the perfect sport-utility vehicle with the emphasis squarely on utility. A flat floor and low load height meant you could fit things in the Element that wouldn’t fit in a suburban. Fit 2 mountain bikes, your girlfriend, all your camping gear for a week and a dog in it comfortably. Bags of mulch? yup. No problem. Those goofy plastic panels? They worked. All of them were exactly where you end up scratching things on a regular vehicle. And the older ones with the weird sunroof in the back were awesome because that sunroof was there so you could stand up in the back and change into a wetsuit or out of your gross cycling gear or whatever. Nothing this small should have that much room but they made it work. This was Honda’s take on the old land rovers that everyone geeks out about because they’re so simple and utilitarian. If honda were to resurrect this as is with a hybrid drivetrain it’d be a legitimate contender to the Ford Maverick.

I love the Element. It was so funky and fun, and it looked like nothing else at the time. Hell, it looks like nothing else now. Honda indeed killed it off far too soon.

Submitted by: Buckfiddiousagain

The automotive equivalent of a TARDIS

Small on the inside but big on the inside.

Too bad that America’s stigma of vans killed off this type of vehicle.

The Transit Connect was alright, but it never offered anything a standard minivan or a full-sized fan didn’t already have. Alas.

Submitted by: Witchy Whale

I mean, how could Toyota not sell these things today?

This has to be the most puzzling one on the list. Toyota has a slam product on its hands, but it won’t sell it in the U.S. In fact, as of last week, the company doesn’t sell it anywhere. A real shame.

Submitted by: FutureDoc

The MR2 because even us poors deserve a mid-engine, RWD sporty car. Regardless, of which you preferred, these were unique at their price point

Unfortunately, no one would buy one. So, I don’t it’ll be coming back around anytime soon. Also the ZZ is the best MR2, because it’s a convertible.

Submitted by: Insert Clever Name Here

Not one car, but a whole brand: Pontiac

Instead of rebadged crap Chevys/GMs, they should have kept using it as a brand to experiment with, using it as a test bed for new ideas and designs that are too risky to push through the other brands. Think about the cars we lost when they got the axe.

Solstice - still a classically gorgeous car

G8

GTO

Firebird - which looking at all the fan made concepts out there, would look much better than the Camaro

Hell, you can even argue they could have pushed the Aztec into a mainstream vehicle that would thrive in the current landscape of CUVs and SUVs, instead of being the hideous laughing stock it was at the time.

Oh, how I miss Pontiac. When GM killed off the brand it was the equivalent of a surgeon cutting off a healthy leg. Well, okay, it wasn’t the healthy leg, but it sure was the better leg.

Submitted by: SlickS30r

The Flex was the roomy station wagon - not an SUV - everybody says they want. Absolutely cavernous inside, competent road manners, and supremely comfortable for long trips; the Flex was the perfect family car.

The Flex was pretty neat. It only had one issue: it was very ugly. That being said, you could get it with a 365 hp EcoBoost motor. Not too shabby.

Submitted by: The Voice of Harold Montgomery

The Mazda5. It was a rare vehicle with the parent-friendly sliding rear doors that hadn’t morphed into a 4,500 pound behemoth. You could even get it with a stick, which other minivans had stopped offering a generation ago. The Transit was the only other vehicle comparable to it, but of course it has also gone the way of the dodo.

Yeah I dunno, bud. If they had waited longer to kill it, the Mazda5 could have been the first car to have negative sales numbers.

Submitted by: IregretNothing

It was a little too early to the crossoverfication craze, and Honda doesn’t have the lifestyle image of Subaru.

The reasons Honda should have kept it around:

They were right; this is where the market was shifting

It was a good car.

This could have been the vehicle that shifted Honda from mainstream staple, to desirable lifestyle brand. Honda’s marketing is generally lacking, and this would be a good project to find a good marketing department.

two words: Battlewagon Edition. Lift kit, push bar, rally lights, knobby oversized tires, skid plates, chopped bumper for enhanced approach angles.

I forgot how much I actually liked the Accord Crosstour, but I’m also a bit weird. So, maybe that’s why it isn’t around anymore.

Submitted by: put-some-turbo-on-meeee

Fiero! As per usual GM tradition, they killed it off just when it got good

Good is a bit subjective here, no?

Submitted by: Laststandard

100% Fiesta ST. Throw in the Focus ST as well, because, you know....

I’m still bummed Ford decided to pull the plug on cars in the U.S. Oh, how I miss the Focus and Fiesta ST. Oh, and the Fusion too... I guess.

Submitted by: FijiST

WRX/STI Hatch. Come back, we love you

I’d take a new STI hatchback or not. Damn you Subaru!

Submitted by: WayDude

It’s a two-fer: the Charger and the Challenger:

Dodge is shooting themselves in the foot with their “Last Call” models at this stage of the switchover to electrification. After all, there’s Ford coming out with a brand-new ICE Mustang. So are there some years left in ICE sales before the EVs take over—meaning Dodge pulled the EV trigger too soon? Keeping in mind how there’s only one EV concept out of Dodge to allegedly cover these lost ICEmobile sales (and it may not even match the looks of the Dodge production EV), I’d say so.

Dodge: now dedicated to self-destruction with their fumbling switch to EVs.

This platform deserves to live on forever. It’s just too bad that it isn’t the way of the future. It’ll be interesting to see what Ford does with the Mustang in the future.

Submitted by: the 1969 Dodge Charger Guy

The Saturn Sky. This “baby vette” made sense for them to aim at a car that the Miata and 86/BRZ could take on and let enthusiasts enjoy a track day at a lower price point without needing gobs of power like the Camaro or Vette. They just needed to believe it’d still be marketable after the recession.

I’m here for Saturn Sky truthers. Long live this beautiful little thing. If I was smart I would have bought this over my BMW Z4. Too bad I’m dumb.

Submitted byL R.P.Em.

The Chevy SS. Nice sized sedan, comfortable, LS V8 power, RWD. If it had been a wagon, it would have been the perfect Jalop car. Now that I think about it, just bring back all the Holdens.

Oh man, the SS is so cool. I understand why it didn’t last long, but I really wish it did. I also wish used prices would come down so I could afford one on my Jalopnik salary.

Submitted by: HotSauceIsTheBest

Jaguar XJ. It was killed off to make way for an EV version that was cancelled at the 11th hour. The XJ should be the car that defines the Jaguar brand and right now it is not in the range.

The pre-facelifted XJ is one of the prettiest cars of all time, in my opinion. I really hope Jaguar finds its way. It’s such an excellent brand.

The Honda CR-Z had so much promise. While I understand it must have been impossible to continue justifying a compact 2-seat hybrid sport coupe, the idea of an affordable, hybrid sporty car was unique and very forward-looking at the time (2010). The death of the CR-Z was a missed early opportunity for Honda to embrace the concept of “sporty electrification” at a time when almost nobody else was.

The CR-Z deserves more respect. It was such a cool little car that was ruined by limited practicality (no rear seats) and so-so gas mileage. I fear we will never see a car like this again.

The Dodge Dart. It had all the makings to be the best rebound after the disaster in the Caliber but, of course, Italian old money will never understand how to do things right.

It’s fate really boiled down to a few things:

They only wanted dealers to stock stick-shifts at first.

The only way to get 40mpg was to get the Abarth 500 motor, which required a more expensive pump visit to get.

Despite being built in the US, it fully suffered from the ol’ Italian ‘faulty electronics”

While the last thing was bound to happen anyways, but the fact that the automatic capital of the world was given stick shifts first was hilariously short sighted.... and the fact that they were fully prepared to give the Dart ZF’s 9 speed (before they decided ZF built an uber-expensive transmission and slammed ZF for 3 years to cheapen the ever-living crap out of the transmission) meant that they were going to give us 40mpg on 87, with the Dart’s superb chassis.

They only thing they forgot the most, thought, was giving us the 4C’s 1.75T. 238hp/258tq in the Dart would’ve been an underrated combo, to me atleast.

I still really like the Dodge Dart. *hides under desk*

Submitted by: T2400

The Dodge Magnum Wagon that never got to see its second and third generations. Apparently, the wagon was killed off by a single vote on the board of Cerberus, the entity that briefly owned The Remains of Chrysler Corporation. How sweet would a second or third generation Charger Wagon have been? There’s a guy on YouTube who is making a Hellcat version but a 5.7 hemi powered Charger Wagon would have been sweet.

HELL YEAH BROTHER. THE MAGNUM NEEDS TO COME BACK. IT’S THE IDEAL VEHICLE.

Submitted by: bfisch1629