badge engineering, shared rulers, blatant rip off?

colm_mcm

Anyone know what the craic was with the n13 nissan sunny and the corolla looking identical?

VolvoMan

In my mind the hatchback models looked sort of similar all right, although they never interested me enough to give it much thought. Now that you point it out, the saloons do appear to have an uncanny resemblance also.

carchaeologist

Because the are both bland 3 box Jappers?

colm_mcm

carchaeologist wrote: »

Because the are both bland 3 box Jappers?

you could be right!

although, the panels/lights almost look interchangable.

bijapos

colm_mcm wrote: »

Anyone know what the craic was with the n13 nissan sunny and the corolla looking identical?

They have a history of being similar, look at their first models, they are hard to tell apart. Essentially they are each others biggest competitiors in this category and for most of their lifespan they have been a half cycle apart in development, so its more like each Sunny comes out ca. 3 years after a Corolla, then 3 years later a Corolla again and so on. Each car is more a genesis of the other down to the interiors and controls.

First Corolla model



Datsun 1000 (the first "Sunny")

colm_mcm wrote: »

you could be right!

although, the panels/lights almost look interchangable.

If you want interchangable panels then the Gutbrod Superior 700E has panels that are made from the same press. So front left and rear right are the same, as are front right and rear left. Also the first car ever built with Bosch fuel injection. I took these pics in Wolfsburg a few months ago.

Bigus

In reality the sunny and the Corolla were completely different, and nothing was interchangeable apart from maybe the wheels , which i think weren't even swappable.

Type 17

bijapos wrote: »

If you want interchangable panels then the Gutbrod Superior 700E has panels that are made from the same press. So front left and rear right are the same, as are front right and rear left. Also the first car ever built with Bosch fuel injection. I took these pics in Wolfsburg a few months ago.

In a similar fashion, also designed to cut costs, the Mk1 Fiat Panda had flat glass for all its windows, which means it was cheaper to make, and also that the left and right, and front and rear glass panels are interchangeable - this means that you could fit a heated windscreen, if you didn't mind looking through the horizontal element-lines!

Blue850

colm_mcm wrote: »

Anyone know what the craic was with the n13 nissan sunny and the corolla looking identical?

I always thought that model Corolla saloon and the old Stanza were very similar

DaveCol

It could also have happened if designers moved from the Toyota Design Dept to the Nissan Design Dept and brought their ideas with them and vice versa

BAck in the day they were easy to differentiate in the flesh, those pics do illustrate your point well though.

kev1.3s

RoverJames wrote: »

BAck in the day they were easy to differentiate in the flesh, those pics do illustrate your point well though.

I dont think anyone here is saying that they couldn't tell the difference between them, they are just trying to point out the relative lack of imagination coming from japanese designers in the 80's and 90's.

pounder770

kev1.3s wrote: »

RoverJames wrote: »

BAck in the day they were easy to differentiate in the flesh, those pics do illustrate your point well though.

I dont think anyone here is saying that they couldn't tell the difference between them, they are just trying to point out the relative lack of imagination coming from japanese designers in the 80's and 90's.

It was more down to the limitations of tooling at the time too.... The ability to press complex shapes wasn't economically or technically available at the time.

bijapos

pounder770 wrote: »

It was more down to the limitations of tooling at the time too.... The ability to press complex shapes wasn't economically or technically available at the time.

I think its more to do with what comes off the designers drawing board.

If you look at its European competitors you could easily differentiate between a Mk 2 Golf, Mk 3 Escort, Fiat Regatta, Renault 9/11, Citroen BX, Opel Kadett and so on. Japanese, especially Nissan-Toyota were far more similar, though compared to today they could be told apart.