Oldsmobile's Bravada will depart the sport/utility landscape just as the recently announced Saab 9~7X touches down upon it But if the two had been on the market at the same time, it would've made a total of six not very different and not-so-unique midsize SUVs offered concurrently by General Motors―all built on the same midsize chassis architecture. True, the powertrain and wheelbase offerings among these six nameplates vary somewhat, and each version's grille and interior reflects its brand's attire. But, really, they're the same damn truck. If you're keeping score, the others are the Chevy TrailBlazer, the GMC Envoy, Buick's new Rainier, and the Isuzu Ascender. The pundits are screaming "badge engineering!"―or "badgeneering" as we've come to call it. The situation reminds me of an even more blatant nameplate shell game that a far-less-enlightened GM foisted on us in the early 1980s. The compact J-Car came to market with a version for each of the company's five automotive brands. Chevy's Cavalier lives on; anyone remember the others? Again, for the scorekeepers, they were the Buick Skyhawk, Pontiac J2000, Oldsmobile Firenza, and in one of the worst brand denigration moves ever, the Cadillac Cimarron. It was the most recent Caddy powered by a four-cylinder engine. And, with luck, the last.
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