A Guide for Obscure Car Brands Exclusive to Canada

The Canadian automotive market has always been influenced by the United States. As our closest neighbour, naturally, many American products make it over the border. In the 1950s, however, Canada imposed a 35 per cent tariff on foreign vehicles, including those from the U.S. This resulted in U.S. manufacturers using Canadian-only brands to bypass these tariffs. These brands mostly consisted of badge-engineered models, or models made by one brand, and sold under a second brand as a different car. Most of these Canadian cars were already sold in the United States but were produced locally, with only a few minor changes. Because of this, Canada was host to a bunch of regionally exclusive cars that are now largely forgotten.

Many of these brands ended following the introduction of the Auto Pact, which axed the import tariffs, and the U.S. brought more manufacturing to Canada. As a result, there was no longer a need for these odd Canadian brands because American models could be sold freely in the Canadian market. 

Meteor 

In the 1950s, Ford sold all its brands (Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln) in Canada, just like it did in the U.S. Canadian car buyers favoured the mid-level Mercury brand over Ford, however, so due to the sparcity of dealerships, Ford introduced the Meteor brand to be sold in Mercury dealerships as a low-price option for consumers. Meteor models were based on existing Fords, but Mercury trim pieces were utilized. Models were often named after Canadian places such as the Rideau or the Niagara. The brand lasted from 1949 to 1961. After that, many of the models were sold with Ford badges. 

Monarch 

Monarch was similarly set up by Ford as the more expensive counterpart to Meteor. If Meteor was the Canadian equivalent of budget Ford, Monarch was mid-level Mercury. Oddly, Mercury models were fitted with Ford trim pieces to create Monarchs. Monarchs also used Canadian names such as Richelieu or Lucerne. The brand lasted from 1947 to 1961, when, much like Meteor, its lineup was merged back into Ford’s existing brands. 

Frontenac

The Frontenac was Ford’s last Canadian-exclusive brand, selling the compact Ford Falcon simply as Frontenac for the 1960 model year. The car had a slightly different front grille, but ultimately looked similar to the Falcon. Interestingly, it used a maple leaf in its emblem on its front grille before it was used on the new Canadian flag in 1965. It is important to note that the maple leaf was Canadian iconography long before the Frontenac.  

Acadian and Beaumont 

Much like Ford, GM launched the Acadian brand so Pontiac/Buick dealerships would have a compact car to sell in the Canadian market. GM took smaller Chevrolet models like the Nova and rebadged them as Acadians. Acadian also took trim from Pontiacs and put them on the smaller Acadian models. The Beaumont was originally just an Acadian model, but in 1966, Beaumont was spun off into a separate brand that exclusively sold rebadged and retrimmed Chevrolet Chevelles. Beaumont ended in 1969, while the Acadian brand lasted until 1971, when both brands were merged back into the mainstream GM brands. 

Envoy 

To compete with the rise of small European cars in the 1960s like the Volkswagen Beetle, GM brought over some of its own compact European models. From 1959 to 1970, GM imported British Vauxhall models and sold them under the Envoy brand name. These vehicles were cheap for GM to import, as British products could benefit from the imperial preference, where goods traded between Commonwealth countries had reduced tariffs.

“Plodges” (Plymouth Dodges) 

Chrysler employed a similar tactic to Ford and GM to create Canadian-specific cars, however, it never launched a standalone Canadian brand, opting instead to sell Canadian-exclusive models. These were dubbed “Plodges,” as they were made by combining Dodge and Plymouth parts, usually mixing bodies and front ends to create entirely new cars. This was a cheap way to create entirely “new models” without having to deal with marketing an entirely new brand. 

Passport International Automobiles 

In the 1980s, GM tried again to compete with imports from Japan. The main competition was mainstream brands such as Honda and Toyota, which GM tackled by launching Passport International Automobiles. This was a dealership network that focused on importing GM’s foreign brands, mainly Isuzu models. It sold one Passport-branded car, the Optima, which was a rebadged Daewoo LeMans. The Passport brand lasted from 1987 to 1991, when GM decided to take a new approach to its imports. 

Asuna

GM’s new approach was Asuna, which coincided with the launch of the Geo brand in the U.S. All Passport imports were now sold as Asunas and under other domestic brands. This means many models were heavily badge-engineered. The worst example of this was the Asuna Sunrunner, which was also sold as a Pontiac and GMC, while truly being a Suzuki underneath. Asuna had a short run from 1992 to 1994, far shorter than its Geo counterpart. Asuna also received far fewer models than Geo, notably missing the compact and successful Metro. All Asuna models were later merged into the rest of GM’s range of brands, just like Geo. 

Currently, Canada and the U.S. share a very similar car market and there are no longer any Canadian-exclusive car brands. However, there are some occasions where Canada receives models that the U.S. does not, including such cars as the Acura CSX, Mercedes B-Class, Chevrolet Orlando, and Nissan Micra, all of which have since been discontinued.