Captive import
[2] The foreign vehicle may be produced by a subsidiary of the same company, be a joint venture with another firm, or be acquired under license from a completely separate entity.
Captive import arrangements are usually made to increase the competitiveness of the domestic brand by filling a perceived target market not currently served by its model lineup that is either not practical or not economically feasible to fill from domestic production or a mutually beneficial agreement that helps automakers without a strong distribution network or a presence in a specific country to benefit from the distribution network and stronger brand image of an established automobile manufacturer in that location.
Chrysler imported Mitsubishi-manufactured vehicles into the United States to fill a void in their compact lineup with cars like the Dodge Colt.
An example of an Australian captive import is the Holden Barina, which has since 1985 been the Suzuki Cultus, two generations of the European Opel Corsa, and is also the Korean Daewoo Kalos (marketed internationally as the Chevrolet Aveo).
The integration of manufacturing operations between Canada, Mexico, and the United States has been due to the hospitable trade environment created by the North American Free Trade Agreement (and before NAFTA, the US-Canada Auto Pact), coupled with the proximity of these nations to the U.S. Vehicles made and marketed by European automakers that were eventually acquired by the Big Three automakers, such as Land Rover, Volvo, and Saab, are generally not considered to be captive imports.
[3][4] In the American market, captive imports "blurred national distinctions" because they were designed and built elsewhere, but have a domestic nameplate.
[6] It combined a Nash Ambassador drivetrain with a European chassis and body and was a product of a partnership between Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and British automaker Donald Healey.
Unlike typical European cars of the era, its look was "American", and it had a design resemblance to the large or "senior" U.S.-built Nashes.
Although the car had features to make it great, the marketing was flawed with a mismatch to the models traditionally sold by Lincoln-Mercury dealers.
Chrysler Corporation did not develop its in-house subcompacts during the late 1960s (which GM and Ford Motor Company had done with the Vega and Pinto), where they partnered with an overseas manufacturer with Mitsubishi and Hillman.
The "Plymouth Cricket" (a rebadged Hillman Avenger) was introduced to the U.S. market in the early 1970s to counter the growing demand for small cars, but not successful.
In the late 1980s, GM consolidated most of its various captive imports of the time under the Geo brand, which was exclusively handled by Chevrolet dealers.
In Brazil, the Australian-built Holden Commodore has been sold since 1998 as Chevrolet Omega, replacing the locally built car bearing the same name.
In Japan, where foreign car manufacturers have traditionally struggled to compete in the local market, even rebadging of U.S. models like the Chevrolet Cavalier as a Toyota has failed to improve sales.
Thus this niche of the automotive market was left to be filled with legendary success by the Ford engined Shelby Cobra.
This is probably why the practice of using a separate brand name, such as Merkur and General Motors' short-lived Geo, has ceased — the foreignness of the car is thus discreetly made less apparent.
Another factor concerns servicing where captives often do not share components with their domestic counterparts - this often leads to parts incompatibility and/or backorders.
Certainly in cases when identical models are available at the same time with only the badges differentiating them such as what happened under the failed Button car plan in Australia during the 1980s.
Although Australia's Holden often shared planning and hardware with the rest of GM's global operations, which included Opel and Isuzu, it preferred assembling its versions of such vehicles locally.
