Exclusive Cars from Canada Eh!

Many people seem to want to lump American cars and Canadian cars into just one big category but, there are several companies who created Canadian unique cars to fit with Canadian needs. Just like in every Country – some cars make it, some cars don't. Several cars were simply renamed in order to seem like completely different cars, however some auto companies actually listened to Canadian wants and needs and strove to create Canadian exclusive cars. It took several trials and errors, but in the end, these companies and consumers were ‘rewarded’ with Canadian exclusive cars. Here’s a list of the ones that stood out:

HTT Pléthore

This baby has rightfully earned it's place as the first Canadian supercar to ever grace the northern markets. It was first proposed on Dragon's Den, the Canadian equivalent of Shark Tank – a show where hopeful entrepreneurs feature their ideas to investors with the intention of making their dreams come true. It's body is made entirely of Carbon Fiber and is rumoured to have a power-to-weight ratio of a formula one racecar. You can thank this car for putting Canada on the map for high end supercars.

Bricklin SV-1

This Delorean/Corvette lovechild is the only car in automotive history to have powered gull wing doors that opened and closed at the touch of a button. Take that, Marty Mcfly! This car was branded as a safe and economical sports car and was assembled in New Brunswick, Canada from 1974-1976.

Acadian

Made in an effort to have Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers to have a compact model to sell since other compact models were unavailable in Canada. They were sold with four cylinder, six cylinder or V8 engines. They also came in three or four speed manual or two speed power glide model.

Asuna Sunfire

Only made during the 1993 production year as a response to Geo. The first cars to introduce rear wheel steering. Production was limited to a 1.8 litter engine, and a hatch back body. Due to poor sales however, Asuna was shut down. The Sunfire was moved over to the Pontiac line.

Pontiac Tempest

Innovative in its time for the rear mounted transaxle, which coupled with front mounted engine gave the Tempest a very near ideal fifty-fifty front rear weight distribution.

Pontiac Pursuit

A Canadian only version of the Pontiac G5 that had a four door option instead of only two doors. It came with a 2.2 liter engine. It offered your choice of either a five speed manual transmission or a four speed automatic transmission.

Meteor

A Canadian only subsidiarity of Ford. Used the flat head V8 engine in all of the Canadian models. Also a six cylinder engine for all its models. The only difference between Meteor models came from using different instrument panels and dashboards.

Mercury M-Series

Produced from 1946 to 1968 by the Ford Motor Company of Canada. It contained a flat head V8 engine. It was introduced as a way to market more trucks to smaller communities of Canada.

Dodge Regent

Built as a Canadian exclusive car from the Chrysler Corporation of Canada. It was a rather low priced line filled with mismatched parts, and poor body engineering due to the rush to get it in production.

Acura CSX

Although called a Honda Civic in other markets, this car is an exclusive car to Canada. Some variations in design make it unique from the Honda Civic. These variations include a longer nose up front. In the rear the Acura CSX has jeweled tail lamps making it look more upscale then its counterpart.

Although a lot of car companies simply added a few new features to existing cars they helped to create the Canadian exclusive car market. These cars are meant to cater specially to the needs of Canadian consumers. However, none of these cars have ever made it to the top ten cars in Canada. These cars were meant to be designed with Canadian specific needs in mind. I have no idea how these car companies collected this research or if it was trial and error. One thing is for sure though, it sure makes us Canadians feel special.

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