Same Cars Different Names? Perhaps

Maybe carmakers like to play with our minds, maybe not. Maybe it is a marketing gimmick, but I swear that Toyota Allex is identical to the Toyota Runx. Ok, so many a carmaker has at one time or another sold a car from a competitor under a different brand name. Going by the information that we found online, that is a very popular practice. Such vehicles are called twinned vehicles and they are more common than you think. And why not? There is nothing wrong with that except the fact that you will be buying what your uncle bought, only that you will not know it.

Badge engineering

The practice of having vehicles that have a different skin but are the same under the hood is very old. It is referred to as badge engineering in technical terms because the badge (logo), grille and few other modifications are made, and then the resulting car is marketed differently. Other things that will be changed include the sheet metal design, the interior features, including the upholstery, some changes in the engine, BUT, mainly, the changes will be far less than what the two vehicles will share.

When you are buying a vehicle, it is very important that you find out as much as you can about it. For example, a vehicle that shares a chassis and drive train may be sold at a higher price than the vehicle it was “cloned” from, so to speak. Therefore, you could be paying a higher price for no additional features. Again, it is important that when you know that a vehicle is a twin, you find out what the length of the warranty and what it covers. For example, Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe are twins, but the Matrix has a drivetrain warranty of 60,000 miles for 5 years, while the Vibe has a 100,000-mile warranty for five years, a very noticeable difference of 40,000 miles.

Toyota Camry and Lexus ES 350 are twins across the same company. However, one thing that is hard to miss about the two is that the Lexus is a luxury brand vehicle while the Camry is a common vehicle. In that case, the warranty for the Lexus would be longer and would cover more factors than that of the Toyota Camry, yet the two vehicles are twins.

Hyundai Accent and KIA Rio are twin vehicles, would you believe it? However, when buying one of them, it is important to consider the warranty as well as the resell value. One of them is bound to have a higher resell value.

Twin vehicles run across models too. For example, in the SUV family, the Toyota Land Cruiser is twin to Lexus LX570. Hyundai Tucson is twin to KIA Liberty and so on. It is important to know what you are buying and most important, to know the warranties covering different parts as well as the resell values of the vehicles.

Back to our two twins, the Toyota Runx and Toyota Allex … Toyota Runx was originally the main hatchback model that was made for the Japanese market, following the success of the Corolla. Named the Toyota FX at first, it was later rebranded to Runx. On the other hand, the Toyota Allex, an identical twin of the Runx, succeeded Toyota Sprinter, which was very successful in America. Therefore, Runx and Allex are basically the same vehicle.