5 Cars That Were Discontinued Due to the Financial Crisis of 2008

Beginning in late 2005, gas prices in the United States began to increase dramatically. The rise in gas prices saw many Americans look to other forms of transportation and a decline in new vehicle sales. The auto industry began losing money and when the financial crisis of 2008 came around, it was clear that they would be facing some difficult years ahead. In 2009, Chrysler and General Motors both filed for bankruptcy and had to turn to the American government to secure loans to keep them afloat. These loans came with strings attached, most of them being that the industry had to show it had progressive goals and that they were being responsible with what little money they had. For enthusiasts like us, this meant that many fun cars that we know and love would need to be discontinued for the companies to show the government that they were truly focusing on economical cars that were in higher demand. This is a list of 5 cars that fell victim to the struggling market of the United States during the financial crisis. To be eligible, the vehicle needs to have been discontinued due to the market conditions following the 2008 recession. These are in no particular order.

1 Mazda RX-8
2003-2012

The Mazda RX-8 is supposed to be the spiritual successor to the Cosmo and legendary RX-7. While the RX-7 may have been built for speed junkies who just didn’t like traditional piston engines, the RX-8 was built for the man going through a mid-life crisis, and the wife won’t let him buy a Mustang. The RX-8 is powered by a 1.3L rotary engine making 231 horsepower and featured a 9,000 RPM redline. This means that it has less power and more weight than its predecessor. The reason, is that in order for the project to be be approved by Mazda executives, it had to have four doors and not suck gas like an F-150. Designers did a good job working around the four-door restriction with the use of the RX-8’s famous freestyle (suicide) doors.

While their efforts won over speed junkie dads who only listen to public radio, it just wasn’t crazy enough for the RX-7 fan base. Sales reflected this though and even though they hadn’t listen to their fans, they had listened to the market and were well rewarded in the end. As gas prices slowly started to rise, many of these fiscally responsible consumers that originally flocked towards the RX-8, decided that an inefficient rotary engine was not a good investment. By the time the market crashed, sales had fallen by about half stateside. After sales halted in Europe in 2010 due to failing emissions standards, the RX-8 just wasn’t profitable. Mazda decided to pull the plug finally in 2012, and while they have teased us with concept cars and the possibility of new rotary power, who knows what will ever come of this.

2 Dodge Viper
1992-2010, 2013-2017

After being saved from bankruptcy by Lee Iacocca, Chrysler was on the rise and needed a car to reflect this in the public eye. The origins of the Viper are well known. Bob Lutz wanted a modern Shelby Cobra inspired hot rod, blah blah blah… Carroll Shelby, blah blah… Lamborghini, blah blah… 1989 North American Auto Show, blah blah… and orders and down payments for the Viper came in such volume that they pretty much had to build the car. Fast forward a couple decades to 2008, when the fourth generation (ZB2 or whatever Viper purists want to call the 2008-2010 model years) hit the market after taking a year off in 2007. Dodge claimed that the year off was so that their team could focus on the next generation Viper. Insider information however, says that it was because of the restructuring after the merger between Daimler-Benz fell through, and the future of the Viper was up in the air.

For the new 2008 model, the 8.4L V-10 now made 600 horsepower and 560 lbs of torque. Besides the extra 90 horsepower, one of the more notable additions to the 2008 Viper lineup was the return of the ACR package which featured retuned race suspension and an aggressive aero kit. The ACR was setting track records around the world and the 2010 Viper ACR-X is still one of the most hardcore Vipers ever built. Unfortunately, good things don’t last forever. Apparently, building a 600-horsepower supercar is not considered a smart financial investment by congress, and Dodge knew that if they had any hope of securing those loans, they would need to discontinue the Viper.

It was announced in 2009 that production for the Viper would end after the 2010 model year. To end production, Dodge built 50 special edition Vipers available in all three trims. They are all painted the same steel color with red trim. On the gearshift of each vehicle, is a red number between 1 and 50 to mark the final 50 Vipers. The Viper obviously did make a comeback for the 2013 model year but as we all know it will once again be killed off after this year. Personally, I don’t think the Viper will be down for long and I look forward to seeing how the Viper might return this time.

3 Saturn Sky (and brand)
2007-2010

“A different kind of car, a different kind of company”. This was Saturn’s slogan for some time and it sums up the company and the cars they built very nicely. Saturn was meant to be an American take on small, affordable Japanese cars. They were originally an employee owned company started by ex-General Motors executives. That was until General Motors bought them out, rewrote the history books, and took all the credit. To keep costs down, Saturn used plastic body panels on their relatively small cars, and the market responded positively at first to the new brand. The largest appeal was that there was no negotiating on the price with dealers per company policy. If the car costed $24,999 you had to pay $24,999, no more, no less. Because of this, Saturn dealers were getting better satisfaction reports than more luxury brands like Lexus and Acura. Late in Saturn’s lifespan, they released the Saturn Sky. It was based off the Kappa platform alongside the Pontiac Solstice and Opal GT. It was powered by 2.4L I-4 making 177 horsepower, but the redline models received a 2.0L turbocharged I-4 making 260 horsepower. It sold well at first, and once again the main appeal was that buyers didn’t have to haggle at the dealers unlike with the Pontiac model.

As General Motors began to roll into the 21st century, many executives began to believe that Saturn was beginning to become too large of an investment, and that the money would be better spent in more established GM product lines. A year after the beginning of the financial crisis, GM filed for bankruptcy and were forced into restructuring by the federal government. The restructuring killed many product lines including the Saturn brand. I would argue that more than a GM brand died then, so did the concept of buying a vehicle made easy. Saturn will probably never see the light of day again, but maybe one day, another company will shake things up in the way cars are sold to consumers (looking at you Tesla).

4 Chevy Colorado/Dodge Dakota/Ford Ranger
(2003-2012) (1987-2011) (1983-2012)

Ok, so this is a list of seven cars that were discontinued but I’m grouping the compact trucks together because this is mostly the death of the compact truck market in general and I can’t really talk about one without talking about the other two. There are many reasons that the small truck market all but disappeared during the financial crisis. It was common knowledge at this point that small trucks were on the decline, add in the struggling industry and rising gas prices, it isn’t hard to see why most were discontinued. Moreover, Toyota had doubled down on the quality and marketing of the Tacoma which was dominating the small truck market at the time in capability and reliability.

General Motors’ first small truck was the Chevy S10 which was replaced by the Colorado in 2003. Engine options varied anywhere from 2.5L I-4 making 116 horsepower to a 5.3L V-8 making 300 horsepower. While the Colorado went off the American market in 2012, there was a second generation in production already in Australia as the Holden Colorado. It did make its way back the United States for the 2015 model year, but the fact is that due to market conditions of the financial crisis, GM had to temporarily discontinue the vehicle for the USA which makes it eligible for this list.

The Dodge Dakota began production in 1987 and for the first two generations, they were designed to just look like a smaller Ram pickup. The final generation began in 2005 and most people will agree that the pre-facelift models look ugly. Engine options were either a 3.7L V-6 with 210 horsepower or a 4.7L Magnum V-8 making up to 260 horsepower. By the time the post facelift debuted in 2008, the decline of the small frame pickup was already in full swing. Ram pulled the plug on the Dakota in 2011. There has been no word from Dodge/Ram if the Dakota name will ever be resurrected.

Ford entered the small pickup game with a rebadged Mazda originally, but began selling the Ranger by 1982. It sold really well and between the years of 1987 and 2004 it was the best selling small pickup in America. The second generation began in 1993 but received a major facelift in 1998. Engines varied throughout the years but by the end it offered either a 2.3L I-4 making 143 horsepower or a 4.0L V-6 making 207 horsepower. While the Ranger ended production in the states in 2012, there was a new model available to global markets as the Ranger T6. Ford has claimed that they will bring back the Ranger for the 2019 model year along with the Bronco.

5 Pontiac G8 (and brand)
2008-2009

The Pontiac G8 is one heck of a performance car and will be missed dearly. However, the financial crisis didn’t just claim the G8, it claimed the entire Pontiac brand. The brand was established in 1926 when General Motors wanted a product line that could fill the niche between the common mans Chevy and the more comfortable Oldsmobile models. As the 60’s rolled around Pontiac began to prioritize aggressive styling and performance as seen in the Bonneville and Grand Prix. This is when Pontiac began to become GM’s performance brand. See. around this time, if a car had a Chevy badge it was a fast car, but if the car had a Pontiac badge it was faster. During the horsepower wars they put out the Firebird and what many consider to be the first muscle car, the GTO. Another widely known Pontiac is the 1977 Trans Am which landed the leading role in Smokey and The Bandit. During the 80’s they put out the totally unique Pontiac Fiero which many considered to be the poor mans Ferrari.

They continued to build fast and stylish cars up to the very end including the Pontiac G8. It isn’t a secret that it is just a rebadged Holden Commodore, but why would that be a bad thing. The Commodore was tearing it up down under, and there were even plans to import a Ute variant which may have been a big hit. The G8 GXP offered a 6.2L LS3 V-8 making 415 HP. It isn’t hard to see that the G8 was meant to be a direct competitor with the Dodge Charger, which now offered a large 6.1L Hemi V-8. If this competition had continued, it wouldn’t be out of the possibility to see a modern G8 putting down times to rival the Charger Hellcat.

Unfortunately, this never had the opportunity to happen. In 2009 General Motors announced that it would discontinue the Pontiac brand to secure loans from the American government. The government wanted GM to build less performance cars and killing their performance brand was an effective way of doing this. As for the possible future of Pontiac, during the restructuring GM was willing to sell the other brands that were discontinued but, they made it clear that Pontiac was not for sale. They also make it well known that they still own the Pontiac trademark, what this means for the future is still up in the air. Personally, I would love to see a Pontiac trim package on some performance oriented GM vehicles. As for the G8, in 2014 Chevy released the SS which was another rebadged Holden Commodore that featured the same LS3 as the G8 GXP.

Honorable Mentions

Mitsubishi Eclipse
1990-2012

There once was a time when Mitsubishi made fun cars, and the Eclipse was one of them. This final generation model came with a V-6 option that featured 265 horsepower. It sold well with its modern aggressive styling, definitely a step in the right direction after the third generation. Sales fell by 75% between 2008 and 2009 though and the plug was pulled after a 22-year run. Don’t worry though, we get to look forward to it returning as a crossover in 2018. (NOT)

Mercury Grand Marquis (and brand)
1975-2011

What started as a higher trim on the Marquis model became its own model based on the Panther body by 1979. The Grand Marquis was Mercury’s longest running product with a 36-year run. It featured airbag suspension to distinguish it from its Crown Victoria counterpart but was still powered by that 4.6L Modular V-8 that in the final generation made up to 239 horsepower. The Grand Marquis earns an honorable mention because it wasn’t just the end of the model, it was also the end of the entire Mercury brand as well as end of the Panther body.

Hummer H3 (and brand)
2005-2010

This gas sucking monstrosity is the automotive equivalent of breeding a proud wolf into the modern schnauzer. Because of the rise in gas prices it isn’t hard to see why General Motors decided to drop the Hummer brand during their restructuring. I guess people who need to compensate will just need find a new vehicle to throw lift kits on.

Thank you for reading as always please let me know your feedback, I feel like this post got pretty long so let me know if you agree or if you enjoy reading these long posts. Feel free to include other stuff in your feedback such as topic choice, car selections, or writing style and you are welcome to be detailed. Thanks very much again!