AUTOMOBILE TWINS

I have heard girls say, “I can never date a guy who drives a Toyota, but I can manage one who drives a Lexus”. Turbo Nerds’, should we tell them? (Inserts laughing emoji!) The English people would call this phenomenon “twinning” but where I’m from, na Èjìmá dem dey call am. Èjìmá meaning twins in the Igbo language of Nigeria. Just like a mother gives birth to two kids concurrently and they are called twins, so it is in the automotive world where there is a parent company with two or more offshoots like in the case of Toyota and Lexus.

Toyota is Lexus, Lexus is Toyota

So why do we have these automobile twins? To understand this we would need to take a trip back to the US gas crisis of 1973. America is known for muscle cars and these were the cars of the 1900's with large V6 and V8 engines guzzling gallons of petrol. So when the gas crisis hit and petrol became so expensive, Americans began abandoning their muscle cars for more fuel efficient Japanese cars. Now this was the problem, Japanese automobile companies sold themselves as cheap, non-luxurious, less powerful alternatives to the muscle cars. So when the gas crisis was over, Americans shifted back to their muscle cars and the only way the Japanese companies could compete was by creating luxurious and more powerful cars, but this time under a different brand name, because no one was willing to pay muscle car money for a Toyota or any other Japanese car at the time.

The Gas Crisis of 1978

Some of these Automobile Twins include;

1. TOYOTA AND LEXUS

This is probably the most common, so I'm not going to say much. Lexus is simply the luxury division of Toyota which was launched in 1989. Over the years, Lexus has become a household name by releasing really amazing vehicles. I would not blame a lady for dating a Lexus owner over a Toyota owner because Lexus vehicles look so good one could think they were German.

Toyota - Right (Red), Lexus - Left (Black)

2. HONDA AND ACURA

Acura was launched in 1986 as the luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. Just like Lexus, Acura has improved over the years to capture the hearts of many enthusiasts.

Honda - Left, Acura - Right

3. NISSAN AND INFINITY

Infinity is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Nissan. Infiniti officially started selling vehicles in 1989, in North America. Prior to the Infinity, Nissan named the models sold outside Japan Datsun. This is why our Grandparents or older relatives usually refer to Nissan cars as Datsun's.

Nissan - Left, Infinity - Right

4. HYNDAI AND GENESIS

Genesis is the luxury vehicle division of the South Korean vehicle manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company. Genesis has actually been killing it in the automotive world especially with their electric vehicle line up.

Hyundai - Left, Genesis - Right

5. THE VOLKWAGEN SIBLINGS (not twins per se)

In reality, the "automobile twinning" is more common among the Asian car companies but the German Automaker Volkswagen performs a similar type of internal twinning in which Jetta and Passat are basically the same cars with a few tweaks and differences between them.

I bet you can't tell them apart

More so, Audi Sedans are usually more luxurious than their automobile siblings, Passat and Jetta while also offering more luxury than their counterpart SUV siblings like the Tuareg all within Volkswagen. Note that there are a lot of car companies under Volkswagen and an episode on this is definitely coming soon.

Passat - Left; Audi - Right

These are just a few of the automobile twins but I have decided to stick to the common ones. I know some people would ask if Subaru and Toyota are also twins but they are not. They only collaborate once in while to make some fire cars like the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ. Hence, I would urge us not to confuse automotive twins with automotive collaborations. I think we should have an episode on automotive collaborations next.

Subaru BRZ - Left, Toyota 86 - Right

Thank you for reading and always remember to Turbo that engine.