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Most cars retire with a new-and-improved successor patiently waiting behind the scenes to take the torch.
Volkswagen’s seventh-generation Golf will be replaced by an eighth-generation model, for example. The Range Rover will undoubtedly spawn another Range Rover. It’s not always that simple, however, and there are models that signal the end of an era when they enter the pantheon of automotive history.
Here are some of the cars that, for better or worse, we won’t see the likes of again:
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International Harvester passenger vehicle: Scout II, 1980
Plagued by financial issues and crippled by labor unrest, International Harvester shut down its pickup truck- and SUV-building division in 1980 to focus on agricultural machinery and buses. In hindsight, executives didn’t expect the company to topple as quickly as it did and they planned a small model offensive for the 1980s that included a brand-new third-generation Scout. Loosely previewed by the 1979 SSV concept, the Scout III would have retained the Scout II’s off-road prowess but adopted a much boxier look in tune with the design trends of the 1980s.
Remnants of International Harvester survive today within Tenneco and Navistar.
Note: Scout II pictured
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Carbureted car sold new in America: Isuzu Pickup, 1994
Broadly speaking, auto-makers in America completed the transition from carburetors to fuel-injection around 1990. Making the switch was necessary to meet stringent new pollution regulations. The Jeep Grand Wagoneer and the Ford Crown Victoria both offered a carbureted V8 through the 1991 model year but Isuzu held out the longest.
It didn’t make fuel-injection standard on its entry-level Pickup until the 1995 model year.
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Car with a V4 engine: ZAZ 968M, 1994
The short list of companies that have dabbled in V4 engines includes Lancia, Ford, Saab, ZAZ and, briefly, AMC. Saab offered a Ford-designed V4 in the 96 until 1980 but it’s Russia-based ZAZ kept the configuration alive for the longest time. It made the V4-powered 968M, part of the Zaporozhets line, until 1994. This NSU Prinz lookalike lived well beyond its expiration date but it continually appealed to buyers seeking a cheap, solid car that was easy to service. It is the all-time best-selling car in Ukraine, with over 3.4 million examples produced.
In 2018, the V4 engine lives on in the motorcycle world and on the track. Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans (and later set an impressive lap record on the Nurburgring track) with the 919 Hybrid, a race-only prototype fitted with a hybrid powertrain built around a V4 engine. The company is not planning on installing the engine in a production model.
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Air-cooled Porsche: 911 (993), 1998
The 993-generation Porsche 911 was a purist’s dream. It remained loyal to the tried-and-true air-cooled flat-six engine. It kept the round headlights and its silhouette made it immediately recognizable as a member of the well-regarded 911 family. Porsche fans loved it; critics wrote it off as a 1960s anachronism with its engine placed in the wrong end.
The 996-generation 911 introduced in 1997 switched to a water-cooled flat-six engine and wore a new, Boxster-inspired front-end design that received critical opprobrium from the public and the press. The 993’s status as the last air-cooled 911 makes it a sought-after collectible in 2018.
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Car sold in USA with a cassette tape deck: Lexus SC, 2010
The last American-spec car equipped with a factory-installed cassette tape deck wasn’t a cheap, stripped-out econobox with plastic hubcaps and cloth upholstery. It was 2010 Lexus SC 430, an expensive and rather stately convertible billed as Japan’s answer to the Mercedes-Benz SL.
Lexus stopped offering a tape deck after the 2010 model year. The New York Times reported that no car company offered a tape deck (either standard or optional) for the 2011 model year.
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New Saab: 9-4X, 2010
Saab fought until the end with the diminishing resources it had at its disposal. It introduced its last new model, the 9-4X, at the 2010 Los Angeles auto show. Production started at General Motors’ Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, the following year but ended when Saab collapsed in late 2011. The firm’s official museum claims a little over 800 examples were built.
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Pontiac: G6, 2010
Embedded in deeply-rooted financial issues, General Motors announced it could deep-six some of its brands in 2008. The following year, it tentatively proposed to shut down Saturn, sell Saab and find a way to get rid of Hummer. Pontiac would remain alive as a niche brand, according to a statement released to the press at the time.
GM did the numbers and they didn’t add up. It needed to eliminate Pontiac in order to stay afloat. Pontiac built its last car, a white G6, in January 2010.
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Body-on-frame US passenger car: Ford Crown Victoria, 2011
Starting in the 1970s, American automakers began shifting their passenger cars away from body-on-frame construction in favor of a lighter unibody layout. The process was largely complete by the middle of the 1990s but Ford refused to give up. The firm held out for as long as possible.
It made the final Crown Victoria – the dino-barge darling of America’s police forces and taxi companies – in 2011.
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V8-powered Volvo: XC90, 2011
Volvo and Yamaha co-developed a V8 engine for bigger models like the XC90 and the S80. Made in Japan, the 4.4-liter eight produced 311hp and 320lb ft of torque in its initial state of tune. Production began in 2005 and the engine proved particularly popular in America, where fuel remained cheap and large displacement engines were still in vogue.
Geely’s take-over brought massive changes at Volvo and sent it down the path of downsizing. The S80 lost its V8 option in 2010. The engine remained available in the XC90 until Yamaha stopped making it in 2011. While the company isn’t done building performance cars, we’d be shocked if we see another factory-made, V8-powered Volvo ever again.
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Ferrari with a manual transmission: California, 2012
Ferrari last offered a manual transmission on the California, its entry-level model, in 2012. Buyers could order a six-speed manual with a beautiful gated shifter as an alternative to the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. Few did; the firm vaguely remembers it built between three and five cars with a stick before it stopped offering the option.
Enthusiasts won’t see a manual transmission appear on a Ferrari order guide again. Anything is possible with enough money, however, and Ferrari will happily build a three-pedal variant of anything it makes for a collector willing to fund the development process from start to finish.
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Convertible Volvo: C70, 2013
Volvo hasn’t publicly confirmed that the C70 was its last convertible but the chances of seeing another one in showrooms are thinner than the wheels on a BMW i3. The firm has hinted it’s in no rush to return to the two-door segment, which is declining on both sides of Atlantic and not picking up steam in China.
This market trend explains why Volvo gave the production version of the head-turning Concept Coupe to its Polestar division instead of launching it as a sportier, more luxurious alternative to the S90.
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Lamborghini with a manual transmission: Gallardo LP560-2, 2013
Lamborghini abandoned the manual transmission a year after arch nemesis Ferrari but it sent out the three-pedal configuration with a bang heard around the world. It built 100 examples of a stripped-down, back-to-the-basics variant of the Gallardo named LP560-2 50th Anniversary with a 552hp V10, rear-wheel drive and a six-speed manual transmission.
Complete lack of demand drove the final nail in the manual transmission’s coffin, according to Lamborghini. Then-CEO Stephan Winkelmann revealed there were sometimes year-long stretches during which no one ordered a Gallardo with a stick.
Note: Gallardo 570-4 Squadra Corsa pictured.
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Rear-engined Volkswagen: Kombi Last Edition, 2013
In Europe and in America, Volkswagen began moving away from rear-mounted engines during the 1970s. New models like the Golf, the Scirocco and the Passat adopted a front-engined layout. The venerable Bus and Beetle soldiered on for decades in other markets including South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil.
Volkswagen’s Brazilian division made its last rear-engined model, a Kombi, in 2013. It was the final example in a 1200-unit series called, appropriately, Last Edition. The company explained the Kombi (essentially a bay-window Bus with a water-cooled engine) still sold well but it had to end production because the model didn’t comply with regulations that required every car sold new in Brazil to offer front airbags and ABS brakes.
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Body-on-frame Land Rover: Defender, 2016
File this one under speculation. Insiders familiar with Land Rover’s plans suggest the next-generation Defender due out later in 2019 will switch to an evolution of the aluminum-intensive unibody architecture found under models like the Discovery and the Range Rover.
If the reports are accurate, and we think they are, the last example of the original Defender built in 2016 will be remembered as the British firm’s final body-on-frame model.
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Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution: Final Edition, 2016
Mitsubishi celebrated the end of the Lancer Evolution’s illustrious production run by releasing a limited-edition model named Final Edition. Launched in 2015, the model received an evolution of the standard car’s 2.0-liter turbo four tuned to 303hp, an upgraded suspension, more powerful brakes and an edition-specific design characterized by a black roof panel.
Mitsubishi sold the last of the 1600 Lancer Evolution Final Editions at an auction in 2016. The winning bidder paid US$76,400 for the car. The Japanese firm donated the proceeds from the sale to American charities dedicated to fighting hunger.
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Citroën with a hydropneumatic suspension: C5, 2017
For decades, the hydropneumatic suspension helped Citroën build some of the most comfortable cars on the market regardless of price bracket. Times change, and electronic suspension technology rendered the green spheres obsolete by the mid-2010s. Citroen ended production of its hydropneumatic suspension when it built the last European-spec C5 in 2017.
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Australian-built car: Holden Commodore, 2017
Australia’s car-building industry began crumbling when Ford outlined its exit strategy in 2013. It shut down its only Australian factory in October 2016, and Toyota threw in the towel in October 2017. Holden’s Elizabeth factory built its last car, a V8-powered Commodore, a few weeks after Toyota closed its Altona plant.
Why? China's thirst for Australia's abundant mineral resources in the past two decades strengthened its currency, making imported cars much cheaper to buy in Australia. As of 2019, every car sold new in Australia is imported from overseas, meaning Ford, Holden and Toyota have become importers instead of manufacturers.
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Non-hybrid V12-powered Lamborghini: Aventador SVJ, 2018
The SVJ is much more than a faster, track-wise variant of the Lamborghini Aventador S. Maurizio Reggiani, the firm's head of research and development, confirmed the model receives the last non-hybrid evolution of Lamborghini’s naturally-aspirated V12 engine. The company needs to adopt some degree of electrification to keep its cars’ fuel consumption in check so the Aventador’s successor will go hybrid when it arrives in the early 2020s.
The SVJ’s 12-cylinder makes 759hp and 531lb ft of torque. After driving it, Autocar's Matt Prior concluded ‘the speed, the drama, the capability and the sound are like you won’t find elsewhere.’
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Front-wheel drive Alfa Romeo: Giulietta, 2019
Alfa Romeo’s shift to front-wheel drive marked a low point in the brand’s history. Company officials knew they needed to invest in driver-friendly rear-wheel drive models in order to re-launch the brand and credibly position it as Italy’s answer to BMW. This decision delayed Alfa’s comeback several times but the wait was worth it.
The model offensive isn’t over yet. Though details remain murky, industry reports suggest the next-generation Giulietta tentatively due out in 2020 will share the Giorgio architecture with the Giulia and the Stelvio. If that’s the case, the current car will be the brand’s last front-wheel drive car when it retires. The shift would come at the best possible time for Alfa since BMW is building the third iteration of the 1 Series on a front-wheel drive architecture it shares with Mini.
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Volkswagen Beetle: Final Edition, 2019
Volkswagen will end production of the heritage-laced Beetle in July 2019. When the final model rolls off the line, it will mark the first time the Wolfsburg-based company hasn’t made a Beetle since the original, rear-engined model -- the car Volkswagen is built on -- entered production in 1938.
Volkswagen will make two final runout special edition models before it squashes the Beetle. They’re called Final Edition SE and Final Edition SEL, respectively, and they each feature unique colors, trim options, plus a generous list of standard features.
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