We’re not entirely sure why, but the last week of February was the week quite a few automakers decided to announce that things are No Longer Happening. Granted, these are all projects that most of us hadn’t thought about in a long time, but it’s still a little sad to see. So much money just down the drain. For your convenience, here’s a quick roundup of all the cars that were killed or canceled in the last week.
Apple Car
The death of the Apple Car was probably the biggest story of the week, even though we can’t imagine too many people were all that disappointed to hear the news. Known internally as Project Titan, the Apple Car kept being delayed and delayed again, and ultimately it just wasn’t meant to be.
It didn’t help that reporting about the Apple Car suggested one of the biggest problems with the project was that different people involved all had conflicting priorities. Plus, no one seemed to be able to fully explain why Apple was even trying to build a car in the first place.
In total, Apple reportedly wasted $10 billion — a billion per year — trying to make its car dreams a reality. And what did it get out of this failed project? As far as we can tell, absolutely nothing.
BMW Z4 Concept Touring Coupe
When we first saw the BMW Z4 Concept Touring Coupe, we were blown away. Could the clown shoe finally be making its triumphant return? Not necessarily. BMW was pretty clear from the beginning that it wouldn’t become a full production model, but it still tempted us with the possibility that we might see a low-volume, limited-production run.
This week, though, BMWBlog reported that executives had decided to scrap the idea to build the Z4 Concept Touring Coupe. With a rumored price of around $250,000 and only 50 cars possibly planned for production, it’s not like any regular person would have been able to get their hands on one, but it’s still sad to see our shooting brake dreams dashed like that.
Mercedes-Maybach SUS
Back in 2018 Mercedes revealed a concept for a Maybach-badged ultra-luxury sedan that was also kind of an SUV (or, if you prefer, a Maybach SUV with sedan-like styling), it was just ridiculous. The production Maybach GLS that the concept previewed ended up as a traditional SUV, but the sedan variant was supposedly still being developed for China only, so it’s not like it would really affect anything here in America.
As it turns out, developing a vehicle, even one that uses a shared platform, for just one market proved expensive, and Mercedes just couldn’t justify continuing the project. We can’t say that we’re surprised, but at the same time, it would have at least been interesting to see the production version. From the sound of it, though, that’s just not going to happen.
Lagonda
Be honest. Did you even remember that Aston Martin had revealed a Lagonda concept that was supposed to revive the brand? The Lagonda Vision Concept looked interesting enough, but it languished for years, never making it to production. And back in 2021, we heard rumors that Aston Martin may be done with Lagonda.
Those rumors were confirmed this week when Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll told Autocar that Lagonda is officially dead. If “we think there’s enough luxury in our sports cars and SUV, so we’re not considering launching a less-performance, higher-luxury car,” wasn’t enough to confirm that for you, Stroll later spoke about the Lagonda concept, saying, “that idea is completely dead and has absolutely nothing to do with our electric vehicle plan.”
So yeah, don’t hold your breath waiting for a production Lagonda. It isn’t happening anytime soon.
Wagoneer (As A Brand)
When Jeep announced that it planned to bring back the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, it also decided that Wagoneer should be its own sub-brand. Jeep wanted to move upmarket, and part of that apparently involved selling Jeeps that didn’t have any Jeep badges. That kind of thing isn’t completely unheard of in the industry, but it was still an odd move considering how much brand equity the Jeep name has.
And wouldn’t you know it, only a few years later, Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa told Motorweek that the Wagoneer sub-brand is dead. The SUVs themselves will continue to be sold, but they’ll all have Jeep badges now. So now you’ll have to admit to all your friends that you actually bought a Jeep and not a Wagoneer. How embarrassing. Just kidding. Everyone knew the Wagoneers were Jeeps even if Jeep insisted they technically weren’t.
Honorable Mention: MotorTrend+
Technically, MotorTrend+ isn’t a car, but it is (well, was) car-related entertainment, so we figured it at least deserves an honorable mention. Discovery may have been perfectly happy to continue cranking out endless variations of Angry Bearded Man Garage, but MotorTrend at least tried to offer something better. And now MotorTrend+ is dead.
The good news is, if you have a Max subscription, most MotorTrend+ content should be available that way now. So now you can watch Roadkill Garage without having to pay for another subscription. From that perspective, maybe Discovery killing MotorTrend+ was actually a good thing.
