There are at least a couple of different categories to choose from when it comes to a cringy or tacky special edition. We’d say that one consists of automaker-originated special editions. Look no further than one of the more recent examples, the Swinger edition on the Dodge Charger and Challenger – though to be clear, we’re talking about the cringy name here, not their appearance.
The Jeep Wrangler Dragon Edition from 2014 is a lot worse though as it doesn’t even have the historical card it can pull that the Swingers do. It was nothing more than a dragon graphic on the body and associated satin bronze trim along with one more dragon in the cabin.
Then there’s the other sector of weird and tacky special editions that we need to consider. Those are the ones where a car company partners with a non-car company to create something that’s just plain ridiculous. Back in the 1990s, we got some of the strangest combos from all over the place.
More: 2014 Jeep Wrangler Dragon Edition Arrives in the U.S. with a $36,095 Sticker Price
That includes the surprisingly ahead-of-its-time Chevrolet Venture Warner Bros. special edition. Of course, there was also the Mercury Villager Nautica Edition, Gucci Cadillac Seville, various Lexus Gold editions, the Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer Edition, and from Japan, the Subaru Outback L.L. Bean edition. Jeep also tried to get in on this trend with the Orivs Grand Cherokee. It was so successful that most of you probably are hearing about it for the first time right now.
More recently we’ve seen automakers pair up with movie franchises because who doesn’t want to ride around in something that automatically gives away information about what sort of entertainment you’re into? On that list, we have the Rogue One Nissan Rogue to kick things off. It almost seems as though the team responsible for advertising at Nissan just googled “pop culture + “Rogue”” and threw money at the first result.
Then there’s the even weirder Hyundai Kona Iron Man. I’m not joking when I say that the first time I saw one of these I fully believed it was just an overly ambitious fan that put it together. Never in 100 years could you have convinced me that it came out of the factory like that.
Those are just a few of our ideas for the cringiest named special edition. Which do you think deserves to be named the worst in history?
