There are so many cars that are sold under multiple brand names but I don’t understand how. Like I understand how ford can make a crown vic into a mercury grand marquis because ford and mercury are the same brand, but I don’t understand when they’re nit the same brand. What I don’t understand is how they can use [a Dodge and sell it as a Volkswagen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Routan) or sell a [Land Rover as a Honda](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Crossroad), or Chevy to Holden, Fiat to Jeep, Dodge to Fiat to Citroen, Dodge to Mercedes to Freightliner, and so many more. Unless there’s only like 3 car companies irl that own all the names I just don’t get it. Is it like they buy cars wholesale and put their name on it to sell at full price or what?
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You are correct there are a few car companies that own a bunch of different brands. For the examples you gave, Chevy and Holden are both General Motors brands and Fiat, Jeep, Dodge, and Citroen are all Stellantis brands and Freightliner is a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks which is 30% owned by Mercedes. In other examples it may be two companies collaborating for example Toyota and Subaru jointly developed the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ and they are continuing by jointly developing multiple EVs, it was also the case that up until about 5 years ago Subaru manufactured Camrys and Corollas for Toyota in their Indiana factory.
Its more economical for these car companies, especially as the cost of manufacturing continues to skyrocket.
Company A (lets say Toyota) designs a car, starts selling it. Company B (lets say Holden) somehow gets the rights to rebadge and sell said car under their own branding, be it through a single purchase deal or more likely a per-sale profit percentage deal. Toyota spent all the money designing the car, as well as developing the tooling for it etc. So all Holden has to do is mnufacture it and sell it. This saves them heaps of money, and Toyota continues to make money off the car without the cost of manufacturing it.
**Disclaimer**: *I did no reseach for this comment. It may contain incorrect information, as it is based solely on my knowledge of how international car companies and big bisunesses work. I am not a scholar in this topic, nor have I ever worked in the field discussed. Do not quote me personally, and make sure you seek out information from reputable sources.*
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