Editing Captive import (section)

== Reasons for failure ==
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Captive imports often fail, and a shift in exchange rates can raise prices to uncompetitive levels.

Some models have been criticized for marginal quality, such as the spate of [[Daewoo]] models marketed under domestic General Motors marques during the 2000s, or for being a bad match for the local driving environment.

The commitment of domestic sales and service staff to an unfamiliar vehicle has been questioned, particularly if the import is seen as reducing sales of other, more profitable vehicles in the lineup.

Others fail due to no fault of their own; the [[Sunbeam Tiger]], for instance, an early 1960s example of the concept of an American [[Ford Windsor engine]] in a British ([[Sunbeam Alpine]]) body and chassis, enjoyed substantial success until Sunbeam became a captive import of [[Chrysler Corporation]] in North America. Chrysler could not be realistically expected to sell a car with a Ford engine, and Chrysler V8 engines all had the [[distributor]] positioned at the rear of the engine, unlike the front-mounted distributor of the Ford V8, making it impossible to fit the Chrysler engine into the Sunbeam engine bay without major and expensive revisions. Thus this niche of the automotive market was left to be filled with legendary success by the Ford engined [[Shelby Cobra]].

There may be a deeper, structural issue at work, however. It could simply be that a domestic buyer is unlikely to want an import, and an import buyer is unlikely to enter a domestic showroom. Also, consumers of a specific domestic brand might feel that a captive import does not have the qualities that they want and expect from vehicles of domestic vehicles manufactured by that brand. A captive thus easily falls between two stools. This is probably why the practice of using a separate brand name, such as [[Merkur]] and [[General Motors]]' short-lived [[Geo (automobile)|Geo]], has ceased — the foreignness of the car is thus discreetly made less apparent. Another factor concerns servicing where captives often do not share components with their domestic counterparts - this often leads to parts incompatibility and/or backorders.

Another view is that the practice could be seen by the public as simply dishonest, causing complete rejection. Certainly in cases when identical models are available at the same time with only the badges differentiating them such as what happened under the failed [[Button car plan]] in Australia during the 1980s.