Zombie brands are waking up. And they’re selling Chinese cars.
It’s a weird tactic, really. DR Automobiles, an Italian importer that buys Chinese vehicles, slaps a tiny cosmetic veneer on them, then resurrects historic prestige names to make the metal look local. It feels less like engineering and more like identity theft with a veneer of heritage.
Take Itala. Founded in Turin in 1904. Went bankrupt in 1934. Fiat swallowed the remains. Now? It’s back. Not because it had any unfinished business, but because DR Automobiles needed a pretty name for the GAC Emzoom. That small SUV? Now it’s the Itala 35.
Italdesign touched it up. The grille looks different. The bumper was revised. The lights stay exactly the same, just repositioned slightly.
“Italdesign’s design team focused on the front and rear.”
Translation: we didn’t change the mechanical bones. And neither did Roberto Fedeli, the ex-Ferrari tech director charged with tweaking the electronics. He added red leather. Real Italian leather. It covers the seats. It touches the dash. Inside, it smells expensive. Under the hood? The exact same 1.5L turbo engine making 127kW. Mated to the same dual-clutch box. Unchanged.
There will be five more Italas coming. The Itala 56 and Itala 61 are bigger SUVs. Some will eventually go electric, but right now it’s just petrol. And then there is Osca. Another dead brand. Started by the Maserati brothers in 1947. Closed in 1967 now DR wants to dust off the dust. We don’t know what cars it will ride on. We just know they exist again.
Is this confusing? Only if you care about the difference between a car’s origin and its badge.
DR Automobiles doesn’t care. They treat brand names like interchangeable skins. Before Itala, there was EVO. Then Sportequipe. Then the mess that was ICKX.
They launched ICKX in 2022. Jacky Ickx. The legend. The racing icon. DR thought they were clever. They said the ‘X’ stood for off-road prowess, pronounced differently than the driver’s surname. A legal argument for a spelling error.
It didn’t work. An Italian court banned them. They rebranded to ICH-X to soothe their consciences, claiming good faith. They sold Beijing BAIC off-roaders under the name until they could’t even risk the X anymore.
Then came Tiger in 2024. Then Birba in 2025. Katay for trucks. Stilnovo for Changan vehicles.
Do you see the pattern? You buy a brand for a pittance, slap a designer front clip on a mass-produced Chinese hatchback, and market it to grandmas in Milan. It worked enough to get them fined. €6 million. Almost $10 million Australian. Why? Because they claimed these cars were “Italian” when the supply chains ran through Guangzhou and Beijing. And they didn’t have parts for when they broke down.
The Italian government doesn’t like being duped. Alfa Romeo already renamed the Junior after it was originally teased as the Milano, following pressure not to co-opt the capital’s name for a subcompact EV. Now DR is using Itala. One letter away from the country itself. Italia.
It’s a bold lie. Or maybe just business.
They registered over 34,000 cars last year. Most in Italy. Some in Spain. They want more of Europe to believe the lie.
Will it work? People love a good story. Even a manufactured one. Especially if the leather is red and the price tag is right.
Just don’t expect any of this to feel like it happened a hundred years ago.
