Whenever a car is released on the market, the company that produced it projects its market life. On average, new vehicles spend five to seven years on the market, after which they are significantly refreshed or completely redesigned. However, in the case of some classic cars, manufacturers deliberately present models with a limited market life of even one single year.
Called “one-hit-wonders,” these cars were available for a limited amount of time and are often more exciting versions of standard models. These “one and done” models had unique designs, features, and performance and became collector’s items. We compiled the most interesting classic cars that were available for just one model year here.
Oldsmobile Rally 350
To fight tightening regulations that were destroying the muscle car class, Oldsmobile introduced the bright yellow Rally 350 model. It was a clever way to avoid high insurance premiums with a smaller but still powerful 350 V8 engine featuring 310 HP (via Hemmings).
Other manufacturers introduced similar models, but Oldsmobile is most famous due to its unmistakable appearance and eye-catching yellow paint. However, Rally 350 wasn’t a big success on the market despite the clever engineering, and GM made only 3547 examples in 1970.