It happens all the time. The '04-'06 Pontiac GTOs were built by Holden and the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix are the exact same car. The mid to late '90s Dodge Avengers and Chrysler Sebrings were built by Mitsubishi and so were the late '80s Dodge Ram 50s. I would suppose they do it because its cheaper to buy somebody else's car and sell it as your own than it would be to develope your own car. I am also fairly certain that General Motors owns at least a portion of Holden. I don't know about their affiliation with Toyota but I know Ford has some sort of affiliation with Mazda and Nissan as well. This is part of the reason why many people are starting to believe there's no such thing as an American or foreign car anymore. Many of the American manufacturers have plants outside of the US (Ford has plants in Mexico, GM has plants in Canada, and until recently, Chrysler was owned by a German company). On the other hand, Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, and probably more, have plants inside the US.
