Automotive brand shepherds must get bored from time to time. How else to explain out-of-left-field cars such as these? Pumping out car after car all pulled from the same basic mold gets tiresome, so someone decides to move in a different direction with a particular product.
To predict the success (or failure) of six of the latest brand-benders, we looked at them in the context of automotive history's best and worst precedents, weighing our expectations for sales success against an admittedly subjective "good idea" factor. How well we think each car will balance these two goals is reflected in its accompanying graphic.

Lexus LFA

With the exception of the IS F, Toyota's luxury brand has never done performance — certainly not the $375,000, carbon-fiber-bodied exotic kind — and neither Toyota nor Lexus has any supercar-building experience unless you include the decade spent developing the LFA. By all accounts, the LFA is an excellent car and a capable Ferrari 599GTB fighter — we pedaled it to 60 in 3.7 seconds — but its existence in the Lexus lineup is inexplicable. It's hard to imagine that Lexus owners were clamoring for a supercar and equally difficult to picture an IS F driver trading up to a car costing almost six times as much, let alone an RX buyer adding one as a weekend toy.

Hyundai Equus

Speaking of Lexus, it appears Hyundai is poised to attempt its own full-luxury press, à la LS400. One year after launching its ambitious Genesis, Hyundai is preparing to take the next step with the $50,000 Equus, a slightly larger and more luxurious V-8 Genesis sedan with a funny name. Hyundai already sells the car in Asia and, for the U.S. market, simply removed the gaudy (albeit freakin' awesome) hood ornament.

Ferrari 599GTB HY-KERS Hybrid Concept

Ferrari is being practical — possibly for the first time. Fuel-hungry V-8s and V-12s aren't going to meet tightening fuel-economy standards on their own. If the answer to Ferrari's continued existence is the addition of a battery and an electric motor, we'll happily welcome the prancing horse's new hybrid overlords. Throw in the facts that Ferrari has used the hybrid transmission to fine-tune brake balance and traction control and to help fill the divots in the engine's natural torque curve, and we're sold

Porsche Panamera

The Panamera isn't as much of a departure as the Cayenne was, especially since the company's first SUV blazed the non-standard-Porsche trail. Besides, its stretched-911 looks likely have more to do with its controversial reception than those blasphemous rear doors. Porsche's first sedan is a serious grand tourer with a beautiful interior — stay inside where it's less bulbous, and you'll like it a lot more — and in Turbo guise it can shoot to 60 mph in a memory-erasing 3.3 seconds. At least the engineers nailed the dynamics. Styling aside, Porsche got the sedan right on its first try.

Aston Martin Cygnet

Aston Martins have a sense of occasion about them. They are exclusive, fast, stunningly gorgeous, special. A $14,000 Toyota microcar is none of these things. Which is why we — and, no doubt, many Aston Martin loyalists — were less than pleased to learn of the Cygnet, a mildly reskinned Toyota iQ posing as an Aston Martin. A big-mouth grille and a leather-drenched cabin supposedly justify the baby swan's sticker swelling by about $25,000.

Buick Regal GS