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'Continental' cars report, 1973! - badbusdriver

Came upon this brilliant YT clip showing the latest offerings from European makes to the UK market,

watch

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - Bromptonaut

Wow. As one of the comments on You Tube says, what an array of colours.

Relatively few of the cars have had the wipers re-set for RHD leaving an unswept area in the top right corner.

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - catsdad

Interesting. Most still in business today (not sure if DAF trucks is same as the old car company, in which case all are still trading in some form).

What about Fiat’s generous rust warranty. Two years. Or was that a guarantee it would rust in two years?

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - Xileno

"Or was that a guarantee it would rust in two years?"

Judging by a 1970s Fiat my parents bought new in 1977, I think it must have been rusty when it left the factory.

Love those old Mercs, especially the S Class.

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - badbusdriver

Interesting. Most still in business today (not sure if DAF trucks is same as the old car company, in which case all are still trading in some form).

DAF trucks (and buses) was the same company as responsible for the cars, but the car manufacturing side was sold to Volvo in 1975 (who used the same car as seen in the video clip but badged Volvo 66, which was then replaced mechanically identical, initially anyway, 343). The DAF truck and bus operation merged with Leyland in 1987, then separated by being bought by PACCAR, then re-united when PACCAR also bought Leyland trucks(!). DAF buses were sold off separately in 1990 to form United Bus along with Bova.

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - Sofa Spud

QUOTE ""Interesting. Most still in business today""

Six of the brands are now owned by Stellantis, a Dutch registered company. These are: Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat, Lancia (Italian market only) and Alfa Romeo.

Renault was owned by the French government, now it's part of an alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Daf cars were taken over by Volvo and before long the brand disappeared.

Volvo Cars is now Chinese owned, by Geely.

VW - Audi is still independent but has grown, while Mercedes Benz is also independent.

The Truck manufacturing interests of some of these companies have fared differently. Volvo Trucks is still an independent Swedish company and it also owns Renault Trucks (confusing!). Daf Trucks is now US owned, by Paccar.

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - catsdad

Thanks I knew there had been some amalgamation but was unaware of the Stellantis angle.

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - Sofa Spud

Stellantis was formed by the merger of PSA (Peugeot, Citroen) and Fiat-Chrysler over the last couple of years. PSA had bought Vauxhall and Opel from GM not long beforehand.

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - pd

Interestingly Stellantis still has fairly large stakes owned by the Peugeot and Agnelli families. It was as much a merger of families as a company.

'Continental' cars report, 1973! - badbusdriver

Felt I had to bring this thread back after watching these two YT clips of very different cars, also from 1973!

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