This relates to Susan Parker's post about British cars (or lack of) overseas and a strange coincidence in my local bar last night on a similar subject
A regular drinker pal is a well-known commentator on local radio on motoring and other matters and we were discussing (in the light of the 60 years since Berlin fell being currently celebrated) the parallel of the end of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. I was sharing the childhood remembrance I had of Britain entering a peace I had never known and living in a devastated London and he was reciprocating with his recollections of a war-torn Manila finally free of a brutal occupation.
Prior to the war his father had been an importer of Studebakers and Chrysler products from the US, but with coming of Philippine independence from the US in 1946, the factories pulled their local dealerships to supply the huge demand from returning GI's and the post-war US economy rather than support small volume dealers overseas.
My pal's father was then apparently granted a licence to assemble Austin cars in the Philippines from imported parts to aid the rebirth of the country's auto industry, and his factory produced for a number of years Austins: Devons, A30's, Cambridges, Minis and the like, which sold in moderate numbers to people who could afford them. This he told me survived till the early 1960's when the Marcos dictatorship wanted economic ties cut with countries which did not support it and to rebuild ties with Japan. Because of the union problems and BMC being on self-destruct in those days in the unique way British industry managed to keep shooting itself in the foot, the relationship had become a problem anyway.
As a result my pal's father was offered the Toyopet franchise from Japan. Note this is what Toyota was called before it became Toyota. The basic model was the Toyopet Corona, the shovel-front model that was already in wide use in saloon and pickup form in Asia and Australia (I certainly remember Bangkok taxis being Toyopets) when it was first imported to UK in 1966 IIRC as the Toyota Corona and widely laughed at, despite the fact it was far better specified accessory-wise than its British contemporaries. The upper end model was the Toyopet Crown, a sort of Japanese Austin Cambridge with some styling apparently borrowed from the Russian Volga (!). All rather ugly by the standards of the age, but affordable, reliable and with good service backup.
There are now no Austins to be seen on Philippine roads. My builder down the road still uses his humble 1964 Toyopet pickup and an acquaintance maintains a pristine 1965 Corona in original metallic green. This presupposes there must be others running around.
Our conversation brought Susan's post to mind.
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We had a dealer in Mufulira, Zambia, called Michel, I can't remember his second name. He started up a franchise to sell Toyota, mainly the Crown. When the British cars needed a shopping list of extras to equip the car to any decent standard, the Crown offered everything on the basic model, there were no extras to be had. It was big and smart, and incredibly reliable. After that no more new British cars were sold, just the Crown, Datsuns and Peugeots.
After a couple of years Michel disappeared, rumour had it that he had left the country just before the taxman. He had calculated well that the cars he sold were so reliable that he had a period of years before spare parts were needed, so he didn't set up a spares business. I could still get spares for my Morris Minor years later.
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