The query about Perodua in another thread led me to think about makes of cars which were only sold in this country for a few years.
Yugo and Moskvich spring immediately to mind.
I'm sure there will be others.
And is anyone still running one of these obsolete makes?
Edited by Honestjohn on 13/11/2008 at 17:47
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Wartburg
Polski Fiat
Lancia - due back?
Lada
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Austin
Rover
MG
Wolslely
Riley
Morris
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Talbot
Singer
Simca
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Talbot Singer Simca
>>
The first Singer was made in 1905 and the name continued until at least 1970 to my knowledge, possibly even later. Search for other makes on the Motorbase website. tinyurl.com/6pzvw3
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madf,
Those British makes all had a good innings, I was thinking more about makes that only last a few years.
Wasn't a 'copy' of the Renault 12 imported for a while? Dacia Logan, anyboody?
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Dacia Logan is current I think and badgeg "Dacia by Renault".
The licence built 12 (siad to be a very poor imitation) was the Dacia Denem.
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Dacia Logan is current I think and badging "Dacia by Renault".
I was recently in Turkey and there were several combined Renault/Dacia dealerships. Many Dacia Logans on the road, I belive they are produced in Turkey.
Edited by Old Navy on 13/11/2008 at 11:02
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>>MG
They have been around since 1924 and still alive - I would say well, but only time will tell I suppose! Not a good time to be trying to revive a brand and get some sales figures on the board!
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DeLorean ?
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I saw a Yugo 45 parked in a side street in Reading last week. There are still a few around here as I believe the biggest dealer and importer's head office were in the town (now a timber yard on the Basingstoke Road).
Imports stopped when the civil wars and associated sanctions started. It was a shame as their best ever model (badged Yugo Sana) had just started to arrive.
The 45 and 55 are still produced at the Zastava factory in Serbia, and they also now produce a Zastava badged version of the last Fiat Punto (pre-Grande). It's called Zastava 10. Yugo was only ever a brand name of the Zastava factory, used mainly for exports.
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>>Those British makes all had a good innings, I was thinking more about makes that only last a few years.
I think the Simca 1000, 1100, Elysee etc were around for quite a while.
Clk Sec
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Wartburgs were imported to the UK from the mid-60s to about 1983 IIRC.
Anyone remember the Lonsdale? A big Mitsubishi from Australia, brought in briefly to try and get round the import quotas on Japanese vehicles in the mid-1980s.
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Anyone remember the Lonsdale?
Yes, a badge engineered Galant of its time, I believe. Thanks for jogging the old, rapidly dying grey matter.
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Why dont we get more Aussie metal over here? Some of the big GM and Ford models would be a laff.
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Wasn't there a manky looking thing called the FSO Polonez?
Looked like a airfix kit that had been badly assembled
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=EESJ_UDIBLg
I remember seeing a lot of these FSOs in the early 90's and always regarded them as a poor mans Lada. Our Lada used to feel like it was built by BMW in comparison.
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I remember the Somerset FSO dealer telling me, years ago, that they were new cars for people who couldn't afford the real thing.
IIRC the dealer was Jenson Button's father.
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The worse thing is the crash test. Note the way the steering wheel raises up and extends perfectly to face height.
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7vIPTWw4M8U&feature=related
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An remember Sao Penza? Clone of a mid 80's Mazda 323 sold in I think early 90's for a few years.
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Thanks for stirring my memory...
I did a road test on one of those in about 1991 - they were imported from South Africa IIRC.
Can't remember a thing about it.
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Jowett
Gilbern
Gordon Keeble
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Jowett Gilbern Gordon Keeble
Jowett was scuppered because their body supplier ~ Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd. ~ was taken over by Ford in 1953, who then didn't want to supply Jowett bodies. So it was no fault of Jowett. Other car manufacturers who didn't produce their own bodies may have suffered a similar fate. BMC took over Fisher & Ludlow Ltd., also in 1953. tinyurl.com/6n7gzd
Edited by L'escargot on 14/11/2008 at 03:26
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"Sao Penza? Clone of a mid 80's Mazda 323 sold in I think early 90's "
Yep!! we had a couple of them they were imported by Mazda UK and my missis worked for em at time and they were cheap lease cars and I mean cheap! was bland as eck, but as we were running it for peanuts was lovely! after that they started importinG Kia's and we had several Prides and Mentors....... ahh those were the days
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another thing I remember is the Yugo, if you were a passenger in the front and stamped hard on the floor, you could brake for the driver! twas great fun but not sure driver alway saw it that way
Edited by Honestjohn on 13/11/2008 at 17:48
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I always have a soft spot of these cars. I rememebr the Sao well, I doubt there would be any left now. Even Kia Prides are extremely rare now.
I sometimes hate my car as its a clapped out banger, but when I drive it always amazes me how fluid the gear change is, how well it does roudn corners and just how nice it is to drive for a £350 car. I am sure it is a lot better than a £6000 FSO Polenez in every way.
Sligtly OT but does anybody know if anybody still buys Protons? Not seen any on the road for a long time and even Kia dosn't seem that popular despite some its great cars.
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>>Sligtly OT but does anybody know if anybody still buys Protons? Not seen any on the road for a long time and even Kia dosn't seem that popular despite some its great cars.<<
Still around yes, well liked by older motorists - not as old hat as they were what with Lotus involvement and they have a very decent warranty. Problem for Proton appears to be thin dealer network and poor awareness. Something that Daihatsu also suffer from. Pretty decently made in an old-fashioned kinda way ( ie bits underneath ). Kinda kooky styling of late and none the worse for it, atleast they are distinctive.
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I believe some FIATs would do that today - it's due to the linkage from the brakes in a RHD car crossing over to the left of the vehicle. I think it would work in a Seicento but I don't think my wife would appreciate me testing that ;-)
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another thing I remember is the Yugo if you were a passenger in the front and stamped hard on the floor you could brake for the driver!
You can do that in the big bottomed RHD Renault Megane.
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DAF (Famous for going just as fast in reverse as forwards. Remember Van der Valk opening titles, with Barry Foster cadging a lift in the world's most unlikely panda car round the canals of Amsterdam? Once they had a half-decent car in production - the 66 - it was quickly transmogrified into a Volvo before anyone actually noticed that Daf actually made cars as well as trucks.)
HINDUSTAN (Ambassador - Indian made retro Morris Oxford). Finished before it started, almost. And then came back in 2002 via an importing agent in Wales.
MIDDLEBRIDGE (Scimitar reborn in Nottingham. Almost.)
JENSEN HEALEY (1972-76) Sic transit gloria mundi...
ISETTA (1957-60)
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I had a Lonsdale B reg metallic blue, 2 litre, engine was a bit agricultural, but brand new at sub £6k great value.
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Are Daewoo still around? they had an outlet here in Halfords but are no more in this area.
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Its Chevorlet now sold through Vauxhall dealers.
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nowt wrong with a daewoo, cheap parts ... although ive only had to replace an oil breather pipe £18.00 and a pair of indicator bulbs... 70k and sailed thru MOT,S
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Tata,
i'm still fuming over the unbelievable nerve of putting the Union Flag on the back of the Tata/city Rover, those responsible should have been flogged, not for the car but the use of our flag.
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That will be John Towers then, or at least his team. All 'Rovers' at the time had those badges, still the sales figures are enough evidence that the public was not convinced the CityRover was British.
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still the sales figures are enough evidence that the public wasnot convinced the CityRover was British.
The things were breaking as we delivered them, bonnet cables would rip out when you had to jump start! these brand new cars, dreadful.
Pity really as i admit to quite liking most of the later Rover range and thought them good cars for the money.
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I just thought mosty of them took the mick. When people like FIAT and Ford were fitting electric windows as standard they thought the £15k MGs didn't need them! Not only that it was a 10 year old car underneath.
That said now the second hand ones are worth nothing I am seeing the appeal of Rovers, a nice 04 reg for £2000 seems a good buy, even if I would have to spend £1000 on a new cylinder head.
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Daewoo's car business was bought by GM and then got rebranded as Chevrolet wasn't it?
EDIT: beaten by Pugugy... before the switch if you got a Daewoo you could claim a new Chevy version when they were out.
Edited by rtj70 on 13/11/2008 at 21:45
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'Jowett' ???? Lasted almost 50 yrs. Had the longest production run of any engine.
My neighbour has a Yugo 45...heaven knows where she gets parts.
Remember ARO and TUDOR....I think they were Rumanian imports around 1980. They soon disappeared, I had an ARO jeep for assessment for a week. I couldn't find anything good about it to put in my report.
Ted
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Armstrong-Siddley
Standard
Triumph
Datsun (well, they made them in Sunderland!)
Hillman
Alvis
Chrysler
Amilcar
Frazer Nash
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Please check the thread title.
Just because they may have vanished before you were born (?) it doesn't mean they weren't around for a long time. :-)
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Read subject line before making contribution!
A quick Google reveals the following as dates of car production: "didn't last long" is open to interpretation but hardly applies in these cases, I would have thought...
Armstrong-Siddeley 1902-1960
Standard: 1903-1963
Triumph: 1923-1984
Datsun 1931-1984
*First imported into the UK in 1970; renamed Nissan worldwide 1984-86
Hillman: 1907-1976 (taken over by Chrysler in 1967)
Alvis: 1920-1967
Chrysler: 1967-76 and again since 1992 (Viper officially imported)
Amilcar: 1921-1936 (taken over by Hotchkiss)
Frazer Nash: 1925-1957
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There's a few which came and went locally, in recent years.
Dacia was infamous - a range of pick ups and station wagons which were based on a 70s Renault.
The local CAR magazine tried to test one about 10 years back, and it broke a half-shaft during an acceleration test.
Even ignoring that fact, they rated it as the worst car they'd ever tested, and pointed out that if Dacia had given THEM a test car so bad, what were the ones sold to the man in the street going to be like?
In fact, even though they sold a lot, probably to government fleet buyers, they are as scarce as hen's teeth these days, which is unusual in this neck of the woods, where most cars last 20+ years on the road.
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Ssanyong to be around much longer?
Do Tata still sell the Safari?
Will Perodua soon be gone?
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"Do Tata still sell the Safari?"
TATA own Rover and Jaguar since buying JLR from Ford. Makes your question a little irrelevant for the Safari?
Ssanyong is still going and and no longer part of Daewoo.
As is Perodua I think.
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I have a copy of the Vintage Motor Car Pocketbook, by Cecil Clutton et al (1959) and there were lots of makes that came and went between the wars. Clyno, Crossley, Invicta and Railton were some of the better-known names. And there was a crop of cycle-cars whose production runs were shorter still.
There wa a similar spate in the late 1950s - Scootacar, Peel, Berkeley, Meadows, Trident etc - which were scuppered largely through the coming of the Mini in 1959.
Edited by Avant on 17/11/2008 at 23:55
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Mahindra "Jeep". Switchgear that wouldn't look out of place on those kiddie rides you see outside amusement arcades. Truly awful. I'd rather walk....
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