'AutoShite' that should be Dead

[Ratdat]

Back on topic, Nissan did the B120 Sunny pickup for years after the saloons died - Ratdat will correct me on the exact date I hope, but they did the 'Bakkie' in South Africa until very recently. Ooh, just checked - looks like they still do them!

Nissan SA stopped building them in Januarythis year because they wouldn't comply with new regs. They were still selling 1000 a month right up to the end. They'd be on sale there since 1972. It's being replaced with a Nissan badged version of a Dacia (Sandero?) pickup. I can't see that still being on sale in 32 years time.

[fiatdaft]

didnt renault ship off the clio to romania so they could make it even cheaper to build?

[r.welfare]

You can get those Clio Campuses (Campii?) round here for £5995 OTR. But I'd bet they'd do them for less. Local Peugeot dealer sold one - ONE - car in the whole of August, and the Honda dealer only had 8 58-platers lined up for collection on the first of this month.Not that I would buy anything new, you understand - but the car market is just as broken as the financial markets...

[MrRegieRitmo]

Other markets get a booted version of the previous model Clio, saw them in Turkey, can't remember what they call them though but I think they have a different name...They look typically ungainly like all these hatchback come saloons!

[Milford Cubicle]

I parked behind a Hungarian-registered booted Clio today, think they're called 'Thalia'.

[stoterstangen90]

 

Or the turkish BMC? Since 1807!

 

This one is "Levend" which means alive in Dutch

[Adrian_pt]

They're called reanult Symbol in Romania and Thalia in some other markets; I think they're made in Turkey. But yes, Nissan is doing a version of the Logan as well. Speaking of which, in Romania I saw this thing calle the Tiida they make. Pure shite!

 

[pogweasel]

 

 

Or the turkish BMC? Since 1807!

 

This one is "Levend" which means alive in Dutch

Want that one!

Hard to imagine a less appealing brand new vehicle in 2008.

Fantastic.

[Milford Cubicle]

I've seen a few 'BMC' buses kicking about, hopefully they'll start importing some Levend shite too.

[reallyloud]

The Citroen Visa or rather the C15 van had a magnificent run.

 

 

I recall (as seen in mat.T spotted thread) that the short cut 104 continued production until 1988, some 5 years after its replacement the 205, made an appearance.

 

Its not unusual to see estate cars outstay their welcome too, the Regata saloon was sold alongside the Fiat 131/Panorama for a few years too - as did the CX estate until the XM estate appeared in 1991.

[scrappylad]

How about Ford's small car offering... the Ka, thats been in production for far too long. The image below is of the 'Finale' so it shouldn't be too long before the new model is launched.

 

 

To quote somebody off carenthusiast.com who clearly doesn't relish the Ka...

 

"I'm dubious about small cars. More often than not they're cheap, tacky, under-specified, and no fun to drive. A perfect example is the Ford Ka - possibly my least favourite car. Apart from a bit of art college futurist design, it is a complete abomination. I hate the looks (which is never a good start). It's also quite obvious that the main raison d'être is cost effectiveness. In my humble opinion any new car that lacks electric windows and central locking has a lot to answer for. Most cars are trying to make some sort of statement, but the Ford Ka is like a huge price tag with each component competing to have cost the least. It exudes bargain basement cheapness. It's tacky, harsh to drive, and frankly I pity anyone who's never driven anything else. Any car that still specifies a heated rear window among its features has something fundamentally wrong with it."

[Guest]

Its not unusual to see estate cars outstay their welcome too, the Regata saloon was sold alongside the Fiat 131/Panorama for a few years too - as did the CX estate until the XM estate appeared in 1991.

My Mazda 323 Estate lets the side down too:

 

Ran until 1985, by which time it was not one generation out of date (BD series) but two (BF series)! Then they brought it back from the dead in Indonesia as the Vantrend, for a run during 1993-1997. Inexplicably with 5 spoke alloys as standard and headlights off an old 626. Nice work!

[MrRegieRitmo]

Page 2

The Bedford HA van, the Citroen C15 van and the Peugeot 504 pickup all went on far far longer than their car counterparts!

Page 3

The Citroen Visa or rather the C15 van had a magnificent run.

[r.welfare]

Yes, thank you Inspector Reg!Hirst, I do believe that Toyota Corolla wagons from the 80's were also a generation behind. The later FWD 323 estate based on the BF ran until the early/mid 90s, sure I've seen them on K/L reg.

[MrRegieRitmo]

Anytime!

[Mash]

I was surprised how many Pandas there are still on the roads in Italy, then I found out they'd made them until about 2003 - not a bad innings!

 

Here's a low mileage 2002 one I picked at random from Italian eBay; yours for €2,700.

 

[Albert Ross]

I got tailgated by a Merc 814 van today........is it me or are they 508s with different badges or something? It was a 58 plate aswell. Anyone?

[VWPowered]

looking at that photos of the panda just looks like my volkswagen polo think its the lights

[MrRegieRitmo]

I was surprised how many Pandas there are still on the roads in Italy, then I found out they'd made them until about 2003 - not a bad innings!

My reckoning is that the Italians couldn't bear to be without their beloved Pandas for long so they engineered for there to be little or no gap between the old one & the new one in 2004!

[Split_Pin]

I got tailgated by a Merc 814 van today........is it me or are they 508s with different badges or something? It was a 58 plate aswell. Anyone?

I got a brochure from the Merc dealership for these in March - still going strong.Merc were going to phase them out due to emmisions, but then had a change of heart for some reason and re-engined them to comply with Euro 4

[mk2_craig]

Depends which 814 you're talking about...

 

Option 1

 

Option 2

 

Option 3

 

I'm guessing the latter, but it's been known for owners (particularly minicoach operators) of the second type to update their vehicles with the later front end.