Cars you didnt know existed

[Guest]

I suppose we in Britain have always missed out on some interesting motors due to the old right-hand-drive conundrum, and visiting France when younger opened my eyes to assorted stuff that was never imported such as those Spacevan-alike Peugeot vans and five-door versions of our three-door Corollas. However untli tonight I had never heard of these:

 

 

Any more for any more?

[Guest Tony Hayers]

About 4 years ago I found out that Citroen released a Zx saloon in other markets -

 

 

Jetronic cabs outside a Lidl supermarket near you soon

[Pillock]

Yeah, there's quite a few that crop up on here regularly thanks to the British stick-in-the-mud mentality of only buying what you know.

 

The Fiesta fishface shape, which we only got as a hatch, was on sale in Brazil as a saloon and pickup too.

 

 

 

Corsa 'B' saloon, estate and pickup.

 

 

VW Apollo - two door Orion body with a VW engine

 

VW Dodge 1500

[vicsmith]

VW Apollo is a new one on me, Orion shape seems to work well as a 2-door.

 

2-door Tempra:

 

 

[Guest]

Was the 1 that I was surprised by not sure if I like it or not though.

 

Where as I like this

[trigger]

A bit of Googleing have found these.

 

Turkish Made Anadol STC-16 but only was 176 made so unlikely to see one

 

 

 

It has a great dash though, Look at the sidewards radio!

 

 

Fiat Palio

 

 

Geely HQ SRC based on a mid 80's Daihatsu Charade.

 

 

Indian Suzuki Maruti 800

 

 

Argentinian Ford Taunus Coupe

 

 

[Station]

The reason why we don't see saloons is because in Brazil, South America and South Africa (and possibly other places), the saloon is seen as being more 'affluent' over the hatchback.

[MrRegieRitmo]

It would sometimes be the case that I ended up having a model of a car before coming across a real one; for instance I found out there was a MkI Renault Megane estate when I bought a model of one. After that I then noticed them on subsequent trips to France & saw one over here once.I had a Majorette model of a Chrysler 180 / 2 litre before I'd come across a real one. I think I even had the Majorette Peugeot 604 before I'd knowingly been in the presence of a real one! Likewise a Solido Talbot Tagora before I'd seen what a real one looked like although I believe I'm still waiting to be in the presence of one of those!

[Jazzy Jeff]

 

Even when dealers started importing them on the sly Renault still wouldn't release it over here.

 

Does anyone know the real reason why? I still can't work it out.

[Guest]

I have heard two reasons - not wanting to tread on the toes of the Clio and some kind of complication which made them very difficult to convert to RHD. Might be totally made-up rubbish though.

[Volksy]

From 'The Twingo Club of Great Britain' website"When the Twingo was launched in 1993, Renault didn't think there would be a market in Britain because we weren't buying Minis, Fiat 126s, Daihatsu Charades etc. in any great numbers; so as Renault only has two large-scale RHD markets (us and the Irish), it seemed financially impractical to make an RHD version. Renault never went back on that decision even when it became apparent that we Brits were interested, and even when the Ford Ka, Fiat Seicento etc. stepped into the frame; because (a) the cost of re-tooling the production lines for RHD Twingos during the production run was seen as too high and ( they didn't want to harm sales of the Clio, which has consistently been Renault's biggest seller north of the Channel."

[MrRegieRitmo]

Glad they saw sense with the MkII Twingo, although the MkI looked to have much more character. We were all correct then, because I thought it was along the lines of them not thinking we were interested in small quirky continental cars!What was the story behind us not getting the MkI Megane estate?

[Volksy]

What was the story behind us not getting the MkI Megane estate?

Not sure on that one, but when I lived in france they were pretty rare, seemed to be mostly owned by local authorities and emergency services.

[Guest]

I can understand the Twingo being thought of as too big a gamble to spend a lot of money tooling up for a potentially low RHD production run (and Renault have since had their fingers burned with the Avantime etc ) but I wouldnt have thought that there would be a high marginal cost of knocking out a few Megane estates – perhaps it was all to do with stock control, marketing etc.Always considered it a shame that Lancia never offered the Thema estate in the UK before they bailed, though sales would have probably been single figures

[MrRegieRitmo]

I can understand the Twingo being thought of as too big a gamble to spend a lot of money tooling up for a potentially low RHD production run (and Renault have since had their fingers burned with the Avantime etc ) but I wouldnt have thought that there would be a high marginal cost of knocking out a few Megane estates – perhaps it was all to do with stock control, marketing etc.

You'd think Renault would have looked on it as safe ground after the relative success of the 306 & ZX breaks!

[pompei]

I remember seeing a hot Twingo in a magazine that one of the French tuners had done and I thought it was just FAB. I always liked those little cars

[MrRegieRitmo]

In my eyes they will always look like they were inspired by the MkI Strada!

[carlo]

About 4 years ago I found out that Citroen released a Zx saloon in other markets -

 

 

Jetronic cabs outside a Lidl supermarket near you soon

This has been a big surprise to me, anyone know what it was called - can't see any other pics on google.

[Volksy]

About 4 years ago I found out that Citroen released a Zx saloon in other markets -

 

 

Jetronic cabs outside a Lidl supermarket near you soon

This has been a big surprise to me, anyone know what it was called - can't see any other pics on google.

Its a Shenlong Fukang, made in China

 

Some other chinese deviants here

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

 

 

Bollocks to your pint sized French crap. That Taunus is absolutely lovely. I bet it's packing a V6 Cologne as well.

[Guest]

Proton Tiara was another surprise I never knew about

I will stick with a Citroen ax when I need one though

[IanF]

Ford Corcel was my recent discovery

 

]

[andrew e]

Isn't it the bastard twin of a renault 12 from brazil?

[IanF]

Yup

[brammy777]

granted its only a concept but this little number

 

If only This would have been so fun to spot now!

Pictures from austin-rover online

[MrRegieRitmo]

Things like the Nissan Figaro, the PAO & the S-Cargo only appeared on my radar within the last few years despite having existed since the late 80s / early 90s. Not sure how I could have missed them though! Only became aware of the products of Tofas Fiat (Dogal, Sahin etc) from trips to Turkey & Northern Cyprus. Booted MkII (?) Clio is another one seen out there.

[MrRegieRitmo]

A classified ad for a Renault 7 was the first I became aware of it!I knew nothing of the Renault 15 & 17 till I picked up a book on cars of the 70s!I found out about the Peugeot 504 V6 coupe by way of a Solido model.

[pogweasel]

There's one them Metro Scouts at the quiteshite Stondon Museum.

[Pillock]

There's a Polish registered Mk1 Megane estate local to me, it looks proper 'budget' at the rear like they've just boshed on a generic estate rear end. Very similar to every 90's midsize Japanese estate produced from behind.As for the Twingo, I nearly bought one with a Renault 5 GTT engine. It had popped the head gasket though so wasn't ready to drive and hence out of my scope. Shame, it was proper fast and ex-Max Power featured. Only wanted £1300 for it, gasket included. Still LHD, you needed to remove the front bumper to check the oil level as the dipstick was crammed in behind

[RedSparrow]

Those little Fiestas look great!