Failed attempts to crack the UK

[hennabm]

I remember the Vauxhall dealer in Edinburgh trying to sell Cadillacs in the late 90s/early 2000s.

I don’t think many were sold.

I seem to recall 100,000 miles servicing as a selling point but maybe wrong.

[Rocket88]

Have we had these yet?

[Nullzwei]

Bavarian car manufacturer Glas produced their tiny Goggomobil models in RHD so i assume were sold in the UK market. Glas's downfall was being consumed by BMW in the late 1960's and then being shut down to make way for BMW's new class (CS) coupes.  Nearly bought a GLAS bmw engined gt coupe in the late 90's when they were still affordable. Stunning cars.

 

[sierraman]

37 minutes ago, hennabm said:

I remember the Vauxhall dealer in Edinburgh trying to sell Cadillacs in the late 90s/early 2000s.

I don’t think many were sold.

I seem to recall 100,000 miles servicing as a selling point but maybe wrong.

That was the plugs that would last 100k I believe on the Northstar engine. 

[ProgRocker]

16 hours ago, bigfella2 said:

Apologies if anyone has mentioned this.

What a honey the Asia Rocsta

Sold here between between 94 and 97 using Mazda 1.8 petrol and 2.2 derv engine, built in Korea. These were sold via Kia dealers.

I think Mahindra also entered the UK market and sold a Wrangler-esque 4x4 around the same time. Sorry if already mentioned.

[Jds1]

VW taro, allegedly only 22 left.

[LightBulbFun]

17 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

The Viper was sold here as the 'Chrysler SRT/10' for the reason that the Dodge nameplate is (was?) reserved for Renault trucks in Europe and there was already a kit car called a Viper.  Ironically, the Viper kit car was an AC Cobra replica, meaning that a fake snake stole the real snake's name!  Watch out for copyright constrictions and slithering lawyers, boo-hiss!  

interesting! they where indeed registered as Chryslers but looks like they where still registered as Vipers at least

although that may of just been on the V5 rather then in the dealer advertising or what have you I dont know!

however its interesting to know that something dodge was just sold as the Dodge SRT10 here so maybe 2 dodge products are being confused here?

 

when a vehicle is officially sold here by any sort of manufacturer its model gets a DVLA make and model code and you can find what has (or has not) been coded via howmanyleft's A-Z index

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/browse

 

[warch]

1 hour ago, Jds1 said:

VW taro, allegedly only 22 left.

Back in the days before we used to google everything we didn't understand I spent ages wondering why a bloke in my local town owned a Hilux with a Volkwagen badge on the front.

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

18 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

The Viper was sold here as the 'Chrysler SRT/10' for the reason that the Dodge nameplate is (was?) reserved for Renault trucks in Europe and there was already a kit car called a Viper.  Ironically, the Viper kit car was an AC Cobra replica, meaning that a fake snake stole the real snake's name!  Watch out for copyright constrictions and slithering lawyers, boo-hiss!  

Didn't they also have a go at flogging some Plymouth Prowlers at the same time, usually in purple.

[artdjones]

4 hours ago, Nullzwei said:

Bavarian car manufacturer Glas produced their tiny Goggomobil models in RHD so i assume were sold in the UK market. Glas's downfall was being consumed by BMW in the late 1960's and then being shut down to make way for BMW's new class (CS) coupes.  Nearly bought a GLAS bmw engined gt coupe in the late 90's when they were still affordable. Stunning cars.

 

They did a very nice saloon as well.

[Richard_FM]

5 hours ago, hennabm said:

I remember the Vauxhall dealer in Edinburgh trying to sell Cadillacs in the late 90s/early 2000s.

I don’t think many were sold.

I seem to recall 100,000 miles servicing as a selling point but maybe wrong.

I remember my Dad wondering why Vauxhall hadn't tried selling smaller Chevrolets after the Omega went out of production, after we had an Impala as a hire car when we visited in 2008. 

The Australian made Holdens would have been a bit easier, considering they were RHD.

[83C]

1 minute ago, Richard_FM said:

I remember my Dad wondering why Vauxhall hadn't tried selling smaller Chevrolets after the Omega went out of production, after we had an Impala as a hire car when we visited in 2008. 

The Australian made Holdens would have been a bit easier, considering they were RHD.

Aside from the HSV versions (VXR8 etc), the Commodore probably wouldn't have sold all that well here. By the mid-2000s Vauxhall were the last 'non-premium' manufacturer here to offer a big saloon, and as good as the Omega was (albeit a bit long in the tooth) the sales figures just didn't support bringing in or developing a replacement. Ford had come to that conclusion even earlier, with nothing brought in to replace the Scorpio when that was killed off in the late 1990s. Almost anyone who wants a big saloon in that segment wants either an A6, 5 series or E-class. The French made a valiant effort at providing something a bit different with the Citroen C6 and the Peugeot 607 (remember them?) but sales were minimal. Another thing against importing Commodores and Falcons is the engine range - the VE Commodore came with a 3.0 V6 as the base engine, there wasn't really a properly efficient option. Ok, a Euro-spec engine could have been fitted, but at what cost? Vauxhall/GM knew having a big saloon in the range was of little value in Europe and they probably made the right call in not bringing in a replacement other than a few hundred VE/VF Commodores acting as the halo model with mental performance. 

[Missy Charm]

8 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

Was it marketed as a Chrysler rather than a Dodge?

That Viper (SRT/10) was, however later personal imports were simply badged 'Dodge Viper' as they were American market cars and not subject to the same copyright concerns.  

To answer @LightBulbFun's question: there is a vehicle called a Dodge SRT-10, which is an official Dodge product rather than a misnamed Dodge dodge (dodging copyright).  The real SRT-10 is a variant of the Ram pickup, fitted with the Viper V10 and a Tremec T-56.  It carried various other Viper styling cues and was rear wheel drive:

There are, no doubt, a few knocking round here, which is perhaps what you're looking at on the DVLA record for 'Dodge SRT-10'.  Note that the truck is the genuine SRT-10, and the 'SRT/10' when applied to the Viper is just a marketing ploy.  It's possible that the SRT/10 name only existed on sales brochures and the like.  

[bunglebus]

3 hours ago, warch said:

Back in the days before we used to google everything we didn't understand I spent ages wondering why a bloke in my local town owned a Hilux with a Volkwagen badge on the front.

I used to live opposite a guy that had fitted a Taro bed on his HiLux - swage lines are totally different 

[Richard_FM]

20 minutes ago, 83C said:

Aside from the HSV versions (VXR8 etc), the Commodore probably wouldn't have sold all that well here. By the mid-2000s Vauxhall were the last 'non-premium' manufacturer here to offer a big saloon, and as good as the Omega was (albeit a bit long in the tooth) the sales figures just didn't support bringing in or developing a replacement. Ford had come to that conclusion even earlier, with nothing brought in to replace the Scorpio when that was killed off in the late 1990s. Almost anyone who wants a big saloon in that segment wants either an A6, 5 series or E-class. The French made a valiant effort at providing something a bit different with the Citroen C6 and the Peugeot 607 (remember them?) but sales were minimal. Another thing against importing Commodores and Falcons is the engine range - the VE Commodore came with a 3.0 V6 as the base engine, there wasn't really a properly efficient option. Ok, a Euro-spec engine could have been fitted, but at what cost? Vauxhall/GM knew having a big saloon in the range was of little value in Europe and they probably made the right call in not bringing in a replacement other than a few hundred VE/VF Commodores acting as the halo model with mental performance. 

Yes that's roughly what I was thinking.

[MJK 24]

My Grandad had a H reg Dacia Dropside pick up on his farm.

He paid about £600 for it at about 18 months old with 4,000 miles on.

The rot was fast and terminal.  It went for scrap at about six years old with 20,000 miles on!  Rear brakes sticking on was the main issue, aside from the rot.

[MJK 24]

I’ll see if I can find actual photos!

[chaseracer]

1 hour ago, Richard_FM said:

I remember my Dad wondering why Vauxhall hadn't tried selling smaller Chevrolets after the Omega went out of production, after we had an Impala as a hire car when we visited in 2008. 

The Australian made Holdens would have been a bit easier, considering they were RHD.

They did LHD too.  The later (2011-17)  Chev Impala 9C1 PPV police cars were made in Australia by Holden, then shipped to the US.

[Richard_FM]

4 hours ago, chaseracer said:

They did LHD too.  The later (2011-17)  Chev Impala 9C1 PPV police cars were made in Australia by Holden, then shipped to the US.

OK I didn't know that.

[barrett]

On 10/14/2022 at 9:49 PM, artdjones said:

Pegaso made cars for a while. Whether anyone tried to sell them in Britain, I don't know.

They did not. They only built two Z102s in RHD. MY boss used to own one, but sadly it was never running properly/for long enough for me to drive it. I did sit in it and make brum brum noises a couple of time though. Nice thing, but I'm not sure they ever actually worked properly. Most of the survivors seem to be suspiciously low mileage...

[lesapandre]

Pegaso made various commercial vehicles in Spain  - taken over by Iveco in 1990. I don't think any were imported to the UK.

[sierraman]

19 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Pegaso made various commercial vehicles in Spain  - taken over by Iveco in 1990. I don't think any were imported to the UK.

The Troner was albeit briefly imported to the U.K. but an absolute disaster. 

[lesapandre]

Pegaso history (in Spanish) with great archive pictures:

 

[Stanky]

I clearly recall a stunningly beautiful Pegaso Z-102 Spyder Rabasada featured in C&SC magazine in the early 00s, this one I think

All 1950s flowing lines and exposed rivet heads. Apparently not very successful racing in period due to lots of crashes. Still beautiful

[lesapandre]

15 minutes ago, sierraman said:

The Troner was albeit briefly imported to the U.K. but an absolute disaster. 

Even a couple for sale!

https://skeltontransport.com/collections/classics-for-sale

[HillmanImp]

Not sure if this is strictly for this thread, but I was looking for my old green mk4 cortina yesterday on the DVLA website. It seems that I've forgotten the number plate as when I typed it in, it came up with this. 

 Never knew that 'Colt' was a manufacturer over here instead of Mitsubishi. Unless I've forgotten that as well as the Cortinas number plate. 

[lesapandre]

From 1974 onwards - British market Mitsubishis were sold under the  Colt marque until a rebranding to Mitsubishi about a decade later. May have been at the time the original name may have been considered too Japanese?

[quicksilver]

On 10/15/2022 at 9:47 AM, hennabm said:

I remember the Vauxhall dealer in Edinburgh trying to sell Cadillacs in the late 90s/early 2000s.

I don’t think many were sold.

I seem to recall 100,000 miles servicing as a selling point but maybe wrong.

I know of someone who has a RHD UK-spec Cadillac Seville and reckons it's pretty rare now.

I also have a vague memory that when my dad bought his Zafira 20 years ago, the Vauxhall garage had a separate small section of the showroom for American GM products with a Camaro in it.

 

[UltraWomble]

On 10/15/2022 at 9:53 AM, Rocket88 said:

Have we had these yet?

Do you need to call it Mister?

[Dan the van]

Panhard,whose wonderfully quirky and very expensive cars were available in the UK from 1957 to 1967 in rhd flavour.I well remember when I was a lad a chap across the road had a white Pl17(and an impossibly attractive mistress who drove a yellow Fiat 128 estate but I digress). He upgraded to a 1967 CT24 in red which he kept for a good few years.