Oddball Euro saloons

[D.E]

- You like Dafs

- But you prefer cars that are bigger and have four doors

- You have lots of money

- You ask Moretti to design and build a four door saloon, using Daf 55 parts

- Moretti builds something that looks like a combination of a Panther Rio and a Fiat 124, recycling parts from various manufacturers 

- You don't like the result (or you die, the stories regarding these circumstances are a bit muddy) and eventually your unique, "money is no object" saloon ends up in the Dafmuseum with less than 100 km on the clock:

[MiniMinorMk3]

Glas 1700

[RayMK]

When living in Germany 1966-69, Opel Admirals were not exactly common but I saw several of them.  Much more common was the Ford Taunus 20m (photo By Robotriot - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4620424), rarely seen in the UK.  Dad had a 17m estate (RHD!) but I once saw an Osi-Ford 20m when we stopped on the Autobahn with our Astral caravan.  The Osi is the coupe in the distance and was the reason I took the photo, such was its rarity.  Wiki photos of the Osi follow.

 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, D.E said:

- You like Dafs

- But you prefer cars that are bigger and have four doors

- You have lots of money

- You ask Moretti to design and build a four door saloon, using Daf 55 parts

- Moretti builds something that looks like a combination of a Panther Rio and a Fiat 124, recycling parts from various manufacturers 

- You don't like the result (or you die, the stories regarding these circumstances are a bit muddy) and eventually your unique, "money is no object" saloon ends up in the Dafmuseum with less than 100 km on the clock:

I don’t understand why they’d choose something so crap as base for something expensive. 😂

Like the Panther Rio - to anyone’s eyes it was a Dolomite but it was as dear if not more than an XJ6. 

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, neil72 said:

Oddball Fiat's in London

The Argenta… a bit too close to Argentina which would have gone down like a shit sandwich at the time… 

[PhilA]

6 hours ago, neil72 said:

Local Opel Diplomat!

Always loved the way GM said "okay, let's take a design from the US from a few years ago, shrink it down 30% and sell it in Europe".

[bunglebus]

Renault 7!

[Asimo]

Were obscure but prosaic British saloons marketed to Europe in this period? I know that Jaguars were, but what about, err, Humber Imperials or Vauxhall Crestas?  BMC Farinas were sold in Spain, but they were assembled there.

[Soundwave]

NSU Volkswagen K70. VW's first foray into water cooling and front wheel drive, and they did it by basically buying NSU and nicking their new design. Actually had one of these - this one - in the mid 2000s. It was rotten as a pear but actually quite nice to drive, although I only drove it a few times and it spent most of its time with me off road and getting worse. Not my proudest moment.

Sold it to a friend a few years back, where it's still awaiting restoration.



 

[MiniMinorMk3]

Austin Victoria. built at the Spanish Authi factory. It's the result of an ADO 16 that has spent the night with a Triumph Toledo.

[neil72]

1 hour ago, Soundwave said:

NSU Volkswagen K70. VW's first foray into water cooling and front wheel drive, and they did it by basically buying NSU and nicking their new design. Actually had one of these - this one - in the mid 2000s. It was rotten as a pear but actually quite nice to drive, although I only drove it a few times and it spent most of its time with me off road and getting worse. Not my proudest moment.

Sold it to a friend a few years back, where it's still awaiting restoration.



 

My brother bought one for a joke in the mid-80s when we were all in to VWs for £100, sold it for £200 to someone who wrapped it around a lampost about a week later!

[neil72]

90s oddball Maserati that sat on this driveway for a few years and then went when the house was sold.

[lesapandre]

3 hours ago, Asimo said:

Were obscure but prosaic British saloons marketed to Europe in this period? I know that Jaguars were, but what about, err, Humber Imperials or Vauxhall Crestas?  BMC Farinas were sold in Spain, but they were assembled there.

The answer is yes.

Rootes had a big export department - and certainly a prestigious showroom on the Place de l'Étoile in Paris. 

Their cars were shown at the  Salon de l'Automobile - Paris Motorshow and were sold into the French market in lhd form.

I've no information on how many of each model we're sold - looking at the old price lists for their cars, with import tax, they were about 20% more than the equivalent French model. 

They tended to sell the more specialised and chiq cars - as they could not compete on price  - convertibles and sports and the like. A few big Humbers certainly. 

Cars turn up for sale occasionally. This currently on LeBonCoin €10,000.

[lesapandre]

3 hours ago, Asimo said:

Were obscure but prosaic British saloons marketed to Europe in this period? I know that Jaguars were, but what about, err, Humber Imperials or Vauxhall Crestas?  BMC Farinas were sold in Spain, but they were assembled there.

GM exported a fair amount of their cars - Luton exports ran at up to 50% of cars made. A lot went to Europe.

[martc]

10 hours ago, lesapandre said:

The Chrysler 180 and associated Talbot Tagora spring to mind - though the former did better in parts of Europe - lots of diesels in Spain at one time (I think there was assembly there).

Yes, they were built in Spain. The 180 was originally a Humber design, you can certainly see a lot of Avenger in them, but they became a Chrysler due to the takeover of Rootes by them. There was also a smaller engined Chrysler 160 version. The 180 (or was it the 160?) was standard issue to Spanish taxi concerns (I've a feeling that the taxis were controlled by the Govt and the operators had little choice in which car to use).

Just a thought - the 160 could be the diesel, the 180 the petrol powered version.

 

 

[quicksilver]

First-gen Dacia Logan. Is this related to the Thalia?

 

[Madman Of The People]

45 minutes ago, Tayne said:

 

Hungarian plates as it turns out.

Renault Thalia by Tayne, on Flickr

These weird, booted Renault Clios were sold in Mexico as the Nissan Platina.  You occasionally see these in the southern US states bordering Mexico, all on Mexican number plates.

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

9 hours ago, neil72 said:

Oddball Fiat's in London

What's odd ( except survival rate) about a fiat 131???

[sheffcortinacentre]

8 hours ago, Tayne said:

I think I prefer Frua’s cabriolet 

 

 

FAB

[Missy Charm]

51 minutes ago, Tayne said:

 

Hungarian plates as it turns out.

Renault Thalia by Tayne, on Flickr

 

And a Corsa saloon... by Tayne, on Flickr

Uno Saloono by Tayne, on Flickr

Yaris saloon by Tayne, on Flickr

Fiesta Saloon by Tayne, on Flickr

Kia Pride Saloon by Tayne, on Flickr

There's a load of that sort of dross knocking about in India, too.  I've been.  Most of the cars there when I visited were small saloons of various sorts.  All seemed to be sporting badges of familiar, mostly Japanese, makes but the model designations appeared to be all over the place.  I think, too, that there was a fair amount of cross-breeding between makers to create mongrels: Nissans with Suzuki badges or Honda Toyotas and the like.  

Whilst there, I had the use of a car and driver.  The car was a 'Nissan Bluebird', but God knows if it had any relation to anything sold over here.  It was a saloon.  

[Richard_FM]

Turkey is an interesting country for cars, with a few locally made models not available in the UK, especially the Fiats.

[AnthonyG]

14 hours ago, lesapandre said:

The Valiants sold into the UK market were assembled and imported from...Australia - such is the sometime madness of multi-national corporations

This would have been because the Australian built cars would not have incurred any import taxes, being from a Commonwealth country (the old ‘Imperial Preference’). Both the square boxy Valiants and the later coke bottle style ones were sold here, from 67 to 74. Same for the equivalent Ford Falcons, also Australia sourced, although these weren’t available through regular Ford dealers, unlike the Valiants which you could order from any Chrysler UK dealer.

For the same reason - preferential import tariffs - most ‘American’ cars sold over here officially in the 1950s/1960s were actually assembled in Canada. 

All this came to an end when we joined the EEC in 1973, and the fuel crisis at the end of that year was the coup de grace for these Aussie tanks. 

As for the Chrysler 180/2 litre, as mentioned above this was designed by Rootes around the same time as the Avenger, and a variant with a V6 engine was planned as the Humber replacement (presumably using the name, as it survived on the Arrow Sceptre until 76). These plans were shelved at the very last minute, apparently the machinery for the engines was already being installed or something silly. The car was hastily rebranded as a Chrysler (although I think early ones on the French market were named Simca) and production moved to France and then Spain. Like everything else ‘Chrysler’ still made in early 1980, the very last Spanish ones were badged as Talbots.

They seem to be a bit of an iconic car over there now, as most Spanish films or TV shows set in the period feature one. 

[AnthonyG]

12 hours ago, neil72 said:

Oddball Fiat's in London

The Argenta (and the 132 it was based on) were fairly mediocre but the 131 was a big seller, popular not only in Italy but across Europe. 

The later Regata, a booted Strada, was probably a sales disappointment for Fiat, it was very much a stopgap though. 

[High Jetter]

8 hours ago, Soundwave said:

NSU Volkswagen K70. VW's first foray into water cooling and front wheel drive, and they did it by basically buying NSU and nicking their new design. Actually had one of these - this one - in the mid 2000s. It was rotten as a pear but actually quite nice to drive, although I only drove it a few times and it spent most of its time with me off road and getting worse. Not my proudest moment.

Sold it to a friend a few years back, where it's still awaiting restoration.



 

What about the Prinz tho?

[Dan_ZTT]

7 hours ago, quicksilver said:

First-gen Dacia Logan. Is this related to the Thalia?

 

I had one of these as a hire car in Morocco in 2008, it was somewhat underwhelming to say the least 

This thread has also reminded me of a girl called Thalia I knew 20 years ago, I wonder if she's aware of her namesake vehicle 

[MiniMinorMk3]

21 hours ago, RayMK said:

.  The Osi is the coupe in the distance and was the reason I took the photo, such was its rarity.  Wiki photos of the Osi follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 hours ago, Tayne said:

 

There was an OSI at TCE last year.

Lovely looking thing.

 

OSI 20m TS 2.3 by Tayne, on Flickr

 

 

ACA offered an OSI back in their November sale. It did not sell on an estimate of £28,000-£30,000

1968 OSI 20 MTS LHD | Sat 2nd & Sun 3rd November | Anglia Car Auctions

 

[sierraman]

I’d imagine a 2.3 engine would be pretty underwhelming in that. A small block Chevrolet on the other hand…

[lesapandre]

West Germany - Borgward P100. 1959-61. 2.2 litre.

[lesapandre]

Borgward Hansa notchback. 1955-9.

[lesapandre]

Alfa Romeo 6. 1979-86. 3-litre.