Foreign cars? They'll never catch on!

[barrett]

Thought some of you might enjoy these scans from the fantastic Modern Mechanix blog

 

Toyota and Datsun's initial attack on the US market was a total disaster, Toyota actually pulled out for a few years and I think Datsun only sold trucks for a long time, which is why no one in Detroit paid much attention when the '66 Corona and Bluebird 510 arrived...

 

Subaru 360s of course were imported en masse by Malcolm Bricklin who thought they would be a perfect rival to the Beetle. Naturally not many people agreed and he infamously had so many unsold cars hanging around he started to convert them into competition cars for a new series of very slow racing. that didn't catch on either, for some reason.

 

Now days it's easy to forget how little we knew about Soviet cars when the Iron Curtain was still around, so this would've been something of a scoop at the time. Interesting to see that the Syrena pictured is actually a pre-production prototype

[cms206]

 

 

"... It has such nobby innovations as directionals and a radio. Reds claim four-seater goes 45 miles on a gallon of gas, does 65mph."

 

Possibly my favourite phrase of the day. I shall have to start referring to my indicators as directionals. I also like how the Soviets are referred to as Reds as if Reds was a person and the lack of grammar...

[Negative Creep]

I don't understand that phrase. Is it supposed to be condescending?

[Cheggers]

Great finds, you forget how much acceptance of imported cars has changed over the years

[wuvvum]

I would imagine the memory of WW2 was still too fresh in the '50s for many Americans to consider buying Japanese cars.

[flat4alfa]

So much has changed

 

Vehicle manufacturing plants in the US :

 

Toyota 6

Honda 4

Nissan 3

Mazda 3

Fuji 1

[AnthonyG]

I don't understand that phrase. Is it supposed to be condescending?

 

I think its derived from the american english term 'Nob' to mean rich, wealthy person. So its being ironic* about the cars level of 'luxury' equipment I think.

 

 

 

 

* Not something Americans are generally very good at....

[eddyramrod]

Great finds, you forget how much acceptance of imported cars has changed over the years

 

Yes, look how difficult it is to buy a new car now that isn't German or Japanese, wherever you are in the Western World!