Autoshite manufactured under licence.

[warren t claim]

Looking at the recent FSO threads has got me thinking. What discontinued model could be made under licence in another country and reimported back into the UK and sold as a budget brand whilst still being a viable financial proposition for the importers?

 

Triggers FSO advert dates from 1983 and prices the cheapest FSO at £2599 which works out at about £6750 in todays money.

 

Is there anything that you would like to see remanufactured and imported for that money?

 

Is there still a market in the UK for budget brands using cast off designs?

 

Would you pay nearly £7000 for a Mk3 Astra made in a third world country? (Yes I know Ellesmere Port is a third world country but that's not what I mean!)

 

Would you buy a New Lada Riva if you had the chance? Or maybe an Iranian 405?

[Cavcraft]

Ellesmere Port has been promoted?

 

I want to see Ladas re-imported and I'd honestly love to see another cache of Maestro bodyshells (ideally vans) morphed into horrendously cobbled together motors. A bit like those Chinese ones pictured not so long back but without the side windows. They should also be available badly hand sign writted with shit like 'Cars an vans surviced cheep' or perhaps be seen on Road Wars running on three wheels with a load of stolen church roof lead in the back being chased by a Daewoo rozzer car.

[warren t claim]

I think the Maestro van could make it as a Chinese import marketed at the secondhand Berlingo buyer. All it would need is a simple, modernish diesel.

[Pete-M]

Mk2 Escorts, but I always say that.

[warren t claim]

Mk2 Escorts, but I always say that.

 

Get a bank loan.

 

There's plenty of room in Halewood for you to start the Pete-M AVO production line.

 

I think it would work!

[cort16]

I always though the Rover 600 was a bit of a looker. Still looks okay now and drives quite nicely. One of them brand new for £7500 would be alright if they could find a decent engine to put in it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Anything like this would get laughed outta town in todays car market I reckon. PLus you'd have to make it pass modern crash tests and emissions tests, which would need paying for by the customer ultimately and would wipe out any financial gains you'd made from using an oldskool design. Thats why an FSO-style offering does not exist today!

[garethj]

Agree with Mr_B here, if it hasn't got loads of NCAP stars and 0g/km emissions then it won't sell. 10 years ago when it was just cupholders that people wanted there might have been a chance....

 

Your only way in is to find a very tough fleet manager who'd see the value in simple & cheap Peugeot 405 diesels but I reckon you've got more chance of having a period.

 

The road tests that Trig scans usually start with "is this eastern bloc shit an alternative to a second hand real car" (I'm paraphrasing here) and that was back when the alternative was a second hand Maestro. Imagine going home to see the bread knife and saying "well, love, would you prefer a Maestro or an FSO for our new family car?"

 

Actually, most of us know what the result of that conversation would be

[Richard]

Mk2 Escorts, but I always say that.

 

Get a bank loan.

 

There's plenty of room in Halewood for you to start the Pete-M AVO production line.

 

I think it would work!

 

About 15 years ago it struck me that it might be a good idea to remanufacture Escort shells for competition use. I thought, and still think, that they would make better stock cars than spaceframed Sierras do. It never progressed beyond the idle thought stage though. You couldn't produce complete Escorts now. There are a million standards it doesn't conform to and making it conform would ruin it.

 

When they tried importing the Hindustan Ambassador it ended up being hideously expensive, over £10k IIRC. It's hard to think of a reason for buying one instead of a nearly new Mondeo or a restored proper Morris Oxford.

[dieselnutjob]

The Peugeot 206 is still begin produced all over the place, South America, Iran, China etc

[Formula Autos]

Presumably the Roewe (Chinese Rover)* would count?

 

*Not casual, Mind Your Language style racism, this really is what they're called.

[HillmanImp]

Do cars need ECUs in order to comply with modern emmissions requirements (probably one for stupid question amnesty there)? This thread has just got me thinking how nice it would be for people too scared to have an old car, to have a new one that just worked with no electical gubbins to constantly go wrong. What it wrong with a handbrake that you pull up from the floor?

 

Friends cars are constantly breaking due to the electrics even though there is sod all wrong with the cars mechanicals. Can cars be made without ECUs these days?

 

Could you build a modern car to crash test standards but simplfy it and just chuck in a normal engine and 5 seats with a cassette player (probably going too far there).

[garethj]

Do cars need ECUs in order to comply with modern emmissions requirements

Yes, and I think ABS is mandatory so there's another ECU for ya

Could you build a modern car to crash test standards but simplfy it and just chuck in a normal engine and 5 seats with a cassette player (probably going too far there).

Yes, ish. But without aircon, airbags, satnav, central locking and too-bright headlamps you won't sell any so it won't make any money

[Cavcraft]

And there lies the problem I suppose. We could start our own car company off, go 'back to basics' and have some asthamtic but dead reliable old 8V lump in a retro look bodyshell with painted dashboard and virtually no spec. But the only buyers would be us, a couple of really tight paperclip sales companies and half a dozen slightly confused pensioners who would drive the wrong way up the M6 at 4.00 in the afternoon, crash and we'd get sued for not having airbags in the sunvisors.

 

It'd be fun though. We could sit in an office full of 1970's furniture with bottles of vodka in the drawers, loads of scud magazine cut out pictures on the wall, shout abuse at the workers via a tannoy and keep the sexual harrassment claim files in the bottom draw of the filing cabinet so we clock the secretary's derrier when she bent down to get them.

Obviously none of us would drive our products either, we'd just lord round in 604s, Solaras and Maxis because they're more reliable.

[barrett]

Cavette, you just summed up my ideal job!

 

Back to the original question, when was the first lot of Daewoos imported over here? Because they pretty much meet all the criteria, and they were fairly successful amongst the demographic that would've previously bought a Lada or FSO

[dollywobbler]

Think 1994 or 5 for the Daewoos? Maybe 1993.

 

Can't help thinking that Reliant would have survived if they'd kept making a low-tech car but actually fitted four wheels to the things. Imagine if they'd pre-empted the Aixam!

[barrett]

Think 1994 or 5 for the Daewoos? Maybe 1993.

 

Can't help thinking that Reliant would have survived if they'd kept making a low-tech car but actually fitted four wheels to the things. Imagine if they'd pre-empted the Aixam!

 

They did! They sold those French sans permis thingies for a while under the Reliant name, and they bombed!

I'd have to disagree with that anyway, I think the only reason they survived as long as they did was because they were making three-wheelers and were the only company to cater for that very small part of the market.

IIRC they changed the law regarding driving 3 wheeled cars on a 'bike license so it only applied if you passed your 'bike test before such-and-such a date, which essentially stopped any new customers existing. I'd also hazard a guess that a 4 wheeled Reliant would never pass crash tests, because it's classed as a motorcycle and sidecar combo it must come under that umbrella in terms of safety too....

[gallondrunk]

.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I would have an Iranian 405, FWD or Peykan-based RWD. Shame they don't offer an XUD option.

[Richard]

Think 1994 or 5 for the Daewoos? Maybe 1993.

 

Can't help thinking that Reliant would have survived if they'd kept making a low-tech car but actually fitted four wheels to the things. Imagine if they'd pre-empted the Aixam!

 

Isn't that the Kitten?

[dollywobbler]

S'pose so, which I guess suffered because it cost about eleventy times as much as a proper car...

 

Point taken!

[Timewaster]

Anything like this would get laughed outta town in todays car market I reckon.

 

 

Unless it had a german badge!

[Alexg]

I think the last of these types of cheap old designs was the Perodua Kelisa that was discontinued a couple of years ago. They were even available without ABS (not considered mass produced enough to need comply with that EU reg). Unless the Chinks start importing the Rover Streetwise I don't see it happening again

[cort16]

Maybe the way to do it would be to refurbish existing shite boxes. Buy up mk 2 mondeos or Rover 600's then ship them off somewhere with cheap labour to have engine rebuilds, re-wire, respray, grot removal, remove packing/gaffa tape from bumpers etc then ship them back and sell them with 2 years warranty for £7495.

If you're in this market you just want something cheap and with a warranty. Probably more environmental than building a brand new car as well.

[Split_Pin]

Like Formula Autos, I would like to see the Roewe 750 imported back to the UK. And the MG version, I think its called 'MG 7' or something. Unless they have monumentally buggered around with the structure of the car, they should still pass crash tests. I read that the original 75 was very strong.

 

Unfortunately Ford own the Rover name now. What they wanted with it baffles me.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

They bought it to stop the chinese from knocking out some wobbly shite with a Rover badge and selling it two doors down from the 'Land Rover' dealer.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I think the Rover name is bundled with the whole Jaguar/Land Rover enterprise, so it's now owned by Tata.

[RedSparrow]

I think we should buy the rights and any remaining tooling to the original Metro, set up a factory in Bulgaria or something and flog them dirt cheap in nearby countries.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Think 1994 or 5 for the Daewoos? Maybe 1993.

 

Can't help thinking that Reliant would have survived if they'd kept making a low-tech car but actually fitted four wheels to the things. Imagine if they'd pre-empted the Aixam!

 

Isn't that the Kitten?

 

Reliant kitten 4 door prototype by waxy1977, on Flickr

 

[eddyramrod]

That looks so much like this!

The Maruti shown is effectively an old Suzuki Alto (which was a very cheap entry-level car anyway), produced in India and sold dirt cheap in whatever countries will have it, like Cyprus. This one has been operated as a rental from new and is about to be retired, as there is an age limit on rental cars here. I think it's 6 years. Remind me, when was this body available as a Suzuki? A lot more than 6 years ago, I think! Maruti are now making bland jellymoulds, just like everyone else, but at least they're still cheap.