(first posted 11/27/2014) There was a time when every country still fervently wanted its own domestic automobile. For Turkey, that took two tries; the first one, the ill-fated Devrim of 1961, was a disaster from the get-go, including a break down of the one carrying the President of Turkey in a parade to show it off to the nation, within 100 meters of the start. Not surprisingly, it never went into production.
But in 1966, the Anadol went into production, with substantially greater success. It was a fiberglass sedan, developed by the UK’s Reliant, famous for its three-wheelers, and powered by UK Ford engines. Variations of it lasted until 1984, and a pickup version until 1991. What more is there to say, except to show you the whole Anadol history in a condensed form. As well as a vehicle built in the former Anadol factory that is quite common in the US today.
Here’s a first generation A1 (what else?) shot in Cambridge, UK. If the front end and other aspects of its design look somewhat familiar, it’s because it was designed by Tom Karen of Ogle Design, who also designed the Scimitar, a car featured here in David Saunders’ COAL. Not a bad looking car, for 1966. The A1 was powered by a 1200cc Ford ‘Kent’ pushrod four, and later, a 1300cc version.
This is an A1 MkII from 1974. It’s trying to stay stylish, something the Anadol would struggle with more and more as the years went on.
A four door joined the Anadol lineup in 1973. This is a A2 SL, as built from 1976-1981. Also known as the Anadol Brougham.
In 1970, a pickup was wisely added to the Anadol line. I hear it was Borat’s preferred truck. In later years, the ‘Pinto’ crossflow OHC four supplanted the Kent, in 1300 and 1600cc versions. After 1983, a 1900cc diesel version was also offered.
Of course, every indigenous car maker has to test its mettle with a genuine sports car. Anadol developed the STC-16 by itself; no Brits were invited on this project. ‘STC’ stood for ‘Sports Turkish Car’, but among the well-off Turkish youth that it was targeted to, it stood for “Süper Türk Canavarı” (Super Turkish Monster). The 1600cc Ford engine under the fiberglass body made 68 hp and propelled the STC to a top speed of 99 mph. Not exactly world class, but it was hot stuff in Turkey in 1973. Only 176 STCs were made; presumably the target demographic was a bit small still then.
The SV-1600 station wagon appeared in 1973 too, and sported (fiberglass) bodywork quite unique to itself. It reflected Reliant’s Scimitar even more than the coupe and sedan. This was the world’s first five-door fiberglass car.
The beginning of the end was the very unfortunately-styled A8-16 of 1981. Trying to emulate the Saabs and Volvos of the late 70s, the A8 came off looking like the Turkish version of what NHTSA might have built as a “safety demonstration car”, or something like that.
The back end was only slightly less ugly. And the interior was retro-grade too. The A8-16 was a…turkey (sorry; I couldn’t resist). Production ended after only three years. The pickup soldiered on until 1991, and then Anadol was no more. The Otosan factory was bought by Ford, which started building its vehicles there.
Including all the Transit Connects that are exported to the US. So the Anadol story reflects the typical realities of globalization: only the big survive.
As they’d been using Ford engines throughout it seems appropriate that Ford bought the factory. Funny thing; the original A1 looks something like a slightly smoother version of the Mk.II Ford Escort of 1975. http://www.sk4.co.uk/other/ford.jpg
I assume Ogle had nothing to do with the A8 (I hope they didn’t anyway!).
Turkey’s own auto products are still going fairly strong. You can still get a DeSoto SUV!
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-cool-desoto.643984/page-3
The name seems related to a steroid product or do I just have a sick mind?
No but we get Panadol for pain relief in the UK.Thanks for another car I’d never heard of Paul
I feel like I need a couple of Panadol after seeing that A8-16. Ugh!
I knew the 1st gen Transit Connects were built in Turkey, I wasn’t aware the 2nd gen was too.
The Anadol actually started out looking like a slightly more “mainstream” looking version of a Matador coupe being built at the same time. Even the Anadol name LOOKS like an anagram for matador. And just like the AMC product, subsequent revisions got plainer looking/uglier looking. And yet, the sport coupe looks a bit like the air-cooled FWD sport coupe Honda built just before they ditched air-cooling to build the Civic.
BTW, has any other company built a 4 door fiberglass bodied car? Is the distinction of the first/only 5 door fiberglass passenger car also still standing?
The gen 2 TC is built both in Turkey and Valencia Spain. I’m not sure we’re getting any of the Spanish ones or not.
The large van Ford Transit is built in the US, replacing the Econoline.
The MG 1300 was built in Arica, Chile, with a fibreglass body.
http://autoschilenos.blogspot.com/2010/12/mg-1300.html
Israel’s own equivalent of the Anadol (which was actually sold in Israel), the Rom Carmel had 4 doors too – and there was a station wagon on or about that time, so I’m not sure who was first. Oh: the Israeli car was just as dreadful.
That’s the Rom Carmel. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocars_Co.
A friend of mine just moved to Turkey he noticed another Turkish product, the Tofaş, based on the Fiat 131. Personally I really like the look of it but he tells me it’s gained a reputation as a car you don’t want to be seen in.
I don’t about the car, but the model is a delight!
You mean, Turkish delight?
(couldn’t resist)
🙂
We need something beautiful, like the “Turkish delight”, to counteract that A8-16. Good night, that’s an ugly car.
Turkey is making a lot of cars nowadays. And the upcoming Ram Promaster City for the US will be another Turkish import, as far as as I know, as it’s been made there for a long time as the Fiat Doblò.
Fiat also makes its smaller Fiorino there, alongside its badge engineered siblings, Citroën Nemo and Peugeot Bipper.
Renault builds cars there too. They sell their Symbol in Chile, taking advantage in advertising it as “Made in Europe”, which is both deceitful (people will believe its French) and technically wrong, as the plant is in hype Asian side of Turkey.
R P Notario:
Unfortunately, Renault isn’t the only company that is (appearing to) mislead customers. Volkswagon in the U.S. tells potential customers it’s products are “German engineered”. I’m sure if they said that they were MANUFACTURED in Mexico they wouldn’t be quite as popular.
Marijn:
When you point out that the Tofas is based on the 131 it becomes a bit more clear when you look at the “greenhouse”. I always liked the looks of the 131 and almost bought one back in the mid 70s.
Indeed. To me “German engineering”, “Japanese technology” or “Italian design” are always a give away: that product was likely made in China, and certainly not in the country named
Something else I just remembered: Some of the Skoda print ads here have “Made in Europe” on them. In this case, that is correct. But I wonder what do the importer thinks people think of when hearing about Skoda, that decided it was necessary to make the European origin explicit.
Tofas started making its version of the Fiat 124 in 1971. Later, they added the 131, and would make both models concurrently for a number of years. At the same time as Tofas launched their 124, Oyak-Renault started production of the Renault 12. As in Spain, both models were direct competitors, and big sellers.
I think the final assembly point for the North American Generation 2 Transit Connect is Valencia Spain, though the VIN starts with an N, which is the same as the NA Gen 1 Transit Connects that were built in Turkey. Next time you are at a Ford dealer check out the Ford window sticker for the assembly breakdown.
There’s actually another fascinating chapter to the Anadol story. A modified version of the A1 was intended to be New Zealand’s first locally-built car, the Anziel Nova. It was intended to use the running gear from the top-selling NZ-assembled MkII Ford Cortina. The Anziel project was instigated by Alan Gibbs, a former government employee who went on to become one of NZ’s key entrepreneurs, ultimately creating the Gibbs Aquada amphibious car that Sir Richard Branson used to set the record for crossing the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle. Ironically government regulations were what stopped the Anziel getting off the ground – although calling it Nova (Spanish for “it won’t go”) was unfortunate! Although little information remains about the Anziel today, it one of those cars that Kiwi motoring fans keep in the back of their minds.
The photo below is of the prototype Anziel. Photo is copyrighted but is allowed to be used in blogs with the folowing citation: courtesy of “The Dominion Post Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library” http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=49521.
In the U.S., there a long-running urban legend that the Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Latin American countries, and eventually had its name changed, because “Nova” means “it doesn’t go” in Spanish. Those stories have been thoroughly debunked.
Part of the problem is that “Nova” doesn’t exactly mean “it doesn’t go” in Spanish. If you break it into two separate words, “no va”, that translates literally as “no go”, which kind of means “it doesn’t go”. But that isn’t how one would normally say “it doesn’t go” in Spanish, and you need to break “Nova” into two separate words with a different pronunciation to get there. As the first web site linked below puts it, suggesting that Spanish speakers wouldn’t buy a car called “Nova” because its name means “it doesn’t go” is akin to suggesting that English speakers wouldn’t buy a dinette set with “Notable” in its name because that means “no table”.
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
http://spanish.about.com/cs/culture/a/chevy_nova.htm
General Motors de Argentina manufactured the first and third generation of the Chevrolet Nova as “400” and “Chevy” respectively, because of what “Nova” may have suggested to potential costumers.
In the south and eastern parts of Argentina (where Buenos Aires is located) and Uruguay also, the rioplatense spanish is spoken, which is quite different in some ways when you compare it with the Spanish spoken in, f.e., México. One of these differences is that we don´t use the future tenses.
“No va” means in present “doesn´t go”. The correct future form is “no irá” that could be translated as “it won’t go”.
In Rioplatense Spanish we would use for the future the construction “no va a …”: the present form y used as a future form.
This means that “Nova” could start this sentences:
Nova … a andar (it won’t go)
Nova … a arrancar (it won´t start)
Nova … a servir (it won´t work)
etc.
Also to say that something “no va” in Porteño slang y to say that somenthing is outdated, not cool, etc.
Yes that pre dated the Turkish car but youve said it all Scott
From certain angles there’s quite a bit of Marina and also Ital in saloon, in the styling of this. That is not a compliment.
You could also there’s a little bit of Bristol 603 in the first cars.
Whoa, the A8-16 looks absolutely homemade to me, as if some guy tinkered it up in his garage on his leisure. But the other cars aren’t bad looking, especially the STC and the wagon. I did know about Anadol, but I’d never realized they kept making cars well into 1980s and even 1990s.
The A8 looks like an early 900 with a really bad headache.
Looking at the A-1, I’m seeing some sort of Volvo Amazon / Ford Falcon mashup (not a bad start) with the front end from a ’57 Ford as described over the phone.
The wagon is reminding me of something Japanese, but I can’t place it right now.
I’d heard of the Anadol before, but wasn’t aware they were in production for so long. The A8 is rather unfortunately styled, though. Wow.
I wonder what would have happened back in the 80’s if Malcolm Bricklin had gone shopping for a cheap car further east than Yugoslavia… We could have had *real* turkeys, instead…
But not surprised about the fact that these Eastern European/West Asian producers got snapped up by the major producers…
I remember seeing a lot of Anadols when we lived in Turkey during the late 60s and early 70s. They also produced their own version of the Fiat 124, called the Murat. If you got picture of one in your Coke bottle lid, you’d win it. They produced the Renault 12 too. Most of the cars we saw there were Chevys and Plymouths from the 40s and 50s, being used as taxis. We rode to school in a 57 Chevy !!
I wonder how it was fuel economy wise ~ I assume the fiber glass body made it lighter than a steel body would have been ? .
The little yellow Sports Model looks neat to me .
When I lived in Centro America in the mid 1970’s , ALL the Car Folks there asked me why the hell GM named such a great car ‘ No Go ? ‘ so it’s NOT a myth *if* you bother to check where Spanish is spoken .
-Nate
Not Turkish, but photographed in Turkey. I shot this photo of two college classmates posing in front of a 1950 Buick in Istanbul in 1972. It’s hard to imagine today’s college seniors posing overseas with a 1993 Buick. Who would even notice it? That Buick REALLY looked old when it was just 22. I believe the two mosques in the background are the Blue Mosque (foreground) and Hagia Sophia (background). You can just see the fin and tail light of a 1960 Dodge showing through some car windows behind the Buick.
The Anadol A8-16 looks like it was styled by a child – though I could have come up with something less hideous when I was ten. Otosan built a version of the last Ford Taunus (Cortina in the UK and other markets) until 1994 with bits of the Orion and Sierra stuck on.
Anadol-that sounds like an aspirin or pain reliever.
IN the UK we have a haemorrhoid ointment called “Anusol”
We have that on Canada as well.
On the whole, it feels good.
Well done. Like chamois cream, beneficial on the (w) hole.
When you are glad to get a bum deal.
BMC Turkey which was formed in cooperation with the British Motor Corporation during the 1960s is another company that in the right circumstances could have diversified from building commercial vehicles and gone into building cars, more specifically locally built possibly fiberglass-bodied versions of the Mini and 1100/1300 as was sold in Chile and later Venezuela.
While we are on the subject of Turkish cars, I seem to recall seeing somewhere pictures of Dodge taxicabs which were sort of “stretch” with some weird proportions. I do not recall if they were 1956 or 1957, but they were really odd looking.
That 2-door could be a poor man’s Bristol 603 !