Economy car
Encyclopedia
An economy car is an automobile
that is designed for low cost operation. Typical economy cars are small, light weight, and inexpensive to buy. Economy car designers are forced by stringent design constraints to be inventive. Many innovations in automobile design were originally developed for economy cars, such as the Ford Model T
and the Austin Mini.
The precise definition of what constitutes an economy car has varied with time and place, based on the conditions prevailing therein, such as fuel prices, disposable income of buyers, and cultural mores. In any given decade, there has generally been some rough global consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirement
s for a highway-worthy car, constituting the most economical car possible. However, whether that consensus could be a commercial success in any given country depended on local culture. Thus in any given decade, every country has had a rough national consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirements for the least expensive car that wasn't undesirable, that is, that had some commercially attractive amount of market demand, making it a mainstream economy car. In many countries at various times, mainstream economy and maximum economy have been one and the same.
From its inception into the 1920s, the Ford Model T fulfilled both of these roles simultaneously in the US and in many markets around the world. In Europe and Japan in the 1920s and 30s, this was achieved by the much smaller Austin 7 and its competitors and derivatives, although it failed to be accepted on the US market even in the middle of the depression. From the 1940s and into the 1960s, the Volkswagen Beetle
played both roles throughout much of the world—in Germany and Latin America particularly—but its was let down by relatively high fuel consumption, such that British, French, Italian, and Japan
ese models, all with better fuel economy, could capture the maximum-economy position in their home countries (which was also mainstream there). Meanwhile, in the US, the Beetle and other imports could command the maximum-economy position, but the mainstream-economy position was commanded by cars that would seem more like mid-range or luxury models in some other markets. By the 1960s a new wave of front wheel drive cars with all independent suspension had been launched. By the 1970s the hatchback had become the standard body type for new economy car models. The Soviet bloc started selling poorly built, obsolescent or obsolete cars on the world market, at subsidised prices for hard foreign currency. Many of these cars were seen as the best value proposition
, because they were generally larger cars, for the same price as small western models; in the case of the Lada
they were let down by very poor fuel economy. In the mid 1980s, the Yugoslavia
n Zastava Koral
(Yugo) (a rebodied 1971-83 Fiat 127), was sold as the cheapest car on the US market, South Korea's Hyundai
models also sold well in the US, and have gone on to be successful around the world. Since the 1990s, the automotive industry
has become extensively globalized
, with all major manufacturers being multinational corporation
s using globally sourced raw materials and components. Today, every major manufacturer offers economy cars, including at least one truly small car that may fall into subclassifications such as subcompact car
, supermini
, B-segment; city car
; microcar
; and others. The U.S. market traditionally lagged behind other world markets in its adoption of truly small fuel efficient economy cars, but today it is catching up.
Features that in one decade were considered luxury items (for example, power steering, power (servo assisted) brakes, air conditioning, electric windows) would in later decades be viewed as appropriate as standard equipment even in economy models.
- it was produced by the thousands. It was inspired by the buckboard type horse and buggy, (used like a small two-seat pickup truck) popular in rural areas of the U.S. It had two seats, but was less versatile than the vehicle that inspired it. It was produced after a fire at the Oldsmobile plant, when the prototype was saved by a nightwatchman named Stebbins, (who later became the Mayor
of Detroit), and was the only product available to the company to produce, to get back on their feet.
Although cars were becoming more affordable before it was launched, the 1908–1927 Ford Model T
is considered to be the first true economy car, because the very few previous vehicles at the bottom of the market were 'horseless carriages' rather than practical cars. The major manufacturers at the time had little interest in low-priced models. The first 'real' cars had featured the FR layout first used by the French car maker Panhard
and so did the Model T.
Henry Ford declared at the launch of the vehicle -
The Ford Model T
was a large scale mass-produced
car; that very innovation, along with the attributes it required a simple, inexpensive design allowed it to be the first car to exemplify the ideals of the economy car. The innovations involved in making it a successful design were in its production and materials technology; particularly the use of new vanadium steel alloys. Model T production was the leading example of the Taylorism school of scientific management, (also known as Fordism
), and its production techniques evolved at the Highland Park Ford Plant
that opened in 1910, after it outgrew its Piquette Plant
. The River Rouge Plant
which opened in 1919, was the most technologically advanced in the world, raw materials entered at one end and finished cars emerged from the other. The innovation of the moving production line, was inspired by the 'dis-assembly' plants of the Chicago meat packing industry, reduced production time from twelve and a half hours, to just an hour and thirty-three minutes per car. Black was the only colour available because it was the only paint that would dry in the required production time. The continuous improvement of production methods, and economies of scale from larger and larger scale production, allowed Henry Ford to progressively lower the price of the Model T throughout its production run. It was far less expensive, smaller, and more austere than its hand-built pre-first world war contemporaries. The size of the Model T was arrived at, by making its track to the width of the ruts in the unsurfaced rural American roads of the time, ruts made by horse drawn vehicles. It was specifically designed with a large degree of axle articulation, and a high ground clearance, to deal with these conditions effectively. It had an under stressed 177 CID engine. It set the template for American vehicles being larger than comparable vehicles in other countries, which would later on have economy cars scaled to their narrower roads with smaller engines. The Ford Model T was voted Car of the Century
on December 18, 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1914 Ford was producing half a million Model Ts a year, with a sale price of less than . This was more than the rest of the U.S. auto industry combined and ten times the total national car production of 1908, the year of the cars launch.
The Ford Model T was the first automobile produced in many countries at the same time. It was the first 'World Car', since they were being produced in Canada and in Manchester, England starting in 1911 and were later assembled in Germany
, Argentina
, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan.
At the New York Motor Show in January 1915, William C. Durant
the head of Chevrolet
(and founder of GM), launched the Chevrolet Four-Ninety, a stripped down version of the Series-H, to compete with Henry Ford's Model T, and went into production in June. To aim directly at Ford, Durant said the new car would be priced at (the source of its name), the same as the Model T touring. Its introductory price was , however, although it was reduced to later when the electric starter and lights were made a option. Henry Ford responded by reducing the Model T to .
Subsequent decades led to economical cars that reflected the needs of their creators. The cycle car was an attempt in the period before 1922 in the post-First World War austerity period, as a form of "four-wheeled motorcycle
", with all the benefits of a motorcycle and side-car, in a more stable package. Crosley
, a U.S. appliance manufacturer, would also be an early pioneer of very small cars.
In 1923 Chevrolet tried again with the Chevrolet Series M 'Copper-Cooled', air-cooled car, designed by General Motors engineer at AC Delco Charles Kettering
, (who invented the points/condenser ignition system that was in use until the 1980s), it was a rare failure for him, due to uneven cooling of the inline four-cylinder engine.
The most development occurred in Europe. There was less emphasis on long-distance automobile travel, a need for vehicles that could navigate narrow streets and alleys in towns and cities (many were unchanged since medieval times), and the narrow and winding roads commonly found in the European countryside. Ettore Bugatti
designed a small car for Peugeot
. The 1911 Peugeot Bébé
Type 19. It had an 850 cc 4-cylinder engine. The Citroën Type A
was the first car produced by Citroën from June 1919 to December 1921 in Paris. Citroën had been established to produce the double bevel gears that its logo resembles, but had ended the First World War with large production facilities, from the production of much needed artillery shells for the French army. Andre Citroen
was a keen adopter of U.S. car manufacturing ideas and technology in the 1920s and 1930s. Andre Citroen re-equipped his factory as a scaled down version of the Ford River Rouge Plant, that he had visited in Detroit Michigan
. It was advertised as "Europe's first mass production car." The Type A reached a production number of 24,093 vehicles. The Opel 4 PS, Germany's first 'peoples car', popularly known as the Opel Laubfrosch
(Opel Treefrog), was a small two-seater car introduced by the then family owned auto maker Opel, early in 1924, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the little Torpedo
Citroën 5 CV
of 1922.
On an even smaller scale, European cars, such as the 747 cc Austin Seven
, (which made cyclecar
s obsolete overnight), would also start to catch on in Japan during the same time period, as a Datsun Type 11
that may have been pirated, at the start of their own automobile industry. It was also produced as a BMW Dixi
and BMW 3/15
in Germany, Rosengart
in France with French styled bodywork, and by American Austin Car Company
with American styling, (later American Bantam) in the U.S. It displaced the motorcycle and sidecar combination that was popular in Europe in the 1920s. It spawned a whole industry of 'specials' builders. Swallow Sidecars
switched to making cars based on Austin Seven chassis during the 1920s, then made their own complete cars in the 1930s as SS. With the advent of Nazi Germany the company changed its name: to Jaguar.
In the late-1920s, General Motors finally overtook Ford, as the U.S. new car market doubled in size, and fragmented into niches on a wave of prosperity, with GM producing a range of cars to match. This included a Chevrolet economy car that was just an entry level model for the range of cars. It was only a small part of the marketing strategy - "A car for every purse and purpose" of GM head Alfred P. Sloan
. Harley Earl
was appointed as head of the newly formed GM "Art and Color Section" of GM in 1927. Harley Earl and Alfred P. Sloan
implemented planned obsolescence
and the annual model change to emphasise design as an engine for the success of the company's products. This moved cars from being utilitarian items to fashionable status symbols - that needed regular replacement "to keep up with the Joneses." Later in 1937, the Art and Color Section was renamed the Styling Section, and a few years afterward became one of the GM technical staff operations as the Styling Staff. It was funded by high interest/low regular payments consumer credit, as was the 1920s boom in other consumer durable products. It marked the beginning of mass market consumerism
, that had been enabled by the efficiency of mass production and the moving production line. Until this time, manufacturers of consumer goods were concerned, by the possibility that the market would be fulfilled and demand would dry up. Henry Ford was wrong-footed by staying with the production oriented one size fits all, "any colour you like as long as it's black", Model T for far too long. The seller's market in new cars in the U.S. was over. Customers wanted choice. The 'one model' policy had nearly bankrupted the Ford Motor Company. By the end of production in 1927 it looked like a relic from another era. It was replaced by the Model A
.
In 1929 Chevrolet replaced the 171 CID straight-4 engine
that dated from 1913, with the 194 CID straight-6 engine
or "Stovebolt 6" that was to last until the 1970s as Chevrolet's base engine. A few years later Ford developed the Model 18 with the 221 CID flathead V8. The same car was available with a slightly reworked Model A engine, marketed until 1933 (in U.S.) as the Model B. In Europe, it remained in the Ford lineup, as the Ford V8 in Britain in the 1930s which was re-styled and relaunched as the post-war Ford Pilot
. They were viewed as large cars in Europe. The 1932 Ford V8 (Model 18)
coupe became the car of choice for post-war hot rod
ders. It was the first V8 engine in a low priced car, and along with the Chevrolet 6, showed how the U.S. was diverging from the rest of the world in its ideas about what constituted a basic economy car.
In 1928 Morris launched the first Morris Minor (1928)
in Britain to compete with the Austin Seven. Also that year German motorcycle
manufacturer DKW launched their first car, the P15, a rear wheel drive, wood and fabric bodied monocoque car, powered by a 600 cc an inline two-cylinder two-stroke engine.
Also, in the 1920s, Ford (with the Model T in Manchester, England), General Motors
(who took over Opel
in Germany and Vauxhall
in Britain), expanded into Europe. Most Ford and GM European cars, especially economy cars, were technologically conservative and all were rear wheel drive to a smaller European size, with improvements focused mainly on styling, (apart from the introduction of the 1935 monocoque Opel Olympia
, and the Macpherson strut
by Ford in the 1950s), until the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1931 the DKW F1
was launched. This was the first successful mass-produced front-wheel drive
car in the world. (The British 1928-30 Alvis cars
'FWD' models had handling problems and only 150 were made. The British 1929 BSA
was a three-wheel competitor to Morgan
and the motorcycle combination market, the 1931 four-wheeler was very short-lived. The 1929 U.S. Cord L-29 having been seriously flawed, production ended at 4,429. The 1930 U.S. Ruxton made about 500, production lasted for only four months.) The F1 featured a front-engine, front-wheel drive layout using a water-cooled 494 cc or 584 cc transverse two-stroke engine with chain drive. This was developed through the 1930s into the 1938 F8 model and the F9 that was not put into production because World War II started. By this time DKW had become the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. Their two-stroke engine technology was to appear in the postwar products of Harley-Davidson
, BSA
, Trabant
, Wartburg, Saab
, Subaru
, Piaggio
, Puch
, Kawasaki
, Mitsubishi
, Mazda
, Daihatsu, Honda
, and Suzuki
.
In the late 1920s in Germany
, Josef Ganz
independent car engineer/inventor and editor of Motor-Kritik
magazine and was a fierce opponent of the status quo of car design. He became a consultant engineer to Adler
in December 1930. In the first months of 1931, Ganz constructed a lightweight economy car or peoples car, prototype at Adler with a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and swing axle
independent rear suspension
. After completion in May 1931, Ganz nicknamed his new prototype Maikäfer (German for cockchafer
). In July 1931 he was also consultant engineer to BMW on the 1932-34 BMW 3/20
successor to the BMW 3/15
model. It featured transverse leaf independent front and rear suspension and an updated overhead-valve cylinder head
version of the Austin 7 based engine. After a demonstration of the Adler Maikäfer
by Ganz, the German Standard Fahrzeugfabrik company (unrelated to the British 'Standard' company), then purchased a license from Ganz to develop and build a small car according to his design. The prototype of this new model, which was to be called Standard Superior
, was finished in 1932. It featured a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and independent wheel suspension
with swing-axles
at the rear. The first production model of the Standard Superior was introduced at the IAMA (Internationale Automobil- und Motorradausstellung) in Berlin in February 1933. It had a 396 cc 2-cylinder 2-stroke engine. Because of some criticism to the body design, not in the least by Josef Ganz in Motor-Kritik
, it was followed in April 1933 by a slightly altered model. In November 1933, the Standard Fahrzeugfabrik introduced yet another new and improved model for 1934, which was slightly longer with one additional window on each side and had a small seat for children or as luggage space in the back. This car was advertised as the German Volkswagen. During the early 1930s German car manufacturers one by one adopted the progressive ideas published in Motor-Kritik since the 1920s. In the meantime in May 1933, the Jewish Josef Ganz was arrested by the Gestapo on trumped up charges of blackmail of the automotive industry, at the instigation of those that he had ferociously criticized. He was eventually released, but his career was systematically destroyed and his life endangered. He fled Germany in June 1934 – the same month Adolf Hitler gave Ferdinand Porsche
the brief for designing a mass-producible car for a consumer price of 1,000 Reichsmark. Production of the Standard Superior
ended in 1935. The company was forbidden by the Nazis from using the term 'Volkswagen'.
The Volkswagen Beetle
would be the longest-lasting icon of this 1930s era. Adolf Hitler
admired the ideals exemplified by the Ford Model T
, (even though he didn't drive himself), and sought the help of Ferdinand Porsche
to create a 'peoples-car' - literally Volks-Wagen, with the same ideals for the people of Germany. This car was to compliment the new Autobahns that were to be built. They had been planned under the Weimar Republic
, but he stole the credit for them. Many of the design ideas were plagiarised from the work of Hans Ledwinka
, the Tatra T97
and Tatra V570
with the Czechoslovakian Tatra (car)
company. It was also suspiciously similar in many ways to the Josef Ganz designed cars, it even looked very similar to the Mercedes-Benz 120H prototype of 1931. The Nazi "KdF-Wagen" ("Strength through Joy - Car") program ground to a halt before serious production had started because of World War II, but after the war, the Volkswagen
company would be founded to produce the car in the new democratic West Germany, where it would be a success. The KdF, was the Nazi state organisation to promote leisure activities of the population, approved of, and monitored by, the state.
The Steyr 50
streamlined small car was introduced in 1936 by the Austria
n manufacturer Steyr
. The car had a water-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine driving the rear wheels through a four-speed transmission. To save room and weight a dynastarter was used, which doubled as the axle of the radiator fan. It was regarded as the "Austrian Peoples' Car" and was affectionately referred to as the Steyr "Baby". Professor Porsche had, despite rumors, not been involved in the design or production of the 50. Moreover, the little Steyr offered better seating and luggage space than Porsche's Volkswagen with shorter overall length, a large sheet metal sliding roof and was available with hydraulic brakes (instead of the early Volkswagens' cable-operated ones). In early 1938, the car was revised. It got a more powerful engine and a longer wheelbase. The new model was called the Steyr 55 and went on sale in 1940. A total of 13,000 Steyr "Babies" were sold. The production of Steyr cars was discontinued during World War II
, after bombing of the factory. After the war, the factory was rebuilt and specialized in Austrian versions of the Fiat 500
and Fiat
1500. Today the Steyr factory produces the BMW X models for Europe.
From 1936 to 1955, Fiat
in Italy produced the advanced and very compact Topolino or "little mouse", the precursor of the 1950s Fiat 500
, it was designed by Dante Giacosa
. It was a similar size to the Austin Seven
but much more advanced. The Seven continued to be produced along with an updated and restyled closed body, known as the "Big Seven" until World War II, but still on the early 1920s chassis and running gear.
The pre-war European car market was not one market. Trade barriers fragmented it into national markets, apart from luxury cars where the extra cost of tariffs could actually make cars more exclusive and desirable. The only way for a car maker to enter another national market of a major European car making country, (and their colonial markets of the time), was to open factories there. For example, Citroen and Renault opened factories in England in this period. This situation only really changed with the post-war growth of the EEC (European Community) and EFTA
. The British RAC (Royal Automobile Club) horsepower taxation system had the secondary function of excluding foreign vehicles. It was specifically targeted at the Ford Model T, which the then government feared would wipe out the fledgling indigenous motor industry. It crippled car engine design in Britain in the inter-war period, and was abolished after World War II as part of the British export drive for desperately needed, hard foreign currency, because it made British cars uncompetitive internationally. The 1930s Morris Eight
, Ford Eight
(Ford Model Y which was related to the German Ford Köln
), and Standard Eight
(Standard, later became Triumph) were named after their RAC horsepower car tax rating.
was in charge of development. It had a unibody structure, an over-square ohv engine, a strut-type front suspension, small-diameter road wheels, a three-speed gearbox, brake and clutch pedals suspended from the bulkhead rather than floor-mounted, and integrated fender/body styling. It was light and technically advanced, but GM's management cancelled it, stating that it was not economically viable. The anticipated post Second World War US car market recession hadn't materialised. The MacPherson strut
, probably the world's most common form of independent suspension, evolved in the GM Cadet project by combining long tubular shock absorbers with external coil springs, and locating them in tall towers that directed the vertical travel of the wheels and also formed the "king pin" or "swivel pin axis" around which the front wheels could turn. It was elegantly simple, with just three links holding the wheel in place - the strut itself, the single-piece transverse lower arm, and the anti-roll bar that doubled as a drag link for the wheel hub. MacPherson took his ideas to Ford instead. They were first used in the French 1948 Ford Vedette
. Next in the 1950 British Ford Consul
and Zephyr (British mid-size cars, the same size as the Cadet), which owed more to the Cadet than just the MacPherson strut suspension, and caused a sensation when they were launched. In 1953, a miniaturised economy car version, the Ford Anglia 100E
was launched in Britain.
As Europe and Japan rebuilt from the war, their growing economies led to a steady increase in demand for cheap cars to 'motorise the masses'. Emerging technology allowed economy cars to become more sophisticated. Early post-war economy cars like the VW Beetle, Citroën 2CV
, Renault 4CV
, and Saab 92
looked extremely minimal; however, they were technologically more advanced than most conventional cars of the time.
The VW featured a 1.1-litre, air-cooled flat four, rear engine with rear-wheel drive, all round fully independent suspension, semi monocoque
construction and the ability to cruise on the autobahn for long periods reliably. This cruising ability and engine durability was gained by high top gearing, and by restricting the engine breathing and performance to well below its maximum capability. The Volkswagen Type 1 'Beetle' is the most popular single design of all time.
The 4CV was designed covertly by Renault engineers during the World War II German occupation of France
, when under strict orders to design and produce only commercial and military vehicles. Between 1941 and 1944, Renault was under the Technical Directorship of a francophile German installed former Daimler Benz engineer called Wilhelm von Urach who turned a blind eye to the small, economy car project suitable for the period of post war austerity. The design team went against the wishes of Louis Renault
who in 1940 believed that post-war Renault should concentrate on mid-range cars. Only after a row in May 1941 did Louis Renault approve the project. In October 1944 after the liberation, Louis Renault who was imprisoned on charges of collaboration, died in suspicious circumstances. In January 1945, newly nationalised Renault had officially acquired a new boss, the former resistance hero Pierre Lefaucheux
, (he had been acting administrator since September 1944). Lefaucheux had been arrested by the Gestapo in June 1944, and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. The Gestapo
transferred him to Metz
for interrogation, but the city was deserted because of the advancing allied front, the Germans abandoned their prisoner. In November 1945 the French government invited Ferdinand Porsche
oke engine technology was to appting the Volkswagen
project to France as part of war reparations. On 15 December 1945, Porsche was invited to consult with Renault
about the Renault 4CV. Lefaucheux was enraged that anyone should think the almost production-ready Renault 4CV was in any way inspired by the German Volkswagen, and that the politicians should presume to send Porsche to advise on it. The government insisted on nine meetings with Porsche which took place in rapid succession. Lefaucheux insisted that the meetings would have absolutely no influence on the design of the Renault 4CV, and Porsche cautiously went on record saying that the car would be ready for large scale production in a year. Lefaucheux was a man with contacts, as soon as the 4CV project meetings had taken place, Porsche was arrested in connection with war crimes allegations involving the use of forced labour including French in the Volkswagen plant in Germany. Ferdinand Porsche
, despite never facing any sort of trial, spent the next twenty months in a Dijon
jail. The 760 cc rear-mounted four-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission
4CV was launched at the 1946 Paris Motor Show and went on sale a year later. Volume production was said to have commenced at the company's Billancourt plant a few weeks before the Paris Motor Show of October 1947, although the cars were in very short supply for the next year or so. On the 4CV's launch, it was nicknamed "La motte de beurre" (the lump of butter); this was due to the combination of its shape and the use of surplus paint from the German Army vehicles of Rommel's
Afrika Korps
, which were a sand-yellow color.
The 375 cc Citroën 2CV
had interconnected all round fully independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, radial tyres and front wheel drive with an air-cooled flat twin engine. It was some 10 to 15 MPG (Imperial) more fuel efficient than any other economy car of its time – but with restricted performance to match. It was designed to motorise rural communities where speed was not a requirement. The original design brief had been issued before the Second World War in the mid 1930s. It had been completely redesigned three times, as its market and materials costs had changed drastically during its development period. Engine size increased over time; from 1970 it was a still tiny 602 cc.
The Saab 92
had a transversely mounted
, water-cooled
two-cylinder, two-stroke
based on a DKW
design, driving the front wheels. It had aircraft derived monocoque
construction, with an aerodynamic cW value (drag coefficient
) of 0.30 – not bettered until the 1980s. It was later developed into the Saab 93
, Saab 95
, and Saab 96
. It was produced until 1980. The mechanicals were used in the Saab Sonett
sports cars.
Also in the immediate postwar period, the monocoque FR layout Morris Minor
was launched in 1948. Because of costs it reused the pre-war side-valve
918 cc Morris 8 engine instead of an intended flat-four. It had a strong emphasis on good packaging and roadholding, with independent front suspension and rack and pinion steering, and American influenced styling. 1.3 million had been built by the end of production in 1971. It was designed by Alec Issigonis
.
In 1953, in Japan Hino
entered the private car market, by manufacturing Renault
's Renault 4CV
under licence.
While economy cars flourished in Europe and later Japan, the booming postwar American economy combined with the emergence of the suburban and interstate highways in that country led to slow acceptance of small cars. Brief economic recessions saw interest in economical cars wax and wane. During this time, the American auto manufacturers would introduce smaller cars of their own, in 1950 Nash Motors introduced the Rambler designed to be smaller than contemporary cars, yet still accommodate five passengers comfortably. Nash also contracted with British Motor Corporation to build the American designed Metropolitan
using existing BMC mechanical components, (the 1.5 Liter engine is a BMC B-Series engine also used in larger sizes in the MG MGA
and MG MGB
). Imported cars began to appear on the U.S. market during this time to satisfy the demands for true economy cars. An initial late 1940s–early 1950s success in a small way, was the monocoque Morris Minor launched in 1948, with its miniaturized Chevrolet styling. It was underpowered for the long distance roads of the U.S. and especially the freeways that were starting to spread across the country in the 1950s. The first British Motorway did not open until 1959. BMC preferred to develop the higher profit margin MGs for the American market and also worked with Nash and so passed on the opportunity. From the mid-1950s the Volkswagen Beetle
using clever and innovative advertising and capitalising on its very high build quality, durability and reliability, was a spectacular success. Having been designed for cruising the autobahns, freeways were no problem for it. It disproved the scepticism of American buyers as to the usefulness of, by their standards, such small cars. Initially the stylish Renault Dauphine
derived from the Renault 4CV
, looked like it would follow the VWs footsteps, but then was a failure due to mechanical breakdowns and body corrosion. This failure on the U.S. market in the late 1950s, may have harmed the acceptance of small cars generally in America.
In the late 1950s the DDR German Democratic Republic
produced its 'peoples car'. The Trabant
sold 3 million vehicles in thirty years due to its communist captive market
. It had a transverse two-cylinder air-cooled two-stroke engine and front wheel drive, using DKW
technology.
In 1957, Fiat in Italy launched the 479 cc 'Nuovo' Fiat 500
designed by Dante Giacosa
. It was the first real city car. It had a rear-mounted air-cooled vertical twin engine, and all round independent suspension. Its target market was Italian scooter riders who had settled down and had a young family, and needed their first car. Fiat had also launched the larger 1955 Fiat 600
with a similar layout but with a water-cooled in-line four-cylinder engine, it even had a six-seater people carrier / MPV / mini-van version called the 'Multipla', even though it was about the same size as a modern supermini.
Car body corrosion was a particular problem from the 1950s to the 1980s when cars moved to monocoque
or uni-body construction (starting from the 1930s), from a separate Body-on-frame
chassis made from thick steel. This relied on the shaped body panels and box sections, like sills/rockers, providing the integrity of the body-shell rather than a separate frame (vehicle)
for strength. A light car was a fast and/or economical car. The introduction of newly available computers for structural analysis
from the 1960s, with computers like the IBM 360, the thickness of sheet metal in bodyshells was reduced to the minimum needed for structural integrity. However, corrosion prevention / rustproofing
, that had not previously been significant because of the thickness of metal and separate chassis
, had not kept pace with this new construction technology. The lightest monocoque economy cars would be the most affected by structural corrosion
.
The next advance was the 1959 848 cc FF layout
Austin Mini from the British Motor Corporation
, designed by Alec Issigonis
as a response to the first oil crisis, the 1956 Suez Crisis
, and the boom in bubble cars and Microcar
s that followed. It was the first front wheel drive car with a water-cooled in-line four-cylinder engine mounted transversely. This allowed eighty percent of the floor plan for the use of passengers and luggage. The majority of modern cars use this configuration. Its progressive rate rubber sprung independent suspension (Hydrolastic
1964–1971), low centre of gravity, and wheel at each corner with radial tyres, increased the car's grip and handling over all but the most expensive automobiles on the market. The Mini was voted the second most important car of the 20th century after the Ford Model T.
Also in 1959 the FR layout DAF 600
, with a rear-mounted automatic gearbox, was launched in the Netherlands. The 600 was the first car to have a continuously variable transmission
(CVT) system – the innovotive DAF Variomatic
. It was the first European economy car with an automatic gearbox. The CVT was continued through the 1960s and 1970s by DAF with the DAF Daffodil
, DAF 33
, DAF 44
, DAF 46
, DAF 66
and later by Volvo after they merged with the Volvo 340. The 1960s Austin Mini automatic gearbox (with a conventional epicyclic / torque converter coupling) was much less efficient.
In the 1960s the 750 cc Renault 4
(arguably the first small five-door hatchback, but viewed as a small estate car or station wagon at the time) was launched in France. In layout it was essentially an economy car version of the 1930s designed Citroen Traction Avant
Commerciale version. The Commerciale had been smaller than an estate car with a horizontally split two-piece rear door before the second world war. When it was relaunched in 1954 it featured a one-piece top-hinged tailgate. Citroen responded with the 2CV-based 1960 602 cc Citroën Ami
and hatchback 1967 Citroën Dyane
. Also in France, in 1966 Renault launched the midrange Renault 16
- although it was not an economy car, it is widely recognised as the first non-commercial mass-market hatchback
car. The hatchback was a leap forward in practicality. It was adopted as a standard feature on most European cars, with saloons declining in popularity apart from at the top of the market over the next twenty years. Small economy cars that were more limited in load carrying ability than larger cars benefited most - long light loads like furniture could be hung out of the back of the car.
The 1960s Toyota Corolla
, Datsun Sunny refined the conventional small rear wheel drive economy cars as postwar international competition and trade increased. Japan also codified a legal standard for extremely economical small cars, known as the keicar: The first generation on the market were all rear-engined, rear drive RR layout
cars. From the end of the 1960s Keicars switched to front-engined, front wheel drive FF layout
. This market has thrived ever since, with the cars increasing in size and engine capacity, including sports cars such as the Honda Beat
and Suzuki Cappuccino
, and even miniaturised MPVs. Japan also instituted the "shaken"
road-worthiness testing regime, that required progressively more expensive maintenance, involving the replacement of entire vehicle systems, that was unnecessary for safety, year on year, to devalue older cars and promote new cars on their home market that were available for low prices. There are very few cars in Japan more than five years old.
In 1964 Fiat
designed the first car with a transverse engine and an end on gearbox (put into limited production and available as a hatchback) - the Autobianchi Primula
, that was developed into the Autobianchi A112
and Autobianchi A111
. They were only sold in mainland Europe, where they were popular for decades, but unknown in the UK. The 1967 Simca 1100
(who had previously used Fiat technology under licence), the 1969 Fiat 128
, and the 1971 Fiat 127
regarded as the first 'super-mini' brought this development to a wider audience. This layout gradually superseded the gearbox in the engine's sump of BMC Austin Morris
and later Peugeot
PSA X engine
, until the only car in production with this transmission layout by the 1990s, was the then long obsolescent Austin (Rover) Mini.
The launch in the 1960s of the Mini Cooper to exploit the exceptional grip and handling of the Austin Mini, along with its success in rallying, (Monte Carlo Rally in particular) and circuit racing, first showed that economy cars could be effective sports cars. It made traditional sports cars like the MG Midget
look very old fashioned. The rear wheel drive Ford Lotus Cortina
and Ford Escort 1300GT and RS1600, along with the Vauxhall Viva
GT and Brabham SL/90 HB in the late 1960s opened up this market still further in Britain. Meanwhile, from the 1950s Abarth
tuned Fiats and Gordini
tuned Renaults did the same in Italy and France.
The 1960s also saw the swan song of the rear-engined rear wheel drive car RR layout
:
The 874 cc Hillman Imp
- UK.
The relatively unsuccessful attempt at diversification of the Volkswagen Type 3
, Volkswagen Type 4
, and the 583 cc NSU Prinz
- West Germany
.
The 956–1289 cc Renault 8
/10 and 777–1294 cc Simca 1000
- France
.
The 2296 cc Chevrolet Corvair
- USA.
The first 1960s air-cooled two-stroke in-line twin-engined generation of the 360 cc Keicar class - the 1958 Subaru 360
, Mitsubishi 360 1961, Mazda Carol
1962, Daihatsu Fellow 1966, Honda N360
and the Suzuki Fronte
1967 along with the non Keicar, Renault based Hino Motors
4CV was replaced by the 1961 Contessa - Japan
.
In Communist Eastern Europe there was the Škoda 1000MB/1100MB that was developed into the 1970s Škoda S100/110
and then the 1970s–1980s Škoda 105/120/125 Estelle - Czechoslovakia
.
The poorly regarded Ukrainian-made Zaporozhets - USSR.
This layout had better interior space utilisation than front engine rear wheel drive cars, and a better ride than those with a live rear beam axle. It was an affordable way to produce a car with all independent suspension
, without the need for expensive constant-velocity joint
s needed by front wheel drive cars, or axle arrangements of FR layout cars. But, they could have road-holding issues due to unfavorable weight distribution and wheel camber
changes (rear wheel tuck under), of the lower-cost swing axle
rear suspension design. These were highlighted and a little exaggerated by Ralph Nader
. These problems were ameliorated on later Beetles and were eliminated on the second-generation Chevrolet Corvair
with the switch to a four-link, fully independent rear suspension.
In the US market, 1960 brought the Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Falcon, and Plymouth Valiant
into the market segment dominated by Rambler
. These vehicles were lower priced and offered better fuel economy than American full-size offerings. The Corvair, Chevrolet's rear-engined compact car
, was originally brought to market to compete directly with the VW Beetle. Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant were conventional, compact six-cylinder sedans that competed directly with the American Rambler. In 1962 Chevrolet introduced the Chevy II line of conventional compacts first offered with 4- and six-cylinder engines. These American vehicles were still much larger than fuel-efficient economy cars popular in Europe and Japan. The Corvair is twenty inches longer, seven inches wider, eight hundred pounds heavier and includes an engine almost twice the size of the Beetle that inspired it. Corvair offered VW's rear engine advantages of traction, light steering, and flat floor with Chevrolet's six-passenger room and six-cylinder power American buyers were accustomed to. Later versions of the Corvair were considered sports cars rather than 'economy' cars including Monza Spyder models, which featured one of the first production car turbocharged engines. The Corvair Monza inspired the Ford Mustang
, introduced in 1964, establishing the "pony car" class which included Corvair's replacement, the Chevrolet Camaro
in 1967, continuing the American muscle car boom started in mid-1960s.
renewed emphasis on economy of vehicle operation, especially in the United States with its greater distances, arguably the nation hardest hit because of the prevalence of large, fuel-thirsty cars. At the same time, new emissions and safety regulations were being implemented requiring major and costly changes to domestic vehicle design and construction. The sales of imported economy cars continued to rise from the sixties. The first response by domestic American car makers included the FR layout cars, the AMC Gremlin
, Chevrolet Vega
, and Ford Pinto
.
AMC was determined to have the first subcompact offering and 1970 AMC Gremlin sales began six months ahead of the all-new 1971 models from GM
and Ford. The Gremlin used the AMC Hornet
's existing design with a shortened wheelbase
and "chopped" tail, and had an important low-price advantage.
The Chevrolet Vega
, introduced in September 1970, was GM's first subcompact, economy car. Nearly two million were sold over its seven-year production run, due in part to its low price and fuel economy. By 1974, the Vega was among the top 10 best-selling American-made cars, but the aluminum-block engine developed a questionable reputation. Chevrolet increased the engine warranty to 50000 miles (80,467 km) to all Vega owners, which proved costly for Chevrolet. The 1976 Vega had extensive engine and body durability improvements and a five-year/60000 mi (96,560.4 km) engine warranty. After a three-year sales decline, the Vega and its aluminum engine were discontinued at the end of the 1977 model year.
Pontiac
's lowest-priced car was a re-badged
Vega variant exclusively available in Canada for the 1973-'74 model years, and introduced in the U.S. the following year. The final 1977 models featured the first use of Pontiac's Iron Duke
inline-4 engine. Lower priced versions of the Chevrolet Monza
were introduced for 1978 and rebadged variants of the discontinued Vega were also added to the Monza line - the Monza wagon using the Vega Kammback body was sold for the 1978-79 model years, and the Monza S hatchback, a price leader model using the Vega Hatchback body, was also offered for the 1978 model year.
The Ford Pinto
was introduced one day after the Vega. It was small, economical, and a top seller. However, it was proven to have design and safety issues. The Pinto made Time magazine's 'The 50 worst cars of all time list' - not because it was a particularly bad car, but because it had a rather volatile nature. The car tended to erupt in flames in rear-end collisions. The Pinto is at the end of one of autodom's most notorious paper trails—several Ford company memos presented as evidence during the civil trials revealed that these remedies were discussed, with the conclusion that to shut down production and retool would be too expensive. Most damaging to Ford were memos found and published by author-researcher Mark Dowie in the magazine Mother Jones
that detailed a cost analysis of corporate liability in the event of having to compensate crash victims. The "Ford Pinto memo" ruthlessly calculated the cost of reinforcing the rear end ($121 million) versus the potential payout to victims . The Ford Pinto engine
though was successful in European Fords for twenty years, in successive mid and large European sized mainstay models of the; UK Ford Cortina
, German Ford Taunus
, the Ford Sierra
, and the Ford Granada
amongst others.
The Chevrolet Chevette
was introduced in September 1975 and produced through 1987. It was a successful and 'Americanized' design from experienced, (but technologically conservative) Opel
, GM's German subsidiary. The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide said, "In its dozen years on the market, Chevette had earned a reputation for being a simple, straightforward car offering high fuel economy and steadfast reliability. It left in its wake a sea of happy owners, and many no doubt mourned its passing." Ford followed suit with the Ford Escort.
Chevrolet offered three new small economy cars in the 1980s to replace the Chevette: the Chevrolet Sprint, a three-cylinder Suzuki-built hatchback, The Chevrolet Spectrum built by Isuzu
and the Chevrolet Nova built by NUMMI
in California, a GM-Toyota joint venture. Chevrolet offered the Geo
brand in the 1990s featuring the Suzuki-built Metro, the Isuzu-built Storm
, and the NUMMI-built Prizm.
Captive imports were the other response by U.S. car makers to the increase in popularity of imported economy cars in the 1970s and 80s. These were cars bought from overseas subsidiaries or from companies in which they held a significant shareholding. GM, Ford, and Chrysler sold imports for the U.S. market. The Buick Opel
, Ford Cortina
, Mercury Capri
, Ford Festiva
, and Dodge Colt
are examples.
Technologies that developed during the post-war era, such as disc brakes, overhead-cam engines and radial tire
s, had become cheap enough to be used in economy cars at this time (radials began to be adopted in the 1950s and 60s in Europe). This led to cars such as the 1974 Mk 1 Volkswagen Golf
designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro
, Fiat 128
and 1972 Honda Civic
. The Civic's CVCC
(Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) Stratified charge engine
engine debuted in 1975 and was offered alongside the standard Civic engine. The CVCC engine had a head design that promoted cleaner, more efficient combustion, eliminating a need for a catalytic converter to meet emissions standards - nearly every other U.S. market car for that year needed exhausts with catalytic converter
s. The Japanese, who had previously competed on price, equipment and reliability with conservative designs, were starting to make advanced, globally competitive cars.
Some previously exotic technology, electronic
fuel injection
, became affordable, which allowed the production of high-performance hot hatch
sport compact
s like the 1976 Volkswagen Golf
GTI. This car combined economy of use and a practical hatchback body, with the performance and driving fun of a traditional sports car several times its price.
Also introduced in 1976 was the 1.5 L VW Golf diesel—the first small diesel hatchback. It used new Bosch
rotary mechanical diesel injection pump technology. Also in 1976, Ford of Europe (produced by the merging of Ford national operations in Europe) launched their first front-wheel-drive small car, the Ford Fiesta
, having gained experience from the Ford of Germany 1960s European mid sized 1960s Ford Taunus P4
and Ford of Brazil
Ford Corcel
.
In 1980, Fiat introduced the Guigaro-designed Mk 1 Fiat Panda
. It was originally designed to be produced in China at its 1970s level of industrialisation. It was a utilitarian front-wheel-drive supermini with Fiat standard transverse engine and end-on gearbox. It featured mostly flat body panels and flat glass.
In 1982 GM launched their first front-wheel-drive small economy car, the Opel Corsa
/Vauxhall Nova in Europe. Their first European market front wheel drive car, the Vauxhall Astra
/Opel Kadett D, Golf-sized car was introduced in 1979.
In 1983 Fiat launched the next step forward in small car design, the Fiat Uno
. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro
's ItalDesign. The tall, square body utilising a Kamm tail achieved a drag coefficient
of 0.34, and it won much praise for an airy interior space and fuel economy
. It incorporated many packaging lessons learnt from Giugiaro's 1978 Lancia Megagamma
concept car, (the first modern people carrier-MPV-mini-van)—but miniaturised. Its tall car, high-seating packaging is imitated by every small car today. It showed that not just low sleek cars could be aerodynamic, but small boxy well packaged cars could be too. It was voted Car of the Year
in 1984.
Also in 1983 Peugeot launched the Pininfarina-styled Peugeot 205
. While not as radical as the Uno in body design, it was also very aerodynamic. It was the first European supermini with a diesel engine - the XUD. It provided performance of a 1.4 L petrol with economy—55 mpgimp —that was better than the base 1 L petrol version. It could, like most diesel engines, last for several hundred thousand miles with regular servicing. It was, along with the larger (also XUD powered) Citroën BX
, the beginning of the start of the boom in diesel sales in Europe. The 205 GTI was as popular as the Golf GTI in Europe. The 205 was named "Car of the Decade" in the UK, by CAR magazine
in 1990.
In 1993, Fiat launched the conservatively styled Fiat Cinquecento
. It replaced the first Fiat Panda and the aged 1970s Fiat 126 which was developed from the 1950s Fiat 500. But the real breakthrough in smallcar-design was the 1993 Renault Twingo
which was a revolution in styling by being the first 'one box' small car. Both had the interior space of a much larger car. They relaunched the city car market in Europe, for decades the only competitors in this market were the Austin Mini and the Fiat 126.
The City car market in Europe in recent years has seen increased competition with the launch of the Citroën C1
/Peugeot 107
/Toyota Aygo
(built in the same factory), the Mercedes-Benz A-Class
, aluminium Audi A2
, Fiat Panda
, Kia Picanto
, Chevrolet Matiz, Volkswagen Fox
, Smart Forfour
, Mitsubishi Colt
, Ford Ka
, and Fiat Nuova 500
.
The Toyota iQ
, designed in France, went on sale in January 2009 in the UK. It follows the Issigonis philosophy of packaging, with innovations including a flat under floor fuel tank and specially located steering rack and final drive unit to maximise floor space for passengers. It seats four adults in a car 2.985 m (117.5 in)long, 1.68 m (66.1 in) wide, and 1.5 m (59.1 in) tall, and achieves 65.69 mpgimp with a 99g/km CO2 rating. It also achieved the top Euro NCAP 5/5 stars safety rating.
Another development in recent years in Europe, has been the launch of small supermini
based people carriers like the Renault Modus
, Citroën C3
Picasso, Fiat Idea
, Nissan Note
, and the Vauxhall/Opel Meriva
that is also produced in Brazil. Their tall packaging designs offer the interior space of a larger car. The higher seating increases visibility for the driver that is useful in urban driving.
The conflicting design goals for economy cars — small size with maximum usable interior space; low cost and light weight with acceptable safety performance, light cars have a higher ratio of unsprung suspension mass to sprung mass which affects ride quality, and the need for light materials with acceptable durability, continue to stimulate innovative development. Technology improvements such as electronic engine management, adoption of four valves per cylinder, variable valve timing, direct injection of petrol/Gasoline and diesel, hybrid power, and smoother, more powerful diesel engine
s with very high pressure electronic injection, have dramatically improved fuel economy and performance. The latest technologies to improve efficiency are down-sized engines and automatic engine stop-start. Automatic engine stop-start systems like VWs BlueMotion, shut the engine down when the car is stopped to reduce idling emissions and boost economy, and it is now mandatory not to idle unnecessarily in cities in Germany. It is an updated version of the 1980s VW 'Formel E' system that was developed into the 1990s VW 'Ecomatic' system. Also extremely important, is the application of turbo-charging to down-sized engines in order to turn its efficiency benefits into fuel economy / emission benefits instead of for performance. Safety design is a particular challenge in a small, lightweight car. This is an area where Renault
has been particularly successful. Sport compact
s and Hot hatch
es have developed into a their own competitive genre, although their economy has been compromised, these models offer higher performance because of the lightness of the platforms that they are based upon.
As an alternative to manual synchromesh gearboxes, automatic continuously variable transmission
(CVT) gearboxes are optional on some economy cars, such as Audi
, Honda
, and the MINI ONE and MINI Cooper. Tata Motors
from India, recently announced that it too would use a variomatic transmission in its Nano
. CVT application to economy cars was pioneered by Fiat, Ford, and Van Doorne in the 1980s. Rather than the pulled rubber drive belts as used in the past by DAF, the modern transmission is made much more durable by the use of electronic control and steel link belts pushed by their pulleys.
A crucial difference between the North American car market and the markets of Europe and Japan is the price of fuel. Fuel is heavily taxed and therefore relatively costly in most first-world markets outside North America; fuel is about two and a half times the price in the UK than the US. Fuel costs are also a much higher proportion of income, due to generally higher wages and lower living costs in the US. Only during occasional fuel price spikes such as those of 1973, 1979–81, and 2008-9 have North American drivers been motivated to seek levels of fuel economy considered ordinary outside North America.
The growth of developing countries
has also created a new market for inexpensive new cars. Unlike in the postwar period this demand has not been met by utilitarian but advanced 'peoples cars'. Adaptation of standard or obsolete models from the first world has been the norm. Production of car models superseded in first-world markets is often moved to cost-sensitive markets like South Africa
and Brazil; the Citi Golf
is an example.
Some mainstream European auto makers have developed models specifically for developing countries, such as the Fiat Palio
, Volkswagen Gol
and Dacia Logan
. Renault
has teamed up with India's Mahindra and Mahindra to produce a low-cost car in the range of to . The Tata Nano
launched in January 2008, in India by Tata Motors
, may mark the beginning of the return of so-called "people's cars" because of its low announced price - claimed by Tata as the world's cheapest car at . The Nano, like the 1950s Fiat 500
, has a rear engine and was styled by Italians. It is designed to get whole families off scooters and onto four wheels. Tata has also announced plans to export their Tata Indica
that was formerly sold in Europe as the City Rover.
The narrow profit margins of economy cars can cause financial instability for their manufacturers. Historically, Volkswagen in the 1970s and Ford in the 1920s almost collapsed because of their one model economy car business strategy
. Ford was saved by the Model A and Volkswagen was saved by the Golf. Ford started the Mercury
and Lincoln
brands to diversify its product range. VW moved away from the narrow profit margins of economy cars, by expanding its range so that now it spans from very small city cars like the Volkswagen Fox
to Audi
s and Bentley
s, and it also owns SEAT
and Skoda
.
China has become one of the fastest growing car markets, recently overtaking the US as the largest producer of cars in the world. It is followed by India with a preference towards inexpensive, basic cars, but they are both moving upmarket in their tastes as their economic rise continues.
India is becoming a global outsourcing production centre for small cars. The Suzuki Alto
and Hyundai i10
are already being exported to Europe from India. In March 2010 at Chennai
, the Renault-Nissan Alliance
opened a plant to produce 400,000 units per year at full production. Chennai
formerly known as Madras, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The first vehicle to be produced at the plant will be the new Nissan Micra, for the Indian market as well as for export to over 100 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Production of the Micra has been re-located from the UK and other developed countries. In 2011, the plant will start production of the Renault Koleos and Fluence, for the Indian market based on the same platform.
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
that is designed for low cost operation. Typical economy cars are small, light weight, and inexpensive to buy. Economy car designers are forced by stringent design constraints to be inventive. Many innovations in automobile design were originally developed for economy cars, such as the Ford Model T
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...
and the Austin Mini.
The precise definition of what constitutes an economy car has varied with time and place, based on the conditions prevailing therein, such as fuel prices, disposable income of buyers, and cultural mores. In any given decade, there has generally been some rough global consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirement
Requirement
In engineering, a requirement is a singular documented physical and functional need that a particular product or service must be or perform. It is most commonly used in a formal sense in systems engineering, software engineering, or enterprise engineering...
s for a highway-worthy car, constituting the most economical car possible. However, whether that consensus could be a commercial success in any given country depended on local culture. Thus in any given decade, every country has had a rough national consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirements for the least expensive car that wasn't undesirable, that is, that had some commercially attractive amount of market demand, making it a mainstream economy car. In many countries at various times, mainstream economy and maximum economy have been one and the same.
From its inception into the 1920s, the Ford Model T fulfilled both of these roles simultaneously in the US and in many markets around the world. In Europe and Japan in the 1920s and 30s, this was achieved by the much smaller Austin 7 and its competitors and derivatives, although it failed to be accepted on the US market even in the middle of the depression. From the 1940s and into the 1960s, the Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
played both roles throughout much of the world—in Germany and Latin America particularly—but its was let down by relatively high fuel consumption, such that British, French, Italian, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese models, all with better fuel economy, could capture the maximum-economy position in their home countries (which was also mainstream there). Meanwhile, in the US, the Beetle and other imports could command the maximum-economy position, but the mainstream-economy position was commanded by cars that would seem more like mid-range or luxury models in some other markets. By the 1960s a new wave of front wheel drive cars with all independent suspension had been launched. By the 1970s the hatchback had become the standard body type for new economy car models. The Soviet bloc started selling poorly built, obsolescent or obsolete cars on the world market, at subsidised prices for hard foreign currency. Many of these cars were seen as the best value proposition
Value proposition
A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered and a belief from the customer of value that will be experienced. A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services....
, because they were generally larger cars, for the same price as small western models; in the case of the Lada
Lada
Lada is a trademark of AvtoVAZ, a Russian car manufacturer in Tolyatti, Samara Oblast. All AvtoVAZ vehicles are currently sold under the Lada brand, though this was not always so; Lada was originally AvtoVAZ's export brand for models it sold under the Zhiguli name in the domestic Soviet market...
they were let down by very poor fuel economy. In the mid 1980s, the Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
n Zastava Koral
Zastava Koral
The Zastava Koral , also known simply as the Yugo, was a subcompact car built by the Zastava corporation. The first Yugo 45 was handmade on 2 October 1978....
(Yugo) (a rebodied 1971-83 Fiat 127), was sold as the cheapest car on the US market, South Korea's Hyundai
Hyundai
Hyundai ) is a global conglomerate company, part of the Korean chaebol, that was founded in South Korea by one of the most famous businessmen in Korean history: Chung Ju-yung...
models also sold well in the US, and have gone on to be successful around the world. Since the 1990s, the automotive industry
Automotive industry
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
has become extensively globalized
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, with all major manufacturers being multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
s using globally sourced raw materials and components. Today, every major manufacturer offers economy cars, including at least one truly small car that may fall into subclassifications such as subcompact car
Subcompact car
Subcompact car is a North American term used to describe automobiles whose class size is smaller than that of a compact car, usually not exceeding in length, but larger than a microcar...
, supermini
Supermini
A superminicomputer, or supermini, is “a minicomputer with high performance compared to ordinary minicomputers.” The term was an invention used from the mid-1970s mainly to distinguish the emerging 32-bit minis from the classical 16-bit minicomputers...
, B-segment; city car
City car
A city car is a small car intended for use primarily in an urban area.City cars are sold worldwide and most automotive industry manufacturers have one or two in their line-up. In North-America city cars are often referred to simply as "subcompacts" alongside the superminis. These kind of cars...
; microcar
Microcar
A microcar is the smallest automobile classification usually applied to standard small car . Such small cars were generally referred to as cyclecars until the 1940s. More recent models are also called bubblecars due to their egg-shaped appearance.-Definition:The definition of a microcar has varied...
; and others. The U.S. market traditionally lagged behind other world markets in its adoption of truly small fuel efficient economy cars, but today it is catching up.
Features that in one decade were considered luxury items (for example, power steering, power (servo assisted) brakes, air conditioning, electric windows) would in later decades be viewed as appropriate as standard equipment even in economy models.
Pre-war
At the birth of the automobile, in the 1890s and into the first decade of the 20th century, the motorized vehicle was considered a replacement for the carriages of the rich, or simply a dangerous toy, that annoyed and inconvenienced the general public. The children's book Wind in the Willows, pokes fun at early privileged motorists. The first car to be marketed to the (well off but not rich) ordinary person and so the first 'economy car', was the 1901–1907 Oldsmobile Curved DashOldsmobile Curved Dash
The gasoline powered Curved Dash Oldsmobile is credited as being the first mass-produced automobile, meaning that it was built on an assembly line using interchangeable parts. It was introduced by the Oldsmobile company in 1901 and produced through 1907...
- it was produced by the thousands. It was inspired by the buckboard type horse and buggy, (used like a small two-seat pickup truck) popular in rural areas of the U.S. It had two seats, but was less versatile than the vehicle that inspired it. It was produced after a fire at the Oldsmobile plant, when the prototype was saved by a nightwatchman named Stebbins, (who later became the Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Detroit), and was the only product available to the company to produce, to get back on their feet.
Although cars were becoming more affordable before it was launched, the 1908–1927 Ford Model T
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...
is considered to be the first true economy car, because the very few previous vehicles at the bottom of the market were 'horseless carriages' rather than practical cars. The major manufacturers at the time had little interest in low-priced models. The first 'real' cars had featured the FR layout first used by the French car maker Panhard
Panhard
Panhard is currently a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005. Panhard had been under Citroën ownership, then PSA , for 40 years...
and so did the Model T.
Henry Ford declared at the launch of the vehicle -
"I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one - and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces."
The Ford Model T
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...
was a large scale mass-produced
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
car; that very innovation, along with the attributes it required a simple, inexpensive design allowed it to be the first car to exemplify the ideals of the economy car. The innovations involved in making it a successful design were in its production and materials technology; particularly the use of new vanadium steel alloys. Model T production was the leading example of the Taylorism school of scientific management, (also known as Fordism
Fordism
Fordism, named after Henry Ford, is a modern economic and social system based on industrial mass production. The concept is used in various social theories about production and related socio-economic phenomena. It has varying but related meanings in different fields, as well as for Marxist and...
), and its production techniques evolved at the Highland Park Ford Plant
Highland Park Ford Plant
The Highland Park Ford Plant is a former factory located in Highland Park, Michigan at 91 Manchester Avenue . The second production facility for the Model T automobile, it became a National Historic Landmark in 1978.-Description:...
that opened in 1910, after it outgrew its Piquette Plant
Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District
The Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District is a historic district located along Piquette Street in Detroit, Michigan, from Woodward Avenue on the west to Hastings Street on the east. The district extends approximately one block south of Piquette to Harper, and one block north to the Grand...
. The River Rouge Plant
River Rouge Plant
The Ford River Rouge Complex is a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, along the Rouge River, upstream from its confluence with the Detroit River at Zug Island...
which opened in 1919, was the most technologically advanced in the world, raw materials entered at one end and finished cars emerged from the other. The innovation of the moving production line, was inspired by the 'dis-assembly' plants of the Chicago meat packing industry, reduced production time from twelve and a half hours, to just an hour and thirty-three minutes per car. Black was the only colour available because it was the only paint that would dry in the required production time. The continuous improvement of production methods, and economies of scale from larger and larger scale production, allowed Henry Ford to progressively lower the price of the Model T throughout its production run. It was far less expensive, smaller, and more austere than its hand-built pre-first world war contemporaries. The size of the Model T was arrived at, by making its track to the width of the ruts in the unsurfaced rural American roads of the time, ruts made by horse drawn vehicles. It was specifically designed with a large degree of axle articulation, and a high ground clearance, to deal with these conditions effectively. It had an under stressed 177 CID engine. It set the template for American vehicles being larger than comparable vehicles in other countries, which would later on have economy cars scaled to their narrower roads with smaller engines. The Ford Model T was voted Car of the Century
Car of the Century
The Car of the Century was an international award given to the world's most influential car of the 20th century. The election process was overseen by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation...
on December 18, 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1914 Ford was producing half a million Model Ts a year, with a sale price of less than . This was more than the rest of the U.S. auto industry combined and ten times the total national car production of 1908, the year of the cars launch.
The Ford Model T was the first automobile produced in many countries at the same time. It was the first 'World Car', since they were being produced in Canada and in Manchester, England starting in 1911 and were later assembled in Germany
Ford Germany
-Ford Motor Co. AG:Until 27 January 1950 all Ford's European operations other than in the USSR were run from Dagenham and owned by Ford Motor Company Limited, Dearborn's 55% owned subsidiary...
, Argentina
Ford Motor Company of Argentina
Ford Motor Argentina is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and was founded in Buenos Aires in 1913.Its first products were Model Ts assembled from Complete Knock Down kits provided by Ford Motor Company in 1917...
, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan.
At the New York Motor Show in January 1915, William C. Durant
William C. Durant
William Crapo "Billy" Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, the founder of General Motors and Chevrolet who created the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars....
the head of Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
(and founder of GM), launched the Chevrolet Four-Ninety, a stripped down version of the Series-H, to compete with Henry Ford's Model T, and went into production in June. To aim directly at Ford, Durant said the new car would be priced at (the source of its name), the same as the Model T touring. Its introductory price was , however, although it was reduced to later when the electric starter and lights were made a option. Henry Ford responded by reducing the Model T to .
Subsequent decades led to economical cars that reflected the needs of their creators. The cycle car was an attempt in the period before 1922 in the post-First World War austerity period, as a form of "four-wheeled motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
", with all the benefits of a motorcycle and side-car, in a more stable package. Crosley
Crosley
The Crosley was an automobile manufactured by the Crosley Corporation and later by Crosley Motors Incorporated in the United States from 1939 to 1952.-History:...
, a U.S. appliance manufacturer, would also be an early pioneer of very small cars.
In 1923 Chevrolet tried again with the Chevrolet Series M 'Copper-Cooled', air-cooled car, designed by General Motors engineer at AC Delco Charles Kettering
Charles Kettering
Charles Franklin Kettering was an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents. He was a founder of Delco, and was head of research for General Motors for 27 years from 1920 to 1947. Among his most widely used automotive inventions were the electrical starting motor and...
, (who invented the points/condenser ignition system that was in use until the 1980s), it was a rare failure for him, due to uneven cooling of the inline four-cylinder engine.
The most development occurred in Europe. There was less emphasis on long-distance automobile travel, a need for vehicles that could navigate narrow streets and alleys in towns and cities (many were unchanged since medieval times), and the narrow and winding roads commonly found in the European countryside. Ettore Bugatti
Ettore Bugatti
right|thumb|Ettore Bugatti in 1932Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti was an Italian-born and French naturalized citizen automobile designer and manufacturer....
designed a small car for Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
. The 1911 Peugeot Bébé
Peugeot Bébé
The Peugeot Bébé or Baby was a small car nameplate from Peugeot made from 1905 to 1916. Vehicles under this name were known technically within Peugeot as the Type 69 and the Type BP1.-Type 69:...
Type 19. It had an 850 cc 4-cylinder engine. The Citroën Type A
Citroën Type A
The Citroën Type A was the first car produced by Citroën from June 1919 to December 1921 in Paris. The Type A reached a production number of 24,093 vehicles.During World War I, André Citroën was producing munitions...
was the first car produced by Citroën from June 1919 to December 1921 in Paris. Citroën had been established to produce the double bevel gears that its logo resembles, but had ended the First World War with large production facilities, from the production of much needed artillery shells for the French army. Andre Citroen
André Citroën
André-Gustave Citroën was a French industrialist. He is remembered chiefly for the make of car named after him, but also for his application of double helical gears.- Life and career :...
was a keen adopter of U.S. car manufacturing ideas and technology in the 1920s and 1930s. Andre Citroen re-equipped his factory as a scaled down version of the Ford River Rouge Plant, that he had visited in Detroit Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. It was advertised as "Europe's first mass production car." The Type A reached a production number of 24,093 vehicles. The Opel 4 PS, Germany's first 'peoples car', popularly known as the Opel Laubfrosch
Opel Laubfrosch
The Opel 4 PS, popularly known as the Opel Laubfrosch , is a small two seater car introduced by the then family owned auto maker Opel, early in 1924...
(Opel Treefrog), was a small two-seater car introduced by the then family owned auto maker Opel, early in 1924, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the little Torpedo
Torpedo (car)
The torpedo body style was a type of automobile body used from the early twentieth century until the mid-1930s, and which fell quickly into disuse by the Second World War....
Citroën 5 CV
Citroën Type C
The Citroën Type C was a light car made by the French Citroën car company between 1922 and 1926 with almost 81,000 units being made. The car was originally called the Type C but was updated to the C2 in 1924 which was in turn superseded by the slightly longer C3 in 1925...
of 1922.
On an even smaller scale, European cars, such as the 747 cc Austin Seven
Austin 7
The Austin 7 was a car produced from 1922 through to 1939 in the United Kingdom by the Austin Motor Company. Nicknamed the "Baby Austin", it was one of the most popular cars ever produced for the British market, and sold well abroad...
, (which made cyclecar
Cyclecar
Cyclecars were small, generally inexpensive cars manufactured mainly between 1910 and the late 1920s.-General description:Cyclecars were propelled by single cylinder, V-twin or more rarely four cylinder engines, often air cooled. Sometimes these had been originally used in motorcycles and other...
s obsolete overnight), would also start to catch on in Japan during the same time period, as a Datsun Type 11
Datsun Type 11
-Description:The 1932 Datsun Type 11 was a small car with a 495 cc, 10 HP side valve engine and a three speed transmission. [JSAE]. It was offered in several body styles, and DAT/Nissan sold 150 of the Type 11 in 1932...
that may have been pirated, at the start of their own automobile industry. It was also produced as a BMW Dixi
BMW Dixi
The Dixi was the first car made by BMW.thumb|right|280px|1928 BMW DixiDixi was car brand of Eisenach car factory made from 1904; however, in the difficult climate of the 1920s the company found it hard to sell its 6/24 and 9/40 models...
and BMW 3/15
BMW 3/15
The BMW 3/15 was BMW's first car, produced in four versions from December 1927 to early 1932. 18,976 BMW 3/15s were manufactured between 1929 and 1932.- 3/15 DA-1 :...
in Germany, Rosengart
Lucien Rosengart
Lucien Rosengart was a French engineer.His early life was shaped by carriages and the advance of the automobile age. He first started working as a mechanic at the age of 12, and by age 24 he had a machine shop in Belleville and several patents to his credit...
in France with French styled bodywork, and by American Austin Car Company
American Austin Car Company
The American Austin Car Company was a United States automobile manufacturing corporation tied to the British Austin Motor Company. The company was founded in 1929, and produced motorcars from 1930 through 1934, when it filed for bankruptcy....
with American styling, (later American Bantam) in the U.S. It displaced the motorcycle and sidecar combination that was popular in Europe in the 1920s. It spawned a whole industry of 'specials' builders. Swallow Sidecars
Swallow Sidecar Company
The Swallow Sidecar Company was founded on 4 September 1922 by two friends, William Walmsley and William Lyons . Both families lived in the same street in Blackpool, England. Walmsley had previously been making sidecars and bolting them onto reconditioned motorcycles...
switched to making cars based on Austin Seven chassis during the 1920s, then made their own complete cars in the 1930s as SS. With the advent of Nazi Germany the company changed its name: to Jaguar.
In the late-1920s, General Motors finally overtook Ford, as the U.S. new car market doubled in size, and fragmented into niches on a wave of prosperity, with GM producing a range of cars to match. This included a Chevrolet economy car that was just an entry level model for the range of cars. It was only a small part of the marketing strategy - "A car for every purse and purpose" of GM head Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...
. Harley Earl
Harley Earl
Harley J. Earl was first Vice President of Design at General Motors. He was an industrial designer and a pioneer of modern transportation design. A coachbuilder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of freeform sketching and hand sculpted clay models as design techniques...
was appointed as head of the newly formed GM "Art and Color Section" of GM in 1927. Harley Earl and Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...
implemented planned obsolescence
Planned obsolescence
Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of deliberately planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete or nonfunctional after a certain period of time...
and the annual model change to emphasise design as an engine for the success of the company's products. This moved cars from being utilitarian items to fashionable status symbols - that needed regular replacement "to keep up with the Joneses." Later in 1937, the Art and Color Section was renamed the Styling Section, and a few years afterward became one of the GM technical staff operations as the Styling Staff. It was funded by high interest/low regular payments consumer credit, as was the 1920s boom in other consumer durable products. It marked the beginning of mass market consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
, that had been enabled by the efficiency of mass production and the moving production line. Until this time, manufacturers of consumer goods were concerned, by the possibility that the market would be fulfilled and demand would dry up. Henry Ford was wrong-footed by staying with the production oriented one size fits all, "any colour you like as long as it's black", Model T for far too long. The seller's market in new cars in the U.S. was over. Customers wanted choice. The 'one model' policy had nearly bankrupted the Ford Motor Company. By the end of production in 1927 it looked like a relic from another era. It was replaced by the Model A
Ford Model A (1927)
The Ford Model A of 1927–1931 was the second huge success for the Ford Motor Company, after its predecessor, the Model T. First produced on October 20, 1927, but not sold until December 2, it replaced the venerable Model T, which had been produced for 18 years...
.
In 1929 Chevrolet replaced the 171 CID straight-4 engine
Chevrolet Straight-4 engine
The Chevrolet Inline-4 engine one of Chevrolet's first automobile engines was designed by Arthur Mason and introduced in 1913. Exposed pushrods actuated valves in the detachable crossflow cylinder head. Chevrolet referred to its overhead-valve engine as a "valve-in-head" design. This drew...
that dated from 1913, with the 194 CID straight-6 engine
Chevrolet Straight-6 engine
The Chevrolet inline 6 was Chevy's main engine from 1929 , through 1954, and was the base engine starting in 1955 when they added the small block V8 to the lineup. It had finally been completely phased out by 1990 in North America, but Brazil held on to their fuel-injected straight-6 through the...
or "Stovebolt 6" that was to last until the 1970s as Chevrolet's base engine. A few years later Ford developed the Model 18 with the 221 CID flathead V8. The same car was available with a slightly reworked Model A engine, marketed until 1933 (in U.S.) as the Model B. In Europe, it remained in the Ford lineup, as the Ford V8 in Britain in the 1930s which was re-styled and relaunched as the post-war Ford Pilot
Ford Pilot
The Ford Pilot Model E71A was a large car from Ford introduced in August 1947. It was effectively replaced in 1951 with the launch of Ford UK's Zephyr Six and Consul models, though V8 Pilots were still offered for sale, being gradually withdrawn during that year...
. They were viewed as large cars in Europe. The 1932 Ford V8 (Model 18)
Ford Model B (1932)
The Model B was a Ford automobile with production starting with model year 1932 and ending with 1934. It was a much updated version of the Model A and was replaced by the 1935 Ford Model 48...
coupe became the car of choice for post-war hot rod
Hot rod
Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed. The origin of the term "hot rod" is unclear. One explanation is that the term is a contraction of "hot roadster," meaning a roadster that was modified for speed. Another possible origin includes modifications to or...
ders. It was the first V8 engine in a low priced car, and along with the Chevrolet 6, showed how the U.S. was diverging from the rest of the world in its ideas about what constituted a basic economy car.
In 1928 Morris launched the first Morris Minor (1928)
Morris Minor (1928)
This article refers to the motor car manufactured by the Morris Motor Company and its successors from 1928–1933. For the Morris Minor manufactured by the Morris Motor Company from 1948–1971, see Morris Minor....
in Britain to compete with the Austin Seven. Also that year German motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
manufacturer DKW launched their first car, the P15, a rear wheel drive, wood and fabric bodied monocoque car, powered by a 600 cc an inline two-cylinder two-stroke engine.
Also, in the 1920s, Ford (with the Model T in Manchester, England), General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
(who took over Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
in Germany and Vauxhall
Vauxhall Motors
Vauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...
in Britain), expanded into Europe. Most Ford and GM European cars, especially economy cars, were technologically conservative and all were rear wheel drive to a smaller European size, with improvements focused mainly on styling, (apart from the introduction of the 1935 monocoque Opel Olympia
Opel Olympia
The Opel Olympia is a small family car produced by the German automaker Opel from 1935 to 1940, from 1947 to 1953 and again from 1967 to 1970.The 1935 Olympia was Germany's first mass-produced car with an all-steel unitized body . This revolutionary technology reduced the weight of the car by 180...
, and the Macpherson strut
MacPherson strut
The MacPherson strut is a type of car suspension system which uses the axis of a telescopic damper as the upper steering pivot. It is widely used in modern vehicles and named after Earle S. MacPherson, who developed the design.-History:...
by Ford in the 1950s), until the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1931 the DKW F1
DKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...
was launched. This was the first successful mass-produced front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and...
car in the world. (The British 1928-30 Alvis cars
Alvis Cars
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd was a British manufacturing company that existed in Coventry, England from 19191967. In addition to automobiles designed for the civilian market, the company also produced racing cars, aircraft engines, armoured cars and other armoured fighting vehicles, the...
'FWD' models had handling problems and only 150 were made. The British 1929 BSA
Birmingham Small Arms Company
This article is not about Gamo subsidiary BSA Guns Limited of Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B11 2PP or BSA Company or its successors....
was a three-wheel competitor to Morgan
Morgan Motor Company
The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by Harry Frederick Stanley Morgan, generally known as "HFS" and was run by him until he died, aged 77, in 1959. Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003...
and the motorcycle combination market, the 1931 four-wheeler was very short-lived. The 1929 U.S. Cord L-29 having been seriously flawed, production ended at 4,429. The 1930 U.S. Ruxton made about 500, production lasted for only four months.) The F1 featured a front-engine, front-wheel drive layout using a water-cooled 494 cc or 584 cc transverse two-stroke engine with chain drive. This was developed through the 1930s into the 1938 F8 model and the F9 that was not put into production because World War II started. By this time DKW had become the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. Their two-stroke engine technology was to appear in the postwar products of Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
, BSA
Birmingham Small Arms Company
This article is not about Gamo subsidiary BSA Guns Limited of Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B11 2PP or BSA Company or its successors....
, Trabant
Trabant
The Trabant is a car that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc...
, Wartburg, Saab
Saab Automobile
Saab Automobile AB, better known as Saab , is a Swedish car manufacturer owned by Dutch automobile manufacturer Swedish Automobile NV, formerly Spyker Cars NV. It is the exclusive automobile Royal Warrant holder as appointed by the King of Sweden...
, Subaru
Subaru
; is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries .Subaru is internationally known for their use of the boxer engine layout popularized in cars by the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911, in most of their vehicles above 1500 cc as well as...
, Piaggio
Piaggio
Piaggio based in Pontedera, Italy encompasses seven brands of scooters, motorcycles and compact commercial vehicles. As the fourth largest producer of scooters and motorcycles in the world, Piaggio produces more than 600,000 vehicles annually, with five research and development centers, more than...
, Puch
Puch
Puch is a manufacturing company located in Graz, Austria. The company was founded in 1889 by the industrialist Johann Puch and produced automobiles, bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles.-Pre 1919:...
, Kawasaki
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
is an international corporation based in Japan. It has headquarters in both Chūō-ku, Kobe and Minato, Tokyo.The company is named after its founder Shōzō Kawasaki and has no connection with the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa....
, Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi
The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
, Mazda
Mazda
is a Japanese automotive manufacturer based in Fuchū, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.In 2007, Mazda produced almost 1.3 million vehicles for global sales...
, Daihatsu, Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
, and Suzuki
Suzuki
is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles and 4x4 vehicles, a full range of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles , outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines...
.
In the late 1920s in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Josef Ganz
Josef Ganz
Dipl.-Ing. Josef Ganz was a German-Hungarian car designer, born in Budapest, Hungary.-Early years:Josef Ganz was born in a Jewish family with a Hungarian mother and a German father in Budapest, the then second-largest city within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on July 1, 1898. His father, Dr...
independent car engineer/inventor and editor of Motor-Kritik
Motor-Kritik
Motor-Kritik was the title of a progressive automotive magazine, published by the H.Bechhold Verlagsbuchhandlung in Germany from 1929 to 1945. It originated from the earlier Klein-Motor-Sport magazine.-History:...
magazine and was a fierce opponent of the status quo of car design. He became a consultant engineer to Adler
Adler
The term Adler, the German word for the bird of prey "eagle", is both the last name of many people and an emblematic bird featured on many blazons since the feudal age, including the present German Bundeswappen and at times on the flags of Austria and Germany...
in December 1930. In the first months of 1931, Ganz constructed a lightweight economy car or peoples car, prototype at Adler with a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and swing axle
Swing axle
A swing axle is a simple type of independent suspension first used in early aircraft , such as the Sopwith and Fokker, usually with rubber bungee and no damping....
independent rear suspension
Independent suspension
Independent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects...
. After completion in May 1931, Ganz nicknamed his new prototype Maikäfer (German for cockchafer
Cockchafer
The cockchafer is a European beetle of the genus Melolontha, in the family Scarabaeidae....
). In July 1931 he was also consultant engineer to BMW on the 1932-34 BMW 3/20
BMW 3/20
The BMW 3/20 PS was the first BMW automobile designed entirely by BMW. It was manufactured from 1932 to 1934, replacing the 3/15 model that was initially an Austin 7 manufactured under licence from the Austin Motor Company....
successor to the BMW 3/15
BMW 3/15
The BMW 3/15 was BMW's first car, produced in four versions from December 1927 to early 1932. 18,976 BMW 3/15s were manufactured between 1929 and 1932.- 3/15 DA-1 :...
model. It featured transverse leaf independent front and rear suspension and an updated overhead-valve cylinder head
Cylinder head
In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders on top of the cylinder block. It closes in the top of the cylinder, forming the combustion chamber. This joint is sealed by a head gasket...
version of the Austin 7 based engine. After a demonstration of the Adler Maikäfer
Maikäfer
Maikäfer was the nickname of an automobile prototype, built in 1931 by German engineer Josef Ganz at Adler.-History:Josef Ganz, an independent engineer and editor-in-chief of Motor-Kritik magazine, was assigned by Adler in December 1930 as a consultant engineer...
by Ganz, the German Standard Fahrzeugfabrik company (unrelated to the British 'Standard' company), then purchased a license from Ganz to develop and build a small car according to his design. The prototype of this new model, which was to be called Standard Superior
Standard Superior
Standard Superior was an automobile marque, used from 1933-1935 by Standard Fahrzeugfabrik of Ludwigsburg, Germany, founded by motorcycle maker Wilhelm Gutbrod and unrelated to the Standard Motor Company of England...
, was finished in 1932. It featured a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted engine, and independent wheel suspension
Independent suspension
Independent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects...
with swing-axles
Swing axle
A swing axle is a simple type of independent suspension first used in early aircraft , such as the Sopwith and Fokker, usually with rubber bungee and no damping....
at the rear. The first production model of the Standard Superior was introduced at the IAMA (Internationale Automobil- und Motorradausstellung) in Berlin in February 1933. It had a 396 cc 2-cylinder 2-stroke engine. Because of some criticism to the body design, not in the least by Josef Ganz in Motor-Kritik
Motor-Kritik
Motor-Kritik was the title of a progressive automotive magazine, published by the H.Bechhold Verlagsbuchhandlung in Germany from 1929 to 1945. It originated from the earlier Klein-Motor-Sport magazine.-History:...
, it was followed in April 1933 by a slightly altered model. In November 1933, the Standard Fahrzeugfabrik introduced yet another new and improved model for 1934, which was slightly longer with one additional window on each side and had a small seat for children or as luggage space in the back. This car was advertised as the German Volkswagen. During the early 1930s German car manufacturers one by one adopted the progressive ideas published in Motor-Kritik since the 1920s. In the meantime in May 1933, the Jewish Josef Ganz was arrested by the Gestapo on trumped up charges of blackmail of the automotive industry, at the instigation of those that he had ferociously criticized. He was eventually released, but his career was systematically destroyed and his life endangered. He fled Germany in June 1934 – the same month Adolf Hitler gave Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...
the brief for designing a mass-producible car for a consumer price of 1,000 Reichsmark. Production of the Standard Superior
Standard Superior
Standard Superior was an automobile marque, used from 1933-1935 by Standard Fahrzeugfabrik of Ludwigsburg, Germany, founded by motorcycle maker Wilhelm Gutbrod and unrelated to the Standard Motor Company of England...
ended in 1935. The company was forbidden by the Nazis from using the term 'Volkswagen'.
The Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
would be the longest-lasting icon of this 1930s era. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
admired the ideals exemplified by the Ford Model T
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...
, (even though he didn't drive himself), and sought the help of Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...
to create a 'peoples-car' - literally Volks-Wagen, with the same ideals for the people of Germany. This car was to compliment the new Autobahns that were to be built. They had been planned under the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
, but he stole the credit for them. Many of the design ideas were plagiarised from the work of Hans Ledwinka
Hans Ledwinka
Hans Ledwinka was an Austrian automobile designer.- Youth :Ledwinka was born was born in Klosterneuburg , near Vienna, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire....
, the Tatra T97
Tatra T97
The Type 97 is a mid-class saloon car from Czechoslovak car-maker Tatra. It was produced for a short time in the pre-war period, from 1936 to 1939.- History :...
and Tatra V570
Tatra V570
Tatra V570 was a prototype early 1930s car developed by a team led by Hans Ledwinka and Paul Jaray. The aim of the construction team was to develop cheap people's car with an aerodynamic body...
with the Czechoslovakian Tatra (car)
Tatra (car)
Tatra is a vehicle manufacturer in Kopřivnice, Czech Republic. The company was founded in 1850 as Schustala & Company later renamed Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft, a wagon and carriage manufacturer, and in 1897 produced the first motor car in central Europe, the Präsident. In 1918, it...
company. It was also suspiciously similar in many ways to the Josef Ganz designed cars, it even looked very similar to the Mercedes-Benz 120H prototype of 1931. The Nazi "KdF-Wagen" ("Strength through Joy - Car") program ground to a halt before serious production had started because of World War II, but after the war, the Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
company would be founded to produce the car in the new democratic West Germany, where it would be a success. The KdF, was the Nazi state organisation to promote leisure activities of the population, approved of, and monitored by, the state.
The Steyr 50
Steyr 50
The Steyr 50 is a small car released in 1936 by the Austrian automobile manufacturer Steyr. The streamlined body was approved by Director Karl Jenschke to be constructed in 1935, but in that same year Jenschke relocated to the German Adlerwerke in Frankfurt/Main.The car had a water-cooled...
streamlined small car was introduced in 1936 by the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n manufacturer Steyr
Steyr
Steyr is a town, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. The town is situated at the confluence of the rivers Steyr and Enns. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and simultaneously the 3rd largest town in Upper Austria....
. The car had a water-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine driving the rear wheels through a four-speed transmission. To save room and weight a dynastarter was used, which doubled as the axle of the radiator fan. It was regarded as the "Austrian Peoples' Car" and was affectionately referred to as the Steyr "Baby". Professor Porsche had, despite rumors, not been involved in the design or production of the 50. Moreover, the little Steyr offered better seating and luggage space than Porsche's Volkswagen with shorter overall length, a large sheet metal sliding roof and was available with hydraulic brakes (instead of the early Volkswagens' cable-operated ones). In early 1938, the car was revised. It got a more powerful engine and a longer wheelbase. The new model was called the Steyr 55 and went on sale in 1940. A total of 13,000 Steyr "Babies" were sold. The production of Steyr cars was discontinued during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, after bombing of the factory. After the war, the factory was rebuilt and specialized in Austrian versions of the Fiat 500
Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975, with limited production of the Fiat 500 K estate continuing until 1977. The car was designed by Dante Giacosa....
and Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
1500. Today the Steyr factory produces the BMW X models for Europe.
From 1936 to 1955, Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
in Italy produced the advanced and very compact Topolino or "little mouse", the precursor of the 1950s Fiat 500
Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975, with limited production of the Fiat 500 K estate continuing until 1977. The car was designed by Dante Giacosa....
, it was designed by Dante Giacosa
Dante Giacosa
Dante Giacosa was an Italian car designer. His work covered a large range from minicars to sports cars, using all the different layouts as and when they were the best solution at the time to meet the design parameters....
. It was a similar size to the Austin Seven
Austin 7
The Austin 7 was a car produced from 1922 through to 1939 in the United Kingdom by the Austin Motor Company. Nicknamed the "Baby Austin", it was one of the most popular cars ever produced for the British market, and sold well abroad...
but much more advanced. The Seven continued to be produced along with an updated and restyled closed body, known as the "Big Seven" until World War II, but still on the early 1920s chassis and running gear.
The pre-war European car market was not one market. Trade barriers fragmented it into national markets, apart from luxury cars where the extra cost of tariffs could actually make cars more exclusive and desirable. The only way for a car maker to enter another national market of a major European car making country, (and their colonial markets of the time), was to open factories there. For example, Citroen and Renault opened factories in England in this period. This situation only really changed with the post-war growth of the EEC (European Community) and EFTA
EFTA
EFTA may refer to:* European Family Therapy Association, an NGO.* European Fair Trade Association, an association of eleven Fair Trade importers in nine European countries....
. The British RAC (Royal Automobile Club) horsepower taxation system had the secondary function of excluding foreign vehicles. It was specifically targeted at the Ford Model T, which the then government feared would wipe out the fledgling indigenous motor industry. It crippled car engine design in Britain in the inter-war period, and was abolished after World War II as part of the British export drive for desperately needed, hard foreign currency, because it made British cars uncompetitive internationally. The 1930s Morris Eight
Morris Eight
The Morris Eight was a small car inspired by the sales popularity of the similarly shaped Ford Model Y. The success of the car enabled Morris to regain its position as Britain's largest motor manufacturer.-Morris Eight Series I:...
, Ford Eight
Ford Model Y
The Model Y is the first Ford specifically designed for markets outside the United States of America, replacing the Model A in Europe. The car was powered by a 933 cc, 8 hp Ford Sidevalve engine, and was in production in England from 1932 until September 1937, in France from 1932 to 1934...
(Ford Model Y which was related to the German Ford Köln
Ford Köln
Not to be confused with the Ford FK 1000 from 1953 which was also named Ford Köln.----Ford Köln is an automobile from the Cologne, Germany plant of the Ford Motor Company that was in production from 1932 to 1935. It was the German version of the Ford Model Y. The name came from the German name for...
), and Standard Eight
Standard Eight
The Flying Eight was the smallest member of the Standard Flying family.Introduced in 1938 or 1939 , the Flying Eight featured, in its saloon form, the "streamlined" body of the little Standard Flying Nine which had appeared in 1937...
(Standard, later became Triumph) were named after their RAC horsepower car tax rating.
1945–1970
In anticipation of a repeat of the post First World War recession, GM started the Chevrolet Cadet project (a compact car intended to sell for less than ), that ran from 1945 to 1947, to extend the Chevrolet range downwards in the US. Chevrolet head of engineering Earle S. MacPhersonEarle S. MacPherson
Earle Steele MacPherson was an automotive engineer, most famous for developing the MacPherson strut in the 1940s.-Biography:Earle S. MacPherson was born in Highland Park, Illinois in 1891, and attended the University of Illinois...
was in charge of development. It had a unibody structure, an over-square ohv engine, a strut-type front suspension, small-diameter road wheels, a three-speed gearbox, brake and clutch pedals suspended from the bulkhead rather than floor-mounted, and integrated fender/body styling. It was light and technically advanced, but GM's management cancelled it, stating that it was not economically viable. The anticipated post Second World War US car market recession hadn't materialised. The MacPherson strut
MacPherson strut
The MacPherson strut is a type of car suspension system which uses the axis of a telescopic damper as the upper steering pivot. It is widely used in modern vehicles and named after Earle S. MacPherson, who developed the design.-History:...
, probably the world's most common form of independent suspension, evolved in the GM Cadet project by combining long tubular shock absorbers with external coil springs, and locating them in tall towers that directed the vertical travel of the wheels and also formed the "king pin" or "swivel pin axis" around which the front wheels could turn. It was elegantly simple, with just three links holding the wheel in place - the strut itself, the single-piece transverse lower arm, and the anti-roll bar that doubled as a drag link for the wheel hub. MacPherson took his ideas to Ford instead. They were first used in the French 1948 Ford Vedette
Ford Vedette
The Ford Vedette is a large car manufactured by Ford France SA in their factory in Poissy from 1948-1954. Introduced at the 1948 Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris, it was designed entirely in Detroit , but featured the Poissy-made 2158 cc Aquillon sidevalve V8 engine of Ford's Flathead engine...
. Next in the 1950 British Ford Consul
Ford Consul
The Ford Consul is a car manufactured by Ford in Britain.Between 1951 and 1962 the Consul was the four-cylinder base model of the three-model Ford Zephyr range, comprising Consul, Zephyr and Zephyr Zodiac...
and Zephyr (British mid-size cars, the same size as the Cadet), which owed more to the Cadet than just the MacPherson strut suspension, and caused a sensation when they were launched. In 1953, a miniaturised economy car version, the Ford Anglia 100E
Ford Anglia
The 1949 model, code E494A, was a makeover of the previous model with a rather more 1940s style front-end, including the sloped, twin-lobed radiator grille. Again it was a very spartan vehicle and in 1948 was Britain's lowest priced four wheel car....
was launched in Britain.
As Europe and Japan rebuilt from the war, their growing economies led to a steady increase in demand for cheap cars to 'motorise the masses'. Emerging technology allowed economy cars to become more sophisticated. Early post-war economy cars like the VW Beetle, Citroën 2CV
Citroën 2CV
The Citroën 2CV |tax horsepower]]”) was an economy car produced by the French automaker Citroën between 1948 and 1990. It was technologically advanced and innovative, but with uncompromisingly utilitarian unconventional looks, and deceptively simple Bauhaus inspired bodywork, that belied the sheer...
, Renault 4CV
Renault 4CV
The Renault 4CV was an economy car produced by the French manufacturer Renault from August 1947-July 1961. The first French car to sell over a million units, the 4CV was ultimately superseded by the Renault Dauphine....
, and Saab 92
Saab 92
Saab 92 is an automobile from Saab. The design was very aerodynamic for its time, and the cW value was 0.30 . The entire body was stamped out of one piece of sheet metal and then cut to accommodate doors and windows. Full-scale production started December 12, 1949, based on the prototype Saab 92001...
looked extremely minimal; however, they were technologically more advanced than most conventional cars of the time.
The VW featured a 1.1-litre, air-cooled flat four, rear engine with rear-wheel drive, all round fully independent suspension, semi monocoque
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
construction and the ability to cruise on the autobahn for long periods reliably. This cruising ability and engine durability was gained by high top gearing, and by restricting the engine breathing and performance to well below its maximum capability. The Volkswagen Type 1 'Beetle' is the most popular single design of all time.
The 4CV was designed covertly by Renault engineers during the World War II German occupation of France
Military history of France during World War II
The military history of France during World War II covers the period from 1939 until 1940, which witnessed French military participation under the French Third Republic , and the period from 1940 until 1945, which was marked by mainland and overseas military administration and influence struggles...
, when under strict orders to design and produce only commercial and military vehicles. Between 1941 and 1944, Renault was under the Technical Directorship of a francophile German installed former Daimler Benz engineer called Wilhelm von Urach who turned a blind eye to the small, economy car project suitable for the period of post war austerity. The design team went against the wishes of Louis Renault
Louis Renault (industrialist)
Louis Renault was a French industrialist, one of the founders of Renault and a pioneer of the automobile industry....
who in 1940 believed that post-war Renault should concentrate on mid-range cars. Only after a row in May 1941 did Louis Renault approve the project. In October 1944 after the liberation, Louis Renault who was imprisoned on charges of collaboration, died in suspicious circumstances. In January 1945, newly nationalised Renault had officially acquired a new boss, the former resistance hero Pierre Lefaucheux
Pierre Lefaucheux
Pierre Lefaucheux was a leading French industrialist and a Compagnon de la Libération. -Early years:Born at Triel-sur-Seine, and descended from the French inventor Casimir Lefaucheux, Pierre was second of the four children of Pierre André Lefaucheux and Madeleine Dulac.He volunteered for military...
, (he had been acting administrator since September 1944). Lefaucheux had been arrested by the Gestapo in June 1944, and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. The Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
transferred him to Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
for interrogation, but the city was deserted because of the advancing allied front, the Germans abandoned their prisoner. In November 1945 the French government invited Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...
oke engine technology was to appting the Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
project to France as part of war reparations. On 15 December 1945, Porsche was invited to consult with Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
about the Renault 4CV. Lefaucheux was enraged that anyone should think the almost production-ready Renault 4CV was in any way inspired by the German Volkswagen, and that the politicians should presume to send Porsche to advise on it. The government insisted on nine meetings with Porsche which took place in rapid succession. Lefaucheux insisted that the meetings would have absolutely no influence on the design of the Renault 4CV, and Porsche cautiously went on record saying that the car would be ready for large scale production in a year. Lefaucheux was a man with contacts, as soon as the 4CV project meetings had taken place, Porsche was arrested in connection with war crimes allegations involving the use of forced labour including French in the Volkswagen plant in Germany. Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...
, despite never facing any sort of trial, spent the next twenty months in a Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
jail. The 760 cc rear-mounted four-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission
Manual transmission
A manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox or standard transmission is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...
4CV was launched at the 1946 Paris Motor Show and went on sale a year later. Volume production was said to have commenced at the company's Billancourt plant a few weeks before the Paris Motor Show of October 1947, although the cars were in very short supply for the next year or so. On the 4CV's launch, it was nicknamed "La motte de beurre" (the lump of butter); this was due to the combination of its shape and the use of surplus paint from the German Army vehicles of Rommel's
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
Afrika Korps
Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...
, which were a sand-yellow color.
The 375 cc Citroën 2CV
Citroën 2CV
The Citroën 2CV |tax horsepower]]”) was an economy car produced by the French automaker Citroën between 1948 and 1990. It was technologically advanced and innovative, but with uncompromisingly utilitarian unconventional looks, and deceptively simple Bauhaus inspired bodywork, that belied the sheer...
had interconnected all round fully independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, radial tyres and front wheel drive with an air-cooled flat twin engine. It was some 10 to 15 MPG (Imperial) more fuel efficient than any other economy car of its time – but with restricted performance to match. It was designed to motorise rural communities where speed was not a requirement. The original design brief had been issued before the Second World War in the mid 1930s. It had been completely redesigned three times, as its market and materials costs had changed drastically during its development period. Engine size increased over time; from 1970 it was a still tiny 602 cc.
The Saab 92
Saab 92
Saab 92 is an automobile from Saab. The design was very aerodynamic for its time, and the cW value was 0.30 . The entire body was stamped out of one piece of sheet metal and then cut to accommodate doors and windows. Full-scale production started December 12, 1949, based on the prototype Saab 92001...
had a transversely mounted
Transverse engine
A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine's crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the long axis of the vehicle. Many modern front wheel drive vehicles use this engine mounting configuration...
, water-cooled
Watercooling
Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. As opposed to air cooling, water is used as the heat conductor. Water cooling is commonly used for cooling automobile internal combustion engines and large industrial facilities such as steam electric power plants,...
two-cylinder, two-stroke
Saab two-stroke
The first Saab two-stroke engine was based on a DKW design. The SAAB engine, a two-cylinder with 764 cc engine displacement and 25 hp was transversally placed in the 1950 - 1956 Saab 92, giving it a top speed of . With the 1954 model engine output was raised to...
based on a DKW
DKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...
design, driving the front wheels. It had aircraft derived monocoque
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
construction, with an aerodynamic cW value (drag coefficient
Drag coefficient
In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment such as air or water. It is used in the drag equation, where a lower drag coefficient indicates the object will have less aerodynamic or...
) of 0.30 – not bettered until the 1980s. It was later developed into the Saab 93
Saab 93
The Saab 93, pronounced ninety-three, is an automobile manufactured by Saab. It was announced on August 18, 1955, and was first presented on December 1, 1955. It was styled by Sixten Sason and had a longitudinally-mounted three-cylinder 748 cc Saab two-stroke engine giving 33 hp . The...
, Saab 95
Saab 95
The Saab 95 was a 7-seater, 2-door station wagon made by Saab. Initially it was based on the Saab 93 sedan version, but the model's development throughout the years followed closely that of the 96 since the 93 was put off the market in 1960...
, and Saab 96
Saab 96
For the modern car, see Saab 9-6The Saab 96 is an automobile made by Saab. It was introduced in 1960 and was produced until January 1980, a run of 20 years. Like the 93 it replaced, the 96 was a development from the old Saab 92 chassis and, on account of its improvements and modernisation, it...
. It was produced until 1980. The mechanicals were used in the Saab Sonett
Saab Sonett
The Saab Sonett is an automobile manufactured between 1955 and 1957 and again between 1966 and 1974 by Saab Automobile AB of Sweden. Sonetts shared engines and other components with Saab 96s and 95s of the same era....
sports cars.
Also in the immediate postwar period, the monocoque FR layout Morris Minor
Morris Minor
The Morris Minor was a British economy car that debuted at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, on 20 September 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.3 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1971...
was launched in 1948. Because of costs it reused the pre-war side-valve
Flathead engine
A flathead engine is an internal combustion engine with valves placed in the engine block beside the piston, instead of in the cylinder head, as in an overhead valve engine...
918 cc Morris 8 engine instead of an intended flat-four. It had a strong emphasis on good packaging and roadholding, with independent front suspension and rack and pinion steering, and American influenced styling. 1.3 million had been built by the end of production in 1971. It was designed by Alec Issigonis
Alec Issigonis
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS was a Greek-British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the groundbreaking and influential development of the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959.- Early life:Issigonis was born into the Greek community of Smyrna ...
.
In 1953, in Japan Hino
Hino Motors
-External links:Global* * * Overseas offices****.*.***.*.* - Philippines**...
entered the private car market, by manufacturing Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
's Renault 4CV
Renault 4CV
The Renault 4CV was an economy car produced by the French manufacturer Renault from August 1947-July 1961. The first French car to sell over a million units, the 4CV was ultimately superseded by the Renault Dauphine....
under licence.
While economy cars flourished in Europe and later Japan, the booming postwar American economy combined with the emergence of the suburban and interstate highways in that country led to slow acceptance of small cars. Brief economic recessions saw interest in economical cars wax and wane. During this time, the American auto manufacturers would introduce smaller cars of their own, in 1950 Nash Motors introduced the Rambler designed to be smaller than contemporary cars, yet still accommodate five passengers comfortably. Nash also contracted with British Motor Corporation to build the American designed Metropolitan
Nash Metropolitan
The Nash Metropolitan is a car that was sold, initially only in the United States and Canada, from 1954–1962.It conforms to two classes of vehicle: economy car and subcompact car. In today’s terminology the Metropolitan is a “subcompact”, but this category had not yet come into use when the car was...
using existing BMC mechanical components, (the 1.5 Liter engine is a BMC B-Series engine also used in larger sizes in the MG MGA
MG MGA
The MGA is a sports car produced by MG division of the British Motor Corporation from 1955 to 1962.The MGA replaced the older T-type cars and represented a complete styling break from the older vehicles. The car was officially launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1955...
and MG MGB
MG MGB
The MGB is a sports car launched by MG Cars in May 1962 to replace the MGA. Introduced as a four-cylinder roadster, a coupé with 2+2 seating was added in 1965...
). Imported cars began to appear on the U.S. market during this time to satisfy the demands for true economy cars. An initial late 1940s–early 1950s success in a small way, was the monocoque Morris Minor launched in 1948, with its miniaturized Chevrolet styling. It was underpowered for the long distance roads of the U.S. and especially the freeways that were starting to spread across the country in the 1950s. The first British Motorway did not open until 1959. BMC preferred to develop the higher profit margin MGs for the American market and also worked with Nash and so passed on the opportunity. From the mid-1950s the Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
using clever and innovative advertising and capitalising on its very high build quality, durability and reliability, was a spectacular success. Having been designed for cruising the autobahns, freeways were no problem for it. It disproved the scepticism of American buyers as to the usefulness of, by their standards, such small cars. Initially the stylish Renault Dauphine
Renault Dauphine
Renault Dauphine is a rear-engined economy car manufactured by Renault in one body style — a three-box, four-door sedan — as the successor to the Renault 4CV, with over two million examples marketed worldwide during its production from 1956-1967....
derived from the Renault 4CV
Renault 4CV
The Renault 4CV was an economy car produced by the French manufacturer Renault from August 1947-July 1961. The first French car to sell over a million units, the 4CV was ultimately superseded by the Renault Dauphine....
, looked like it would follow the VWs footsteps, but then was a failure due to mechanical breakdowns and body corrosion. This failure on the U.S. market in the late 1950s, may have harmed the acceptance of small cars generally in America.
In the late 1950s the DDR German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
produced its 'peoples car'. The Trabant
Trabant
The Trabant is a car that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc...
sold 3 million vehicles in thirty years due to its communist captive market
Captive market
Captive markets are markets where the potential consumers face a severely limited amount of competitive suppliers; their only choices are to purchase what is available or to make no purchase at all. Captive markets result in higher prices and less diversity for consumers...
. It had a transverse two-cylinder air-cooled two-stroke engine and front wheel drive, using DKW
DKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...
technology.
In 1957, Fiat in Italy launched the 479 cc 'Nuovo' Fiat 500
Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975, with limited production of the Fiat 500 K estate continuing until 1977. The car was designed by Dante Giacosa....
designed by Dante Giacosa
Dante Giacosa
Dante Giacosa was an Italian car designer. His work covered a large range from minicars to sports cars, using all the different layouts as and when they were the best solution at the time to meet the design parameters....
. It was the first real city car. It had a rear-mounted air-cooled vertical twin engine, and all round independent suspension. Its target market was Italian scooter riders who had settled down and had a young family, and needed their first car. Fiat had also launched the larger 1955 Fiat 600
Fiat 600
The Fiat 600 is a city car produced by the Italian automaker Fiat from 1955 to 1969. Measuring only 3.22 m long, it was the first rear-engined Fiat and cost the equivalent of about € 6,700 or US$ 7300 in today's money . The total number produced from 1955 to 1969 at the Mirafiori...
with a similar layout but with a water-cooled in-line four-cylinder engine, it even had a six-seater people carrier / MPV / mini-van version called the 'Multipla', even though it was about the same size as a modern supermini.
Car body corrosion was a particular problem from the 1950s to the 1980s when cars moved to monocoque
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
or uni-body construction (starting from the 1930s), from a separate Body-on-frame
Body-on-frame
Body-on-frame is an automobile construction method. Mounting a separate body to a rigid frame that supports the drivetrain was the original method of building automobiles, and its use continues to this day. The original frames were made of wood , but steel ladder frames became common in the 1930s...
chassis made from thick steel. This relied on the shaped body panels and box sections, like sills/rockers, providing the integrity of the body-shell rather than a separate frame (vehicle)
Frame (vehicle)
A frame is the main structure of the chassis of a motor vehicle. All other components fasten to it; a term for this is design is body-on-frame construction.In 1920, every motor vehicle other than a few cars based on motorcycles had a frame...
for strength. A light car was a fast and/or economical car. The introduction of newly available computers for structural analysis
Structural analysis
Structural analysis is the determination of the effects of loads on physical structures and their components. Structures subject to this type of analysis include all that must withstand loads, such as buildings, bridges, vehicles, machinery, furniture, attire, soil strata, prostheses and...
from the 1960s, with computers like the IBM 360, the thickness of sheet metal in bodyshells was reduced to the minimum needed for structural integrity. However, corrosion prevention / rustproofing
Rustproofing
Rustproofing is a condition of preservation or protection, by a process or treatment whereby the rate at which objects made of iron and/or steel begin to rust is reduced. The degradation in the long term can not be stopped completely, unless the rustproofing is periodically renewed...
, that had not previously been significant because of the thickness of metal and separate chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...
, had not kept pace with this new construction technology. The lightest monocoque economy cars would be the most affected by structural corrosion
Corrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...
.
The next advance was the 1959 848 cc FF layout
FF layout
In automotive design, an FF, or Front-engine, Front-wheel drive layout places both the internal combustion engine and driven roadwheels at the front of the vehicle.-Usage implications:...
Austin Mini from the British Motor Corporation
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
, designed by Alec Issigonis
Alec Issigonis
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS was a Greek-British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the groundbreaking and influential development of the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959.- Early life:Issigonis was born into the Greek community of Smyrna ...
as a response to the first oil crisis, the 1956 Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
, and the boom in bubble cars and Microcar
Microcar
A microcar is the smallest automobile classification usually applied to standard small car . Such small cars were generally referred to as cyclecars until the 1940s. More recent models are also called bubblecars due to their egg-shaped appearance.-Definition:The definition of a microcar has varied...
s that followed. It was the first front wheel drive car with a water-cooled in-line four-cylinder engine mounted transversely. This allowed eighty percent of the floor plan for the use of passengers and luggage. The majority of modern cars use this configuration. Its progressive rate rubber sprung independent suspension (Hydrolastic
Hydrolastic
Hydrolastic is a type of space-efficient automotive suspension system used in many cars produced by British Motor Corporation and its successor companies....
1964–1971), low centre of gravity, and wheel at each corner with radial tyres, increased the car's grip and handling over all but the most expensive automobiles on the market. The Mini was voted the second most important car of the 20th century after the Ford Model T.
Also in 1959 the FR layout DAF 600
DAF 600
The DAF 600 is a small family car that was DAF's first production passenger car: it was first presented at the Amsterdam Motor Show in February 1958 and was in production by 1959, although the firm had published the first details of the car at the end of 1957...
, with a rear-mounted automatic gearbox, was launched in the Netherlands. The 600 was the first car to have a continuously variable transmission
Continuously variable transmission
A continuously variable transmission is a transmission that can change steplessly through an infinite number of effective gear ratios between maximum and minimum values. This contrasts with other mechanical transmissions that offer a fixed number of gear ratios...
(CVT) system – the innovotive DAF Variomatic
Variomatic
Variomatic is the stepless, fully automatic transmission of the Dutch car manufacturer DAF, originally developed by Hub van Doorne: this consists of a "V" shaped drive belt and two pulleys, each of two cones, whose effective diameter can be changed so that the "V" belt runs nearer the spindle or...
. It was the first European economy car with an automatic gearbox. The CVT was continued through the 1960s and 1970s by DAF with the DAF Daffodil
DAF Daffodil
The DAF 750 is a small family car that was manufactured by DAF from 1961 until 1963. It replaced the DAF 600. At the same time as launching the 750, DAF launched the DAF Daffodil which was essentially the same car but with more luxurious fittings and a lot more chrome trim on the outside...
, DAF 33
DAF 33
The DAF 33 is a compact saloon car produced by the DAF company of Eindhoven, in the Netherlands between 1967 and 1974. Outwardly and technically it differed little from its predecessor, the DAF Daffodil....
, DAF 44
DAF 44
The DAF 44 is a small family car that was introduced in September 1966 by the Dutch company DAF. It was the first car to be built at the company's new plant at Born in Limburg...
, DAF 46
DAF 46
The DAF 46 is a small family car that was manufactured by the Dutch company DAF. It was introduced in November 1974 to replace the 44, although at the time it was announced that the two cars would be sold "alongside" one another, suggesting that there were still substantial stocks of the earlier...
, DAF 66
DAF 66
The DAF 66 is a small family car produced by the Dutch company DAF from September 1972 to 1976. It was the successor of the DAF 55 and was itself superseded by the reworked Volvo 66...
and later by Volvo after they merged with the Volvo 340. The 1960s Austin Mini automatic gearbox (with a conventional epicyclic / torque converter coupling) was much less efficient.
In the 1960s the 750 cc Renault 4
Renault 4
The Renault 4, also known as the 4L , is a hatchback economy car produced by the French automaker Renault between 1961 and 1992. It was the first front-wheel drive family car produced by Renault....
(arguably the first small five-door hatchback, but viewed as a small estate car or station wagon at the time) was launched in France. In layout it was essentially an economy car version of the 1930s designed Citroen Traction Avant
Citroën Traction Avant
The Citroën Traction Avant is an automobile which was produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1934 to 1957. About 760,000 units were produced.-Impact on the world:...
Commerciale version. The Commerciale had been smaller than an estate car with a horizontally split two-piece rear door before the second world war. When it was relaunched in 1954 it featured a one-piece top-hinged tailgate. Citroen responded with the 2CV-based 1960 602 cc Citroën Ami
Citroën Ami
The Citroën Ami is a supermini produced by the French automaker Citroën from 1961 to 1978. The Ami and stablemate Citroën Dyane were replaced by the Citroën Visa and Citroën Axel . The Ami was for some years the best-selling car model in France...
and hatchback 1967 Citroën Dyane
Citroën Dyane
The Citroën Dyane is an economy car/supermini produced by the French automaker Citroën from 1967 to 1983. Based on the Citroën 2CV, 1,444,583 examples were manufactured...
. Also in France, in 1966 Renault launched the midrange Renault 16
Renault 16
The Renault 16 is a hatchback produced by French automaker Renault between 1965 and 1980 in Le Havre, France. The reviewer in the May 1965 edition of the English "Motoring Illustrated" said: "The Renault Sixteen can thus be described as a large family car but one that is neither a four door saloon...
- although it was not an economy car, it is widely recognised as the first non-commercial mass-market hatchback
Hatchback
A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...
car. The hatchback was a leap forward in practicality. It was adopted as a standard feature on most European cars, with saloons declining in popularity apart from at the top of the market over the next twenty years. Small economy cars that were more limited in load carrying ability than larger cars benefited most - long light loads like furniture could be hung out of the back of the car.
The 1960s Toyota Corolla
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla is a line of subcompact and compact cars manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota, which has become very popular throughout the world since the nameplate was first introduced in 1966. In 1997, the Corolla became the best selling nameplate in the world, with over 35 million...
, Datsun Sunny refined the conventional small rear wheel drive economy cars as postwar international competition and trade increased. Japan also codified a legal standard for extremely economical small cars, known as the keicar: The first generation on the market were all rear-engined, rear drive RR layout
RR layout
In automotive design, a RR, or Rear-engine, Rear-wheel drive layout places both the engine and drive wheels at the rear of the vehicle. In contrast to the RMR layout, the center of mass of the engine is between the rear axle and the rear bumper....
cars. From the end of the 1960s Keicars switched to front-engined, front wheel drive FF layout
FF layout
In automotive design, an FF, or Front-engine, Front-wheel drive layout places both the internal combustion engine and driven roadwheels at the front of the vehicle.-Usage implications:...
. This market has thrived ever since, with the cars increasing in size and engine capacity, including sports cars such as the Honda Beat
Honda Beat
The Honda Beat is a rear mid-engined two-seat roadster kei car produced from in May 1991 to February 1996. The Beat was the last car to be approved by Soichiro Honda before he died in 1991. The total number of cars produced was around 33,600. Most of the production occurred in the first year, and...
and Suzuki Cappuccino
Suzuki Cappuccino
The Suzuki Cappuccino is a small 2-door, 2-seater demountable hardtop roadster produced by Suzuki Motor Corporation. The vehicle was designed to meet Kei car specifications for lower tax and insurance in Japan. Weighing just , the Cappuccino is powered by a turbocharged, three-cylinder, 657 cc DOHC...
, and even miniaturised MPVs. Japan also instituted the "shaken"
Motor-vehicle inspection (Japan)
, a contraction of , is the name of the vehicle inspection program in Japan for motor vehicles over 250 cc in engine displacement.- Reason for existence :...
road-worthiness testing regime, that required progressively more expensive maintenance, involving the replacement of entire vehicle systems, that was unnecessary for safety, year on year, to devalue older cars and promote new cars on their home market that were available for low prices. There are very few cars in Japan more than five years old.
In 1964 Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
designed the first car with a transverse engine and an end on gearbox (put into limited production and available as a hatchback) - the Autobianchi Primula
Autobianchi Primula
The Autobianchi Primula is a small car from the Italian automaker, Autobianchi , built between 1964 and 1970. It was Fiat's first automobile with the front-wheel drive, transverse engine setup, as well as the first Fiat group car with rack and pinion steering...
, that was developed into the Autobianchi A112
Autobianchi A112
The Autobianchi A112 is a supermini produced by the Italian automaker Autobianchi. It was developed using the mechanicals which subsequently underpinned the Fiat 127. It was introduced in 1969, as a replacement for the Bianchina and Primula, and was built until 1986, when it made way for the more...
and Autobianchi A111
Autobianchi A111
The Autobianchi A111 is a small family car from the Italian automaker, Autobianchi , built from 1969 to 1972. Despite rather modest dimensions, it was the largest Autobianchi ever made, as the brand specialized in small cars...
. They were only sold in mainland Europe, where they were popular for decades, but unknown in the UK. The 1967 Simca 1100
Simca 1100
The Simca 1100 is an automobile built from 1967 to 1982 by Chrysler Europe's division Simca. It was replaced by the Talbot Horizon.The 1100 was the result of "Project 928", started in 1962, finalized by engineers Philippe Grundeler and Charles Scales...
(who had previously used Fiat technology under licence), the 1969 Fiat 128
Fiat 128
The Fiat 128 is a small family car manufactured by the Italian manufacturer Fiat from 1969 to 1985. The engine was designed by the famous Ferrari racing engine designer Aurelio Lampredi.-History:...
, and the 1971 Fiat 127
Fiat 127
The Fiat 127 is a supermini produced by the Italian automaker Fiat between 1971 and 1983. It was introduced in 1971 as the replacement for the Fiat 850...
regarded as the first 'super-mini' brought this development to a wider audience. This layout gradually superseded the gearbox in the engine's sump of BMC Austin Morris
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
and later Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
PSA X engine
PSA X engine
The PSA X engine is a family of internal combustion engines used in Citroën, Peugeot, Talbot and Renault automobiles. The X family was mainly used in superminis and the entry level models of midsize vehicles. It is commonly called the "Douvrin" engine....
, until the only car in production with this transmission layout by the 1990s, was the then long obsolescent Austin (Rover) Mini.
The launch in the 1960s of the Mini Cooper to exploit the exceptional grip and handling of the Austin Mini, along with its success in rallying, (Monte Carlo Rally in particular) and circuit racing, first showed that economy cars could be effective sports cars. It made traditional sports cars like the MG Midget
MG Midget
The MG Midget is a small two-seater sports car produced by the MG division of the British Motor Corporation from 1961 to 1979. It revived a famous name used on earlier models such as the MG M-type, MG D-type, MG J-type and MG T-type.-MG Midget MkI :...
look very old fashioned. The rear wheel drive Ford Lotus Cortina
Lotus Cortina
The Lotus-Cortina is a high-performance car, which was produced in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1970 by the Ford in collaboration with Lotus Cars. The original version, which was based on the Ford Cortina Mark 1, was promoted by Ford as the "Consul Cortina developed by Lotus", with "Consul"...
and Ford Escort 1300GT and RS1600, along with the Vauxhall Viva
Vauxhall Viva
The Viva was a small family car produced by Vauxhall Motors in a succession of three versions between 1963 and 1979. These were known as the HA, the HB and the HC series....
GT and Brabham SL/90 HB in the late 1960s opened up this market still further in Britain. Meanwhile, from the 1950s Abarth
Abarth
Abarth is an Italian racing car maker founded by Austrian-Italian Carlo Abarth and Italian Armando Scagliarini in Turin in 1949. Its logo depicts a stylized scorpion on a red and yellow background.- History :...
tuned Fiats and Gordini
Gordini
Gordini is a French sports car manufacturer. The firm was founded by Amédée Gordini nicknamed "Le Sorcier" .Gordini competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1956....
tuned Renaults did the same in Italy and France.
The 1960s also saw the swan song of the rear-engined rear wheel drive car RR layout
RR layout
In automotive design, a RR, or Rear-engine, Rear-wheel drive layout places both the engine and drive wheels at the rear of the vehicle. In contrast to the RMR layout, the center of mass of the engine is between the rear axle and the rear bumper....
:
The 874 cc Hillman Imp
Hillman Imp
The Hillman Imp is a compact, rear-engined saloon car that was manufactured under the Hillman marque by the Rootes Group from 1963 to 1976...
- UK.
The relatively unsuccessful attempt at diversification of the Volkswagen Type 3
Volkswagen Type 3
The Volkswagen Type 3 was a range of small cars from German manufacturer Volkswagen , introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show, Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung ....
, Volkswagen Type 4
Volkswagen Type 4
The Volkswagen Type 4 is a mid-sized car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen of Germany from 1968-1974 in two-door and four-door sedan as well as two-door station wagon body styles...
, and the 583 cc NSU Prinz
NSU Prinz
The NSU Prinz is an automobile produced in West Germany by the NSU Motorenwerke AG. The car was built from 1957 to 1973, and received a model change in 1961 .-NSU Prinz 30:...
- West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
.
The 956–1289 cc Renault 8
Renault 8
The Renault 8 and Renault 10 are two small family cars produced by the French manufacturer Renault in the 1960s and early 1970s....
/10 and 777–1294 cc Simca 1000
Simca 1000
The Simca 1000 was a small, rear-engined, four-door saloon manufactured by the French automaker Simca from 1961 to 1978.-The launch:The car was inexpensive and, at the time of launch, quite modern, with a brand-new inline-4 watercooled engine of 944cc...
- France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
The 2296 cc Chevrolet Corvair
Chevrolet Corvair
-First generation :The 1960 Corvair 500 and 700 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities in order to keep the price competitive, with the 500 selling for under $2,000...
- USA.
The first 1960s air-cooled two-stroke in-line twin-engined generation of the 360 cc Keicar class - the 1958 Subaru 360
Subaru 360
The Subaru 360 was the first automobile mass-produced by Fuji Heavy Industries' Subaru division. A number of innovative features were used to design a very small and inexpensive car to address government plans to produce a small "people's car" with an engine no larger than 360 cc when most in...
, Mitsubishi 360 1961, Mazda Carol
Mazda Carol
The Mazda Carol is a name used by Mazda for its kei cars from 1962 until 1970. It was revived again with Mazda's 1989 reentry into the Kei car class.-Carol :...
1962, Daihatsu Fellow 1966, Honda N360
Honda N360
The Honda N360 is a kei car, designed and built by Honda and produced from March 1967 through 1970, while its larger N600 brother lasted three more years. After a January 1970 facelift, the N360 became the NIII360 and continued in production until 1972...
and the Suzuki Fronte
Suzuki Fronte
The Fronte automobile was first introduced in March 1962 as a sedan version of the Suzulight Van. The nameplate remained in use for Suzuki's Kei car sedans until replaced by the Alto name in September 1988....
1967 along with the non Keicar, Renault based Hino Motors
Hino Motors
-External links:Global* * * Overseas offices****.*.***.*.* - Philippines**...
4CV was replaced by the 1961 Contessa - Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
In Communist Eastern Europe there was the Škoda 1000MB/1100MB that was developed into the 1970s Škoda S100/110
Škoda S100/110
The Škoda 100/110 were two variations of a rear-engined, rear-wheel drive car that was produced by Czechoslovakian manufacturer AZNP in Mladá Boleslav between 1969 and 1976. Engine sizes were 1.0 litre and 1.1 litre respectively...
and then the 1970s–1980s Škoda 105/120/125 Estelle - Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
The poorly regarded Ukrainian-made Zaporozhets - USSR.
This layout had better interior space utilisation than front engine rear wheel drive cars, and a better ride than those with a live rear beam axle. It was an affordable way to produce a car with all independent suspension
Independent suspension
Independent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects...
, without the need for expensive constant-velocity joint
Constant-velocity joint
Constant-velocity joints allow a drive shaft to transmit power through a variable angle, at constant rotational speed, without an appreciable increase in friction or play. They are mainly used in front wheel drive and all wheel drive cars...
s needed by front wheel drive cars, or axle arrangements of FR layout cars. But, they could have road-holding issues due to unfavorable weight distribution and wheel camber
Camber angle
thumb|100px|From the front of the car, a right wheel with a negative camber angleCamber angle is the angle made by the wheels of a vehicle; specifically, it is the angle between the vertical axis of the wheels used for steering and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front or...
changes (rear wheel tuck under), of the lower-cost swing axle
Swing axle
A swing axle is a simple type of independent suspension first used in early aircraft , such as the Sopwith and Fokker, usually with rubber bungee and no damping....
rear suspension design. These were highlighted and a little exaggerated by Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
. These problems were ameliorated on later Beetles and were eliminated on the second-generation Chevrolet Corvair
Chevrolet Corvair
-First generation :The 1960 Corvair 500 and 700 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities in order to keep the price competitive, with the 500 selling for under $2,000...
with the switch to a four-link, fully independent rear suspension.
In the US market, 1960 brought the Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Falcon, and Plymouth Valiant
Plymouth Valiant
The Plymouth Valiant is an automobile manufactured by the Plymouth division of Chrysler Corporation in the United States from 1960 to 1976. It was created to give the company an entry in the compact car market emerging in the late 1950s...
into the market segment dominated by Rambler
Rambler (automobile)
Rambler was an automobile brand name used by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company between 1900 and 1914, then by its successor, Nash Motors from 1950 to 1954, and finally by Nash's successor, American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1969...
. These vehicles were lower priced and offered better fuel economy than American full-size offerings. The Corvair, Chevrolet's rear-engined compact car
Compact car
A compact car , or small family car , is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car...
, was originally brought to market to compete directly with the VW Beetle. Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant were conventional, compact six-cylinder sedans that competed directly with the American Rambler. In 1962 Chevrolet introduced the Chevy II line of conventional compacts first offered with 4- and six-cylinder engines. These American vehicles were still much larger than fuel-efficient economy cars popular in Europe and Japan. The Corvair is twenty inches longer, seven inches wider, eight hundred pounds heavier and includes an engine almost twice the size of the Beetle that inspired it. Corvair offered VW's rear engine advantages of traction, light steering, and flat floor with Chevrolet's six-passenger room and six-cylinder power American buyers were accustomed to. Later versions of the Corvair were considered sports cars rather than 'economy' cars including Monza Spyder models, which featured one of the first production car turbocharged engines. The Corvair Monza inspired the Ford Mustang
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...
, introduced in 1964, establishing the "pony car" class which included Corvair's replacement, the Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is an automobile manufactured by General Motors under the Chevrolet brand, classified as a pony car and some versions also as a muscle car. It went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed as a competing model to the Ford Mustang...
in 1967, continuing the American muscle car boom started in mid-1960s.
1970s–1990s
The 1973 oil crisis1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
renewed emphasis on economy of vehicle operation, especially in the United States with its greater distances, arguably the nation hardest hit because of the prevalence of large, fuel-thirsty cars. At the same time, new emissions and safety regulations were being implemented requiring major and costly changes to domestic vehicle design and construction. The sales of imported economy cars continued to rise from the sixties. The first response by domestic American car makers included the FR layout cars, the AMC Gremlin
AMC Gremlin
The AMC Gremlin is a two-door subcompact car produced in the United States and Canada by the American Motors Corporation between 1970 and 1978. AMC reduced its development and manufacturing costs by adapting a shortened Hornet platform with a Kammback-type tail...
, Chevrolet Vega
Chevrolet Vega
The Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact, two-door automobile that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1971-1977 model years. Named after the star Vega, the car was powered by a lightweight aluminum-block inline four-cylinder engine...
, and Ford Pinto
Ford Pinto
The Ford Pinto is a subcompact car produced by the Ford Motor Company for the model years 1971–1980. The car's name derives from the Pinto horse. Initially offered as a two-door sedan, Ford offered "Runabout" hatchback and wagon models the following year, competing in the U.S. market with the AMC...
.
AMC was determined to have the first subcompact offering and 1970 AMC Gremlin sales began six months ahead of the all-new 1971 models from GM
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
and Ford. The Gremlin used the AMC Hornet
AMC Hornet
The AMC Hornet was a compact automobile made by the American Motors Corporation in one generation beginning with the 1970 model year and continuing through the 1977 model year. The Hornet replaced the compact Rambler American marking the end of the Rambler marque in the American and Canadian markets...
's existing design with a shortened wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
and "chopped" tail, and had an important low-price advantage.
The Chevrolet Vega
Chevrolet Vega
The Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact, two-door automobile that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1971-1977 model years. Named after the star Vega, the car was powered by a lightweight aluminum-block inline four-cylinder engine...
, introduced in September 1970, was GM's first subcompact, economy car. Nearly two million were sold over its seven-year production run, due in part to its low price and fuel economy. By 1974, the Vega was among the top 10 best-selling American-made cars, but the aluminum-block engine developed a questionable reputation. Chevrolet increased the engine warranty to 50000 miles (80,467 km) to all Vega owners, which proved costly for Chevrolet. The 1976 Vega had extensive engine and body durability improvements and a five-year/60000 mi (96,560.4 km) engine warranty. After a three-year sales decline, the Vega and its aluminum engine were discontinued at the end of the 1977 model year.
Pontiac
Pontiac
Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...
's lowest-priced car was a re-badged
Badge engineering
Badge engineering is an ironic term that describes the rebadging of one product as another...
Vega variant exclusively available in Canada for the 1973-'74 model years, and introduced in the U.S. the following year. The final 1977 models featured the first use of Pontiac's Iron Duke
GM Iron Duke engine
Iron Dukes were fitted with fuel injection in 1982. This version was christened the Tech IV, though Car and Driver later ridiculed it as the low-Tech IV. Power output remained at ....
inline-4 engine. Lower priced versions of the Chevrolet Monza
Chevrolet Monza
The Chevrolet Monza is a subcompact, four-passenger automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1975–1980 model years. The Monza is based on the Chevrolet Vega, sharing its wheelbase, width and 140 CID inline-4 engine...
were introduced for 1978 and rebadged variants of the discontinued Vega were also added to the Monza line - the Monza wagon using the Vega Kammback body was sold for the 1978-79 model years, and the Monza S hatchback, a price leader model using the Vega Hatchback body, was also offered for the 1978 model year.
The Ford Pinto
Ford Pinto
The Ford Pinto is a subcompact car produced by the Ford Motor Company for the model years 1971–1980. The car's name derives from the Pinto horse. Initially offered as a two-door sedan, Ford offered "Runabout" hatchback and wagon models the following year, competing in the U.S. market with the AMC...
was introduced one day after the Vega. It was small, economical, and a top seller. However, it was proven to have design and safety issues. The Pinto made Time magazine's 'The 50 worst cars of all time list' - not because it was a particularly bad car, but because it had a rather volatile nature. The car tended to erupt in flames in rear-end collisions. The Pinto is at the end of one of autodom's most notorious paper trails—several Ford company memos presented as evidence during the civil trials revealed that these remedies were discussed, with the conclusion that to shut down production and retool would be too expensive. Most damaging to Ford were memos found and published by author-researcher Mark Dowie in the magazine Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
that detailed a cost analysis of corporate liability in the event of having to compensate crash victims. The "Ford Pinto memo" ruthlessly calculated the cost of reinforcing the rear end ($121 million) versus the potential payout to victims . The Ford Pinto engine
Ford Pinto engine
The Ford Pinto engine was the unofficial but generic nickname for a 4-cylinder internal combustion engine built by Ford Europe. In Ford sales literature it was referred to as the EAO or OHC engine and because it was designed to the metric system, it was sometimes called the "Metric engine". The...
though was successful in European Fords for twenty years, in successive mid and large European sized mainstay models of the; UK Ford Cortina
Ford Cortina
As the 1960s dawned, BMC were revelling in the success of their new Mini – the first successful true minicar to be built in Britain in the postwar era...
, German Ford Taunus
Ford Taunus
The Ford Taunus is a family car sold by Ford in Germany and other countries. Models from 1970 onward were similar to the Ford Cortina in the United Kingdom...
, the Ford Sierra
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 until 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni"....
, and the Ford Granada
Ford Granada (Europe)
The March 1972 released Granada succeeded the British Ford Zephyr, and the German P7-series as Ford's European executive car offering. At first, lower models in the range were called the Ford Consul, but from 1975 on they were all called Granadas. The car soon became popular for taxi, fleet and...
amongst others.
The Chevrolet Chevette
Chevrolet Chevette
The Chevrolet Chevette was introduced in September, 1975 and manufactured for model years 1976-1987 based on GM's worldwide T platform and superseding the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact...
was introduced in September 1975 and produced through 1987. It was a successful and 'Americanized' design from experienced, (but technologically conservative) Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
, GM's German subsidiary. The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide said, "In its dozen years on the market, Chevette had earned a reputation for being a simple, straightforward car offering high fuel economy and steadfast reliability. It left in its wake a sea of happy owners, and many no doubt mourned its passing." Ford followed suit with the Ford Escort.
Chevrolet offered three new small economy cars in the 1980s to replace the Chevette: the Chevrolet Sprint, a three-cylinder Suzuki-built hatchback, The Chevrolet Spectrum built by Isuzu
Isuzu
, is a Japanese car, commercial vehicle and heavy truck manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. In 2005, Isuzu became the world's largest manufacturer of medium to heavy duty trucks. It has assembly and manufacturing plants in the Japanese city of Fujisawa, as well as in the prefectures...
and the Chevrolet Nova built by NUMMI
NUMMI
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. was an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, opened in 1984 and closed in 2010. On October 27, 2010 it reopened as a 100% Tesla Motors-owned production facility, known as the Tesla Factory...
in California, a GM-Toyota joint venture. Chevrolet offered the Geo
Geo (automobile)
Geo was a brand of small cars made by General Motors as a subdivision of its famous Chevrolet division from 1989 to 1997. Its original slogan was "Get to know Geo." Originally formed by GM to compete with the growing small import market of the mid 1980s, the line continued through the 1997 model...
brand in the 1990s featuring the Suzuki-built Metro, the Isuzu-built Storm
Geo Storm
The Geo Storm was a sport compact car manufactured by Isuzu and sold in the United States by General Motors from 1990 through 1993 as part of GM's Geo line of inexpensive automobiles. The same vehicles, with minor variations, were sold in Canada in the 1992 & 1993 model years only. The Storm was...
, and the NUMMI-built Prizm.
Geo Prizm
The Geo/Chevrolet Prizm was a United States-market entry-level compact car produced for the 1989 through 2002 model years. Like the 1985–1988 Chevrolet Nova it replaced, the Prizm was a rebadged version of the Toyota Corolla...
Captive imports were the other response by U.S. car makers to the increase in popularity of imported economy cars in the 1970s and 80s. These were cars bought from overseas subsidiaries or from companies in which they held a significant shareholding. GM, Ford, and Chrysler sold imports for the U.S. market. The Buick Opel
Opel Manta
The Opel Manta was a rear-wheel-drive sports coupé motor vehicle built by Opel, from 1970 to 1988.-1970–75: Opel Manta A:The Manta A was released in September 1970, two months ahead of the then new Opel Ascona on which it was based...
, Ford Cortina
Ford Cortina
As the 1960s dawned, BMC were revelling in the success of their new Mini – the first successful true minicar to be built in Britain in the postwar era...
, Mercury Capri
Mercury Capri
-First Generation :See also Ford CapriThe Mercury Capri was built in Cologne, Germany, and was sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealers in North America. The European Capri was first sold in the US in April 1970 and carried the Mercury marque identification as Ford already had a Mustang for the same...
, Ford Festiva
Ford Festiva
The Ford Festiva is a subcompact car that was marketed by the Ford Motor Company between 1986 and 2002. Built by Mazda in Japan and Kia Motors in South Korea, the Festiva was sold in Japan, the Americas, and Australasia...
, and Dodge Colt
Dodge Colt
The Dodge Colt and the similar Plymouth Champ and Plymouth Colt, were subcompact cars sold by Dodge and Plymouth from 1970 to 1994. They were captive imports from Mitsubishi Motors, initially twins of the rear-wheel drive Galant and Lancer families before shifting to the smaller front-wheel drive...
are examples.
Technologies that developed during the post-war era, such as disc brakes, overhead-cam engines and radial tire
Radial tire
A radial tire is a particular design of automotive tire . In this design, the cord plies are arranged at 90 degrees to the direction of travel, or radially ....
s, had become cheap enough to be used in economy cars at this time (radials began to be adopted in the 1950s and 60s in Europe). This led to cars such as the 1974 Mk 1 Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Golf
The Volkswagen Golf is a small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974 and marketed worldwide across six generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada , and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico .The...
designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro
Giorgetto Giugiaro
Giorgetto Giugiaro is an Italian automobile designer responsible equally for a stable of supercars and several of the most popular everyday vehicles driven today...
, Fiat 128
Fiat 128
The Fiat 128 is a small family car manufactured by the Italian manufacturer Fiat from 1969 to 1985. The engine was designed by the famous Ferrari racing engine designer Aurelio Lampredi.-History:...
and 1972 Honda Civic
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a line of subcompact and subsequently compact cars made and manufactured by Honda. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded...
. The Civic's CVCC
CVCC
CVCC is a trademark by the Honda Motor Company for an engine with reduced automotive emissions, which stood for "Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion". This technology allowed Honda's cars to meet United States emission standards in the 1970s without a catalytic converter...
(Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) Stratified charge engine
Stratified charge engine
In a stratified charge engine, the fuel is injected into the cylinder just before ignition. This allows for higher compression ratios without "knock," and leaner air/fuel mixtures than in conventional internal combustion engines....
engine debuted in 1975 and was offered alongside the standard Civic engine. The CVCC engine had a head design that promoted cleaner, more efficient combustion, eliminating a need for a catalytic converter to meet emissions standards - nearly every other U.S. market car for that year needed exhausts with catalytic converter
Catalytic converter
A catalytic converter is a device used to convert toxic exhaust emissions from an internal combustion engine into non-toxic substances. Inside a catalytic converter, a catalyst stimulates a chemical reaction in which noxious byproducts of combustion are converted to less toxic substances by dint...
s. The Japanese, who had previously competed on price, equipment and reliability with conservative designs, were starting to make advanced, globally competitive cars.
Some previously exotic technology, electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
fuel injection
Fuel injection
Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....
, became affordable, which allowed the production of high-performance hot hatch
Hot hatch
Hot hatch was originally an informal automotive industry term, shortened from hot hatchback, initially coined by the British motoring press in 1984, for a high-performance derivative of a car body style consisting of a three- or five-door hatchback automobile.Vehicles of this class are based on...
sport compact
Sport compact
A sport compact is a high-performance version of a compact car or a subcompact car. They are typically are front engined, front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive coupés, sedans, or hatchbacks driven by a straight-4 gasoline engine. Performance-oriented sport compacts generally focus on improving...
s like the 1976 Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Golf
The Volkswagen Golf is a small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974 and marketed worldwide across six generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada , and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico .The...
GTI. This car combined economy of use and a practical hatchback body, with the performance and driving fun of a traditional sports car several times its price.
Also introduced in 1976 was the 1.5 L VW Golf diesel—the first small diesel hatchback. It used new Bosch
Robert Bosch GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...
rotary mechanical diesel injection pump technology. Also in 1976, Ford of Europe (produced by the merging of Ford national operations in Europe) launched their first front-wheel-drive small car, the Ford Fiesta
Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta is a front wheel drive supermini/subcompact manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company and built in Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, China, India, Thailand and South Africa...
, having gained experience from the Ford of Germany 1960s European mid sized 1960s Ford Taunus P4
Ford Taunus P4
The Ford Taunus 12 M was a small family saloon/sedan produced by Ford of Germany between 1962 and 1966.The Taunus 12M name had been used for the car’s predecessor and it would apply also to subsequent Ford models which is why the 12M introduced in 1962 is usually identified, in retrospect, as the...
and Ford of Brazil
Ford do Brasil
Ford do Brasil is a subsidiary of American automaker Ford Motor Company, founded on April 24, 1919. The operation started out importing the Ford Model T cars and the Ford Model TT trucks in kit form from the US for assembly in Brazil...
Ford Corcel
Ford Corcel
The Ford Corcel is a car which was sold by the Ford Motor Company in Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.The Corcel's origins lay in the Renault 12. Willys-Overland's Brazilian operation included manufacturing the Renault Dauphine and Gordini and, when it was bought by Ford do Brasil in 1967, plans were...
.
In 1980, Fiat introduced the Guigaro-designed Mk 1 Fiat Panda
Fiat Panda
The Fiat Panda is a city car from the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat. The first Fiat Panda was introduced in 1980, and was produced until 2003 with only a few changes. It is now sometimes referred to as the "old Panda". The second model, launched in 2003, is sometimes referred to "New Panda"...
. It was originally designed to be produced in China at its 1970s level of industrialisation. It was a utilitarian front-wheel-drive supermini with Fiat standard transverse engine and end-on gearbox. It featured mostly flat body panels and flat glass.
In 1982 GM launched their first front-wheel-drive small economy car, the Opel Corsa
Opel Corsa
The front-wheel drive Opel Corsa was first launched in September 1982 to replace the Opel Kadett C City, and to fill the gap vacated as the Kadett grew in size and price. Built in Zaragoza, Spain, the first Corsas were three-door hatchback and two-door saloon models, with four-door and five-door...
/Vauxhall Nova in Europe. Their first European market front wheel drive car, the Vauxhall Astra
Vauxhall Astra
Astra is a model name which has been used by Vauxhall, the British subsidiary of General Motors , on their small family car ranges since 1979. Astras are technically essentially identical with similar vehicles offered by GM's German subsidiary Opel in most other European countries...
/Opel Kadett D, Golf-sized car was introduced in 1979.
In 1983 Fiat launched the next step forward in small car design, the Fiat Uno
Fiat Uno
The Fiat Uno is a supermini car produced by the Italian manufacturer Fiat. The Uno was launched in 1983 and built in its homeland until 1995, with production still taking place in other countries.-First series :...
. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro
Giorgetto Giugiaro
Giorgetto Giugiaro is an Italian automobile designer responsible equally for a stable of supercars and several of the most popular everyday vehicles driven today...
's ItalDesign. The tall, square body utilising a Kamm tail achieved a drag coefficient
Drag coefficient
In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment such as air or water. It is used in the drag equation, where a lower drag coefficient indicates the object will have less aerodynamic or...
of 0.34, and it won much praise for an airy interior space and fuel economy
Fuel economy in automobiles
Fuel usage in automobiles refers to the fuel efficiency relationship between distance traveled by an automobile and the amount of fuel consumed....
. It incorporated many packaging lessons learnt from Giugiaro's 1978 Lancia Megagamma
Lancia Megagamma
The Lancia Megagamma minivan is a concept car designed by Italdesign in 1978 and introduced the same year at the Turin Motor Show. It can be seen as the forerunner of modern MPVs...
concept car, (the first modern people carrier-MPV-mini-van)—but miniaturised. Its tall car, high-seating packaging is imitated by every small car today. It showed that not just low sleek cars could be aerodynamic, but small boxy well packaged cars could be too. It was voted Car of the Year
Car of the Year
Car of the Year is a phrase usually considered to have been invented by Motor Trend magazine in the 1950s for their annual award for best American automobile...
in 1984.
Also in 1983 Peugeot launched the Pininfarina-styled Peugeot 205
Peugeot 205
The Peugeot 205 is a supermini produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot between 1983 and 1998. It was declared 'Car of the Decade' by CAR magazine in 1990. The 205 won 1984 What Car? car of the year.-History:...
. While not as radical as the Uno in body design, it was also very aerodynamic. It was the first European supermini with a diesel engine - the XUD. It provided performance of a 1.4 L petrol with economy—55 mpgimp —that was better than the base 1 L petrol version. It could, like most diesel engines, last for several hundred thousand miles with regular servicing. It was, along with the larger (also XUD powered) Citroën BX
Citroën BX
The Citroën BX is a large family car that was produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1982 to 1994. In total, 2,315,739 BXs were built during its 12-year history. The hatchback was discontinued in 1993 with the arrival of the Xantia, but the estate continued for another year.-History:The...
, the beginning of the start of the boom in diesel sales in Europe. The 205 GTI was as popular as the Golf GTI in Europe. The 205 was named "Car of the Decade" in the UK, by CAR magazine
Car Magazine
Car Magazine is a British automotive enthusiast magazine published monthly by Bauer Automotive. International editions are published by Bauer Automotive in Brazil, China, Greece, India, Mexico, the Middle East, Poland , Romania, Russia, South Africa , Spain, Thailand and Turkey...
in 1990.
In 1993, Fiat launched the conservatively styled Fiat Cinquecento
Fiat Cinquecento
The Fiat Cinquecento was a city car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro launched by Fiat in late 1991 to replace the Fiat 126. It was the first Fiat model to be solely manufactured in the FSM plant in Tychy, Poland, which had been sold to Fiat by the Polish state, and where production of the Polish...
. It replaced the first Fiat Panda and the aged 1970s Fiat 126 which was developed from the 1950s Fiat 500. But the real breakthrough in smallcar-design was the 1993 Renault Twingo
Renault Twingo
The Renault Twingo is a city car built by French automaker Renault, first presented at the Paris Motor Show in September 1992 and sold in continental European markets beginning in 1993...
which was a revolution in styling by being the first 'one box' small car. Both had the interior space of a much larger car. They relaunched the city car market in Europe, for decades the only competitors in this market were the Austin Mini and the Fiat 126.
Economy cars today
Today economy cars have specialised into market niches. The small city car, the inexpensive-to-run but not necessarily very small general economy car, and the performance derivatives that capitalise on light weight of the cars on which they are based. Some models that started as economy cars such as the Volkswagen Golf and Toyota Corolla, have increased in size and moved upmarket over several generations, and their makers have added smaller new models in their original market niches.The City car market in Europe in recent years has seen increased competition with the launch of the Citroën C1
Citroën C1
The Citroën C1 is a city car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën since 2005.The C1 was developed as part of the B-Zero project by PSA Peugeot Citroën in a joint-venture with Toyota. The Peugeot 107 is identical to the C1 other than the front bumper and front and rear lights, while the...
/Peugeot 107
Peugeot 107
The Peugeot 107 is a city car produced by French automaker Peugeot since mid 2005.The 107 was developed by the B-Zero project of PSA Peugeot Citroën in a joint-venture with Toyota; the Citroën C1 and Toyota Aygo are badge engineered versions of the same car, although the Aygo has more detail...
/Toyota Aygo
Toyota Aygo
The Toyota Aygo is a city car sold by Toyota in Europe since 2005. All Aygos are built at the new factory of the Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile Czech joint venture in Kolin, Czech Republic. The Aygo was first displayed at the 2005 Salon de l'Automobile de Genève...
(built in the same factory), the Mercedes-Benz A-Class
Mercedes-Benz A-Class
The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a mini MPV produced by the German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. The first generation was introduced in 1997, and the all-new second generation model appeared in late 2004. Launched as a five-door hatchback in 1997, the second generation W169 introduced a...
, aluminium Audi A2
Audi A2
The Audi A2 is a Compact MPV styled five-door four- or five-seat hatchback designed supermini, produced by the German automaker Audi AG from November 1999 to 2005...
, Fiat Panda
Fiat Panda
The Fiat Panda is a city car from the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat. The first Fiat Panda was introduced in 1980, and was produced until 2003 with only a few changes. It is now sometimes referred to as the "old Panda". The second model, launched in 2003, is sometimes referred to "New Panda"...
, Kia Picanto
Kia Picanto
The Kia Picanto, known as the Kia Morning in South Korea and Chile, Kia EuroStar in Taiwan, Kia New Morning in Vietnam and the Naza Suria or Naza Picanto in Malaysia, is a low cost city car produced by Kia Motors....
, Chevrolet Matiz, Volkswagen Fox
Volkswagen Fox
The Volkswagen CrossFox is a mini SUV version which sets it apart from the standard Fox. As is the case for other similar models, it is available only with front-wheel drive....
, Smart Forfour
Smart Forfour
The Smart Forfour was a supermini produced by Smart between April 2004 and June 2006. Unlike the other models of the marque, the Forfour was a more conventional five-door hatchback with a relatively roomy interior, available as a four-/five-seater....
, Mitsubishi Colt
Mitsubishi Colt
The Mitsubishi Colt is a vehicle built by Mitsubishi Motors since 1962. It was first introduced as a series of kei cars and subcompact cars in the 1960s, and then as the export version of the Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback in the 1980s and 1990s...
, Ford Ka
Ford Ka
The Ford Ka is a city car from the Ford Motor Company marketed in Europe and elsewhere.The current European version is produced by Fiat Auto in Tychy, Poland, while the model sold in Latin America is built in Brazil and Argentina....
, and Fiat Nuova 500
Fiat Nuova 500
The Fiat 500 or Fiat Nuova 500 is a city car built by Italian automaker Fiat since 2007. The car is currently produced in Tychy, Poland by Fiat Auto Poland S.A. and in Toluca, Mexico, by Chrysler Group LLC. The four-seater, three-door hatchback 500 is almost identical to the retro concept car...
.
The Toyota iQ
Toyota iQ
The Toyota iQ is a city car introduced at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show, with Japanese sales having begun in October 2008 and European sales in January 2009. The production iQ followed a concept vehicle presented at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show. A North American version of the iQ, branded as the Scion...
, designed in France, went on sale in January 2009 in the UK. It follows the Issigonis philosophy of packaging, with innovations including a flat under floor fuel tank and specially located steering rack and final drive unit to maximise floor space for passengers. It seats four adults in a car 2.985 m (117.5 in)long, 1.68 m (66.1 in) wide, and 1.5 m (59.1 in) tall, and achieves 65.69 mpgimp with a 99g/km CO2 rating. It also achieved the top Euro NCAP 5/5 stars safety rating.
Another development in recent years in Europe, has been the launch of small supermini
Supermini
A superminicomputer, or supermini, is “a minicomputer with high performance compared to ordinary minicomputers.” The term was an invention used from the mid-1970s mainly to distinguish the emerging 32-bit minis from the classical 16-bit minicomputers...
based people carriers like the Renault Modus
Renault Modus
The Renault Modus is a mini MPV designed by the French automaker Renault and built in Valladolid, Spain since September 2004. The production version is very similar to the concept car of the same name, which was presented at the 2004 Geneva Motor Show...
, Citroën C3
Citroën C3
The Citroën C3 is a supermini car equipped with a range of inline-four engines that has been produced by the French automaker Citroën since 2002. It was designed by Donato Coco and Jean-Pierre Ploué, previously known for designing the first generation Renault Twingo; the former has been the head of...
Picasso, Fiat Idea
Fiat Idea
The Fiat Idea is a mini MPV built by the Italian manufacturer Fiat since 2003. The car is based on the Project 188 platform, originally used for the second-generation Fiat Punto. The Idea is noted for its versatile interior, which includes sliding and folding rear seats...
, Nissan Note
Nissan Note
The Nissan Note is a mini MPV produced by Nissan. The Japanese version has been on sale since 2004, although the European model went to sale during 2006. The United Kingdom was the first market to have the Note launch there, on 1 March...
, and the Vauxhall/Opel Meriva
Opel Meriva
The Opel Meriva is a compact MPV engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel. The car is sold under the Opel brand on all of the European markets with the exception of the United Kingdom, where it is called the Vauxhall Meriva, and Latin America, where it carried the Chevrolet badge. It...
that is also produced in Brazil. Their tall packaging designs offer the interior space of a larger car. The higher seating increases visibility for the driver that is useful in urban driving.
The conflicting design goals for economy cars — small size with maximum usable interior space; low cost and light weight with acceptable safety performance, light cars have a higher ratio of unsprung suspension mass to sprung mass which affects ride quality, and the need for light materials with acceptable durability, continue to stimulate innovative development. Technology improvements such as electronic engine management, adoption of four valves per cylinder, variable valve timing, direct injection of petrol/Gasoline and diesel, hybrid power, and smoother, more powerful diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s with very high pressure electronic injection, have dramatically improved fuel economy and performance. The latest technologies to improve efficiency are down-sized engines and automatic engine stop-start. Automatic engine stop-start systems like VWs BlueMotion, shut the engine down when the car is stopped to reduce idling emissions and boost economy, and it is now mandatory not to idle unnecessarily in cities in Germany. It is an updated version of the 1980s VW 'Formel E' system that was developed into the 1990s VW 'Ecomatic' system. Also extremely important, is the application of turbo-charging to down-sized engines in order to turn its efficiency benefits into fuel economy / emission benefits instead of for performance. Safety design is a particular challenge in a small, lightweight car. This is an area where Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
has been particularly successful. Sport compact
Sport compact
A sport compact is a high-performance version of a compact car or a subcompact car. They are typically are front engined, front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive coupés, sedans, or hatchbacks driven by a straight-4 gasoline engine. Performance-oriented sport compacts generally focus on improving...
s and Hot hatch
Hot hatch
Hot hatch was originally an informal automotive industry term, shortened from hot hatchback, initially coined by the British motoring press in 1984, for a high-performance derivative of a car body style consisting of a three- or five-door hatchback automobile.Vehicles of this class are based on...
es have developed into a their own competitive genre, although their economy has been compromised, these models offer higher performance because of the lightness of the platforms that they are based upon.
As an alternative to manual synchromesh gearboxes, automatic continuously variable transmission
Continuously variable transmission
A continuously variable transmission is a transmission that can change steplessly through an infinite number of effective gear ratios between maximum and minimum values. This contrasts with other mechanical transmissions that offer a fixed number of gear ratios...
(CVT) gearboxes are optional on some economy cars, such as Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
, Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
, and the MINI ONE and MINI Cooper. Tata Motors
Tata Motors
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO...
from India, recently announced that it too would use a variomatic transmission in its Nano
Tata Nano
The Tata Nano is an inexpensive, rear-engined, four-passenger city car built by the Indian company Tata Motors and is aimed primarily at the Indian domestic market....
. CVT application to economy cars was pioneered by Fiat, Ford, and Van Doorne in the 1980s. Rather than the pulled rubber drive belts as used in the past by DAF, the modern transmission is made much more durable by the use of electronic control and steel link belts pushed by their pulleys.
A crucial difference between the North American car market and the markets of Europe and Japan is the price of fuel. Fuel is heavily taxed and therefore relatively costly in most first-world markets outside North America; fuel is about two and a half times the price in the UK than the US. Fuel costs are also a much higher proportion of income, due to generally higher wages and lower living costs in the US. Only during occasional fuel price spikes such as those of 1973, 1979–81, and 2008-9 have North American drivers been motivated to seek levels of fuel economy considered ordinary outside North America.
The growth of developing countries
Developing country
A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
has also created a new market for inexpensive new cars. Unlike in the postwar period this demand has not been met by utilitarian but advanced 'peoples cars'. Adaptation of standard or obsolete models from the first world has been the norm. Production of car models superseded in first-world markets is often moved to cost-sensitive markets like South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Brazil; the Citi Golf
Volkswagen Citi
The Volkswagen Citi Golf was a car produced by Volkswagen in South Africa from 1984 until 21 August 2009. Formerly known as the CitiGolf, Citigolf , or Chico, it was a face-lifted version of the original Volkswagen Golf Mk1 hatchback, which ceased production in Germany in 1983...
is an example.
Some mainstream European auto makers have developed models specifically for developing countries, such as the Fiat Palio
Fiat Palio
The Fiat Palio is a small family car designed by Fiat as a world car, aimed at developing countries. It is produced in Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, South Africa and China. It is also built under licence in North Korea as the Pyonghwa Hwiparam. Russian ZMA started assembly of Turkish CKD kits in...
, Volkswagen Gol
Volkswagen Gol
The Volkswagen Gol is a subcompact car manufactured by Volkswagen do Brasil since 1980 as Volkswagen's entry-level car in the South American market—where it succeeded the South American VW Beetle ...
and Dacia Logan
Dacia Logan
The Dacia Logan is a small family car car produced jointly by the French manufacturer Renault and its subsidiary Dacia of Romania. It is manufactured at Dacia's automobile plant in Mioveni, Romania, and in Colombia, Brazil, Russia, Morocco, Iran, India and South Africa...
. Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
has teamed up with India's Mahindra and Mahindra to produce a low-cost car in the range of to . The Tata Nano
Tata Nano
The Tata Nano is an inexpensive, rear-engined, four-passenger city car built by the Indian company Tata Motors and is aimed primarily at the Indian domestic market....
launched in January 2008, in India by Tata Motors
Tata Motors
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO...
, may mark the beginning of the return of so-called "people's cars" because of its low announced price - claimed by Tata as the world's cheapest car at . The Nano, like the 1950s Fiat 500
Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975, with limited production of the Fiat 500 K estate continuing until 1977. The car was designed by Dante Giacosa....
, has a rear engine and was styled by Italians. It is designed to get whole families off scooters and onto four wheels. Tata has also announced plans to export their Tata Indica
Tata Indica
The Tata Indica is a hatchback automobile range manufactured by Tata Motors of India. It is the first passenger car from Tata Motors and is also considered India's first indigenously developed passenger car. , more than 910,000 Indicas were produced. The annual sales of Indica has been as high as ...
that was formerly sold in Europe as the City Rover.
The narrow profit margins of economy cars can cause financial instability for their manufacturers. Historically, Volkswagen in the 1970s and Ford in the 1920s almost collapsed because of their one model economy car business strategy
Strategic management
Strategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments...
. Ford was saved by the Model A and Volkswagen was saved by the Golf. Ford started the Mercury
Mercury (automobile)
Mercury was an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick brand, and Chrysler's namesake brand...
and Lincoln
Lincoln (automobile)
Lincoln is an American luxury vehicle brand of the Ford Motor Company. Lincoln vehicles are sold mostly in North America.-History:The company was founded in August 1915 by Henry M. Leland, one of the founders of Cadillac . During World War I, he left Cadillac which was sold to General Motors...
brands to diversify its product range. VW moved away from the narrow profit margins of economy cars, by expanding its range so that now it spans from very small city cars like the Volkswagen Fox
Volkswagen Fox
The Volkswagen CrossFox is a mini SUV version which sets it apart from the standard Fox. As is the case for other similar models, it is available only with front-wheel drive....
to Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
s and Bentley
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...
s, and it also owns SEAT
SEAT
SEAT, S.A. is a Spanish automobile manufacturer founded on May 9, 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria , a state-owned industrial holding company....
and Skoda
Škoda Auto
Škoda Auto , more commonly known as Škoda, is an automobile manufacturer based in the Czech Republic. Škoda became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in 2000, positioned as the entry brand to the group...
.
China has become one of the fastest growing car markets, recently overtaking the US as the largest producer of cars in the world. It is followed by India with a preference towards inexpensive, basic cars, but they are both moving upmarket in their tastes as their economic rise continues.
India is becoming a global outsourcing production centre for small cars. The Suzuki Alto
Suzuki Alto
The Suzuki Alto is a small car designed by Suzuki. Its selling points include low price and good fuel economy. The model was introduced in 1979 and has been built in many countries worldwide.-1st generation :...
and Hyundai i10
Hyundai i10
The Hyundai i10 is a 5-door hatchback subcompact produced by the Hyundai Motor Company. It was launched in October 2007, replacing the Hyundai Atos in some markets.The i10 is produced in India at Hyundai's Chennai plant for the domestic and export markets...
are already being exported to Europe from India. In March 2010 at Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
, the Renault-Nissan Alliance
Renault-Nissan Alliance
Renault-Nissan Alliance is a strategic partnership between Paris-based Renault and Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan, which together sell one in 10 cars worldwide. The companies, which have been strategic partners since 1999, have 350,000 employees and five major brands: Renault, Nissan, Renault...
opened a plant to produce 400,000 units per year at full production. Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
formerly known as Madras, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The first vehicle to be produced at the plant will be the new Nissan Micra, for the Indian market as well as for export to over 100 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Production of the Micra has been re-located from the UK and other developed countries. In 2011, the plant will start production of the Renault Koleos and Fluence, for the Indian market based on the same platform.
List of economy cars
Note: This list includes vehicles which at least at some point were economy cars and may be less economical to this day than at time of their introduction.- Audi A2Audi A2The Audi A2 is a Compact MPV styled five-door four- or five-seat hatchback designed supermini, produced by the German automaker Audi AG from November 1999 to 2005...
- AMC ConcordAMC ConcordThe AMC Concord is a compact car produced by the American Motors Corporation for the 1978 through 1983 model years. The Concord replaced the AMC Hornet and to some extent the mid-size AMC Matador, discontinued after 1978 in a market moving to downsized automobiles...
- AMC GremlinAMC GremlinThe AMC Gremlin is a two-door subcompact car produced in the United States and Canada by the American Motors Corporation between 1970 and 1978. AMC reduced its development and manufacturing costs by adapting a shortened Hornet platform with a Kammback-type tail...
- AMC HornetAMC HornetThe AMC Hornet was a compact automobile made by the American Motors Corporation in one generation beginning with the 1970 model year and continuing through the 1977 model year. The Hornet replaced the compact Rambler American marking the end of the Rambler marque in the American and Canadian markets...
- AMC SpiritAMC SpiritThe AMC Spirit was a subcompact marketed by American Motors Corporation from 1979 to 1983 as a restyled replacement for the Gremlin. The Spirit shared the Gremlin's platform and was offered in two hatchback variations, each with two doors — marketed as sedan and liftback...
- Austin 1100
- Austin 7Austin 7The Austin 7 was a car produced from 1922 through to 1939 in the United Kingdom by the Austin Motor Company. Nicknamed the "Baby Austin", it was one of the most popular cars ever produced for the British market, and sold well abroad...
- Austin A30Austin A30The A30 was a compact car produced by Austin Motor Company in the 1950s. Introduced in 1951 as the "New Austin Seven", it was Austin's answer to the Morris Minor...
- Austin Metro
- Austin Mini
- Autobianchi A111Autobianchi A111The Autobianchi A111 is a small family car from the Italian automaker, Autobianchi , built from 1969 to 1972. Despite rather modest dimensions, it was the largest Autobianchi ever made, as the brand specialized in small cars...
- Autobianchi A112Autobianchi A112The Autobianchi A112 is a supermini produced by the Italian automaker Autobianchi. It was developed using the mechanicals which subsequently underpinned the Fiat 127. It was introduced in 1969, as a replacement for the Bianchina and Primula, and was built until 1986, when it made way for the more...
- Autobianchi PrimulaAutobianchi PrimulaThe Autobianchi Primula is a small car from the Italian automaker, Autobianchi , built between 1964 and 1970. It was Fiat's first automobile with the front-wheel drive, transverse engine setup, as well as the first Fiat group car with rack and pinion steering...
- Autobianchi Y10 (Lancia Y10)Autobianchi Y10The Autobianchi Y10 is a city car manufactured by the Italian automaker Fiat from 1985 to 1996 and marketed under the Autobianchi brand in Italy and under the Lancia brand in most export markets . The car was manufactured at the Autobianchi plant in Desio, Milan until 1992 and after that in Arese,...
- BMW Isetta
- Chevrolet AveoChevrolet AveoThe Chevrolet Aveo is a subcompact automobile manufactured since 2002, originally by the South Korean General Motors subsidiary, GM Daewoo—and later by other GM-affiliated entities...
- Chevrolet CavalierChevrolet CavalierThe Chevrolet Cavalier was a compact automobile produced from 1982 to 2005 by General Motors. Built on the company's J platform, the Cavalier was one of the best-selling cars in the United States throughout its life.- Predecessors :...
- Chevrolet ChevetteChevrolet ChevetteThe Chevrolet Chevette was introduced in September, 1975 and manufactured for model years 1976-1987 based on GM's worldwide T platform and superseding the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact...
- Chevrolet Chevy II
- Chevrolet CorvairChevrolet Corvair-First generation :The 1960 Corvair 500 and 700 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities in order to keep the price competitive, with the 500 selling for under $2,000...
- Chevrolet CruzeChevrolet CruzeThe Chevrolet Cruze is a General Motors automobile, spanning two unrelated models. The original iteration, a subcompact crossover SUV, was manufactured by Suzuki in Japan between 2001 and 2008 under joint venture with GM...
- Chevrolet Kalos (Daewoo)
- Chevrolet Metro
- Chevrolet MonzaChevrolet MonzaThe Chevrolet Monza is a subcompact, four-passenger automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1975–1980 model years. The Monza is based on the Chevrolet Vega, sharing its wheelbase, width and 140 CID inline-4 engine...
- Chevrolet (NUMMI) NovaChevrolet NovaThe Chevrolet Chevy II/Nova is a compact automobile manufactured by the Chevrolet division of General Motors produced in four generations for the 1962 through 1979 model years. Nova was the top model in the Chevy II lineup through 1968. The Chevy II nameplate was dropped, Nova becoming the...
- Chevrolet Prizm
- Chevrolet Spark (Daewoo Matiz)Daewoo Matiz-M100 :The production of Daewoo Matiz started in 1998 and it was sold in South Korea and many European markets with the code name M100. The exterior design is based on the Lucciola, a Fiat Cinquecento concept by Italdesign Giugiaro which had been rejected by Fiat. The 0.8-litre gasoline engine and...
- Chevrolet Spectrum
- Chevrolet Sprint
- Chevrolet VegaChevrolet VegaThe Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact, two-door automobile that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1971-1977 model years. Named after the star Vega, the car was powered by a lightweight aluminum-block inline four-cylinder engine...
- Citroën 2CVCitroën 2CVThe Citroën 2CV |tax horsepower]]”) was an economy car produced by the French automaker Citroën between 1948 and 1990. It was technologically advanced and innovative, but with uncompromisingly utilitarian unconventional looks, and deceptively simple Bauhaus inspired bodywork, that belied the sheer...
- Citroën AmiCitroën AmiThe Citroën Ami is a supermini produced by the French automaker Citroën from 1961 to 1978. The Ami and stablemate Citroën Dyane were replaced by the Citroën Visa and Citroën Axel . The Ami was for some years the best-selling car model in France...
- Citroën AXCitroën AXThe Citroën AX is a supermini built by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1986 to 1998. The AX was launched at the 1986 Paris Motor Show to replace the Citroën Visa and Citroën LNA.-Overview:...
- Citroën C1Citroën C1The Citroën C1 is a city car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën since 2005.The C1 was developed as part of the B-Zero project by PSA Peugeot Citroën in a joint-venture with Toyota. The Peugeot 107 is identical to the C1 other than the front bumper and front and rear lights, while the...
- Citroën C2Citroën C2The Citroën C2 is a supermini-class car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën since autumn of 2003, replacing the Citroën Saxo, it was built at the Aulnay plant on the outskirts of Paris. A different model, based on the Peugeot 206, is sold in China as the C2...
- Citroën C3Citroën C3The Citroën C3 is a supermini car equipped with a range of inline-four engines that has been produced by the French automaker Citroën since 2002. It was designed by Donato Coco and Jean-Pierre Ploué, previously known for designing the first generation Renault Twingo; the former has been the head of...
- Citroën C3 Picasso
- Citroën DyaneCitroën DyaneThe Citroën Dyane is an economy car/supermini produced by the French automaker Citroën from 1967 to 1983. Based on the Citroën 2CV, 1,444,583 examples were manufactured...
- Citroën LNACitroën LNAThe Citroën LN and Citroën LNA are supermini automobiles produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1976 and 1986....
- Citroën SaxoCitroën SaxoThe Citroën Saxo is a supermini produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1996 to 2003. It was also sold in Japan as the Citroën Chanson. It shares many engine and body parts with the Peugeot 106 , the major difference being interiors and body panels...
- Citroën Type ACitroën Type AThe Citroën Type A was the first car produced by Citroën from June 1919 to December 1921 in Paris. The Type A reached a production number of 24,093 vehicles.During World War I, André Citroën was producing munitions...
- Citroën Type B
- Citroën Type CCitroën Type CThe Citroën Type C was a light car made by the French Citroën car company between 1922 and 1926 with almost 81,000 units being made. The car was originally called the Type C but was updated to the C2 in 1924 which was in turn superseded by the slightly longer C3 in 1925...
- Citroën VisaCitroën VisaThe Citroën Visa is a supermini that was produced by the French car marque Citroën from 1978 to 1988.-Development History:The Citroën Prototype Y to replace the 2CV based Citroën Ami that dated back to 1960 in the early seventies, was originally developed in co-operation with Fiat...
- Dacia LoganDacia LoganThe Dacia Logan is a small family car car produced jointly by the French manufacturer Renault and its subsidiary Dacia of Romania. It is manufactured at Dacia's automobile plant in Mioveni, Romania, and in Colombia, Brazil, Russia, Morocco, Iran, India and South Africa...
- DAF 600DAF 600The DAF 600 is a small family car that was DAF's first production passenger car: it was first presented at the Amsterdam Motor Show in February 1958 and was in production by 1959, although the firm had published the first details of the car at the end of 1957...
- DAF 33DAF 33The DAF 33 is a compact saloon car produced by the DAF company of Eindhoven, in the Netherlands between 1967 and 1974. Outwardly and technically it differed little from its predecessor, the DAF Daffodil....
- DAF 44DAF 44The DAF 44 is a small family car that was introduced in September 1966 by the Dutch company DAF. It was the first car to be built at the company's new plant at Born in Limburg...
- DAF 46DAF 46The DAF 46 is a small family car that was manufactured by the Dutch company DAF. It was introduced in November 1974 to replace the 44, although at the time it was announced that the two cars would be sold "alongside" one another, suggesting that there were still substantial stocks of the earlier...
- DAF 66DAF 66The DAF 66 is a small family car produced by the Dutch company DAF from September 1972 to 1976. It was the successor of the DAF 55 and was itself superseded by the reworked Volvo 66...
- DAF DaffodilDAF DaffodilThe DAF 750 is a small family car that was manufactured by DAF from 1961 until 1963. It replaced the DAF 600. At the same time as launching the 750, DAF launched the DAF Daffodil which was essentially the same car but with more luxurious fittings and a lot more chrome trim on the outside...
- Daihatsu CharadeDaihatsu CharadeThe Daihatsu Charade is a supermini which was first introduced in 1977. Daihatsu considers the Charade a "large compact" car to differentiate it from smaller compacts in its lineup, such as the Daihatsu Mira/Cuore...
- Daihatsu MiraDaihatsu MiraThe Daihatsu Mira , is a kei car-type vehicle built by the Japanese car maker Daihatsu. It comes with a variety of options and chassis variations, with the latest variant having four models: "Mira", "Mira AVY", "Mira Gino" and "Mira VAN"...
- DKW F1 (1931–1932):de:DKW F1
- DKW F2 (1932–1935):de:DKW F2
- DKW F4 (1934–1935):de:DKW F4
- DKW F5 (1935-1937)DKW F5The DKW F5 is a sub compact front wheel drive saloon launched by Auto Union’s DKW division in 1935 as a replacement for the DKWs F4 and F2 models.-The body:...
- DKW F7 (1937-1938)DKW F7The DKW F7 is a sub compact front wheel drive saloon launched by Auto Union’s DKW division in 1937 as a replacement for the DKW F5.-The body:Changes between the F5 and the F7 were mostly at a detailed level...
- DKW F8 (1939-1942)DKW F8The DKW F8 compact front-wheel drive two-stroke engined saloon was introduced by in 1939. The F8 was slightly shorter than its predecessor despite having a marginally increased wheelbase. The base model, known as the Reichsklasse, was manufactured only till 1940 but the Meisterklasse sedan...
- DKW F89DKW F89The DKW Meisterklasse also known as the DKW F89 was a compact front wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union AG between 1950 and 1954...
- DKW 3=6 (Sonderklasse F91/F93/F94)DKW 3=6The DKW 3=6 was a compact front-wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union AG. The car was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in March 1953 and sold until 1959. It was also named as the DKW Sonderklasse and, following the factory project number, as the DKW F91...
- Dodge ColtDodge ColtThe Dodge Colt and the similar Plymouth Champ and Plymouth Colt, were subcompact cars sold by Dodge and Plymouth from 1970 to 1994. They were captive imports from Mitsubishi Motors, initially twins of the rear-wheel drive Galant and Lancer families before shifting to the smaller front-wheel drive...
- Fiat 126Fiat 126The Fiat 126 is a city car introduced in October 1972 at the Turin Auto Show as a replacement for the Fiat 500. Most were produced in Bielsko-Biała, Poland as the Polski Fiat 126p until 2000...
- Fiat 127Fiat 127The Fiat 127 is a supermini produced by the Italian automaker Fiat between 1971 and 1983. It was introduced in 1971 as the replacement for the Fiat 850...
- Fiat 128Fiat 128The Fiat 128 is a small family car manufactured by the Italian manufacturer Fiat from 1969 to 1985. The engine was designed by the famous Ferrari racing engine designer Aurelio Lampredi.-History:...
- Fiat 500Fiat 500The Fiat 500 is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975, with limited production of the Fiat 500 K estate continuing until 1977. The car was designed by Dante Giacosa....
- Fiat Nuova 500Fiat Nuova 500The Fiat 500 or Fiat Nuova 500 is a city car built by Italian automaker Fiat since 2007. The car is currently produced in Tychy, Poland by Fiat Auto Poland S.A. and in Toluca, Mexico, by Chrysler Group LLC. The four-seater, three-door hatchback 500 is almost identical to the retro concept car...
- Fiat 600Fiat 600The Fiat 600 is a city car produced by the Italian automaker Fiat from 1955 to 1969. Measuring only 3.22 m long, it was the first rear-engined Fiat and cost the equivalent of about € 6,700 or US$ 7300 in today's money . The total number produced from 1955 to 1969 at the Mirafiori...
- Fiat CinquecentoFiat CinquecentoThe Fiat Cinquecento was a city car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro launched by Fiat in late 1991 to replace the Fiat 126. It was the first Fiat model to be solely manufactured in the FSM plant in Tychy, Poland, which had been sold to Fiat by the Polish state, and where production of the Polish...
- Fiat IdeaFiat IdeaThe Fiat Idea is a mini MPV built by the Italian manufacturer Fiat since 2003. The car is based on the Project 188 platform, originally used for the second-generation Fiat Punto. The Idea is noted for its versatile interior, which includes sliding and folding rear seats...
- Fiat PalioFiat PalioThe Fiat Palio is a small family car designed by Fiat as a world car, aimed at developing countries. It is produced in Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, South Africa and China. It is also built under licence in North Korea as the Pyonghwa Hwiparam. Russian ZMA started assembly of Turkish CKD kits in...
- Fiat PandaFiat PandaThe Fiat Panda is a city car from the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat. The first Fiat Panda was introduced in 1980, and was produced until 2003 with only a few changes. It is now sometimes referred to as the "old Panda". The second model, launched in 2003, is sometimes referred to "New Panda"...
- Fiat PuntoFiat PuntoThe Fiat Punto is a supermini produced by the Italian manufacturer, Fiat, since 1993.-1st generation :Internally codenamed Project 176, the Punto was announced in September 1993 and launched in late 1993 as a replacement for the ageing Fiat Uno. The Fiat Punto was voted European Car of the Year...
- Fiat SeicentoFiat SeicentoThe Fiat Seicento is a city car produced by the Italian company Fiat, introduced in late 1997 as a replacement for the Fiat Cinquecento. The Seicento did not differ much from its predecessor, retaining the same engines, chassis and general dimensions, although it did gain a minor 9 cm in length...
- Fiat TopolinoFiat TopolinoThe Fiat 500, commonly known as Topolino , is an Italian automobile model manufactured by Fiat from 1936 to 1955.-History:...
- Fiat UnoFiat UnoThe Fiat Uno is a supermini car produced by the Italian manufacturer Fiat. The Uno was launched in 1983 and built in its homeland until 1995, with production still taking place in other countries.-First series :...
- Ford AngliaFord AngliaThe 1949 model, code E494A, was a makeover of the previous model with a rather more 1940s style front-end, including the sloped, twin-lobed radiator grille. Again it was a very spartan vehicle and in 1948 was Britain's lowest priced four wheel car....
- Ford EifelFord EifelFord Eifel was a car manufactured by Ford Germany and Ford Hungary between 1935 and 1940. It was derived from the Ford Model C platform, and is related to the contemporary Ford Anglia and Ford Prefect....
- Ford Escort
- Ford EXPFord EXPThe Ford EXP and Mercury LN7 were the first two-seaters that Ford offered in 25 years. The coupes shared the wheelbase and mechanicals of the Ford Escort with a longer, more stylish body. It was first shown at the Chicago Auto Show and introduced in April 1981 as an early 1982 model.Comparing the...
- Ford FestivaFord FestivaThe Ford Festiva is a subcompact car that was marketed by the Ford Motor Company between 1986 and 2002. Built by Mazda in Japan and Kia Motors in South Korea, the Festiva was sold in Japan, the Americas, and Australasia...
- Ford FiestaFord FiestaThe Ford Fiesta is a front wheel drive supermini/subcompact manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company and built in Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, China, India, Thailand and South Africa...
- Ford Fusion
- Ford KaFord KaThe Ford Ka is a city car from the Ford Motor Company marketed in Europe and elsewhere.The current European version is produced by Fiat Auto in Tychy, Poland, while the model sold in Latin America is built in Brazil and Argentina....
- Ford Model A (1927)Ford Model A (1927)The Ford Model A of 1927–1931 was the second huge success for the Ford Motor Company, after its predecessor, the Model T. First produced on October 20, 1927, but not sold until December 2, it replaced the venerable Model T, which had been produced for 18 years...
- Ford Model TFord Model TThe Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...
- Ford Model Y (AKA Ford 8)Ford Model YThe Model Y is the first Ford specifically designed for markets outside the United States of America, replacing the Model A in Europe. The car was powered by a 933 cc, 8 hp Ford Sidevalve engine, and was in production in England from 1932 until September 1937, in France from 1932 to 1934...
- Ford PintoFord PintoThe Ford Pinto is a subcompact car produced by the Ford Motor Company for the model years 1971–1980. The car's name derives from the Pinto horse. Initially offered as a two-door sedan, Ford offered "Runabout" hatchback and wagon models the following year, competing in the U.S. market with the AMC...
- Ford PopularFord PopularThe Ford Popular is best known as a car from Ford built in England between 1953 and 1962. When launched, it was Britain's lowest priced car.The name Popular was also used by Ford to describe its 1930s Y Type model...
- Ford Taunus G93AFord Taunus G93AThe Ford Taunus G93A was a small family car produced by Ford of Germany between 1939 and 1942 in succession to the Ford Eifel. In 1948 the car reappeared as the Ford Taunus G73A, and the G73A remained in production until 1952...
- FSO Syrena
- Geo Metro
- Geo StormGeo StormThe Geo Storm was a sport compact car manufactured by Isuzu and sold in the United States by General Motors from 1990 through 1993 as part of GM's Geo line of inexpensive automobiles. The same vehicles, with minor variations, were sold in Canada in the 1992 & 1993 model years only. The Storm was...
- GoggomobilGoggomobilGoggomobil was a series of microcars produced in the Bavarian town Dingolfing after World War II by Glas.Glas produced three models on the Goggomobil platform: the Goggomobil T sedan, the Goggomobil TS coupé, and the Goggomobil TL van...
- Gurgel BR-800Gurgel BR-800Gurgel BR-800 was a small Brazilian car produced between 1988 and early 1992. The project started under the acronym CENA, meaning "National Economical Car" , designed to be essentially a small car for urban daily use. It received great attention and good reviews from critics, regarding the mechanic...
- Gurgel SuperminiGurgel SuperminiThe Gurgel Supermini was a small Brazilian car produced between 1992 and 1994.Compared to the Gurgel BR-800, it had better finish, improvements on the body and the engine got larger intake valves, giving more 4cv of power - thus rendering 36cv. The horizontal windows were also replaced by vertical...
- Hanomag 2/10 PS
- Hillman AvengerHillman AvengerThe Hillman Avenger was a rear-wheel drive small family car originally manufactured under the Hillman marque by the Rootes Group from 1970–1976, and made by Chrysler Europe from 1976–1981 as the Chrysler Avenger and finally the Talbot Avenger...
- Hillman ImpHillman ImpThe Hillman Imp is a compact, rear-engined saloon car that was manufactured under the Hillman marque by the Rootes Group from 1963 to 1976...
- Honda CityHonda CityThe Honda City is a subcompact car manufactured by the Japanese manufacturer Honda since 1981. Originally made for the Japanese, European and Australasian markets, the City was retired without replacement in 1994...
- Honda CivicHonda CivicThe Honda Civic is a line of subcompact and subsequently compact cars made and manufactured by Honda. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded...
- Honda FitHonda FitThe Honda Jazz is a five-door hatchback subcompact manufactured by the Honda Motor Company of Japan, first introduced in June 2001 and is now in its second generation. The Jazz shares Honda's Global Small Car Platform with the City/Fit Aria, Airwave/Partner, Mobilio, Mobilio Spike, Freed and Freed...
- Honda InsightHonda InsightThe Honda Insight is a hybrid electric vehicle manufactured by Honda and the first production vehicle to feature Honda's Integrated Motor Assist system. The first-generation Insight was produced from 1999 to 2006 as a three-door hatchback...
- Honda N360Honda N360The Honda N360 is a kei car, designed and built by Honda and produced from March 1967 through 1970, while its larger N600 brother lasted three more years. After a January 1970 facelift, the N360 became the NIII360 and continued in production until 1972...
- Honda Z600
- Hudson JetHudson JetThe Hudson Jet was a compact automobile produced by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan during the 1953 and 1954 model years. The Jet was Hudson's response to the popular Nash Rambler, and Hudson, with its limited financial resources, chose to pursue a compact instead of refurbishing...
- Hyundai Amica
- Hyundai Atoz
- Hyundai GetzHyundai GetzThe Hyundai Getz is a supermini car produced by the Hyundai Motor Company, sold in most of the world except the U.S. or Canada...
- Hyundai i10Hyundai i10The Hyundai i10 is a 5-door hatchback subcompact produced by the Hyundai Motor Company. It was launched in October 2007, replacing the Hyundai Atos in some markets.The i10 is produced in India at Hyundai's Chennai plant for the domestic and export markets...
- IFA F9 (East German DKW)IFA F9The IFA F9 was a compact saloon manufactured under the auspices of the Russian and East German states between 1949 or 1950 and 1956. It was initially built at Zwickau at the plant previously owned by Auto Union...
- IsettaIsettaThe Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built in a number of different countries, including Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Produced in the post-World War II years, a time when cheap short-distance transportation was most needed, it became one of the most...
- Kia PicantoKia PicantoThe Kia Picanto, known as the Kia Morning in South Korea and Chile, Kia EuroStar in Taiwan, Kia New Morning in Vietnam and the Naza Suria or Naza Picanto in Malaysia, is a low cost city car produced by Kia Motors....
- Kia Pride
- Kia RioKia RioThe Kia Rio is a series of subcompact automobiles produced by Kia Motors since August 2000. Two generations have been produced, both in five-door hatchback and four-door sedan body styles, all equipped with inline-four gasoline and diesel engines, and front-wheel drive...
- LadaVAZ-2101The VAZ-2101 is a compact car, sedan, produced by VAZ and introduced in 1970. VAZ had been founded in the mid-1960s as a collaboration between Fiat and the Soviet government, and the 2101 was its first product...
- Lada RivaLada RivaThe VAZ-2105, VAZ-2104 and VAZ-2107 are a series of medium-sized family cars built by Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ, introduced in 1980 in the Soviet Union, and progressively in other European markets through the early 1980s and sold in both saloon and estate versions...
- Lancia YpsilonLancia YpsilonThe Lancia Ypsilon is a supermini produced by Italian automaker Lancia since 1996. It is the replacement of the Y10, although larger and more expensive...
- Lloyd (car)Lloyd (car)Norddeutsche Automobil und Motoren GmbH was a German brand created in 1908 and was owned by the Norddeutsche Lloyd shipping company. The factory was in Bremen...
- Maruti Alto
- Maruti 800Maruti 800Maruti 800 is a city car manufactured by Maruti Suzuki in India. It is a rebadged version of an old model of the Suzuki Alto. Over 2.5 million Maruti 800s have been sold since its launch in 1983...
- Mazda 121Mazda 121The Mazda 121 name has been used on a variety of Mazda automobiles for various export markets from 1975 until 2002:* 1975–1981 — Piston engined variants of the second generation Mazda Cosmo sports car...
- Mazda CarolMazda CarolThe Mazda Carol is a name used by Mazda for its kei cars from 1962 until 1970. It was revived again with Mazda's 1989 reentry into the Kei car class.-Carol :...
- Mercedes-Benz A-ClassMercedes-Benz A-ClassThe Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a mini MPV produced by the German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. The first generation was introduced in 1997, and the all-new second generation model appeared in late 2004. Launched as a five-door hatchback in 1997, the second generation W169 introduced a...
- Mercury LynxMercury LynxThe Mercury Lynx was a compact car produced by the Ford Motor Company for its Mercury division from 1981 to 1987. It was a rebadged version of the Ford Escort. In 1987, the Lynx was dropped after slumping sales . In 1988, Mercury launched the Tracer as the Lynx's replacement...
- Messerschmitt KR175Messerschmitt KR175The Messerschmitt KR175 bubble car was the first vehicle built by Messerschmitt under its 1952 agreement with Fritz Fend. In concept, although not in actual design, it was an extended version of the Fend Flitzer invalid carriage...
- Messerschmitt KR200Messerschmitt KR200The Messerschmitt KR200, or Kabinenroller , was a three-wheeled bubble car designed by the aircraft engineer Fritz Fend and produced in the factory of the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt from 1955 to 1964.-History:...
- Messerschmitt TG500Messerschmitt TG500The FMR Tg500 was a sports car built by Fahrzeug- und Maschinenbau GmbH, Regensburg from 1958 to 1961. Based on the monocoque of the Messerschmitt KR200 three-wheeled car, it was a four-wheeled car with a two-stroke straight-two engine. FMR had taken over production of the KR200 from Messerschmitt...
- Mitsubishi ColtMitsubishi ColtThe Mitsubishi Colt is a vehicle built by Mitsubishi Motors since 1962. It was first introduced as a series of kei cars and subcompact cars in the 1960s, and then as the export version of the Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback in the 1980s and 1990s...
- Morris EightMorris EightThe Morris Eight was a small car inspired by the sales popularity of the similarly shaped Ford Model Y. The success of the car enabled Morris to regain its position as Britain's largest motor manufacturer.-Morris Eight Series I:...
- Morris Minor (1928)Morris Minor (1928)This article refers to the motor car manufactured by the Morris Motor Company and its successors from 1928–1933. For the Morris Minor manufactured by the Morris Motor Company from 1948–1971, see Morris Minor....
- Morris MinorMorris MinorThe Morris Minor was a British economy car that debuted at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, on 20 September 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.3 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1971...
- Nash MetropolitanNash MetropolitanThe Nash Metropolitan is a car that was sold, initially only in the United States and Canada, from 1954–1962.It conforms to two classes of vehicle: economy car and subcompact car. In today’s terminology the Metropolitan is a “subcompact”, but this category had not yet come into use when the car was...
- Nash RamblerNash RamblerThe Nash Rambler was a North American automobile produced by the Nash Motors division of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation from 1950–55.The Nash Rambler established a new segment in the automobile market and is widely acknowledged to be the first successful modern American compact...
- Nissan NoteNissan NoteThe Nissan Note is a mini MPV produced by Nissan. The Japanese version has been on sale since 2004, although the European model went to sale during 2006. The United Kingdom was the first market to have the Note launch there, on 1 March...
- Nissan Micra
- Nissan SunnyNissan SunnyThe Nissan Sunny is a small car from Nissan. It was launched in 1966 as the Datsun 1000 and although production in Japan ended in 2004, it remains in production today for the African, American and Sri Lankan markets. In the US, the later models were known as the Nissan Sentra; in Mexico, the Sunny...
(DatsunDatsunDatsun was an automobile marque. The name was created in 1931 by the DAT Motorcar Co. for a new car model, spelling it as "Datson" to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. Later, in 1933 after Nissan Motor Co., Ltd...
) - NSU PrinzNSU PrinzThe NSU Prinz is an automobile produced in West Germany by the NSU Motorenwerke AG. The car was built from 1957 to 1973, and received a model change in 1961 .-NSU Prinz 30:...
- Opel 4 PS
- Opel KadettOpel KadettThe Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel between 1937 and 1940, and then again from 1962 until 1991 , when it was replaced by the Opel Astra.-Original model :...
- Opel OlympiaOpel OlympiaThe Opel Olympia is a small family car produced by the German automaker Opel from 1935 to 1940, from 1947 to 1953 and again from 1967 to 1970.The 1935 Olympia was Germany's first mass-produced car with an all-steel unitized body . This revolutionary technology reduced the weight of the car by 180...
- Panhard Dyna XPanhard Dyna XThe Panhard Dyna X was a lightweight compact saloon car designed by the visionary engineer Jean Albert Grégoire and first exhibited as the AFG Dyna at the Paris Motor Show in 1946....
- Panhard Dyna ZPanhard Dyna ZThe Panhard Dyna Z was a lightweight motor car made by Panhard of France. It was first presented to the press at a Paris restaurant named "Les Ambassadeurs" on 17 June 1953 and went into production the following year...
- Panhard PL 17Panhard PL 17The Panhard PL17 was a motor car made by the French manufacturer Panhard from 1959 until 1965.Presented on June 29, 1959, as successor to the Panhard Dyna Z, the PL 17 was a development of the older car, but with an even more streamlined body than its predecessor...
- Peugeot 104Peugeot 104The Peugeot 104 is a supermini motor car designed by Paolo Martin and produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot between 1972 and 1988.- Production history :Saloon launch 1972...
- Peugeot 106Peugeot 106The Peugeot 106 is a supermini produced by French automaker Peugeot from 1991 to 2004.-Phase I:The Peugeot 106 was introduced on 12 September 1991, as the French marque's entry level car slotting in beneath the 205 - although it is now largely considered the 'true' replacement to the 205. It was a...
- Peugeot 107Peugeot 107The Peugeot 107 is a city car produced by French automaker Peugeot since mid 2005.The 107 was developed by the B-Zero project of PSA Peugeot Citroën in a joint-venture with Toyota; the Citroën C1 and Toyota Aygo are badge engineered versions of the same car, although the Aygo has more detail...
- Peugeot 204Peugeot 204The Peugeot 204 is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot between 1965 and 1976.The 204, known in development as Project D12, was available in many body styles including a sedan/saloon/berline, convertible/cabriolet, coupe, estate/wagon, and a van...
- Peugeot 205Peugeot 205The Peugeot 205 is a supermini produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot between 1983 and 1998. It was declared 'Car of the Decade' by CAR magazine in 1990. The 205 won 1984 What Car? car of the year.-History:...
- Peugeot 206Peugeot 206The Peugeot 206 is a supermini car, manufactured by the French automaker Peugeot from 1998 to 2010.Even though the 206 has finished production in most markets as of 2010, in Europe since 2009, it is available the 206+, with a back and especially a front design that resembles the Peugeot 207.-The...
- Peugeot 207Peugeot 207The Peugeot 207 is a small family car produced by the French automaker Peugeot and unveiled in January 2006.-Launch:The 207 was launched in France, Spain and Italy during April 2006 and later on in other European, Israeli and Arabic markets....
- Plymouth Arrow
- Plymouth CricketHillman AvengerThe Hillman Avenger was a rear-wheel drive small family car originally manufactured under the Hillman marque by the Rootes Group from 1970–1976, and made by Chrysler Europe from 1976–1981 as the Chrysler Avenger and finally the Talbot Avenger...
- Pontiac Astre
- Pontiac Firefly
- Pontiac SunbirdPontiac SunbirdThe Pontiac Sunbird, produced by the Pontiac division of General Motors, was Pontiac's second small-car offering of the 70's. The Sunbird model ran for 18 years and was then replaced in 1995 by the Pontiac Sunfire...
- Pontiac TempestPontiac TempestThe Pontiac Tempest was an entry-level compact produced by the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors, introduced in September 1960 for the 1961 model year....
- RamblerRambler (automobile)Rambler was an automobile brand name used by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company between 1900 and 1914, then by its successor, Nash Motors from 1950 to 1954, and finally by Nash's successor, American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1969...
- Rambler AmericanRambler AmericanThe Rambler American is an automobile manufactured by the American Motors Corporation between 1958 and 1969. The American was the second incarnation of AMC's forerunner Nash Motors second-generation Rambler compact that was sold under the Nash and Hudson Motors marques from 1954 and 1955.The...
- Reliant KittenReliant KittenThe Reliant Kitten is a small economy car which was manufactured from 1975 to 1982 by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England. It has a glass fibre body and an 848 cc all-aluminum inline-four engine, providing economical performance....
- Reliant RebelReliant RebelThe Reliant Rebel was a small car produced by Reliant between 1964 and 1973, conceived as an alternative to the Austin Mini and Hillman Imp. It was produced in saloon, estate and van variants.-Body:The Rebel had a body made of fibreglass...
- Reliant RegalReliant RegalThe Reliant Regal was a small three-wheeled car manufactured from 1953 until 1973 by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England. As it was a three-wheeler, and it was fairly lightweight, the vehicle could be driven on a motorcycle licence in the United Kingdom...
- Reliant RobinReliant Robinthumb|right|250px|1975 Greek advertisement for Mebea Robin The Reliant Robin is a small three wheeled car formerly manufactured by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England...
- Renault 4Renault 4The Renault 4, also known as the 4L , is a hatchback economy car produced by the French automaker Renault between 1961 and 1992. It was the first front-wheel drive family car produced by Renault....
- Renault 4CVRenault 4CVThe Renault 4CV was an economy car produced by the French manufacturer Renault from August 1947-July 1961. The first French car to sell over a million units, the 4CV was ultimately superseded by the Renault Dauphine....
- Renault 5Renault 5The Renault 5 was first unveiled on 10 December 1971, being launched at the beginning of 1972.The Renault 5 was styled by Michel Boué, who died before the car's release, the R5 featured a steeply sloping rear hatchback and front dashboard...
- Renault 8Renault 8The Renault 8 and Renault 10 are two small family cars produced by the French manufacturer Renault in the 1960s and early 1970s....
- Renault AllianceRenault AllianceThe Renault Alliance is a subcompact automobile manufactured and marketed in North America by American Motors Corporation , with 623,573 examples manufactured for model years 1983-1987, and with a three and five-door hatchback variant, the Renault Encore marketed beginning in 1984.The two models...
- Renault ClioRenault ClioThe Renault Clio is a supermini car produced by the French automobile manufacturer Renault. Originally launched in 1990, it is currently in its third generation...
- Renault DauphineRenault DauphineRenault Dauphine is a rear-engined economy car manufactured by Renault in one body style — a three-box, four-door sedan — as the successor to the Renault 4CV, with over two million examples marketed worldwide during its production from 1956-1967....
- Renault JuvaquatreRenault JuvaquatreThe Renault Juvaquatre is a small family car / compact car automobile produced by the French manufacturer Renault between 1937 and 1960, although production stopped or slowed to a trickle during the war years. The Juvaquatre was produced as a sedan/saloon until 1948 when the plant switched its...
- Renault TwingoRenault TwingoThe Renault Twingo is a city car built by French automaker Renault, first presented at the Paris Motor Show in September 1992 and sold in continental European markets beginning in 1993...
- Saab 92Saab 92Saab 92 is an automobile from Saab. The design was very aerodynamic for its time, and the cW value was 0.30 . The entire body was stamped out of one piece of sheet metal and then cut to accommodate doors and windows. Full-scale production started December 12, 1949, based on the prototype Saab 92001...
- Saab 93Saab 93The Saab 93, pronounced ninety-three, is an automobile manufactured by Saab. It was announced on August 18, 1955, and was first presented on December 1, 1955. It was styled by Sixten Sason and had a longitudinally-mounted three-cylinder 748 cc Saab two-stroke engine giving 33 hp . The...
- Saab 95Saab 95The Saab 95 was a 7-seater, 2-door station wagon made by Saab. Initially it was based on the Saab 93 sedan version, but the model's development throughout the years followed closely that of the 96 since the 93 was put off the market in 1960...
- Saab 96Saab 96For the modern car, see Saab 9-6The Saab 96 is an automobile made by Saab. It was introduced in 1960 and was produced until January 1980, a run of 20 years. Like the 93 it replaced, the 96 was a development from the old Saab 92 chassis and, on account of its improvements and modernisation, it...
- Scion xBScion xBThe Scion xB is a vehicle made by Toyota for the United States market and sold under their youth-oriented Scion brand. It is a box-shaped, 5-door compact hatchback.-First generation :...
- SEAT ArosaSEAT ArosaThe SEAT Arosa is a city car from the Spanish automaker SEAT, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, built between 1997 and 2004. The pre-facelift model debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1997, while its facelifted model was presented at the Paris Motor Show in Autumn 2000 and was in...
- SEAT IbizaSEAT IbizaThe SEAT Ibiza is a car in the European supermini class, constructed by the Spanish car maker SEAT S.A., is SEAT's best-selling car and perhaps the most popular model in the Spanish firm's range....
- SEAT MarbellaSEAT MarbellaThe SEAT Panda was a badge-engineered Fiat Panda produced by SEAT from 1980 to 1986, in the company's Landaben plant in the Spanish city of Pamplona-Navarra and also in the firm's Zona Franca plant in Barcelona...
- Simca 1000Simca 1000The Simca 1000 was a small, rear-engined, four-door saloon manufactured by the French automaker Simca from 1961 to 1978.-The launch:The car was inexpensive and, at the time of launch, quite modern, with a brand-new inline-4 watercooled engine of 944cc...
- Simca 1100Simca 1100The Simca 1100 is an automobile built from 1967 to 1982 by Chrysler Europe's division Simca. It was replaced by the Talbot Horizon.The 1100 was the result of "Project 928", started in 1962, finalized by engineers Philippe Grundeler and Charles Scales...
- Škoda 105/120/125 (Estelle)
- Škoda FabiaŠkoda FabiaThe Škoda Fabia is a supermini produced by Czech manufacturer Škoda Auto since 1999. It was the successor to the Škoda Felicia, which was discontinued in 2001...
- Škoda FavoritŠkoda FavoritThe Škoda Favorit 135 and Škoda Favorit 136 were a range of small family cars produced by Czech auto manufacturer Škoda Auto from 1987 to 1995. It was Škoda Auto's first car to follow the European trend of locating the engine at the front, mounted transversely, and was also their first car to use...
- Škoda FeliciaŠkoda FeliciaFor the Skoda Felicia of 1959 to 1964 see Škoda Felicia The Škoda Felicia, is a small family car produced by the Czech automaker Škoda Auto between 1994 and 2001 . It was one of the first models to benefit from Škoda Auto's takeover by the German giant Volkswagen Group...
- Smart FortwoSmart FortwoThe Smart Fortwo is a rear-engined two-seater city car manufactured by Smart GmbH, introduced at the 1998 Paris Motor Show as the Smart City Coupé, and currently in its second generation...
- Smart ForfourSmart ForfourThe Smart Forfour was a supermini produced by Smart between April 2004 and June 2006. Unlike the other models of the marque, the Forfour was a more conventional five-door hatchback with a relatively roomy interior, available as a four-/five-seater....
- Standard EightStandard EightThe Flying Eight was the smallest member of the Standard Flying family.Introduced in 1938 or 1939 , the Flying Eight featured, in its saloon form, the "streamlined" body of the little Standard Flying Nine which had appeared in 1937...
- Steyr 50Steyr 50The Steyr 50 is a small car released in 1936 by the Austrian automobile manufacturer Steyr. The streamlined body was approved by Director Karl Jenschke to be constructed in 1935, but in that same year Jenschke relocated to the German Adlerwerke in Frankfurt/Main.The car had a water-cooled...
- Subaru 360Subaru 360The Subaru 360 was the first automobile mass-produced by Fuji Heavy Industries' Subaru division. A number of innovative features were used to design a very small and inexpensive car to address government plans to produce a small "people's car" with an engine no larger than 360 cc when most in...
- Subaru RexSubaru RexThe Subaru Rex, also known as Ace, Viki, Sherpa, 500/600/700, Mini Jumbo or M60/M70/M80 in various export markets, is a kei class automobile produced from 1972 to 1992 mainly for sale in Japan by Subaru, although it was also sold in Europe, South America, and the Caribbean...
- Subaru PleoSubaru PleoThe second-generation Pleo first went on sale in Japan on April 20, 2010. Due to Subaru's corporate investment by Toyota, this second generation is manufactured by Daihatsu instead of Subaru, and is a rebadged Daihatsu Mira.-External links:*...
- Subaru JustySubaru JustyThe Subaru Justy is a subcompact hatchback that has been sold by Japanese automobile manufacturer Subaru since 1984. From 1984–1994 Subaru manufactured the Justy itself; since then it has sold a rebadged version of other vehicles under the Justy nameplate...
- Subaru VivioSubaru VivioThe Subaru Vivio is a kei car that was introduced in March 1992, and manufactured by Subaru until October 1998. It has a 658 cc multi-point fuel-injected four-cylinder engine , which is small enough to place it in the light car class, giving its owners large tax breaks in Japan...
- Suzuki AltoSuzuki AltoThe Suzuki Alto is a small car designed by Suzuki. Its selling points include low price and good fuel economy. The model was introduced in 1979 and has been built in many countries worldwide.-1st generation :...
- Suzuki SC100
- Suzuki Wagon RSuzuki Wagon RThe Suzuki Wagon R is a kei car first introduced in Japan in 1993, and is still in production by Suzuki. The R stands for Recreation. It is one of the first cars to use the "tall wagon or tall boy" design in which the car is designed to be unusually tall with a short bonnet and almost vertical...
- Talbot SambaTalbot SambaThe Talbot Samba is a supermini car manufactured by the PSA Group in the former Simca factory in Poissy, France, and marketed under the short-lived modern-day Talbot brand. Based on the Peugeot 104, it was the only Talbot not inherited from Chrysler Europe, engineered by PSA alone. It was also the...
- Talbot Sunbeam
- Tata IndicaTata IndicaThe Tata Indica is a hatchback automobile range manufactured by Tata Motors of India. It is the first passenger car from Tata Motors and is also considered India's first indigenously developed passenger car. , more than 910,000 Indicas were produced. The annual sales of Indica has been as high as ...
- Tata NanoTata NanoThe Tata Nano is an inexpensive, rear-engined, four-passenger city car built by the Indian company Tata Motors and is aimed primarily at the Indian domestic market....
- Toyota AygoToyota AygoThe Toyota Aygo is a city car sold by Toyota in Europe since 2005. All Aygos are built at the new factory of the Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile Czech joint venture in Kolin, Czech Republic. The Aygo was first displayed at the 2005 Salon de l'Automobile de Genève...
- Toyota CorollaToyota CorollaThe Toyota Corolla is a line of subcompact and compact cars manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota, which has become very popular throughout the world since the nameplate was first introduced in 1966. In 1997, the Corolla became the best selling nameplate in the world, with over 35 million...
- Toyota Echo
- Toyota iQToyota iQThe Toyota iQ is a city car introduced at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show, with Japanese sales having begun in October 2008 and European sales in January 2009. The production iQ followed a concept vehicle presented at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show. A North American version of the iQ, branded as the Scion...
- Toyota StarletToyota StarletThe Toyota Starlet is a small automobile manufactured by Toyota from 1973 to 1999, replacing the Publica, but retaining the Publica's "P" code and generation numbering. The Starlet was marketed as the Publica in some Toyota export markets.-40 Series:...
- Toyota TercelToyota TercelThe Tercel is a subcompact manufactured from 1978 to 2000 across five generations, in five body configurations — sized between the Corolla and the Starlet...
- Toyota YarisToyota YarisThe Toyota Yaris is a subcompact car produced by Toyota since 1999. Between 1999 and 2005, some markets received the same vehicles under the Toyota Echo name...
- TrabantTrabantThe Trabant is a car that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc...
- Vauxhall Agila
- Vauxhall ChevetteVauxhall ChevetteThe Chevette was a supermini model of car manufactured by Vauxhall in the UK from 1975 to 1984. It was Vauxhall's version of the family of small "T-Cars" from Vauxhall's parent General Motors ; the family included the Opel Kadett in Germany, the Isuzu Gemini in Japan, the Holden Gemini in...
- Vauxhall Corsa (Opel)
- Vauxhall Meriva
- Vauxhall Nova
- Vauxhall VivaVauxhall VivaThe Viva was a small family car produced by Vauxhall Motors in a succession of three versions between 1963 and 1979. These were known as the HA, the HB and the HC series....
- VAZ-1111
- Volkswagen BeetleVolkswagen BeetleThe Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
- Volkswagen FoxVolkswagen FoxThe Volkswagen CrossFox is a mini SUV version which sets it apart from the standard Fox. As is the case for other similar models, it is available only with front-wheel drive....
- Volkswagen GolVolkswagen GolThe Volkswagen Gol is a subcompact car manufactured by Volkswagen do Brasil since 1980 as Volkswagen's entry-level car in the South American market—where it succeeded the South American VW Beetle ...
- Volkswagen Golf (Mk 1./ Rabbit)Volkswagen GolfThe Volkswagen Golf is a small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974 and marketed worldwide across six generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada , and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico .The...
- Volkswagen LupoVolkswagen LupoThe Lupo is a city car manufactured by German automaker Volkswagen from 1998 to 2005.-Model history:The Lupo was introduced in 1998 to fill a gap at the bottom of the VW model range caused by the increasing size and weight of the VW Polo. Rivals included the Ford Ka, the Opel/Vauxhall Agila and...
- Volkswagen PoloVolkswagen PoloThe Volkswagen Polo is a supermini car manufactured by Volkswagen. It is sold in Europe and other markets worldwide in hatchback, saloon, coupé and estate variants....
- Volvo PV444
- Volvo PV544
- Wartburg
- Zaporozhets