A fun yarn, to be sure. The 360 *was* imported; it *was* exempted from Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards because of its light weight and small size (such an exemption was on the books at the time), and there was nobody but *nobody* pleading to buy it, on the docks or anywhere else.
I agree with you here.
They were still junk.Fiat had a similar deal previously with
This could very well be. The car was still inappropriately designed for the US market and was of appallingly low quality. Add to that the involvement of an importer who did not have the will to stay to correct the problems and make Yugo owners whole again and the result is that the names Yugo and Bricklin have left a very bad taste.
A friend of mine has a 1970 Subaru 360. It still runs just fine. These cars were exempt from safety and emission standards at the time due to loopholes that existed for very lightweight vehicles with tiny engines.
The Subaru 360 was unfortunately another of the Bricklin schemes. He has a long record of importing or otherwise sponsoring relatively unkown cars and hyping them with a lot of advertising but not supporting them with enough cash nor staying around long enough to truly build a permanent dealer network. When the inevitable problems begin Bricklin just disappears. In this case he imported the Subaru 360 directly, which meant that Subaru and the parent Fuji had no responsibility for the seriously underpowered microcar. At $1,300 it was actually somewhat pricey because a much bigger and more powerful Toyota Corona could be had for $1,700. Sales flopped as people discovered the car was no match for the California highways and parts were (familiar story!) hard to come by. Dealers resorted to selling them in groups for very low prices. The west coast banks (Wells Fargo and Bank of California) that financed him ended up reposessing many of the cars and actually trying to sell Subaru 360's from bank branch lobbies.
Reminds me of the Fiat f1/9 which was relabeled and imported as a 'Bertone\.
I stopped by a dealership in Houston and asked about 'the Fiat' and was told by a snobby little prick in a lavender shirt that it was NOT a Fiat, it was a Bertone.
What is in a name?...a rose by any name would smell as sweet. But give us a break, guys. Some of these imports SMELL like dirty feet.
Yes, there have been several examples of cars imprted directly into the U.S. without benefit of a warranty that involves the manufacturer. I think such an arrangement is smelly because the importer capitalizes on the name of the manufacturer but not the financial backing. Other examples include many of the micro-cars that were in such wide use in europe during the 1950's. Many were brought into the U.S. with no involvement of the manufacturer so the warranty was at the discretion of the importer.
It's interesting that the importer of the Subaru 360 waited over 10 years after the microcar craze had petered out in the U.S. before trying to sell such a car in the U.S. again. The 360, like it's european cousins the Isetta and Heinkel, Lloyd, etc., were cars designed as cheap transportation in urban environments where people didn't drive great distances or at great speed. They were not appropriate for the relatively wide open spaces found in the U.S.
The less than sound history of direct imports makes me wonder about the viability of the plan to directly import the Smart car into the U.S. The dealer network appears to be very thin and the cars will not have any ties to the manufacturer Mercedes Benz. And like the 360 it will be relatively pricey and undersized when alternatives from Toyta, Nissan and Hyundai are considered.
You brought up Isetta,do you remember the Gogomobile from the same time period.These were the cars tv's Concentration gave as prizes but they never showed one.I think the Isetta and Gogomobile were both made by BMW.One last question for the older tv viewer,what was the car make that the tv Boston Blackie drove in the '51-53 series?Been trying to find someone who remembers.
Sure, I remember the Goggomobil...it was actually made by Glas. Quite popular and pretty good looking. I picked up an interesting book on Ebay called Kleinwagen by Tashcen. Full of pictures and history about the microcars of the 1950's and 1960's. If you enjoy automotive trivia (as I do) this guy has an amazing museum in atlanta devoted to those mini cars:
Don't know that one. At the time I was more into Hopalong Cassidy and Space Patrol!!
That would be an X1/9. Neat little car. I owned 2 in the past.
That's a salesman for you.
It's too bad because if the X1/9 had been brought up to date, it would have been a neat car. Even with 'outdated' technology it was a fun car, if underpowered.
----------- Alex
First time I have seen a Gogo with a decent sized photo to make out detail.Thanks.
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