European cars in U.S.

[mstar]

Hello,

I've come across pictures of some old European cars in the U.S., of which I didn't know they were imported. So maybe here in this forum there are some car nuts who can tell me which European makes have been available in the U.S. and which models of these makes, because it is not easy to find out in the net when it comes to not so well-known makes like DKW, Tempo, Auto Union, NSU, Borgward, Skoda, Wartburg, Morris, Austin, Rover, Panhard, Simca or such makes.
Additionally it would be interesting to know which models by Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Citroen, Peugeot, Opel, Audi etc were sold in U.S.

So if you know anything about that, just write it down :-)

Thanks
Markus

[stanhas87]

Dear All:

DKWs made to the USA; on a photo array from Collectable Magazine, some were founded on a salvage yard. Wartburgs were imported, too. In 1980, I personally saw a Simca Vedette Chambord on my neck of the woods; the small models were imported as well. Audi is still avaliable in the USA; been so for a while. FIATs are not avaliable here any longer, but they were in the past. I will not comment on Mercedes and BMWs. Twenty years ago, in Beverly Hills, I saw a Monteverdi rolling at its streets. Citroens,Renaults and Peugeot were also imported in the past; not so today.

According to what I saw at the Los Angeles Auto Show (and it been the same lineup - almost - since 1999), Imported cars are the Japanese makes except Daihatsu (it had a brief appearance in the 1990's) and I suzu is quite gone, except on mid to heavy truck form, Korean Manufacturers except Daweoo (some of the latter as sold as Suzukis) which also had a brief appearance here, German vehicles such as Volkswagen,Mercedes and BMWs (and the spinoffs of the latter, such as the Mini and Rolls Royce; from Volkswagen, we have the Bentley); the Smart just made it and I am not forgetting the Maybach. Volvo,Land Rover,Jaguar and Saab are present, due to their obvious connections (read Ford and GM); the last of the British Automakers, Morgan, also has its wares avaliable here; and there are the exotics, such as Porsche,Lamborghini,Lotus, Ferrari,Spiker,Aston Martin and Maserati which are also looking for costumers. What remains is the lot of specialty built cars such as Vector,Callaway or Saleen but these are not European, anyhow.

This is more or less the picture. In the past there were more makes around, including the Yugo and Russian cars, but the list above is what it remains.

[mstar]

Thank you very much for the first response. Actually, I know the makes that are still available in U.S.. I have been there a few times and I'm very informed about what cars are still sold and which not. However, I couldn't find out anything about DKW, Tempo, Auto Union, NSU, Borgward, Skoda, Wartburg, Morris, Austin, Rover, Panhard and Simca. On some website I have seen pictures of an old rusty Tempo Matador, and I was just surprised that they seem to have been sold in U.S. Also the DKW Van (the one Busch sells) and the Auto Union that Brekina has in 1/87.

[skunk]

Just about every one of those makes has at some point or another been sold in the US - it wasn't until the safety legislation of 1968, and then the ever tightening emissions laws of the seventies, that the US became hell for car lovers.

A very good resource is the Standard Catalog of Imported Cars 1946-2002 (I depend on an earlier edition, I am pretty sure that BillC owns this book, too):

Paperback: 910 pages
Publisher: Krause Publications; 2 Rev Sub edition (March 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0873416058
ISBN-13: 978-0873416054

You can even get it at amazon.de:

www.amazon.de/Standard-Catalog-Cars-1946-2002/dp/0873416058
The only problem with the book (to me) are their unwieldy format when it comes to technical specs, and an unwillingness to report on the bread-and-butter versions (no information on the Nissan Sentra, for instance).

Pre-war, only particularly interesting or very expensive cars made it to US shores; Isottas, Citroen Traction Avants, and the like.

[stanhas87]

Dear All:

I used this book - Imported Car Guide as a reference, plus selected articles from Collectable Automobile and a article at Motor Trend or Car and Driver from the 1980's about the Makes which did not made it in the USA.

[BillC]

Skunk's right. Almost every car made almost anywhere except perhaps the Soviet Union made it to the U.S. up until 1968. Wartburgs were even advertised in Playboy magazine and actor David Niven said his Borgward Isabella was his favorite car. Elvis Presley bought a BMW 507 and bought an Isetta for his manager at the same time. Cary Grant posed for a magazine cover with an Isetta in New York City. I remember cars like the Hillman Imp when I lived in Connecticut. Even the Citroen 2CV and Renault 4CV were exported to the U.S. The 2CV didn't do very well (surprise!) and Citroen destroyed the unsold inventory because it was too expensive to return them to France.

The original Citroen Traction Avant was imported by a company in Los Angeles and renamed the Challenger (if I recall correctly). The DS19 was reviewed in Esquire magazine and we had a neighbor who owned one.

In the years following WWII, the U.S. was almost the only real market for new cars, 90% of the Jaguars and Ferraris built from the end of the war until the mid-1950s were sold in America. There were also Messerschmitts, Kleinschnittgers (one of which was featured in a GM ad a few years ago) and a number of other micro-cars.

There were also Opels; in fact, the Opel GT was designed for the American market and 2/3 of them were sold here. Brekina used to make a model of a U.S.-spec Rekord.

The die-cast Ford Taunus made by High Speed is also fair game. It was sold here for a few years.

As to which specific models were commercially imported, that depended on the willingness of the manufacturer to to modify the car to meet U.S. requirements. For example, the Citroen Mehari was available, and was even featured on an American TV show, but it looked quite different that the European version because it had to be modified to U.S. headlight requirements.

A lot of cars were imported by returning U.S. military and diplomatic personnel or were brought in by immigrants. There is actually still some of this going on. There is a family that lives not far from me that has a VW Sharan, which was never imported to the U.S. the trick is that the Sharan is registered in Mexico.

Pre-war cars included more than you might think. Horches were sold in small numbers and even the Austro Daimler was sold here. Masterpiece will be making a model of a 1912 Austro Daimler that was one of 100 that were not only sent to the U.S., they were actually finished here with bodies made by Healey of New York City. The Austin Se7en was sold as the American Bantam and was Mickey Mouse's first car (really!).

DKW was sold here for a number of years, including the Auto Union version sold by Brekina.

Rover was sold here; I recall a doctor who owned one. So was the Daimler, I remember my Dad looking at a 250 when he was considering a sports car (he wound up with an Alfa Romeo).

Simcas were also imported to the U.S.; they were part of Chrysler.

One thing that should be remembered is that most of these cars sold in perhaps the hundreds over here. They were usually imported by a distributor like Max Hoffmann who had a bunch of brands, including Mercedes and BMW for a time. Sales were largely confined to either the east or west coast; except for a few brands, like Volkswagen, imports were rarely seen in the American heartland until the 1960s. Imports made up roughly 10% of American light vehicle sales by 1959, but the vast majority of those sales went to Volkswagen. In the 1960s, sales of import cars dropped to about 5% of the market. It wasn't until the gas crises of the 1970s that more efficient Japanese and European cars began to gain market share. VW was doing well enough to build a factory in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The little pickup truck that became the Volkswagen Caddy was originally desinged for the U.S. market and built here. After the factory closed in the mid-1980s, the tooling went to Yugoslavia, when the civil wars broke out there, it went to Uitehage, South Africa, where the same Caddy, virtually unchanged, was built until the 1990s.

The relative rarity of European cars in the pre-war years is partially due to the fact that most European cars, especially from Germany, were expensive. Horch, Maybach, and the like, were all very expensive cars, even in their home market. Affordable European cars were generally too small for American tastes.

[cfesmire]

My father in law had a Citroen when I first started dating my wife (excellent riding car).

[skunk]

My good friend and co-bartender Nate's (29 years old) first car was a Hillman Minx that he inherited from his grandma, who instead used a Hillman Husky as a daily driver - in Virginia, in the 1990s!

[mstar]

Thank you very much for this interesting information guys :-) I knew you could help me! I really should look for that book. Thank You!!!

Markus

[Christian]

I have some details for you, specifically on the Borgward situation in this case. Borgward was a manufacturer which relied heavily on export sales, more so than most European manufacturers at the time.

Export share in % (Borgward, Lloyd, Goliath/Hansa):
1951 20,4
1952 22,1
1953 18,3
1954 25,0
1955 22,5
1956 28,3
1957 36,5
1958 40,2
1959 44,8
1960 32,9
1961 -

Important markets were Sweden (15,000 Isabellas in total), South Africa (2-5,000 per year) and of course the US (50,000 up until 1961, figure may be a bit too high), although when new, an Isabella Coupe allegedly cost nearly as much as a Cadillac de Ville. A 1955 sales flyer shows a $2350 base price for the sedan.

Until the end of the 1950s the Borgwards were imported by Fergus Imported Cars Inc in New York. By 1960 Borgward had opened its own trade organisation with an attached finance company in Boston.

This strategy with a home market that was kind of neglected was one of the (though not the major) reasons for Borgward's eventual collapse in 1961. Due to the appearance of new American compact models, and probably other reasons, US sales crumbled from a projected 15,000 (all Borgward, Lloyd and Goliath/Hansa) to only 6,000 in 1960. Fields had to be rented from farmers to store all the unsold cars in Bremen ...

As to which models were imported into the US, I only found a few hints.

- 1949-53 Borgward Hansa 1500/1800: imported by Fergus, but only in small numbers
- 1954-61 Borgward Isabella: see above
- 1952-58 Borgward Hansa 2400: no hints, total production was only a few hundred anyway
- 1959-61 Borgward P100: no hints, though probably a few

- 1949-53 Lloyd LP 300: probably not
- 1953-55 Lloyd LP 400: low thousands
- 1956-57 Lloyd LP 250: none
- 1955-61 Lloyd LP 600/Alexander: one of Borgwards main pillars on the American market
- 1959-63 Lloyd Arabella: fewer than Alexander
- 1952-61 Lloyd LT 500/600: was sold in modest numbers

One book mentions Lloyd figures for the US: 4,000 in 1959 and only 55 in 1960.
Surprisingly enough Borgwards third company Goliath (later Hansa) was quite popular in the US, while domestic sales were always rather weak.

- 1949-57 Goliath GP 700/900: a few hundred
- 1957-61 Goliath/Hansa 1100: most popular Borgward after the Isabella in the US
The Hansa 1100 sedan and coupe even got their own names in America: Empress and Tiger.
- 1955-61 Goliath Express: see Lloyd LT

I also found some contradicting figures in a newer publication, which might be more exact:

Export sales:
1958 ~6000
1959 ~8500
1960 2000-2500

[skunk]

Some more Borgward info, all from The Standard Catalog of Imported Cars, 1946-1990:

In addition to Fergus on the east coast, Earle C. Anthony handled the west coast (from LA).

The Hansa sold for $2500, convertible for $3650. The 2400 listed at $3120, production total 1059. Hansamatic was available for $240.
Supposedly ~10000 Isabellas went to the US in 1955. The Station Wagon listed at $2475, the TS at $2640.
1957: Base price went up to $2495, the TS Coupé cost a whopping $3695. For that amount, one could have gotten a well-equipped Pontiac Star Chief Convertible V8.
In 1958, 6561 Isabellas were sold in the US. The next year, 7629 ex. For 1961, perhaps in order to get rid of unsold stock, all prices went down drastically.

The Lloyd only sold in very small numbers in the US until the 1957 debut of the Alexander. It sold for $1295, SW cost $1345 and Convertible was $1375.
In 1959 only the more powerful TS was available, ranging from $1395 to $1510 for the convertible. The Arabella cost $1695 in 1960.

Goliaths were trickling into the US by the mid-fifties, both the 700 and the 900 priced at $1898.
The 1100 Standard cost $1995 in 1957, the sedan proper was $2089, SW $2288 and Convertible $2395. The 1958 1100 Tiger Coupe cost $2835 (which could instead have bought you a Plymouth Belvedere Convertible with the optional 225hp V8...). Still, 2267 Goliaths sold in the USA in 1958. The Empress deluxe sedan cost $2481.
In 1959 prices dropped, and sales increased to 3478. In 1961 the car was called Hansa. 147 US dealers sold Borgward/Hansa/Goliath this last year.

No less than nine different distributors for the various Borgward products are listed. Must have made getting spare parts a lot of fun.

I also have a couple of interesting road tests from 1956, in which it is stated that the Lloyd LP600 sold for a mere $995 on the west coast, $300 less than on the eastern seaboard. The testers did not like the Lloyd, it being to loud and with an awkward gear change. They list the Goliath 900 at $1796, only available on the west coast in 1956. One of the benefits of choosing a Lloyd is that "any shop that services outboard or lawnmower engines could quickly adapt themselves to... servicing Lloyds." The LT6/600 Lloyd six-seater Kombi cost $1595. (Economy Car Blitz, Joe H. Wherry, Associated Booksellers, 1956.)

[jim68cuda]

If they haven't crushed it by now, I know where theres a Borgward Isabella 2 door sedan sitting in a salvage yard in Virginia. The only other Borgward I have ever seen was a restored convertible with right hand drive that I saw at a car show in Florida. Both appeared to be late 50's or early 60's models. The convertible had the same body and interior as the sedan I saw at the salvage yard. These were like the Wiking Borgward sedan, not like the Busch Borgward sport coupe. The same salvage yard evan has a Brithish Ford Thames van from about the early 60's. A guy I know in Canada bought a 59 Skoda 2 door sedan from a salvage yard in California. He had wanted a Skoda since his parents had a Skoda Felecia convertible when he was a kid. Looking at old movies can give you an idea of some of the European cars that were seen on the streets of America in the 50's and 60's. In The Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo theres a little van, maybe a DKW, seen parked along a San Francisco street in one scene. In North by Northwest, another Hitchcock classic, a Skoda can be seen behind the taxi that Cary Grant rides around New York in. In one scene on Mad Mad Mad Mad World, theres a car I think is a mid 50's European 4 ddor sedan I don't recognize in the background of one scene. I have a DVD documentary of the streetcars of Washington DC. All the footage was filmed in the years 56-61. In one street scene, theres an Isetta with a big wind up key mounted on the roof. As a kid growing up in the 60's I remember Mercedes Jaguars, MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healeys, and VWs as being the most common. Saabs, Volvos, Renaults, Peugeots, Sunbeam (Alpines and Tigers), Opels, Fiats, Porsches, and Ford Cortinas were also fairly common. Much less common were BMWs, Vauxhalls, Simcas,Alfa Romeos, Rovers, and other European Fords, and Citroens. Seldom seen were Amphicars, Ferraris, Massaratis, Morgans, Rolls, and Bently, Facel Vegas, Hillmans, and Lotus, but they were there. Right at the end of the 60's Audi and Jensen appeared in the US. Theres a guy in my neighborhood here in Virginia, that has a 60 (I think) Ford Taunus 2 door wagon (restored but with a new V-8 under the hood). It looks like the Brekina Taunus wagon.