Turkey, Greece, Portugal ... Those are not countries that you immediately think of when you dream away about automobile history. Not to mention Egypt and related oil-filled sandboxes ...
Of course there are classics in those countries and there are classic enthusiasts.
But if a Dutch classic enthusiast is asked: "Name three Turkish car brands ..." Then it will probably remain deafening.
Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, Renault and Fiat have been building cars in Turkey for decades, but that was usually license building or local production of foreign brands.
In the classical area, if we go for Turkish, we do not go much further than companies that have produced at least one car under their own brand name and that have / had their headquarters in Turkey.
Otosan (Otomobil Sanayii, or 'Auto Industry) was the first passenger car manufacturer in' Turkey. The company started licensing for Ford, and in 1966 the Otosan Anadol (also known as 'Anadol' for short) was added. It was made 1968. The car was followed by a slightly modified version of the Ford Taunus and from 1993 onwards. Local Excort Since then, Otosan has been more or less a Ford factory, and now the Ford Transits have come from it.
Karsan is a manufacturer of light commercial vehicles. Karsan was founded in 1966.
Tofaş was founded in 1968 as a joint venture between Fiat and the Turkish group of companies Koc Holding. In 1969 a factory was built where in 971 the assembly of the Fiat 124 began. The car was given the name Murat 124 and was succeeded in 1976 by the Fiat 131-based Murat 131.
Later Tofaş becomes the brand name and the models get bird names. The 131 goes Tofaş Serçe (sparrow), after a facelift it becomes Tofaş Şahin (hawk). The Şahin was built under license by Nasr from 1995 to 2009 in Egypt
On November 18, the production of the Yugoslav Zastava 1985 will be transferred to Turkey. Tofaş will build the model until April 750.