This is a selection of cars created to build a car industry. This was once quite a common practice, where proven designs would be built under licence to help establish a presence for local markets and eventual export.
One of the first cars to achieve global coverage was the Soviet-era Lada, which was based on the 1966 Fiat 124. Known as the VAZ-2101, production started in 1970 and eventually evolved into the 2107, ending production in 2012. The same design was also used built by Seat in Spain, Murat in Turkey, Premier in India and also assembled in Malaysia and Morocco.
Old Fiat designs were regularly used for several other Eastern bloc countries, including the bigger Fiat 125 from 1967. This design was constructed under licence as the Polski-Fiat in Poland in 1967. A re-bodied version, known as the 5-door Polonez remained in production with further improvements until 2002.
Yugoslavia used the FWD 1969 Fiat 128, having established close links with the brand since the mid-50s. Zastava built their version, the Skala from 1971 to 2008, incorporating a hatchback, something the original 128 never had.
The final Fiat design of this batch is the Seat Ronda of 1982. Based on the MK1 Fiat Ritmo, the Ronda also marked the end of a 30-year relationship with Fiat with the Spanish company, after a dispute over the design of the Ronda which was taken to court as Fiat claimed that the Spanish car resembled their yet to be unveiled facelift version.
Dacia’s connection with Reanult was first forged in 1966, Dacia had been producing the rear-engined 8 and 1100 for local consumption, until the Dacia 1300 took over in 1969. A Romanian version of the Renault 12, it survived in modified form to 2004, after almost 2 million examples had been produced.