Lost to the Showrooms, These 10 Car Brands Live On at FOTU

What kills a car brand? Sometimes it’s scandal; we’re looking at you DeLorean. Sometimes it’s a reputation that just can’t be recovered; hello, Lancia. But most often it’s malaise. A lack of investment and innovation, a loss of interest from the buying public, and a gradual demise of dealerships – an unexceptional decline, you might say.

It’s appropriate then that the one place you’re most likely to find any survivors is at the Festival of the Unexceptional on 27 July. With their devotion to the dull, FOTU fans keep the most mundane motors alive – even if their manufacturers are long gone.

Here are 10 buried brands to look out for at the festival.

Austin

Herbert Austin founded his eponymous car company in 1905 in Longbridge, and his 1922 Seven mobilised the masses in Britain. Some 30 years later, Austin merged with Morris to form the British Motor Corporation. BMC in turn would be absorbed by Leyland to become British Leyland, then Austin Rover, before the Austin name was quietly dropped for good in 1988.

RIP: 1988
Last Car: Montego
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Metro

Daihatsu

Japan’s Daihatsu made its first engine in 1907, moving on to three-wheelers in the 1930s but it wasn’t until 1965 that the company began selling cars in the UK with the Compagno Berlina. The Charade, Hijet van, Terios SUV, Copen roadster, and Sirion hatch provided inexpensive, compact and quirky transport throughout the Nineties and Noughties, but in 2013 Daihatsu made the decision to withdraw from Europe.

RIP: 2013
Last Car: Sirion
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Charade

Datsun

Datsun’s roots can be traced to 1911, with the first DAT car being produced in 1914. The company was taken over by Nissan in 1934, but the Datsun nameplate was retained. By 1958 the company’s domestic models wore the Nissan badge while export cars stuck with Datsun’s patriotic rising sun logo. Those cars began to arrive in the UK in 1968 and models such as the Sunny and Cherry helped make Datsun the most popular foreign car brand in Britain. The parent company clearly wanted to take credit though, and from the early 1980s the Datsun name was phased out in favour of Nissan.

RIP: 1984
Last Car: Micra
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Cherry

Daewoo

Originally established in 1937 as National Motors, the South Korean car company went through a variety of rebrands until the name Daewoo stuck after its acquisition by the Daewoo Group in 1982. Daewoo entered the UK market full of promise in 1995, offering a new kind of buying and ownership experience through its factory-owned dealer network and bumper-to-bumper warranties. The peace of mind that came with a Daewoo was exceptional, and its “That’ll be the Daewoo” tag line was certainly catchy, but the actual cars were mediocre at best. Daewoo went bust, exited the UK market, and was sold to GM in 2002.

RIP: 2002
Last Car: Matiz
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Espero

Lancia

Lancia’s illustrious history began with Italian racing drivers Vincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin in 1906. It saw countless innovations, from the monocoque chassis to the five-speed gearbox and V4 engine, as well as motorsport dominance in the World Rally Championship. But it all came to a grinding halt, in the UK at least, in 1993. Rust, reliability, and shoddy dealer service were obstacles that no amount of positive publicity from the world of rallying could overcome. There’s a chance that, under Stellantis, a newly electrified Lancia could return to the UK, so fingers crossed.

RIP: 1993 (UK)
Last Car: Delta
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Beta

Morris

William Richard Morris started his career in the bicycle trade, but switched two wheels for four when he started WRM Morris Ltd in Oxford in 1912, naming his first car after the town. The Morris Minor, designed by a pre-Mini Issigonis, demonstrated the company’s engineering excellence, while Morris’s business acumen saw his Nuffield Organisation take over Wolseley, Riley, and MG. Merged with Austin to form BMC in 1952 and then again with Leyland in 1968, it’s ironic that the Morris name was among the first of the Great British car brands to disappear when the last Ital was produced. China’s SAIC bought the Morris trademark when it took over MG, so it, too, may be born again.

RIP: 1984
Last Car: Metro van
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Marina

Mitsubishi

The mighty Mitsubishi may be one of Japan’s biggest industrial players, with a history dating back to the 1870s, but its automotive arm was only established in 1970. By 1974, it was importing cars to the UK, where the quality and value of Japanese cars was already beginning to kill the domestic brands. Eventually there would be a huge range spanning hatchbacks, SUVs, and sports cars. Early adopters of the plug-in hybrid also flocked to Mitsubishi showrooms, but it wasn’t enough to sustain the business and the plug was pulled in 2021.

RIP: 2021 (UK)
Last Car: Outlander
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Colt

Rover

From its beginnings as a bicycle maker, Rover was building cars from as early as 1904, but it was post World War II with the P3 and P4 that Rover really began to show its engineering expertise. There were experiments with gas turbine power and a Car of the Year win for the P6 2000 in 1964. Rover was bought by Leyland and then became part of the British Leyland conglomerate. Rover seemed perpetually in financial trouble and had to rely on lightly rebodied Hondas for survival under British Aerospace, while even with the backing of BMW it struggled. The 75 was to be its saviour, but BMW then famously sold out to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000 for a single pound. Overambition and more financial mismanagement saw production end in 2005.

RIP: 2005
Last Car: 75
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: 200 Series (SD3 model)

Triumph

Like almost every British car brand, Triumph has a turbulent history. In 1889 the firm began building bicycles in Coventry and added motorcycles to the mix in 1902. In 1921, Triumph acquired the Dawson Car Company and built its first four-wheeler. The two-wheeled business would be sold off in 1936, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the Triumph Motor Company from entering receivership in 1939. After the war, it was bought by the Standard Motor Company and subsequently acquired by Leyland in 1960. The last of Triumph’s famous TR line of roadsters would be the TR7, while the final vehicle to bear the name was a badge-engineered Honda, the Acclaim.

RIP: 1981
Last Car: Acclaim
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Acclaim

Yugo

Zastava was already 100 years old when it acquired the rights to build Fiat models in 1953. In 1980, the Yugo was born as a reworked 128, with parts produced by the different Yugoslav republics. A UK importer was found in 1981, and the cheap-as-chips cars sold well enough for Zastava to hire Giorgetto Giugiaro to design the bigger Sana. However, as the War of Yugoslav Succession unfolded, exports halted and the UK operation was closed.

RIP: 1993
Last Car: Zastava Koral
Most likely to be seen at FOTU: Yugo 45

If you want to hunt zombie cars, seek out the driving dead, or just mooch around the most mundane motors in Britain, then get your tickets for the biggest and best Festival of the Unexceptional here.