For the motoring enthusiast, one of the joys of travelling in a different country is to take in the motoring landscape and to see a mixture of cars which were never on sale in the UK, and if the country is one blessed with a temperate climate, to see cars that long disappeared of Britain’s roads. During my week on the Dalmatian coast, I was lucky enough to see all manner of rarities and oddities, and although many of them eluded my camera (especially if I was driving!), I did capture some of those cars which you would not expect to see every day, or even at all, in the UK. Here they are.

The “Local” Product

Known by some people in Western Europe, and probably a marque that they would rather forget, Zastava was set up to make a range of Fiat cars under licence. The Zastava 750 was based on Fiat’s popular 600, and was still in production long after Fiat had moved on to more modern designs. A reasonable number of these cars could still be found in the towns and villages.

The next Fiat that was adapted was the 128 and the early Zastava cars were notable as they added different rear-end sheet metal to create a hatchback. It was these cars which saw the debut of the marque in the UK. Although by the 1980s the design was more than a little aged, it continued in production with numerous facelifts being applied, and new model names, moving through the 101 to the last cars which were badged Skala

In the early 1980s, Zastava launched their own unique model, the Yugo45, based on the soon to be obsolete Fiat 127, and large numbers of these cars are on the roads. Hardly surprisingly, as the model only recently ceased production. Again, this one was beneficiary of numerous facelifts and name changes, with the Koral being the name applied to the final models.

Older Cars

Although I saw no cars that were even 40 years old, and there was no sign of a classic car scene (though doubtless there is one), there were plenty of cars on the road which had simply lasted thanks no doubt to a kind climate and low mileage. Among them were these: Lots of old Opels. As well as a Rekord C, Manta A and B, a Monza and several other B and C models was this Kadett C Estate and its Coupe brother.

Renault remains the market leader in the Croatian market, and has always sold strongly. A lone, and rather battered Fuego was the coupe version of the R18, many examples of which were still to be seen.

Far more prevalent was the R4, and these could be seen everywhere, some now looking very tatty, but many of them still in excellent shape. Manufacture of these cars continued locally long after French production ceased, so perhaps it is not surprising that while they have largely vanished from the roads of France, they were to be seen en masse here.

I only saw the one Peugeot 504, and one 404 though I do also recall seeing a couple of 304s and a 204.

There are not huge numbers of older Japanese cars on the roads, so I was a little surprised to find this second generation Nissan Prairie, a car which had a short life in the UK and is long since vanished from our roads.

Never on our roads was the Kia Joice. Although this one was Dutch plated, these cars were sold in selected European markets from 1999 to 2004.

This Autobianchi A112 looked like a late model of the car that was succeeded by the Lancia Y10.

There are many old Fiat still to be seen, with the Uno much in evidence, along with the rest of the range from the 1980s, as evidenced by this Regata Weekend.

A car we never saw in the UK was this, the Duna. Made in Brazil, there were both saloon and estate versions of the Uno which were imported to Italy for a couple of years. The car was spectacularly unreliable, and hence sold in small volume. A revised model, marketed as the Innocenti Elba was a second attempt at selling the car and lasted only a couple of years.

Based on observation alone, it was difficult to figure out what is the best selling car in Croatia. A little research turned up the fact that the market is only 75,000 cars a year, and the Clio is the best seller. Opel does well too, with the Corsa and Astra selling strongly. Judging by the number of the you see, I would have to guess that the Skoda Octavia is in the top handful of sellers. The saloon version of the Clio is a popular car in much of Eastern Europe and North Africa. Here it is called the Thalia.

The estate version of the first generation Megane never made it to the UK, but it was sold in left hand drive countries.

Slightly larger than this is the Fiat Linea, a saloon car based on the Grande Punto, but with a longer wheelbase.

This Peugeot 206+ was brand new. The changes to the back of the car are fairly subtle. Those to the front are so horrid that my camera said “no” (it was also in partial shade). Not nice.

The Dacia Logan clearly sells well, as this sort of market is its target, where low cost but decent cars are called for. This is the estate version.

Cars are not cheap in Croatia, so a Lancia Thesis would be an expensive purchase, but this one was local to the area, with Split plates on it.

I did see a few of the latest Delta as well – mostly on Italian plates.

There were very few exotic or supercars on the road. Not entirely surprising in an area where tourism is the major source of income. I did see a couple of Ferrari 360s, both with Zagreb plates on them, and there was a Bentley GTC carefully parked up separately from the rest of us at the hotel. Most of the more exotic cars were on foreign plates, and I found this one staying at the hotel one night:

Staying all week, was the very lovely Ferrari 599 GTB. Every morning it was outside the reception area, but it certainly was not there overnight and it was not in the main parking garage. Every morning there was a constant throng of people admiring it and taking pictures. At least I was not the only one!!

2009-08-24 08:08:45