The internet is amazing. A Google search of "kartal" (see rear liftgate) revealed that we are looking at a Tofas Kartal.
Tofas stands for Turk Otomobil Fabrikas Anonim Sirketi. Founded in 1968, the company mostly builds Fiats under license. This 1988-2003 Kartal (wagon) is based on a SEAT. If this is a post-1996 model, then it came with a 1.6 liter, 96 horsepower engine from the Fiat Tempra. Versions of this car were also built in Egypt and Ethiopia.
These cars were cheap, robust, and easy to maintain. But as the Turkish market opened, higher quality imports led to this car's demise.
We went to Istanbul for vacation a couple of years ago. These cars were pretty common. At first I was amazed at how many "well kept" older cars were driving around the city. But then I realized that they were actually in production until not too many years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe traffic there is so intense! We weren't planning on renting a car. But once I saw what it was like, I HAD to drive it, so we rented a car for our last day. It was an amazing experience!
Here's an album of the cars I saw:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116780015693872617628/IstanbulCarros#
@F1O: Bravo! What did you rent?
ReplyDeleteWe rented a Renault Clio sedan if I remember correctly. Funny thing is I forgot to take a pic of our rental car. The car wasn't anything special anyways. It was beat to hell. The bumpers were holding onto the car for dear life.
ReplyDeleteDriving across the bosphorus bridge from Europe to Asia was definitely a trip!!!
They still making those tofash, one of the most popular taxi in Azerbaijan.
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