Does anyone have any knowledge of the 124 Sedan Truck? (1970s Korea)

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Does anyone have any knowledge of the 124 Sedan Truck? (1970s Korea)

gle

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I want to know whether or not this exists. Thank you in advance.

Photo found here

If this does exist but isn't a 124 I would still like to know what it is.
I would say it is a Russian Lada (built under license from Fiat 124 design) but not to a Fiat standard.
Offer a 1970s Lada photo beside it. I worked in a Lada Dealership around then.
The shape, badge position, hub caps all point towards it.
The only think different I can see is rear leaf springs rather than coils, which may have been used for it's truck load carrying needs.
Mind you Fiat did offer that licensing to many third World Countries at the time and to my knowledge none came anywhere near to original build quality.
 
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And old thread, I know, found it by coincidence, but I think it's an interestting one. So will add some (slightly) related information I have.

The ad says clearly FIAT, however looking at the front I have the same impression as @bugsymike that it's the Lada Zhyguliy (or how that should be spelled in English).

1739977959558.png


It was named Lada / WAZ 2101 (or Zhyguliy) in Russia and was exported as the Lada 1200. It was one of the licenced versions of the FIAT 124.

The back of the pickup (or at least the hatch(?) and the rear lights) looks more like the prelifting model of the FIAT 125p pickup (exported as Polski), produced in Warsaw, the modified pickup version of the licensed to Poland FIAT 125 (so, newer model but with engines from the older 124).

I can't find a photo of the back of the prelifting models, the postlifting ones looks like that (different lights; the pickup shared most of the elements with the estate version; the blue one on the right has postlifting front):

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And the prelifting front / side:

1739978888963.png


The suspension and the tires were adapted to higher loads.

The prelifting estate:

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The same round indicators very close to the front edge (in the facelifting model they were moved further away and became diamond shape), more chrome, thinner, longer indicator/side light on the front and at the back of the pickup/estate.

As a fun fact I can add that the Polish factory FSO wanted to export the pickup to the US at the end of the 70's, so they prepared a completely different setup with wider body (3 seater), different engine, gearbox, windshield to fullfill the US market requirements. They gave up in the beginning of the 80's with the political situation getting more difficult (which caused shortages in deliveries and problems with imports / exports). I have no idea of how many of those were produced.

EDIT:
So, I'll add a little bit, based on a short reaserch I've done later on and the general knowledge of the local situation.
The decision to export the cars from Poland to the US was taken around 1975. It was much more interesting to export to the 'dolar market', as with dolars Poland (and other countries, too) could buy goods that were not available when paid with rubels. Gierek, the 1st secretary of the Polish communist party (in fact the head of the country) at that time, made a lot of contacts with the 'Western world' and got lots of loans, which allowed Poland to make a big step into the improvement of the economics, living status, etc. Exporting goods was also a way to pay back the loans (which finally were paid until 2012...)

Following two Gierek's meetings with two US presidents (and at least one of his visits to the US) between 1970 and 75, probably also due to the world's 1973 oil crisis someone in Poland had the idea that such a relatively small pickup truck with a relatively economic engine could be a wanted product on the US market.

The pickups were available in Poland mostly for farmers, so someone at the FSO factory thought that it would be quite easy to adapt the model to the US market. But the market requirements were much more strict than in Poland or even Western Europe.

Two specimen cars were sent in 1976 or 1977 to the US. A pickup and an estate. The estate was out of the specs, because the bumpers that absorb energy from collisions up to 5 mph were already mandatory on a car at that time. But they were not on the trucks. There are different theories what was the cause of the failure of the 125p pickup in the US (one of them is bankrupcy of the US importer), but no further deliveries were made. So, there was only one US specs 125p pickup that was exported. It was reimported to Poland and restored, it is now in the same museum I took my pictures at (though it was not there when I've visited it in 2020).

The exported pickup was not the wide body one. However I am pretty sure that there were other pieces that were manufactured according to the specs. And knowing how it was managed at that time, I assume they were ment to be scrapped. Perhaps some of them were saved.

This wide body pickup was a private modification done in 1980 (!) in the south of Poland. It is also much longer. However everything was made in a way to look like original (for example the bonnet was made from three, the windshield has been custom made at the original factory) with some improvements (like the rear wall of the cab and the FIAT 1.8 l DOHC engine).


1739979589179.png


Definitely the quality of the products was inferior from the Italian originals, as the East European countries had to deal with the shortages of most every product. Both raw materials and semi-finished products. It was a hard time and the first served industry was military production.

Coming back to the Korean pickup:

Google lens is great:

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I love how they advertised how many of TVs / refrigerators it can transport :D

One of the parts lists the name of the dealer:

Asia Automobile Co. Busan branch.

Pity the name is that generic, can't find anything on the internet.
 
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And old thread, I know, found it by coincidence, but I think it's an interestting one. So will add some (slightly) related information I have.

The ad says clearly FIAT, however looking at the front I have the same impression as @bugsymike that it's the Lada Zhyguliy (or how that should be spelled in English).
Yes definitely first one was a Lada early to mid 70s? I believe there was some 1500 versions with the twin headlights and cheap carpets where if asked to drill the tunnel to fit radio consul they had the delightful habit of winding the carpet material around the drill bit miles from the hole:(
I never saw a Lada Pick up at Dealers, though did have the miss fortune to come across a few Polski Pick Ups.:(
I would have been amazed if they met American import standards.;)
 
The 124 had 1300 and 1500 engines. The 125 had 1600 engines.

As stated earlier, the 125p was a licenced version of the Italian 125 body with the 124 engines. It was produced since 1967 until 1982 under the license and then from 1983 to 1991 as the FSO 1500 (they discontinued the 1300 engine).

The estate and ambulance models were produced since 1972. On the same year they introduced the 1500 engine also to the sedan model. The pickup models were produced since 1975.

Exports to the UK started in 1974 :) On all external markets the cars were named Polski, as they were not allowed to use the FIAT name (even Polski FIAT), which was just cut off the name :D And Polski in Polish means... Polish :D

The ruSSkis started their license production of 'their 124' later, in 1970. However both licence contracts were signed in 1966.

I've updated the previous post a little bit following a research I've made in the meantime. Especially regarding the US export and the wide body piece.

Ah, the rear lights on the Korean pickup might be known to me from Lada's estates, as it seems that on the 125p most of the chromes were abandoned in 1975 with the facelifting. And as the pickup and estate versions were produced since 1972/75 only, they might have had the same rear lights since the beginning until the end of their production in 1988. Could have been other in the early production models. However they look a little bit prelifting to me (still have the chrome

EDIT: So, the rear lights mistery of the Korean is still a mistery to me. I assume they have been taken directly from the 124 estate. Which was produced in Italy in 1966 - 1974. FIAT had a cooperation with the Korean Kia at that time, they were producing the Kia-FIAT 124 model in the Gwangju plant. Someone speaking Korean might be able to find more on this.
 
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Sorry I was referring to the Lada versions that I worked on, which were originally 1200 and 1500 and later 1300 and 1600 in the Riva versions.
I did also work on Moskvich and did see a Pick up version probably based on the 427 (estate model) I did know the Polski was a 125 Polonas? Only saw a few though as not a fast seller in this area.
 
The Polonez was a successor of the Polish 125p, initially sharing most of the components (engine, gearbox, suspension etc). Later on it was further developped.

The original body was designed by Centro Stile FIAT in Torino:

1739997900538.png


It was produced since 1978 until 2002 (the latest model had some elements from the Daewoo which was the owner of the FSO factory at the time):

1739998116382.png


It had an optional Rover 1.4 MPI 103 HP engine, however the basic engine was the 1.6 a development from the FIAT's 1500 <-- 1300 <-- 1100.

Jeremy Clarkson adored it... :D hahaha ;) kidding.

But it had RWD, same as the 125p :)

And here's a photo of a mid 125p:

1739998506548.png


My father bought one of these in 1986 and brought it to Algeria, we came back to Poland in it at the end of 1988, it selfdestructed itself sometime in 1991/1992 (mediterreanian sea breeze and subequatorial Sun did their job properly).
 
The 124 and 125 were also license built in South America, Africa, Asia, turkey (and elsewhere from KDKs supplied from Poland and Turkey)…there are few documented numbers and evidence and a few interesting ‘where the hell did that come from’ tales on TV and YouTube, including a Fiat 125s in the middle of the Amazon jungle,100s of miles from a road with a Fiat South Africa chassis plate, and a recent Doritos advert which features a car that’s a mash up of 124 and 125 but with front and, particularly, rear lights that were not Fiat, FSO, Lada or the Egyptian or Tofas in origin.
I did note that that 124, all variations and varieties qualifies for the most produced car, within the parameters of least modifications to the basic design, more than the beetle, but is not considered so by Guinness, and other records bodies, because of its mysterious production history outside the ‘free world’
 
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