When and What was the first Japanese car to be sold in Ireland.

ba_barabus

I've always been led to believe the first Japanese car sold in Ireland was a Daihatsu Compagno in 1967 but it sold in tiny numbers and was discontinued. No other entrants followed until the Corolla.

Following an online discussion elsewhere people are saying it was a 72/3 Toyota Corolla.

Is there any definitive factual answer. My source for the above regarding the Compagno was an article in the Irish Indo a long time ago. I can't find it but I do recall it. Now I know the Compagno was available in the UK so it could have been a case of poor journalism.

Anyway, does anyone have a factual piece of information to prove what the first Japanese car sold was?

Darraghmh91.

I'd be interested in this myself it's a good question
I know my brother had a 70s Corolla and all the windows came down on front and rear and was fully open
That was a 70s jap car but I'd like to think there was an earlier modle in ireland before that

zetecescort

Should be fairly easy find out when Japanese manufacturers started Irish dealerships. Very hard trace the first car imported and sold by an independent dealer.

ba_barabus

zetecescort wrote: »

Should be fairly easy find out when Japanese manufacturers started Irish dealerships. Very hard trace the first car imported and sold by an independent dealer.

Assembly started in 72 afaik

Arthur Daley

Up on you tube there a jeremy clarkson (what happened to him) show from around 2000 about how the japanese invaded the british market from the late 60s. In it he drives a daihatsu compagno berlino which he says is the first japanese car sold in britian in 1965 I think.

So the indo possibly based it on this. But I think the corolla/carina or crown were sold in the late 60s in britain so likely they would have gone the extra few miles and sold them here also.

Darraghmh91.

ba_barabus wrote: »

Assembly started in 72 afaik

Maybe it was the Corolla that was the first jap import to ireland then

Darraghmh91.

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Up on you tube there a jeremy clarkson (what happened to him) show from around 2000 about how the japanese invaded the british market from the late 60s. In it he drives a daihatsu compagno berlino which he says is the first japanese car sold in britian in 1965 I think.

So the indo possibly based it on this. But I think the corolla/carina or crown were sold in the late 60s in britain so likely they would have gone the extra few miles and sold them here also.

Have you a link to that top gear episode man is love to see it

Arthur Daley

Search clarkson car years " how japan took over the world....and then lost it"'

Should pop up. All the shows in that series are interesting for classic car nuts.

Capri

ba_barabus wrote: »

I've always been led to believe the first Japanese car sold in Ireland was a Daihatsu Compagno in 1967 but it sold in tiny numbers and was discontinued. No other entrants followed until the Corolla.

Following an online discussion elsewhere people are saying it was a 72/3 Toyota Corolla.

Is there any definitive factual answer. My source for the above regarding the Compagno was an article in the Irish Indo a long time ago. I can't find it but I do recall it. Now I know the Compagno was available in the UK so it could have been a case of poor journalism.

Anyway, does anyone have a factual piece of information to prove what the first Japanese car sold was?

AFIR the first Japanese car I saw here was the PMC 1500 (Prince Motors/Nissan Skyline ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prince_Skyline_S50_1500_Deluxe_001.jpg assembled by O'Shea's on the Naas Rd - if anyone has Motoring Life's from 65/66 I'm sure they'll find an ad or announcement - Ted Bonner was editor AFIR

carchaeologist

Toyota weren't officially here until 1973. Datsun a little later I think.

alastair

carchaeologist wrote: »

Toyota weren't officially here until 1973. Datsun a little later I think.

My parents had a white Mazda 818 estate in 1975, and my memory is that the brand had been on the market for at least a year beforehand. It got destroyed in the March '76 Castleblaney car-bombing, and they got a yellow replacement.

red sean

carchaeologist wrote: »

Toyota weren't officially here until 1973. Datsun a little later I think.

I remember the Datsun 1200 and the Toyota Corolla in late 72. But I don't recall any Jap cars before that.
However, if there were others before that, they were unlikely to make any inroads in rural Ireland back then.

RS1700T

Reg Armstrong Motors imported an assembled a few Honda N600s about 69 with a few to selling them on the Irish market, probably 3 in number .

L1011

I had always thought it was very early Subarus being sold through agri dealers in the early to mid 1960s, around the time they were being grey-imported to the US; but considering the import taxes of the time it would really have had to be someone with a CKD facility so its probably not that likely.

Next time I've a newspaper archives sub I'll do a quick poke around

whisky_galore

You would think that when the Jap motorbike market took off here (and destroyed the British manufacturers) the cars wouldn't be far behind...

CianDon

Capri wrote: »

AFIR the first Japanese car I saw here was the PMC 1500 (Prince Motors/Nissan Skyline ) assembled by O'Shea's on the Naas Rd - if anyone has Motoring Life's from 65/66 I'm sure they'll find an ad or announcement - Ted Bonner was editor AFIR

Someone give this man the prize because you were very nearly spot on. Very first Jap car in Ireland was indeed the PMC 1500 built in a deal with Nissan/Prince by O'Sheas in early 1965.......but in Cork!! They only built about half a dozen of them at the time. I did a bit of flicking through the archives, the joys of being a student and having free access, and here's a few bits I dug up.

Firstly, here's the Irish Examiner reporting on April 15th 1965 about the arrival of parts to Irish shores for the first time ever:


Less than a month later, The Irish Press road tested the new car on March 1st 1965:




While the PMC never really caught on, the Irish Times were reporting in November 1970 that the full scale invasion of JDM goodies was on the horizion (Note the true 1970's PC headline!!)


By 1972, details were beginning to emerge as to where these new foreign vehicles were going to be built in Ireland. The Irish times had this on June 7th '72


And this on Aug 12th '72


By the time 1973 dawned, the first roll out of Japanese cars was truly underway with Datsun and Toyota entering the Irish market. The Connaught Tribune sussed out what Toyota had to offer on Jan 12th '73


The figures for sales was understandbly slow for the first few months. Datsun, who by May '73 had 11 dealerships around the country, reported that they'd sold 20 cars in just 4 weeks in their Tralee dealership while the figures released for new car sales in the first 6 months of '73 showed 105 new Datsuns and 103 new Toyota's bought (Ford had 10,245 sold in the same period, Chrysler had 6,566 & Fiat had 5,627)

carlosfandango

Excellent research. Well done!

CFD

Blue850

RS1700T wrote: »

Reg Armstrong Motors imported an assembled a few Honda N600s about 69 with a few to selling them on the Irish market, probably 3 in number .

Photo of a June 1968 reg'd one I found in a 1968 Motoring Life mag.

_Brian

Best thread in ages, great research done too..
Thanks..

salysol

Haven't found any reference to first Japanese car in Ireland,but found this about the UK market.
The Compagno deserves to be remembered as more than a footnote in British motoring history, for when the press demonstrator CHB 8B was registered on October 23 1964 it was the harbinger of future Japanese commercial success.

here's the link
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CE4QFjAJahUKEwjZhv2O8oTGAhUKwBQKHdomACA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fmotoring%2Fclassiccars%2F11099019%2F50-years-of-Japanese-cars-in-the-UK.html&ei=4g14VdmNJoqAU9rNgIAC&usg=AFQjCNGDzE1ZFaIasSpnurzFHuJj_um5vg&bvm=bv.95039771,d.d24&cad=rja

so i would assume it would have been around the same time here !!!