Экономичные автомобили: история и развитие

Car designed for low cost purchase and operation
Economy car is a term mostly used in the United States for cars designed for low cost purchase and operation. Typical economy cars are small (compact or subcompact), lightweight, and inexpensive to both produce and purchase. Stringent design constraints generally force economy car manufacturers to be inventive. Many innovations in automobile design were originally developed for economy cars, such as the Ford Model T and the Austin Mini. In any given decade globally, there has generally been some rough consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirements for a highway worthy car, constituting the most economical car possible. In Europe and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, this was achieved by the much smaller Austin 7 and its competitors and derivatives. From the 1940s and into the 1960s, the Volkswagen Beetle played both roles throughout much of the world, particularly in Germany and Latin America – due to high fuel consumption, British, French, Italian, and Japanese models, all with better fuel economy, were able to capture the maximum economy position in their home countries. By the 1970s the hatchback had become the standard body type for new economy car models. From 1960 1994 the Soviet Union sold the economy car Zaporozhets (and in the 80s, its successors, ZAZ 1102, and VAZ 1111) on the world market. In the mid 1980s, the Yugoslavian Zastava Koral (Yugo), was being sold as the cheapest new car on the U. S. market. South Korea's Hyundai models also sold well in the U. S., and have gone on to be successful around the world. Since the 1990s, the automotive industry has become extensively globalized, with all major manufacturers being multinational corporations who use globally sourced raw materials and components, with most moving assembly to the lowest labour cost countries.

During the 1920s Edward G. Budd's pressed steel bodies were fast replacing traditional coachbuilt bodies all around the world. These were fully closed roofed bodies, until this time open tourer bodies were the standard body on the market. Budd envisioned pushing his technology even further, and in 1924 he found another visionary in André Citroën. By 1934, they had developed the Citroën Traction Avant, the first unibody, pressed steel automobile. Budd also pioneered the use of electric arc welding in automobile manufacturing. It would be the 1930s before this technology was generally applied to economy cars. The cyclecar was an attempt in the period before 1922 in the post First World War austerity period, as a form of "four wheeled motorcycle", with all the benefits of a motorcycle and side car, in a more stable package. In 1920 Trojan in Britain made its first series of six cars from a works in Croydon and the final revised production version was shown at the 1922 London Motor Show. An agreement was reached with Leyland Motors to produce the cars at their Kingston upon Thames factory where work on reconditioning ex RAF wartime trucks was running down. This arrangement would continue until 1928 when Leyland wanted factory space for truck production. During the nearly seven years of the agreement 11,000 cars and 6700 vans were made. Nothing was conventional. Rather than a chassis the car had a punt shaped tray which housed the engine and transmission below the seats. This is a similar idea to the chassis less design of the contemporary 1922 Italian Lancia Lambda luxury car. The transmission used a chain to drive the solid tyre shod wheels. The 1527 cc engine to the ingenious Hounsfield design was started by pulling a lever on the right of the driver. To prove how economical the car was to run, the company ran the slogan "Can you afford to walk?" and calculated that over 200 mile (322 km) it would cost more in shoes and socks than to cover the distance by Trojan car. more than any other model of its day, at a price of just $240. The need for constant reductions in price through the 1920s reflected increasing competition from newer designs for the relatively unchanged and increasingly obsolescent Model T.

In 1923 Chevrolet developed a new car to compete with the Model T, the Chevrolet Series M 'Copper Cooled', air cooled car, designed by General Motors engineer at AC Delco Charles Kettering, (who invented the points/condenser ignition system that was in use until the 1980s). It was a rare failure for him, due to uneven cooling of the inline four cylinder engine. The most development of small economy cars occurred in Europe. There was less emphasis on long distance automobile travel, a need for vehicles that could navigate narrow streets and alleys in towns and cities (many were unchanged since medieval times), and the narrow and winding roads commonly found in the European countryside. Ettore Bugatti designed a small car for Peugeot. The 1911 Peugeot Bébé Type 19. It had an 850 cc 4 cylinder engine. The Citroën Type A was the first car produced by Citroën from June 1919 to December 1921 in Paris. Citroën had been established to produce the double bevel gears that its logo resembles, but had ended the First World War with large production facilities, from the production of much needed artillery shells for the French army. Andre Citroën was a keen adopter of U. S. car manufacturing ideas and technology in the 1920s and 1930s. Andre Citroën re equipped his factory as a scaled down version of the Ford River Rouge Plant, that he had visited in Detroit Michigan. It was advertised as "Europe's first mass production car." The Type A reached a production number of 24,093 vehicles. The Opel 4 PS, Germany's first 'peoples car', popularly known as the Opel Laubfrosch (Opel Treefrog), was a small two seater car introduced by the then family owned auto maker Opel, early in 1924, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the little Torpedo Citroën 5 CV of 1922. On an even smaller scale, European cars, such as the 747 cc Austin Seven, (which made cyclecars obsolete overnight.) The Austin 7 was considerably smaller than the Ford Model T. The wheelbase was only 6 feet (2 m), and the track only Equally it was lighter less than half the Ford's weight at The engine required for adequate performance was therefore equally reduced and the sidevalve was quite capable with a modest output. It would also start to catch on in Japan during the same time period, as a Datsun Type 11 that may have been pirated, at the start of their own automobile industry. It was also produced as a BMW Dixi and BMW 3/15 in Germany, Rosengart in France with French styled bodywork, and by American Austin Car Company with American styling, (later American Bantam) in the U. S. It displaced the motorcycle and sidecar combination that was popular in Europe in the 1920s. It spawned a whole industry of 'specials' builders. Swallow Sidecars switched to making cars based on Austin Seven chassis during the 1920s, then made their own complete cars in the 1930s as SS. With the advent of Nazi Germany the company changed its name to Jaguar. The Seven continued to be produced until the late 1930s along with an updated and restyled closed body, known as the "Big Seven" until World War II, but still on the early 1920s running gear, but with a slightly enlarged chassis and widened track. In the late 1920s, General Motors finally overtook Ford, as the U. S. new car market doubled in size, and fragmented into niches on a wave of prosperity, with GM producing a range of cars to match. This included a Chevrolet economy car that was just an entry level model for the range of cars. It was only a small part of the marketing strategy "A car for every purse and purpose" of GM head Alfred P. Sloan. Harley Earl was appointed as head of the newly formed GM "Art and Color Section" in 1927. Harley Earl and Alfred P. Sloan implemented planned obsolescence and the annual model change to emphasise design as an engine for the success of the company's products. This moved cars from being utilitarian items to fashionable status symbols that needed regular replacement "to keep up with the Joneses." Later in 1937, the Art and Color Section was renamed the Styling Section, and a few years afterward became one of the GM technical staff operations as the Styling Staff. It was funded by high interest/low regular payments consumer credit, as was the 1920s boom in other consumer durable products. It marked the beginning of mass market consumerism, that had been enabled by the efficiency of mass production and the moving production line. Until this time, manufacturers of consumer goods were concerned, by the possibility that the market would be fulfilled and demand would dry up. The seller's market in new cars in the U. S. was over, as customers wanted choice. The 'one model' policy had nearly bankrupted the Ford Motor Company. By the end of production in 1927 it seemed outdated, and was replaced by the Model A. The Ford Model T was voted Car of the Century on December 18, 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada. In Europe, it remained in the Ford lineup, as the Ford V8 in Britain in the 1930s which was re styled and relaunched as the post war Ford Pilot. They were viewed as large cars in Europe. The 1932 Ford V8 (Model 18) coupe became the car of choice for post war hot rodders. It was the first V8 engine in a low priced car, and along with the Chevrolet 6, showed how the U. S. was diverging from the rest of the world in its ideas about what constituted a basic economy car. In 1928 Morris launched the first Morris Minor (1928) in Britain to compete with the Austin Seven. Also that year German motorcycle manufacturer DKW launched their first car, the P15, a rear wheel drive, wood and fabric bodied monocoque car, powered by a 600 cc inline two cylinder two stroke engine. Also, in the 1920s, Ford (with the Model T in Manchester, England), General Motors (who took over Opel in Germany and Vauxhall in Britain), expanded into Europe. Most Ford and GM European cars, especially economy cars, were technologically conservative and all were rear wheel drive to a smaller European size, with improvements focused mainly on styling, (apart from the introduction of the 1935 monocoque Opel Olympia, and the Macpherson strut by Ford in the 1950s), until the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1931 the DKW F1 was launched. This was the first successful mass produced front wheel drive car in the world. It was priced at (The British 1928 30 Alvis cars 'FWD' models had handling problems and only 150 were made. The British 1929 BSA was a three wheel competitor to Morgan and the motorcycle combination market, the 1931 four wheeler was very short lived. The 1929 U. S. Cord L 29 having been seriously flawed, production ended at 4,429. The 1930 U. S. Ruxton made about 500, production lasted for only four months.) The F1 featured a front engine, front wheel drive layout using a water cooled 494 cc or 584 cc transverse two cylinder two stroke engine with chain drive. This was developed through the 1930s into the 1938 F8 model and the F9 that was not put into production because World War II started, 250,000 were made. By this time DKW had become the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. Their two stroke engine technology was to appear in the postwar products of Harley Davidson, BSA, Trabant, Wartburg, Saab, Subaru, Piaggio, Puch, Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Daihatsu, Honda, and Suzuki. The DKW type of two stroke engine was replaced with four strokes in western economy cars by the 1960s, but lived on in stagnating and cash strapped Communist East Germany's Trabant and Wartburg and Communist Poland's FSO Syrena until the 1980s. In the late 1920s in Germany, Josef Ganz independent car engineer/inventor and editor of Motor Kritik magazine had been a fierce opponent of the status quo of car design. He became a consultant engineer to Adler in December 1930. In the first months of 1931, Ganz constructed a lightweight economy car or peoples car, prototype at Adler with a tubular chassis, a mid mounted engine, and swing axle independent rear suspension. After completion in May 1931, Ganz nicknamed his new prototype Maikäfer (German for cockchafer) which is a species of beetle. In July 1931 he was also consultant engineer to BMW on the 1932 34 BMW 3/20 successor to the BMW 3/15 model. It featured transverse leaf independent front and rear suspension and an updated overhead valve cylinder head version of the Austin 7 based engine. After a demonstration of the Adler Maikäfer by Ganz, the German Standard Fahrzeugfabrik company (unrelated to the British 'Standard' company), then purchased a license from Ganz to develop and build a small car according to his design. The prototype of this new model, which was to be called Standard Superior, was finished in 1932. It featured a tubular chassis, a mid mounted engine, and independent wheel suspension with swing axles at the rear. At about the same time from 1931, two years prior to Hitler's accession to power, Ferdinand Porsche founded Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH the Porsche company to offer motor vehicle development work and consulting. Together with Zündapp they developed the prototype Porsche Type 12 "Auto für Jedermann" ("car for everyone"), which was the first time the name "Volkswagen" was used. Porsche preferred a 4 cylinder flat engine, but Zündapp used a water cooled 5 cylinder radial engine. In 1932 three prototypes were running but were not put into production. All three cars were lost during the war, the last in 1945 in Stuttgart during a bombing raid. In 1932 ASAP Škoda in Mladá Boleslav Bohemia Czechoslovakia, produced a type Škoda 932 prototype of a streamlined 4 seater two door car with a rear air cooled flat four engine designed by Karel Hrdlička and Vsevold Korolkov. This car's bodywork closely resembled the small car designs yet to come. In Berlin in February 1933, the first production model of the Standard Superior was introduced at the IAMA (Internationale Automobil und Motorradausstellung). It had a 396 cc 2 cylinder 2 stroke engine. Because of some criticism of the body design, not in the least by Josef Ganz in Motor Kritik, it was followed in April 1933 by a slightly altered model. In November 1933, the Standard Fahrzeugfabrik introduced yet another new and improved model for 1934, which was slightly longer with one additional window on each side and had a small seat for children or as luggage space in the back. This car was advertised as the German Volkswagen. During the early 1930s German car manufacturers one by one adopted the progressive ideas published in Motor Kritik since the 1920s. In the meantime in May 1933, the Jewish Josef Ganz was arrested by the Gestapo on trumped up charges of blackmail of the automotive industry, at the instigation of those that he had ferociously criticized. He was eventually released, but his career was systematically destroyed and his life endangered. He fled Germany in June 1934 – the same month Adolf Hitler gave Ferdinand Porsche the brief for designing a mass producible car for a consumer price of Production of the Standard Superior ended in 1935. The Standard company was forbidden by the Nazis from using the term 'Volkswagen'. The Volkswagen Beetle would be the longest lasting icon of this 1930s era. Adolf Hitler admired the ideals exemplified by the Ford Model T, (even though he didn't drive himself), and sought the help of Ferdinand Porsche to create a 'peoples car' ("volkswagen"), with the same ideals for the people of Germany. This car was to complement the new Autobahns that were to be built. They had been planned under the Weimar Republic, but he stole the credit for them. Many of the design ideas were plagiarised from the work of Hans Ledwinka, the Tatra T97 and Tatra V570 with the Czechoslovakian Tatra (car) company. It was also suspiciously similar in many ways to the Josef Ganz–designed cars, it even looked very similar to the Mercedes Benz 120H prototype of 1931. The Nazi Kraft durch Freude (German for Strength through Joy, abbreviated KdF) "KdF Wagen" or "Strength through Joy Car" project ground to a halt before serious production had started because of World War II. The KdF, was the Nazi state propaganda organisation to promote holiday and leisure activities of the population, approved of, and monitored by, the state. The 'price' of the free or subsidised activities was extensive Nazi ideological indoctrination. When the German car industry was unable to meet Hitler's demand that the Volkswagen be sold at or less, the project was taken over by the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF). This was the national labour organization of the Nazi Party, which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during the process of Gleichschaltung or Nazification. Now working for the DAF, Porsche built a new Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben, called "Stadt des KdF Wagens bei Fallersleben" (Wolfsburg after 1945), at a huge cost which was partly met by raiding the DAF's accumulated assets and misappropriating the dues paid by DAF members. The Volkswagen was sold to German workers on an installment plan where buyers of the car made payments and posted stamps in a stamp savings book, which when full, would be redeemed for the car. Due to the shift of wartime production, no consumer ever received a "Kdf Wagen" (although after the war, Volkswagen did give some customers a DM 200 discount for their stamp books). The project was not commercially viable and only government support was able to keep it afloat. The Beetle factory was primarily converted to produce the Kübelwagen (the German equivalent of the jeep). The few Beetles that were produced went to the diplomatic corps and military officials. After the war, the Volkswagen company would be founded to produce the car in the new democratic West Germany, where it would be a success. From 1936 to 1955, Fiat in Italy produced the advanced and very compact FR layout Fiat 500 "Topolino" or "little mouse", the precursor of the 1950s Fiat 500, it was designed by Dante Giacosa. The inline four cylinder 569 cc 13 1/2 hp engine was placed right at the front of the chassis with the radiator behind it. This allowed for a sloping front and good legroom when combined with lowered seating. This also allowed Fiat to lower the roofline. Although nominally a two seater more were often squeezed in behind the seats. Initially it had quarter elliptic leaf spring rear suspension, but with an axle locating trailing arm, that was upgraded to stronger semi elliptic to cope with overloading by customers. The front suspension was independent and was used as the basis of the suspension of the first English Cooper racing cars in the 1940s that became successful in the 1950s. It had a four speed gearbox (when three was common) and all hydraulic brakes. It was a similar size to the Austin Seven but much more advanced. It was exported all over the world and produced at the NSU factory in Germany, Steyr Puch in Austria and Simca in France. It was facelifted with American influenced 'full width styling' of the frontal panels after the war, with headlights integrated into the wings/fenders. The Fiat 1100 was first introduced in 1937 as an updated version of the 508 "Balilla" (its real name was the 508C) with a look similar to the 1936 Fiat 500 "Topolino" and the larger 1500, with the typical late thirties heart shaped front grille, with styling by the emerging designer, Dante Giacosa. It was powered by a 1,089 cc four cylinder overhead valve engine. Drive was to the rear wheels through a four speed gearbox, and for the period, its comfort, handling, and performance were prodigious, making it "the only people's car that was also a driver's car". The Steyr 50 streamlined small car was introduced in 1936 by the Austrian manufacturer Steyr Puch. The car had a water cooled four cylinder boxer engine driving the rear wheels through a four speed transmission. It had a similar engine and radiator layout as the Fiat Topolino that was launched at about the same time. To save room and weight a dynastarter was used, which doubled as the axle of the radiator fan. It was regarded as the "Austrian Peoples' Car" and was affectionately referred to as the Steyr "Baby". Professor Porsche had, despite rumors, not been involved in the design or production of the 50. Moreover, the little Steyr offered better seating and luggage space than Porsche's Volkswagen with shorter overall length, a large sheet metal sliding roof and was available with hydraulic brakes (instead of the early Volkswagens' cable operated ones). In early 1938, the car was revised. It got a more powerful engine and a longer wheelbase. The new model was called the Steyr 55 and went on sale in 1940. A total of 13,000 Steyr "Babies" were sold. The production of Steyr cars was discontinued during World War II, after bombing of the factory. After the war, the factory was rebuilt and specialized in Austrian versions of the Fiat 500 and Fiat 1500. Today the Steyr factory produces the BMW X models for Europe. The pre war European car market was not one market. Trade barriers fragmented it into national markets, apart from luxury cars where the extra cost of tariffs could actually make cars more exclusive and desirable. The only way for a car maker to enter another national market of a major European car making country, (and their colonial markets of the time), was to open factories there. For example, Citroën and Renault opened factories in England in this period. This situation only changed with the post war growth of the EEC (European Community) and EFTA. The British RAC (Royal Automobile Club) horsepower taxation system had the secondary function of excluding foreign vehicles. It was specifically targeted at the Ford Model T, which the then government feared would wipe out the fledgling indigenous motor industry. It crippled car engine design in Britain in the inter war period, causing British car makers to produce under square, low revving, long stroke engines. It was abolished after World War II as part of the British export drive for desperately needed, hard foreign currency, because it made British cars uncompetitive internationally. The technologically conservative 1930s Morris Eight, Ford Eight (Ford Model Y which was related to the German Ford Köln), and Standard Eight (Standard, later became Triumph) were named after their RAC horsepower car tax rating. The Ford Model Y had replaced the Model A in Europe in 1932 and ran until 1937. It was a much smaller and lighter car, weighing one third less, with an engine two thirds smaller in capacity than the Model A. The basic Model Y 'Popular' was an important milestone in British economy cars, being the first steel bodied four seater saloon to sell for £100; previously the only four wheeled car to sell for that price had been the two seater tourer model of the Morris Minor. The Model Y was reworked into the more streamlined Ford 7Y for 1938 1939. This was restyled again into the 1939 launched Ford Anglia. Initial sales in Britain actually began in early 1940. Production was suspended in early 1942, and resumed in mid 1945. Production ceased in 1948 after a total of 55,807 had been built. The Anglia was restyled again in 1948. Including all production, 108,878 were built. When production as an Anglia ceased in October 1953, it continued as the extremely basic Ford Popular entry level car until 1959. The Ford Prefect was a differently styled and slightly more upmarket version of the Anglia launched in October 1938 and remained in production until 1941, returning to the market in 1945. The car was face lifted in 1953 from its original perpendicular or sit up and beg style to a more modern three box structure. It was sold until 1961. The Anglia, Popular and Prefect sold well for a long time despite their old fashioned technology using transverse leaf springs and beam axles for front and rear suspension, side valve engines and only partly synchromeshed three speed gearboxes. They sold on price because of limited car supply on the used car market due to the Second World War, and new car market because of the British government's post war policy of exporting cars. The Morris Eight, introduced in 1935, was a deliberate close copy of the Ford and served as a lower cost, more profitable replacement for the 1928 vintage Morris Minor which had not achieved the hoped for success. Prices for the Morris started at £112 and it offered more equipment than the Ford and a much more modern design than the ageing Austin Seven, which meant it became the UK's bestselling car by 1939. Crosley, a U. S. appliance manufacturer, from 1939 (switching to war production in 1942 45) to 1952, produced small economy cars of a European rather than American scale. These featured a variety of innovative in house designed engines of less than one litre capacity. They were popular in the 1940s due to their high fuel economy during fuel rationing because of the war. There were a wide variety of two door body styles; Sedan, Convertible Sedan, Coupe, Convertible Coupe, Covered Wagon, and Station Wagon. Also, there was a successful sports car, the Crosley Hotshot. The styling of 1951 Crosley Super Sport is very similar to the 1958 Frogeye/Bugeye Austin Healey Sprite. Production peaked at 24,871 cars in 1948. Sales began to slip in 1949, as the post war American economy took off, and even adding the Crosley Hotshot and a combination farm tractor Jeep like vehicle called the Farm O Road in 1950, could not stop the decline. In 1952, only 1522 Crosley vehicles were sold. Production was shut down and the plant was sold to the General Tire and Rubber Company.

The 1973 oil crisis (and again in 1979), emphasised the importance of fuel economy worldwide, as an increasing proportion of the cost of vehicle operation. This had particular impact in the United States with its greater distances, which was arguably the nation hardest hit because of the prevalence of large, fuel thirsty cars. At the same time, new emissions and safety regulations were being implemented requiring major and costly changes to vehicle design and construction for the U. S. market. The sales of imported economy cars had continued to rise from the 1960s. The first response by domestic American car makers included the U. S. produced, FR layout cars, the AMC Gremlin, Chevrolet Vega, and Ford Pinto, along with captive imports. AMC was determined to have the first subcompact offering and 1970 AMC Gremlin sales began six months ahead of the all new 1971 models from GM and Ford. The Gremlin used the AMC Hornet's existing design with a shortened wheelbase and "chopped" tail, and had an important low price advantage. The Chevrolet Vega, featuring attractive miniaturised Camaro styling, introduced in September 1970, was GM's first subcompact, economy car. Nearly two million were sold over its seven year production run, due in part to its low price and fuel economy. By 1974, the Vega was among the top 10 best selling American made cars, but the aluminum block engine developed a questionable reputation. Chevrolet increased the engine warranty to 50000 mile (80467 km) to all Vega owners, which proved costly for Chevrolet. The 1976 Vega had extensive engine and body durability improvements and a five year/60000 mile (96560 km) engine warranty. After a three year sales decline, the Vega and its aluminium engine were discontinued at the end of the 1977 model year. Pontiac's cheapest car was a re badged Vega variant exclusively available in Canada for the 1973 74 model years, and introduced in the U. S. the following year. The final 1977 models featured the first use of Pontiac's Iron Duke inline 4 engine. Lower priced versions of the Chevrolet Monza were introduced for 1978 and rebadged variants of the discontinued Vega were also added to the Monza line the Monza wagon using the Vega Kammback body was sold for the 1978 79 model years, and the Monza S hatchback, a price leader model using the Vega Hatchback body, was also offered for the 1978 model year. The Ford Pinto was introduced one day after the Vega. It was small, economical, and a top seller. Controversy over the design of the fuel system and a Ford cost benefit analysis presented to the public as specific to the Pinto destroyed the reputation of the car. The Ford Pinto engine though was successful in European Fords for twenty years, in successive mid and large European sized mainstay models of the; UK Ford Cortina, German Ford Taunus, the Ford Sierra, and the Ford Granada amongst others. By 1970, Nissan released their first front wheel drive car that was originally developed by Prince Motor Company which had merged with Nissan in 1966. This was introduced in 1970 as the Datsun/Nissan Cherry. In 1973, the Energy Crisis started, which made small fuel efficient cars more desirable, and the North American driver began exchanging their large cars for the smaller, imported compacts that cost less to fill up and were inexpensive to maintain. The Toyota Corona, the Datsun 510, the Mitsubishi Galant (a captive import from Chrysler sold as the Dodge Colt), the Subaru DL, and later the Honda Accord gave buyers increased passenger space and some luxury amenities, such as air conditioning, power steering, AM FM radios, and even power windows and central locking without increasing the price of the vehicle. In 1972, the Honda Civic was launched, the CVCC (Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) Stratified charge engine debuted in 1975 and was offered alongside the standard Civic engine. The CVCC engine had a head design that promoted cleaner, more efficient combustion, eliminating the need to use a Catalytic converter for the new California emission standards nearly every other U. S. market car for that year needed exhausts with catalytic converters. The Japanese, who had previously competed on price, equipment and reliability with conservative designs, were starting to make advanced, globally competitive cars. A re badged cheaper, lower equipment version was marketed as the Volkswagen Polo Mk1 (1975 1981) sold more than 500,000. It impacted sales of the Audi, causing production to come to an end early compared to the Polo. The Volkswagen Derby was the booted two door saloon (three box) version of its Volkswagen Polo Mk1 supermini, between 1977 and 1981 in Europe. Ford had sold 2 million Escorts across Europe by 1974, the year the MK2 was launched with a squarer flatter panel body re style. The most successful market was the UK. The Escort's success was greatly helped by its numerous rallying successes in the 1970s, and the performance versions like the Escort Mexico and RS2000 that traded on that success, and provided a halo effect for the lesser models. The Chevrolet Chevette was introduced in September 1975 and produced through to 1987. It was a successful and 'Americanized' version of the GM T platform (1973) 'world car' that was developed with Opel, GM's German subsidiary and Isuzu Motors of Japan. Chrysler having taken control of Simca (and Hillman in the UK) in the 1960s, as part of expansion plans to match GM and Ford, turned to their French subsidiary, when they needed to launch an American made sub compact, to comply with federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations that were being introduced starting with the 1978 model year cars. The replacement for the Simca 1100, the C2 project, became the (Simca) Talbot Horizon that won European Car of the Year 1978, and more than 3 million were sold in the United States as the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon from 1978 to 1990. It had been re engineered with a federal emission VW Golf 1.7L engine and MacPherson strut suspension for the U. S. market. Chrysler Europe was sold to Peugeot in 1978, due to mounting operating losses in Europe and the U. S. that required a U. S. government bailout. designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, Fiat 128 and 1972 Honda Civic. Some previously exotic technology, electronic fuel injection, became affordable, which allowed the production of high performance hot hatch sport compacts like the 1976 Volkswagen Golf GTI. This car combined economy of use and a practical hatchback body, with the performance and driving fun that kicked off the hot hatchback boom. Also introduced in 1976 was the 1.5 L VW Golf diesel—the first small diesel hatchback. It used new Bosch rotary mechanical diesel injection pump technology. Also in that year, Ford of Europe (produced by the merging of Ford national operations in Europe) launched their first front wheel drive small car, the Ford Fiesta, having gained experience from the Ford of Germany 1960s European midsized Ford Taunus P4 and Ford of Brazil Ford Corcel.

GM Europe (Vauxhall/Opel) introduced their first European market front wheel drive car, the Opel Kadett D/Vauxhall Astra, Golf sized car in 1979 by Opel in Germany and 1980 by Vauxhall in the UK. In 1980, Fiat introduced the Giugiaro designed Mk 1 Fiat Panda. It was originally designed to be produced in China at its 1970s level of industrialisation. It was a utilitarian front wheel drive supermini with Fiat standard transverse engine and end on gearbox. It featured mostly flat body panels and flat glass. Also in 1980, the all new hatchback and front wheel drive third generation Ford Escort Mark III (Europe) was launched. Previous Escorts were saloon/sedans with front engine and rear wheel drive. In 1981 Ford launched the American version of the Ford Escort. In 1982 GM launched their first front wheel drive supermini, the Opel Corsa/Vauxhall Nova in Europe. In 1983 Fiat launched the next step forward in small car design, the Fiat Uno. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro's ItalDesign. The tall, square body utilising a Kamm tail achieved a drag coefficient of 0.34, and it won much praise for an airy interior space and fuel economy. It incorporated many packaging lessons learnt from Giugiaro's 1978 Lancia Megagamma concept car, (the first modern people carrier MPV mini van)—but miniaturised. Its tall car, high seating packaging is imitated by every small car today. It showed that not just low sleek cars could be aerodynamic, but small boxy well packaged cars could be too. It was voted Car of the Year in 1984. Also in 1983 Peugeot launched the Pininfarina styled Peugeot 205. While not as radical as the Uno in body design, it was also very aerodynamic. It was the first European supermini with a diesel engine the XUD. It provided performance of a 1.4 L petrol with economy that was better than the base 1 L petrol version. It could, like most diesel engines, last for several hundred thousand miles with regular servicing. It was, along with the larger (also XUD powered) Citroën BX, the beginning of the start of the boom in diesel sales in Europe. The 205 GTI was as popular as the Golf GTI in Europe. The 205 was named "Car of the Decade" in the UK, by CAR magazine in 1990. In the US Chevrolet offered three new small economy cars in the 1980s to replace the Chevette: the Chevrolet Sprint, a three cylinder Suzuki built hatchback, The Chevrolet Spectrum built by Isuzu and the Chevrolet Nova built by NUMMI in California, a GM Toyota joint venture.

Chevrolet offered the Geo brand in the US in the 1990s featuring the Suzuki built Geo Metro (marketed as the Suzuki Swift in Europe, Suzuki Cultus in Japan, and Holden Barina in Australia), the Isuzu built Storm, and the NUMMI built Prizm. In Europe in 1993, Fiat launched the boxy and conservatively styled but very well packaged front wheel drive Fiat Cinquecento that could accommodate four adults that was only slightly larger than an Austin Mini. It eventually replaced the first Fiat Panda and also the aged rear engined rear wheel drive 1970s Fiat 126, as the smallest car in the Fiat range. But the real breakthrough in small car design was the 1993 Renault Twingo which was a revolution in styling by being the first 'one box' small car to reach production. The early pre production Citroën AX supermini launched in 1987 was a 'monobox' design, but the production version was much more conservative after negative reactions in focus groups. Both had the interior space of a much larger car. The Twingo and Cinquecento relaunched the city car market in Europe for decades the only competitors in this market were the Austin Mini and the Polish built Fiat 126 (developed from the 1950s Fiat 500).

Today economy cars have specialised into market niches. The small city car, the inexpensive to run but not necessarily very small general economy car, and the performance derivatives that capitalise on light weight of the cars on which they are based. Some models that started as economy cars such as the Volkswagen Golf and Toyota Corolla, have increased in size and moved upmarket over several generations, and their makers have added smaller new models in their original market niches. The 2003 Volkswagen Golf Mk5 had put on so much weight, that some models weigh the same as a Volvo 200 Series. The supermini 2002 Volkswagen Polo Mk4 was longer and wider than the 1970s Volkswagen Golf Mk1. Gordon Murray the Formula 1 and Mclaren F1 designer, said when designing his new Murray T.25 city car:
"Today with all the promises of hydrogen and hybrids and electric cars, if you could take ten percent out of the weight of every car, the effect in the next ten years would be more than that of all the hybrids and electric cars on the planet." but tightening emissions laws meant that it was launched with an updated Ford Kent engine instead. This was followed by the innovative engineering designs; Mercedes Benz A Class with an under floor engine, the two seater rear engined Smart ForTwo, and the aluminium bodied Audi A2 which in its most aerodynamic form only achieved a Sales really took off with the 2001 BMW Mini with its modern but conventional front wheel drive engineering and re interpretation of the classic Austin Mini styling. This has sold well in other markets including North America. Other cars of this type include the Mitsubishi Colt based Smart Forfour, VW Polo based Audi A1, Fiat Panda based Fiat Nuova 500, Citroën C3 based Citroën DS3, and Fiat Grande Punto based Alfa Romeo MiTo. The Toyota iQ, designed in France, went on sale in January 2009 in the UK. It is a competitor for the Smart ForTwo but with occasional rear seats. It follows the Issigonis philosophy of packaging, with innovations including a flat under floor fuel tank and specially located steering rack and final drive unit to maximise floor space for passengers. It seats four adults in a car long, wide, and tall, and achieves with a 99 g/km rating. It also achieved the top Euro NCAP 5/5 stars safety rating. A development in recent years in Europe, has been the launch of small MPVs/people carriers. This is a development of the Giorgetto Giugiaro tall car, high seating packaging innovation first used in the Fiat Uno. The niche first emerged in Japan with the 1993 Suzuki Wagon R Keicar class car. This was sold by GM in Europe from 2000 as the Vauxhall/Opel Agila. This was followed by the slightly larger supermini based cars like the Renault Modus, Citroën C3 Picasso, Fiat Idea, Nissan Note, and the Vauxhall/Opel Meriva that is also produced in Brazil. Their tall packaging designs offer the interior space of a larger car. The higher seating increases visibility for the driver that is useful in urban driving. They also make it easier to get in and out, which is useful for those with personal mobility problems, such as the elderly and the disabled. The conflicting design goals for economy cars – small size with maximum usable interior space, low cost and light weight with acceptable safety performance (light cars have a higher ratio of unsprung suspension mass to sprung mass, which affects ride quality) and the need for light materials with acceptable durability – continue to stimulate innovative development. Technology improvements such as electronic engine management, adoption of four valves per cylinder, variable valve timing, direct injection of petrol/Gasoline and diesel, hybrid power, and smoother, more powerful diesel engines with very high pressure electronic injection, have dramatically improved fuel economy and performance and lowered emissions. The latest technologies to improve efficiency are engine downsizing and automatic engine stop start. Automatic engine stop start systems like VWs BlueMotion, shut the engine down when the car is stopped to reduce idling emissions and boost economy, and it is now mandatory not to idle unnecessarily in cities in Germany. It is an updated version of the 1980s VW 'Formel E' system that was developed into the 1990s VW 'Ecomatic' system. The application of turbo charging to downsized engines is one way to achieve efficiency benefits into fuel economy and emission benefits instead of for performance. The recent Fiat 'Multiair' system, is an electro hydraulic development of variable valve timing that allows the engine management computer to control valve timing, improving engine efficiency, giving better torque, power, economy, and emissions. Safety design is a particular challenge in a small, lightweight car. This is an area where Renault has been particularly successful. Sport compacts and hot hatches have developed into their own competitive genre. Although their economy has been compromised, these models offer higher performance because of the lightness of the platforms that they are based upon. As an alternative to manual synchromesh gearboxes, automatic continuously variable transmission (CVT) gearboxes are optional on some economy cars, such as Audi, Honda, and the MINI ONE and MINI Cooper. Tata Motors from India, recently announced that it too would use a variomatic transmission in its $2500 Nano. CVT application to economy cars was pioneered by Fiat, Ford, and Van Doorne in the 1980s. Rather than the pulled rubber drive belts as used in the past by DAF, the modern transmission is made much more durable by the use of electronic control and steel link belts pushed by their pulleys. A difference between the North American car market and the markets of Europe and Japan is the price of fuel. Fuel is heavily taxed and therefore relatively costly in most first world markets outside North America; fuel is about two and a half times the price in the UK than the U. S. Fuel costs are also a much higher proportion of income, due to generally higher wages and lower living costs in the U. S. Only during occasional fuel price spikes such as those of 1973, 1979–81, and 2008 9 have North American drivers been motivated to seek levels of fuel economy considered ordinary outside North America. The growth of developing countries has also created a new market for inexpensive new cars. Unlike in the postwar period this demand has not been met by utilitarian models, but advanced 'peoples' cars'. Adaptation of standard or obsolete models from the first world has been the norm. Production of car models superseded in first world markets is often moved to cost sensitive markets like South Africa and Brazil; the Citi Golf is an example. Some mainstream European auto makers have developed models specifically for developing countries, such as the Fiat Palio, Volkswagen Gol and Dacia Logan. Renault has teamed up with India's Mahindra and Mahindra to produce a low cost car in the range of $2500 to $3000. The Tata Nano launched in January 2008, in India by Tata Motors, was claimed by Tata to be the world's cheapest car at $2500. The Nano, like the 1950s Fiat 500, has a rear engine and was styled by Italians. It is designed to get whole families off scooters and onto four wheels. The Tata Indica that was formerly sold in Europe as the City Rover until the 2005 collapse of Rover, sold poorly as it was overpriced for a basic car. The narrow profit margins of economy cars can cause financial instability for their manufacturers. Historically, Volkswagen in the 1970s and Ford in the 1920s almost collapsed because of their one model economy car business strategy. Ford was saved by the Model A and Volkswagen was saved by the Golf. Ford started the Mercury and Lincoln brands to diversify its product range. VW moved away from the narrow profit margins of economy cars, by expanding its range so that now it spans from very small city cars like the Volkswagen Up to Audis and Bentleys, and it also owns SEAT and Skoda. China has become one of the fastest growing car markets, recently overtaking the U. S. as the largest producer of cars in the world. It is followed by India with a preference towards inexpensive, basic cars, but they are both moving upmarket in their tastes as their economic rise continues. India is becoming a global outsourcing production centre for small cars. The Suzuki Alto and Hyundai i10 are already being exported to Europe from India. In March 2010 at Chennai formerly Madras, the Renault Nissan Alliance opened a $990 million plant to produce 400,000 units per year at full production. The first vehicle to be produced at the plant will be the new Nissan Micra, for the Indian market as well as for export to over 100 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Production of the Micra has been re located from the UK and other developed countries. In 2011, the plant will start production of the Renault Koleos and Fluence, for the Indian market based on the same platform. The Maruti version of the Suzuki Swift is also produced in India. Gordon Murray the Formula 1 and Mclaren F1 designer, has pointed out the difficulty of making economy cars cost efficient. His solution is a laser cut tubular steel space frame chassis built with an automated tube mill, braced with bonded low cost composite sheets that would be a cheaper and greener means of production. Murray's 'iStream' simplifies each process with an eighty percent smaller factory with lower cost production, making light weight efficient cars. There are no sheet metal presses, spot welders or paint plants. It would be built local to its market. Murray was reported to be negotiating production licences. The T25 and T27 were projected to be available in 2016.