OVERSEAS Service

American cars have been sold new in European countries for decades, sometimes through a manufacturer’s dealer network, but usually as discreet, low-volume imports. Nowadays, cars that reached us in that manner are rarely seen, even those from the most prolific UK importer, Lendrum and Hartman in London. They were initially Buick and Cadillac concessionaires, and then Chevrolet and Oldsmobile too. By the 1980s all were becoming hard to sell here, and L&H entered receivership in 1990.

It seems a similar thing was happening in Switzerland around 20 years earlier. A company called AMAG had been assembling Plymouth and Dodge cars (presumably from complete knock-down or CKD kits) since 1948; selling around 1000 Valiants every year through the 1960s and a few hundred Darts, too. They even built and sold some second-generation Plymouth Barracudas in 1967, ‘68 and ’69, demonstrating a modest local market for muscle