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Feel free to send along any of your suggestions if you know of any rare, unique, or forgotten gems that you feel deserve a little attention, and of course any pictures if you have them to share!
Sometimes you have to be man enough to admit your flaws. I am lucky enough to have lots of people around me that point mine out, so I have many to choose from! My biggest weakness as an automotive fan is falling in love with the kind of cars that most people laugh off. The car in question this time? The Daewoo Tico. During a recent trip to Cambodia I first discovered this small 5-door car, and quickly realised that they are quite popular in that country. It appeared to be one of the more popular small used cars, judging by the number I saw on the streets and in the countryside. Having never heard of the Tico before, I had to look it up, and learned that it was produced by Daewoo, a Korean automotive manufacturer, from 1991 until 2001. It was based on the Suzuki Alto, and produced mainly for Eastern European consumption. The small Tico looks particularly narrow, even for a city car, but its tall, upright cabin clearly gives it impressive interior space. A 5-door hatchback, it proved relatively popular in countries like Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. It was also sold in South America. Interestingly, I found no official information about sales of the Tico in Cambodia, so I suspect that they were imported en masse into that country as used models. Luckily I had the chance to discuss this car with a friend who is familiar with it, having grown up in Poland. He told me that if the simple, unassuming Tico had met a certain success, it's because it was the most affordable 5-door small car when all of the competition only had 3 doors. He also directed me towards a fan website dedicated to the little Daewoo, so I contacted the owner of the site and sent along a few of my photos. Click below on the link to discover other fans of the lovable Tico, but be warned, it's in Polish! As happy as I was to be able to feed my unnatural love of all automotive things obscure with this Tico discovery, things got even more interesting when my travels took me to the southern coast of Cambodia and the seaside city of Sihanoukville. While regular 'tuktuk' taxis (small wagons with bench seats pulled by little motorcycles) are common in Cambodian cities, in Sihanoukville these had been replaced by modified Ticos! Each one looked a little bit different, so it would seem that owners use their creativity when modifying their Ticos into open-air tourist chariots. I was only able to snap a few pictures from the bus window as I was leaving town, but you can still get a look at these fun little Frankeinstein-ish Ticos! The more I explore my weird-car side, the more I like it. From now on I will treat it as my mission, to uncover and share with the world these little-known and often unloved cars! Many popular old classic cars have huge followings and don't need our support, so lets take the road less travelled and shed some light on these cars that failed to enter the history books but still have a few dedicated fans.
Feel free to send along any of your suggestions if you know of any rare, unique, or forgotten gems that you feel deserve a little attention, and of course any pictures if you have them to share!
5 Comments
3/11/2015 12:27:34 pm
Those Tic-Tic's are truly amazing pieces of... free spirit of entrepreneurship!
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Paul
3/11/2015 06:19:58 pm
For sure, Radek; you helped me appreciate the little Tico by explaining some of the background, so thanks! Any other neat cars like that exist in Poland?
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richmond
3/11/2015 09:25:27 pm
those TICO's look like my mothers 1986 Honda shuttle
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Paul
3/12/2015 12:06:21 am
Good eye, Richmond! Very similar lines, I had kind of forgotten about that Honda. Had you seen the Tico before?
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AuthorWelcome! My name is Paul, and I am an old-fashioned, low-pressure, low-buck car fan with lots of automotive stories to tell! Archives
February 2020
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