The car that truly revived HMC was the Type 77. A tiny front-wheel-drive, four-seat saloon produced from 1964 to 1973 (though it was licensed to be produced in modern-day Ukraine until 1986), this 580kg, 700cc compact took France by storm, and is considered one of Europe’s great historic people’s cars, along with the Autobello Piccolina and the PMZ 1544 (below).
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After nearly a decade on the market, it was time for HMC’s best-selling Go to, well… go. The replacement had a lot to live up to, it had to be able to continue the legacy of such a massively successful model and wow the masses. Lots of thought was put into a very avant-garde design for the new car, known as the Rigel or Type 142, and it was given a huge launch event in early 2017. Though controversial in its looks, the Rigel was popular from the outset, with over 50,000 being sold in France alone in its first year, most with the 1200GD engine option, a 1200cc I4 with direct injection allowing the car to achieve 96.6mpg in cruise tests.
A little-known fact in the West is that HMC do not actually sell their cars in China. Despite the prevalence of other Western manufacturers in the country, particularly ETK, they do not have an independent foothold there. Instead, they have a deal with a Chinese carmaker, Guoqi, to use their platforms and other mechanicals- for instance, the 2011 Guoqi Shangrenqi (above) utilised the same platform and 1655cc engine as the next-gen HMC Nebula. Though built in Szechuan Province using locally-sourced materials and built down to a very tight budget, the parts are billed as being the same- HMC found themselves in hot water in 2018 after selling Guoqi’s lower-quality parts in Europe as OEM.
The second-generation HMC Steeler, launched in 1990, was ambitious to say the least. It used the company’s Hydrofluid suspension system, allowing the car to ride very smoothly over even the worst bumps, could be equipped with almost every luxury option around in its day, there was even a limousine based on it. But the market for small-brand big cars in Europe was dwindling, and sales were never as spectacular as HMC hoped they would be. They got so desperate to shift these cars that the Pitcher was made smaller in the hope that the Steeler would cover the cheaper market in its base versions- this is what resulted in the wildly successful PDM108. However, this move only propped up the car temporarily, and very few high-spec examples were leaving showrooms- the Steeler was quietly retired in 1998.
Side note: this is my first build and first photos since the update, it’s going to take a long time for me to get used to the changes.