The Alfi was a German automobile built in Berlin (Prussia) by an electrical company between 1921 and 1924.
The same company had been responsible for the AAA (AG für Akkumulatoren- und Automobilbau) electric cars and vans which were supplied in large numbers to the German Post Office. In 1922 when they decided to move to engine driven cars they changed their name to Alfi, derived from the owners name Alex Fischer.
A new Alfi company, Alfi Automobile GmbH was formed in 1927, also by Alex Fischer. This time the cars and vans were three-wheelers powered by DKW engines driving the single front wheel. These could be turned 180 degrees to propel the car backward. An additional four-wheeled model, the 4-wheeled Alfi Sport, had a 2/10PS engine, was bodied as an open or coupe two-seater, and was produced in small numbers.
DKW was a German car- and motorcycle-marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-day Audi company.
Trabant is a series of small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. Four models were made: the Trabant 500, Trabant 600, Trabant 601, and the Trabant 1.1. The first model, the 500, was a relatively modern car when it was introduced.
UAZ or Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod is an automobile manufacturer based in Ulyanovsk, Russia, which manufactures off-road vehicles, buses and trucks. It has been part of the Sollers automotive group since 2000.
A V4 engine is a four-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
A flat-four engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-four engine, is a four-cylinder piston engine with two banks of cylinders lying on opposite sides of a common crankshaft. The most common type of flat-four engine is the boxer-four engine, each pair of opposed pistons moves inwards and outwards at the same time.
Auto Union AG was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today.
Crosley was a small, independent American manufacturer of subcompact cars, bordering on microcars. At first called the Crosley Corporation and later Crosley Motors Incorporated, the Cincinnati, Ohio, firm was active from 1939 to 1952, interrupted by World War II production. Their station wagons were the most popular model, but also offered were sedans, pickups, convertibles, a sports car, and even a tiny jeep-like vehicle. For export, the cars were badged Crosmobile.
ZAZ Zaporozhets was a series of rear-wheel-drive superminis designed and built from 1958 at the ZAZ factory in Soviet Ukraine. Different models of the Zaporozhets, all of which had an air-cooled engine in the rear, were produced until 1994. Since the late 1980s, the final series, ZAZ-968M, was replaced by the cardinally different ZAZ-1102 Tavria hatchback, which featured a front-wheel drive and a more powerful water-cooled engine.
NSU Motorenwerke AG, or NSU, was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles and pedal cycles, founded in 1873. Acquired by Volkswagen Group in 1969, VW merged NSU with Auto Union, creating Audi NSU Auto Union AG, ultimately Audi. The name NSU originated as an abbreviation of "Neckarsulm", the city where NSU was located.
The Volkswagen Type 2 (T3) was the third generation of the Volkswagen Transporter and was marketed under various nameplates worldwide – including the Transporter or Caravelle in Europe, T25 in the UK, Microbus in South Africa, and Vanagon in North and South America.
De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer, which operated from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux.
Singer Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturing business, originally a bicycle manufacturer founded as Singer & Co by George Singer, in 1874 in Coventry, England. Singer & Co's bicycle manufacture continued. From 1901 George Singer's Singer Motor Co made cars and commercial vehicles.
The Mitsubishi Chariot is an automobile manufactured and marketed by Mitsubishi from 1983 to 2003. It is a small multi-purpose vehicle (MPV). Based on the SSW concept car first exhibited at the 23rd Tokyo Motor Show in 1979, the MPV derives its nameplate from chariots used by the ancient Greek and Roman empires.
Hansa-Automobil Gesellschaft m.b.H was a German car brand established in 1905, which in 1914 was merged with Norddeutsche Automobil und Motoren AG (NAMAG) into Hansa-Lloyd-Werke A.G.. From 1929 to 1931 it was taken over by the Borgward group. Hansa was based in the Bremen suburb of Hastedt.
Dante Giacosa was an Italian automobile designer and engineer responsible for a range of Italian automobile designs — and for refining the front-wheel drive layout to an industry-standard configuration.
Lorraine-Dietrich was a French automobile and aircraft engine manufacturer from 1896 until 1935, created when railway locomotive manufacturer Société Lorraine des Anciens Etablissements de Dietrich et Cie de Lunéville branched into the manufacture of automobiles. The Franco-Prussian War divided the company's manufacturing capacity, one plant in Niederbronn-les-Bains, Alsace, and the other in Lunéville, Lorraine.
From 1931 to 1939, Daimler-Benz AG produced three cars with rear engine as well as a few prototypes. The production numbers remained quite low for each of these models, especially compared to the production of classical front-engine Mercedes cars.
The Citroën Traction Avant is the world's first monocoque-bodied, front-wheel drive, mass-production car. A range of mostly 4-door saloons and executive cars, as well as longer wheelbased "Commerciale", and three row seating "Familiale" models, were produced with four- and six-cylinder engines, by French carmaker Citroën from 1934 to 1957. With some 760,000 units built, the Traction Avants were the first front-wheel drives made in such (six-figure) quantity.
Tokyu Kurogane Industries, or Kurogane, was one of the first Japanese automakers. It built vehicles from about 1926 until 1962 when a subsidiary of Nissan, called Nissan Machinery, assumed operations as the company had become a member of the Nissan Group keiretsu. The word kurogane is an old term for iron, and one of the kanji used in Mr. Makita's first name. Remnants of the company were called Nissan Machinery until 1985, and operated as a separate entity within Nissan Techno until 2006, building and developing all of Nissan's current engines.
AG für Akkumulatoren- und Automobilbau was a Prussian German automobile manufacturer based in Wedding (Berlin), Ofenerstrasse and founded by Alex Fischer who built electric powered automobiles from 1919 to 1922 under the brand name AAA.
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