The Żuk ( pl. ''

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

'') was a van and light truck produced in

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, between 1958 and 1998 by FSC. It was based on

FSO Warszawa :''Sections of this article are translated from Polish Wikipedia''. FSO Warszawa (from Polish: ''Warsaw'') was an automobile manufactured in FSO factory in Warsaw, Poland between 1951–1973, based on GAZ-M20 Pobeda. The Warszawa was the first ne ...

, which in turn was licensed from the Soviet passenger car

GAZ-M20 Pobeda The GAZ-M20 "Pobeda" (russian: ГАЗ-М20 Победа; ''победа'' means ''victory'') was a passenger car produced in the Soviet Union by GAZ from 1946 until 1958. It was also licensed to the Polish Passenger Automobile Factory and produce ...

. The chassis, suspension and engine from FSO Warszawa formed the basis of the Żuk and the

Nysa Nysa may refer to: Greek Mythology * Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus * Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...

light vans designed in the late 1950s. About were manufactured. The Żuk was mainly sold to state organizations, but also to individuals. After 1989, with the liberalization of the Polish economy, the Żuk was able to maintain sales to the traditional markets and expand the number sold to individual consumers. The final few years of production was in parallel to its successor, the

Lublin van The FSC Lublin was a light commercial van produced by the Polish automaker FSC in Lublin. Production started in 1993, and was intended to replace the aging Żuk, which was finally discontinued in 1998. The van, known as ''Lublin 33'' was p ...

, as a cheaper alternative. The Żuk came in a range of body styles. The most common were van and light 1.1-ton pickup truck. Rarer variants were

minibus A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, th ...

and a long-cab truck. Rare for a van, it had independent front suspension. It was very angular, with a number of wide channels running along the side of the body and a completely flat windscreen/windshield. After about ten years in production the front of the cab was restyled, from then on the distinctive side channels no longer continued around onto the front to meet the grille. No further changes were made, except a minor change to the number of vents located above the headlights. The Żuk was a favourite of farmers, and a common place to find groups of them was at any local market when they were used to transport crops from the fields to the farmers’ own stalls. The Polish postal service (

Poczta Polska Poczta Polska ( lit. ''Polish Post'') is the state postal administration of Poland, initially founded in 1558. It is the largest mail-handling company in the country, which additionally provides courier, banking, insurance and logistics servi ...

) used large numbers of Żuks painted in a dull orange colour, and local fire services used them as personnel carriers or even as mini fire engines in country districts. The Żuk was shipped to the Soviet Union in the panel van form. From 1970's to about 1990 it was also manufactured in Egypt under licence as ELTRAMCO RAMZES.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuk Vehicles of Poland FSC vehicles Science and technology in Poland