The Pony Super was a car built by

NAMCO was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

, a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

vehicle manufacturer, between 1985 and 1992. It represented an effort by this company to produce a successor to its first generation ''Pony'' (''Pony-Citroën''), following the same principle of a versatile, cheap vehicle that could form a basis for several versions for different uses. In complete contrast to its predecessor, though, it failed in the Greek market, produced in only a few hundred units. The first generation ''Pony'' (introduced 10 years earlier) was an instant success, as it represented an extremely cheap and practical vehicle that managed to become a "fashion" in Greece. In fact, its original design (

Baby-Brousse The Baby-Brousse is a Citroën 2CV-based utility vehicle, initially privately built, that later spawned the FAF series of vehicles. Similar to a metal-bodied Citroën Méhari, the Baby-Brousse was a success with more than 31,000 being built from 19 ...

) was created by a team of French engineers in the

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, and adopted by

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

itself as an easy to produce "basic world car" platform (and indeed produced in several, mostly developing countries), in fact a predecessor of the

Citroën FAF The Citroën FAF is a small utility vehicle produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1973 until 1981. It was built using a combination of imported and locally sourced components in various developing countries. The body was made of easy t ...

. The originally crude car was developed further and modernized by ''NAMCO'', and was helped in the market by favorable taxation applied to vehicles of its category. The ''Pony Super'' was an entirely different car, using

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

mechanical components and developed by ''NAMCO'' (and ''Inthelco'', a German company, at the time majority-owned by ''NAMCO''). A complete line-up was introduced (950 cc , 1100 cc , 1300 cc and 1600 cc diesel, in two- and four-door arrangements). An ambitious plan was also made to export the car to the U.S. with a 1900 cc engine via ''Inthelco'' as the ''Desta'' at a rate of 20,000 per year. However, the costs and prospects proved to be grossly miscalculated and the plan was abandoned. Even in Greece, the new Pony failed as it was an obsolete design, while the tax law that had previously favored such "passenger-utility" vehicles had already been modified before the introduction of the new car. Production was terminated in 1992, however a number of ''Pony Super’s'' was licence-produced in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

in 1994. Since the mid-1990s ''NAMCO'' has switched to trade and imports, but it has tried to retain a "vehicle producer" status, having made several attempts to sell designs and production technology of its vehicles (including those of the ''Pony Super'') to developing nations.

References

* L.S. Skartsis and G.A. Avramidis, "Made in Greece", Typorama, Patras, Greece (2003) (republished by the Patras Science Park, 2007)
L.S. Skartsis, "Greek Vehicle & Machine Manufacturers 1800 to present: A Pictorial History", Marathon (2012)
{{ISBN, 978-960-93-4452-4 (eBook) Cars of Greece