Post your unidintified vehicle photos here.

[Larrister]

Hi Axel,

Thankyou for correctly IDing the Steyr automobile in my photo.

Cheers

Larry

[Rollo]

Hi everybody. I'm quite new on this awesome forum of The German Wehrmacht during WW II and I hope having a nice time here.

I've got a picture from another forum showing a civilian (?) posing next to his car.
Maybe it's an Opel Olympia or Kadett.
I don't even know if the picture has been taken during or post-war.
In the last case, could it be a Russian Moskvitch ?
After the war, I thought there're little differences between both models.
By the way, I'm quite sure that the photograph is taken in Russia.

Thanks a lot.

[Bill Murray]

Hi Axel:
Here are two more photos of coachbuilt Buicks. Sadly, I cannot operate Photoshop very well and cannot magnify the two that do have a coachmakers herald in the place you say they should be if a Glaeser but maybe it will help anyway.
Bill

[Bill Murray]

Second photo, all three are from ebay auctions long ago.
Bill

[Prussian]

Hi Bill,

it´s hard to tell, whether they are Gläser bodied cars or not! You´re right, the coachmakers badge on the first picture is on the right place, but it has a different shape! A Gläser badge is round or slighty oval like in the picture some posts ago. I don´t know by now which carmakers badge it is on the white buick, but as it interest me too, i´ll sure find it out in some time!

Axel

[Bill Murray]

Hi Axel:
I am rather sure that the Buicks I have posted were coachbuilt by a "Germanic" builder. That could mean German, Swiss or Austrian for example.

My information sources for European coachbuilders are rather limited, sorry to say, and consist mainly of the books "The Coachwork of Erdmann & Rossi" and "German Automobile Coachwork". Other than that, just the odd photo that I have seen on Ebay and other such sites.

To return to the three Buick photos, they seem to be three of a series, that is to say, all three seem to have been built by the same coach builder as they are basically identical. As they are civilian vehicles, they are obviously impressed from the local economy.
Based on my research of hundreds if not thousands of impressed civilian vehicles, they can only have come from Germany or one of the occupied countries.

I have spent a couple of hours tonight searching Google and Wikipedia and have not come up with an answer. Another possibility is that the coachmaker is French, Franay, for example, but even here I cannot find any match.

As you live in Europe and obviously have connections with sites that deal with coachbuilt vehicles maybe you can pass my Ebay photos around to see if someone can identify the coachbuilder.
Bill

[i.spring]

a few cars

hello everybody ! i was going through my collection and found a few cars i havent a clue about? iv seen this tread before and know how good you guys are for spotting a car model, so if you can help me, id be really greatful.
Thanks.
Ian

[Bill Murray]

Hello Ian:

From top to bottom, left to right and the best I can do for the moment.

British Vauxhall maybe 1936
Unknown flower car
Unknown flower car
Unknown flower car
Ford Model A
British Ford Model Y
Steyr Super (125)
Steyr 50/55
Unknown
Opel Kadett
Mercedes 170

If you can separate out and repost the flower cars it would help to get a better photo of these. The same for the other unknown.
Regards
Bill

[i.spring]

thanks Bill! really cool.
i will get some larger pics of the flower cars tomorrow after work. I was kinda surpirsed their was so many english type cars, since all those images were taken in germany, prewar ??

can i aks, were british made cars very popular in the middle class french and german markets of the 1930's ?

Thanks.
Ian

[Bill Murray]

Hi Ian:

You brought up a good point and forced me to do a little better research.
I do believe the first photo is a Vauxhall and if you can provide a better pic it may help me to be positive (registration plate etc.). It may have been a "tourist" car.

I had forgotten Ford Germany also produced the so called Y model Ford and it is in this case, now a Ford Koln, not a British Y model.

Of the flower cars, I suspect the first one will turn out to be a Mercedes, the second an Opel and the third looks very French but that is not really likely to be true.

To your other question, the Germans as far as I know from my research, had little regard for British cars other than perhaps Rolls Royce and Bentley. Even less regard for ordinary French and Italian cars. Due to the presence of General Motors (Opel) and Ford of Germany, there was a pretty good representation of American or near American makes that were available on the German market prior to WWII.

As you have noticed since you visit this forum and these threads dealing with such subjects, all of this changed very radically after 1939

In a general sense, German vehicles were built to a very high technical standard which was fine during peace time but a nightmare during a period of war. Since the Germans did not anticipate a long war, they did not build up large stocks of ordinary passenger cars and trucks to support their ambitions until the Schell Program of the late 1930's and ended up using huge amounts of captured vehicles.

It would be my judgement that they found many of these captured vehicles from other countries to be more suited to their logistical requirements.

Sorry, a bit of a long answer to a short question but it is an area I am very interested in.
Regards
Bill

[i.spring]

hay bill, thanks for all that information, really interesting stuff!
Below iv attached a few larger scans of those flower cars. It might be hard to idendify them with the flowers, but any feedback is warmly welcomed.
Thanks. Ian

[Akira Takiguchi]

Detail of the photo shown in #438, does this help?

Hi Axel:
Here are two more photos of coachbuilt Buicks. Sadly, I cannot operate Photoshop very well and cannot magnify the two that do have a coachmakers herald in the place you say they should be if a Glaeser but maybe it will help anyway.
Bill

[Akira Takiguchi]

Oops, should have read Axel's message first...

[Akira Takiguchi]

Now:

[i.spring]

British Vauxhall maybe 1936

Hay Bill, heres a larger scan of that British Vauxhall.
Do you think its 1936?
Ian