I recently had an enquiry from the owner of an 'Australian manufactured' Sud who wanted to know more about the origins of his car.
'Wait a minute', I hear you say. Alfasuds were never manufactured in Australia so what's the story? The car's VIN plate is pictured here.
It turns out that it's not a VIN plate as such.
All Australian cars had to have a Type Approval plate attached to them from the early 1970s onwards and that's what can be seen in the attached image.
The Type Approval plate merely indicated that the vehicles complied with Australian safety regulations. Also, it may state that the car was manufactured by Alfa Romeo Australia P/L but that's not actually the case.
The Type Approval plate was the means that the importer of the vehicle into Australia had of registering the vehicle with the country's authorities in order to comply with the then current Australian trading standards. This was mandatory so that they could sell inported cars legally in their domestic market.
Although official records no longer exist, it is assumed that the cars were imported by Alfa Romeo Australia P/L through and via a franchised Alfa Romeo dealership located in New South Wales.
I confirmed this information this morning with a Facebook friend from Sydney.
Interesting stuff, eh?