Want a new De Soto? A truck by that storied name is being manufactured in Turkey today
You’re the hardest of the hardcore when it comes to automotive history. You have a Durant Motors stock certificate on your wall. You live for the Woodward Dream Cruise. The Mack brothers were gods to you. And you can recite, in your sleep, the date that the last De Soto rolled off the line in 1961. So how do you explain that De Soto and another supposedly dead Chrysler moniker, Fargo, are still among the living? Does George Romero have a hand in this?
Actually, no. De Soto and Fargo — the second nameplate was borne by a number of Chrysler-built Dodge trucks that were sold in Canada — continue as brands of light- and medium-duty trucks built in Turkey by Askam. Their stark, military appearance has an appeal all its own, and Askam trucks are pretty common sights on the roads and trails of the Near East. Askam essentially inherited the names, holdovers from its days as a Chrysler property. The company was formed by Turkish investors who joined forces with Chrysler, which was seeking an entrée into the vehicle market in Turkey, where General Motors and Ford were already players. The first Askam truck with a De Soto badge was introduced in 1964.
The photo here shows Askam’s bread-and-butter De Soto, the light-duty AS 250, with standard turbo diesel power for adventuring across the sun-baked plains. You can find out more about these neat rigs by visiting Askam’s Web site at www.askam.com.tr.
(This post originally appeared in the March 15, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)