Vauxhall T car - aka Saehan Gemini & Bird

Saehan was first established in 1937 as National Motor in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, South Korea. The name was changed to Saenara Motor in November 1962, and assembled the Datsun Bluebird P310. As the car company in South Korea it was equipped with modern assembly facilities and was established after the Automobile Industry Promotion Policy announced by the South Korean government in 1962. Saenara Motor was taken over by Shinjin Industrial in 1965 and changed its name to Shinjin Motor with a joint venture with Toyota, this ended in 1972 when a new joint venture was agreed with General Motors under the name GM Korea (GMK). The Opel Rekord D was sold for a short time, and also the LJ Holden Torana based Chevrolet 1700. The Company was renamed again in 1976 to Saehan Motor, the Chevrolet 1700 was rebranded the Saehan Camina until 1978.

In return, Saehan and Hyundai had to give up selling in the truck market, a government planned merger of the two companies didn't happen. Saehan now had a bigger share of the car market but they were also able to use the locally built, and much cheaper, Mazda 1.3-liter engine that Kia no longer needed which then allowed Saehan to lower the price of the new revised T Car which was launched in March 1982 as the Saehan Maepsy. The 1.3litre 1272cc Mazda engine used LPG and produced 75bhp (gross) with a top speed of 94 mph. The 1.5litre claimed 83bhp (gross) but had a lower top speed of 93 mph, 87 mph for the automatic. In 1983 Saehan Motor was taken over by the Daewoo Group and the car was renamed Daewoo Maepsy.The Daewoo Maepsy was again just available as a 4 door saloon or the Daewoo Max pick up but used only the 1.5litre OHC engine. The car continued to be sold in some export markets, such as Greece, as the Saehan Bird. In 1984 the car was revised with more modern front end styling and called Daewoo Maepsy-Na, Na meaning new. Between 1983 and 1989 approximately 400,000 Maepsy, Maepsy Na and export Saehan Maepsy were produced. The range was replaced by the Daewoo Le Mans which was based on the Vauxhall Astra MK2 / Opel Kadett E (T84 Platform)

The GM T car was launched in 1977 as the Saehan Gemini and was based on the 1976 PF50 Isuzu Gemini, in export markets it was known as the Saehan Bird. It was available only as a 4 door saloon and was initially fitted with an expensive imported 1492cc engine giving 72bhp @ 5,400rpm which gave a top speed of 99mph. It was available as a manual or automatic. In 1979 a pick up version was also produced called the Saehan Max. Between 1977 and 1981 18,900 Saehan Gemini vehicles were built. The South Korean auto industry had been hard hit by the 1980 recession and was forced by the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan to consolidate. It forced Kia to cease production of its Brisa and focus entirely on light truck production.