Nationalities of Cars

We (well, the government actually) have always proclaimed Proton to be our “national” car, a Malaysian by birth (conceived in Japan), the bumiputera of cars. The Toyotas, Hondas, Mercedes, BMWs, Volvos etc are all merely pendatangs.

Which brings me to the question, do cars have a nationality? The founders and creators of car companies obviously are nationals of a certain country but corporations, especially in this borderless world, do not belong to any country.

Adam Opel is German but the car company he founded is now owned by the American General Motors. Nissan is Japanese but they are owned by a French by the name of Renault.

Swedes Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larsson founded Volvo but the car company was sold to Ford (American) who is currently negotiating with Geely form China on the sale of the Volvo brand.

SAAB started off with building bombers and fighters [SAAB stands for Svenska Aeroplan Aktie Bolag (Swedish Airplane Corporation)] and only produced its first car in 1947. Now SAAB’s intellectual properties and technology belong to Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation.

Jaguar was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922, by two British motorcycle enthusiasts, Sir William Lyons and William Walmsley. The brand was later sold to Ford and in December 2007 the Indian industrial conglomerate TATA bought Jaguar together with another British icon, Land Rover.

British marques Rolls Royce, Mini and Bentley are owned by Germans BMW, BMW and Volkswagen respectively. British racing icon Lotus is owned by Proton.

So, is there such a thing as a national car?