News: 6 classic old cars that will never be seen again. Some have become antiques. Anyone who has driven one is a " Billionaire"

Since Tesla released its first new energy model in 2008, it has led a new energy trend in the world, which has not yet dispersed.

Tesla attracted a lot of car companies around the world began to take the initiative to develop new energy vehicles. Among of them are the old car companies was BMW and Mercedes-Benz, afraid that not catch up these currents. 

Just because the times are developing and technology is changing, the automotive field has such an earthshaking change.  After the new model “Publish”, these old cars will also be "retired", some have become antiques and who has driven one is a "Billionaire".

Classic old cars are delisted

The first "retired" classic car is the Santana, also known as the Porsche. This is a model developed by Volkswagen in California, USA.

The first generation of Santana was the Passat launched by Volkswagen in 1973. The reason why Volkswagen chose to rename it as Santana after it arrived in the United States, as they wanted Santana's sales in the market to be strong like the mountain in Santana Valley.

In the United States, there is a Santana Valley, due to the special terrain, air currents in this surge always set off a strong mountain wind.

Moreover, the German Volkswagen of this period not only wanted to develop in the European and North American markets, but also wanted to open up in the Chinese market. Therefore, Volkswagen took advantage of reform to enter China.

During that period, China was also trying to produce automobiles through Sino-foreign joint ventures, so there was an intersection with German Volkswagen. In 1983, the Shanghai Tractor Factory partnered with Volkswagen to produce the first Santana, which sold for a whopping 80,000 yuan.

Although sold at a "sky-high price", Santana is still in short supply. According to reports, since Santana entered China that 40 years, the sales have ranked the first in the country for more than 20 consecutive years.

Moreover, the Santana became a household name after the advertisement slogan "With a Santana, you can go everywhere without fear" came out. However, the interior design style and assembly parts of the Santana were too old and out of touch with the times, so it had to be retired from the market.

In 2021, Volkswagen announced that it was officially discontinuing the Santana, and the old classic car that had taken the 80s became the past.

Not enough competition, poor sales

The second classic old car that has been eliminated by the times is the Duke King of Japan's Nissan. In 1960, Nissan launched its luxury sedan. The Duke King was also a favorite among consumers after its launch due to the fact that it had a huge amount of space inside the car, seating three people in the front row.

 

In the following years, the Duke King also made the technological changes to cater to the development of the times. However, from the 1980s to the 1990s, a bubble economic crisis in Japan dragged Duke King into the abyss of delisting.

Due to the economic downturn, Nissan did not make more optimization and upgrading to the new generation of Duke King in 1995, only made some adjustments to the appearance and parts. Therefore, when this generation of Duke King was launched did not gain the favor of the market.

Also due to poor sales, the Duke King was followed by several updates but not satisfactory. By 2004, Nissan voluntarily phased out this old classic.

The third model to be retired is also from Nissan, the Bluebird. The Bluebird, like the Duke King, also experienced a high start and a low finish.

When it was first launched in 2020, this model received unanimous praise from the market for its impactful appearance and simple and high-end interior design.

However, Nissan developed a model called Sylphy in 2019 before launching the Bluebird. This model is not much different from the Bluebird in terms of performance and price, except that the former has a more family-oriented design and the latter is sportier.

And because Japanese people are more introverted, they tend to buy Sylphy more often. As a result, Bluebird's sales plummeted.

Although the Blue Bird has not been discontinued, all the Blue Birds on the market today are produced in 2021. But it can be seen that Nissan is probably going to give up on this car.

Poor performance and will be eliminated

The fourth classic old car is the Cadillac Fleetwood, which ceased production in 1996. This car was a surprise when it was first "debuted" because Fleetwood was given the appearance of an American luxury car.

The angular and square design interprets its unique American style. In the 90's, when China had to receiving foreign dignitaries, the choice in most cases would be the Fleetwood.

However, because it was a large sedan, it consumed a lot of fuel, which was a disadvantage that even a strong sense of luxury could not compensate for. So, as other cars with lower fuel consumption came on the market, the Fleetwood was "unloved" and was no longer the "model of the year" it was originally.

Since the Fleetwood was withdrawn from the market in the 1990s, this has turned this model into an antique, and those who can still drive it must be the Billionaire.

The fifth old car that will be hard to see again is the Audi 100. In 1982, Audi launched a model developed and manufactured using lightweight materials. Audi at the time claimed the car had a wind resistance of 0.3.

Usually, the wind resistance coefficient of a car will be between 0.28 and 0.4, and it is already a great improvement to reach 0.3. Therefore, the Audi 100 was also loved by consumers.

In addition, because civil servants at that time would buy Audi 100, this car was given the title of "official car", giving this car a unique "status symbol" in the market.

But in 1987, when Americans were driving an Audi 100, they discovered that the car's throttle sometimes got stuck. The throttle is very important to a car. After it was revealed that the Audi 100 had a throttle defect, and it effect to the sales.

In order to solve this crisis, Audi produced the Audi A6L based on the Audi 100, hoping to "make the crises to be secure" through technological changes. Since then, the Audi 100 has disappeared from the market. 

Domestic pride, but hard to survive

The last antique model to disappear is the pride of China’s domestically produced cars, Xiali. In September 1986, the first Xiali was "launched" on the market. Because Xiali cars are strong and durable, they occupy a certain market share.

In the 1980s, automobiles were not yet fully deployed in China, and the emergence of the Xiali filled the gap, allowing many families to drive cars.

In addition, according to statistics, the average annual national salary during this period was 800 yuan, and Xiali which sold for 100,000 yuan, it was a hidden symbol to show off of the family economic wealth. Therefore, it has more people want to get it.

With the deepening of reform and opening up, domestic car companies are also developing rapidly, many domestic car brands also came into being, such as Jiefang, Hongqi, etc. The emergence of these car companies also squeezed the Xiali "living space".

Therefore, in 2018, Xiali announced the discontinuation of production. In the following year, Xiali's main company also withdrew from the market. And this classic car that once represented economic status has become an antique.

Even though, the above 6 classic old cars are no longer in production, they are also memories of many people and occupy a place in the history of the automobile industry.