(First posted 1/27/14) For almost half a century, numerous American cars from the 1950s were in daily use in a country outside of North America, where they were completely isolated from the mainstream American classic car community. Stranded overseas by the tides of the Cold War, they did more than just survive; they became a fixture in their adopted country’s automotive scene. Anyone reading these words will think that they are about to hear about Cuba. In this case, they are wrong. The same words apply to Turkey, where 1950s American cars became a national institution called the “dolmus.”
Photo from http://www.peterloud.co.uk/
The dolmus, pronounced “doll-moosh,” is a privately owned and operated minibus that provides services between those of a taxi and a bus. According to one account, it began during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when middle-class people who previously used taxis to move around Istanbul found themselves unable to afford to use taxis on a regular basis and were forced to share buses with the poor. One everyday taxi customer in this situation came up with the idea of paying his usual driver more, while bringing four other people needing to make the same round trip, in order to spread out the cost. The driver enterprisingly began to offer this service to all of his customers, and the dolmus was born.
The word “dolmus” means “full,” referring to the practice of waiting until a car is full before departing for the designated destination. An example of such a situation is this 1955 Chevrolet, which is about to have three across in front and four in back.
Photo from http://www.travel-pictures-gallery.com/
As the dolmus spread from the 1930s onward, a simple system developed to connect cities in Turkey and areas of the large city of Istanbul with the regular, easily found service. Drivers would queue in designated dolmus areas, with signs indicating their destinations, and each would wait until the car filled to capacity. There would be multiple cars going to each destination at various times during the day, wherever and however often dolmus operators figured they could find enough passengers.
A smartphone app was not necessary to find a dolmus to a particular destination; a person without a timetable or a telephone could simply walk to the dolmus pickup point of a city or Istanbul neighborhood and find one. Waiting for the car to fill before departing usually would be necessary, but dolmus service was far cheaper than a taxi and cheaper and more flexible than a city or intercity bus.
Photo from http://ruthie822.blogspot.com
American cars of the 1950s became the main vehicles used by the dolmus trade for several decades, and they gave the dolmus a distinctive look, since American cars were otherwise rare in Turkey. There were multiple ways in which American cars were imported into Turkey during the 1950s, and probably all of them contributed to the cars that ended up in dolmus service. America’s large and flashy cars were significant status symbols for people in Turkey who could afford them during the 1950s, a decade of major economic growth in Turkey, so imports from the United States were substantial during that time. General Motors and Chrysler also each had assembly plants in Europe that produced cars based on their American full-size models during the 1950s, and some of these cars may have ended up imported into Turkey. These import channels would have closed after local production of passenger cars in Turkey began in 1960, with local assembly of Ford of Britain’s Consul, which was accompanied by trade restrictions to protect the domestic Turkish automobile industry. These protectionist measures starting in 1960 likely account for why American cars from the 1950s predominated in the dolmus trade. There were additional American cars brought into Turkey and sold by American diplomats and military personnel, the latter primarily from Incirlik Air Base, which opened in the early 1950s.
Photo from http://www.travel-pictures-gallery.com
Whatever brought these American cars to Turkey, dolmus operators embraced them, and for decades they dominated the business. Substantially larger than European cars of the period, a standard size American car allowed a driver to take five or six paying passengers on each trip, instead of struggling to fit four into a smaller car. Many if not most dolmus cars had extended wheelbases and a third row of seats, either as rearward-facing or jump seats, allowing a dolmus to carry eight or more paying passengers. The ability to more than double the revenue from each trip made the extended wheelbase American car the logical choice for a dolmus operator (Soviet spies trying to undermine American leadership of this business may be lurking in the VAZ-2101, better known by its alias Lada, parked across the street).
Photo from http://www.trekearth.com/
The extended wheelbase, three row cars in dolmus service were probably a mix of factory-built long wheelbase models and standard cars stretched locally by Turkish coach builders. This 1948 or 1949 Desoto Suburban, popular as a taxi in the United States, came from the factory with an extended wheelbase and jump seats that allowed it to seat eight, or more when tightly packed in dolmus use. GM and Chrysler assembly plants in Europe produced comparably stretched models for limousine and taxi use, such as the eight passenger Coronado produced in Chrysler’s Rotterdam plant in 1958-62. The factory-built models were probably not numerous enough to account for the predominance of extended wheelbase cars in dolmus service, though, so it is likely that most were converted locally in Turkey.
Photo from http://www.istanbul.net.tr/
The vast majority of dolmus cars were American cars from the 1950s, but a few were not. This 1986 photograph shows a car from the Volvo PV800 series, produced from 1938 to 1958, built on a separate body and frame with a 128 inch wheelbase (139 inches on long wheelbase commercial versions) and sharing mechanical parts with a small Volvo truck. They were produced as taxis, limousines with divider windows, and commercial chassis, as well as four wheel drive vehicles for military use. Comparable in length to a standard size American car with an extended wheelbase, a PV800 series vehicle would have been their equal in dolmus use.
Photo from http://bvw-photos.com
These cars covered enormous mileage over their lifetimes, so most of them probably were like the proverbial axe used forever, but which had three blades and two handles over the years. With Istanbul 280 miles from Ankara and 350 miles from Izmir by road, an intercity dolmus could easily cover over 100,000 miles each year. This 1954 or 1955 Dodge Kingsway probably had several engines and transmissions by the time that it was photographed near Istanbul’s Galata Bridge in 1986.
Photo from http://istanbulday.com/dolmus/
By the 2000s, the time of the 1950s American car dolmus had passed. Dolmus operators replaced them with new minibuses from Mercedes, Renault, and other manufacturers, such as this Sprinter-based bus. With greater seating capacity, modern and more trouble-free mechanicals, better fuel efficiency, air conditioning, and other driver and passenger amenities, they were a better solution for the dolmus role. The dolmus business continues to thrive in Turkey, but classic American cars have disappeared from the queues.
Photo from http://turkeytheheaven.blogspot.com
Some dolmus veteran American cars survive in Turkey, restored for use as nostalgia transport for hire, such as this stretched 1954 Plymouth. The websites for these cars, such as this 1954 Plymouth and this 1950 Dodge, often are only in Turkish, suggesting that Turks rather than foreign tourists are their main target audience.
Photo from http://kelsayed.info/
Today, there is very little information in English available about the era of 1950s American cars in dolmus service, and memory of them seems to have faded almost entirely. Unlike the classic American cars of Cuba or the overloaded motorbikes of Vietnam, they have no glossy coffee table books memorializing them. Only a small number of websites mention their existence or show photographs of them, mostly travel blogs showing old photographs from the 1970s and 1980s with very little explanation. Few photographs are available on the internet.
As British, Australians and New Zealanders have been the predominant English-speaking visitors in Turkey, it is unlikely many Americans are aware that these 1950s American cars ever existed in Turkey. My knowledge of them comes from reading a short article in a British car magazine during the late 1980s, then seeing them first-hand in 1993 during a trip to Istanbul. Unless someone in Turkey has compiled a collection of photographs and memories of these vehicles, they may become a forgotten episode in the history of American cars overseas. Having been some of the longest-lived, hardest-working cars ever produced by the American automobile industry, they deserve to be remembered.
Fascinating article. I had no idea that this was such a phenomenon. I always enjoy seeing old U.S. iron in remote parts of the world. It is a shame that our industry stopped concentrating on and supporting export markets to the extent that they had earlier.
It seems that Mopars and Chevys were the cars of choice. Most of the Mopars were probably still running the old flathead six.
I really want a DeSoto Suburban.
Longer, Lower, wider, and more softly sprung for your roads JP, No use to anyone else.
I used to know where a DeSoto Suburban with the sun roof was just sitting behind a remote Desert repair shop in Cali.
IO wonder if it’s still there or has been scrapped by now .
-Nate
Thanks for the history lesson. Greatly appreciated.
The Volvo there is more likely the 836, big eigth-passenger six-cylinder car for taxi, police, ambulance, etc, or sensible executive sedan. There was even an AWD version for swedish army. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Volvo_PV_831_1954_2.jpg
Yep, looks very similar except for the front end.
http://barnfinds.com/sugga-wagon-1957-volvo-tp21/
I was watching the 2nd James Bond movie, From Russia with Love; last night on BBC America coincidentally, and I have always noticed the large number of American cars in the street scenes in Istanbul Turkey, the majority of them seem to be Chrysler products too, there are so many Chryslers it led me to believe that there must have been a Mopar plant in the region, but I couldn’t find anything about that.
Carmine,
I noticed the same prevalence of Mopars in surviving dolmus photos and in From Russia With Love, which I watched on DVR off of BBC after I wrote this article. I wish that I had an answer to why they were so common. Their being in the movie cannot have been Chrysler Corp. product placement, since it pre-dated the 1970s product placement era in James Bond movies, and showing 1950s cars would have done nothing to advertise Mopars in the 1960s. If the cars were indeed left behind by US military officers, perhaps Chrysler Corp. dominated the system for overseas sales to US military personnel in the 1950s. This is purely speculation by me.
The very limited and un-authoritative information that I have found indicates that Chrysler had an assembly plant in Turkey, but it was a truck factory that opened in the early 1960s.
http://www.allpar.com/world/turkey.html
Speaking of From Russia With Love, I was pleased to see a Citroen Traction Avant appear early in it, as the vehicle used to follow James Bond from the airport upon his arrival in Istanbul. The CC Effect strikes again, this time on cable TV with a 50 year old movie!
There are lots of interesting cars in a FRWL, the Bulgarian Russian agents in the Avant, the Kerim Bay’s Rolls Phantom, all the Mopar taxis in the background. I’m sure they weren’t product placements, they all seem to be 50’s vintage mostly, and the movie is from 1963.
We also get a brief glimpse of Bonds Bentley early in the movie, complete with radio telephone. Its the only Bentley that Bond ever drives in the whole series.
Does he drive the Bentley in the film, or just use it to bed down Eunice Gayson?
He never drives it, he takes a call in it and uses it as a bedroom for Miss Trench.
So better put, the only Bentley Bond is seen with.
I’d love to see him in a 4 1/2, with the ‘squared-off’ body in elephant’s-breath grey as Fleming described it. And I’d absolutely love to hear the Amherst Villiers supercharger wind up.
Can’t believe the latest ‘revisionist’ novel puts him in an FF. Some things just don’t gel.
I’m pretty sure Kerim Bey’s 1960 Ford Country Sedan was a product placement – the early Bond movies featured a lot of Fords, reaching peak placement with the Kentucky scenes in Goldfinger. Incidentally, Ian Fleming was a huge Thunderbird fan, buying a Squarebird he took to and from France every summer in the same Carvair planes featured in Goldfinger.
I believe Chrysler had a strong export presence in Turkey until the crackdown on imported cars – and full-sized American sedans were popular taxis across Europe in the early postwar years, as most continental manufacturers took time to produce suitable vehicles. A number were converted to limo configuration, not only in Turkey, but in the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries as well. Chrysler also built their “emerging markets” truck as a Fargo and DeSoto in Turkey starting in the late 60s, as well as the Farmobil agricultural utility vehicle, l
I think you’re right about Ford and Bond. The Mustang was still unseen by public when the exterior mountainside DB5 ‘chase’ scene was filmed IIRC.
Monty Python secret policemen:
“Who are you?”
Agent 1 [thick Russian accent]: “Well we’re not secret police anyway.”
Agent 2: “That’s for sure.”
Agent 3: “If anything we are ordinary Soviet citizens with no particular interest in politics.”
Agent 1: “None at all. Come with us.”
You said: e significant status symbols for people in Turkey who could afford them during the 1950s, a decade of major economic growth in Turkey, so imports from the United States were substantial during that time.
An you’re wondering how American classic cars ended up in Turkey! Technology was available to everyone in the world with money just like today.
That’s funny, I was watching it too last night on BBC America and noticed the same thing. I also spotted a Citroen Traction Avant that Robert Kim recently did a post on.
I regularly see a big 15 TA Citroen here its a classic rental based locally and must be a popular one.
Hi , although Istanbul is a city about 2.000 years old and it was conquered by Ottoman in 1453 , Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 . After reachness of Ottoman Empire then it came poorness and Turkey had almost nothing when it was established . It was a open and hungray market and I guess first Ford established a company in Istanbul and brought cars at 1930 and they had a small plant for simple assembling . After II.world war begining by 50’s ,cars and trucks were started to be imported and USA was themain seller. Begining by mid 50’s Chevrolet was the no.1 brand and then Ford and Chrysler. Then Istanbul and also other cities began to be crowded and taxis were needed. It was 55-56 Chevys mostly preferred by drivers, 53-56 Mopars and some Ford were used to be used as taxis. Bond movie had nothing to do for all these events. Chrysler had never had a plant for cars but for trucks for about 20 years between (approaximetly) 196-1980. After 1966 ,Chevy (just Belair and Impala) covered most of market till mid of 70’s. After this period European especially German cars (VW , Mercedes, BMW,OPEL) started to be known by people because in mid 60’s thousands of men started to go Germany as labor and they used to visit their families in many cities of Turkey and ofcourse they had to pass thru Istanbul. This made Turkish people meet German cars and people started to like them as much as they see and drive . It was also easy to ask someone you know who works in Germany to bring spare parts with much reasonable prices according to dealers and gas prices had also begun to increase. At the end of 60’s , British Ford (escort) made a plant and a few years later at early 70’s Italian FİAT and French Renault started to produce (montage) their cars in their plants at Bursa,Turkey and people began to understand they are easily reachable and spend less gasoline and started to buy these new cars . And reach people also learned Mercedes (and BMW) as luxory car instead of US cars , so US car manufacturers lost Turkish market. I hope I could enlighten you a bit. I think that will also help to Robert Kim and send him another Ford photo from 1930 and tell him to read this.
No, that black Volvo is not a Volvo Duett, it’s a Volvo PV800-series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_PV800_Series
It’s a substantially larger car than the Duett, sharing parts with Volvos smallest truck, the L340. The 800-series was built on a body on frame, and if I’m not mistaken, the body was handbeaten over a wooden frame. Output was very small, not more than a few hundreds a year. How one ended up in Turkey boggles my mind. Perhaps it’s an ex-embassy car? It has a flag in the front.
Most of them were used as taxis. In rural areas used as a schoolbus, picking up kids on the route to school. It’s use were actually not that unlike the Dolmus phenomena, so it would suite perfectly to that purpose. I guess there will always be a need for something larger than a taxi but smaller than a bus. The Russians had a similar system with their large Tchaikas. Nowadays, I’d guess minivans are the answer. There was also a slightly more upscale version of the 800-series, used as a limousine for executives and the likes. It’s not that unlike the long wheelbase 1946 Chrysler and Desoto Suburban.
Ingvar,
Thank you for the correction on the Volvo. The superficial styling resemblance between the Duett and the PV800 fooled me, since I was not previously unaware of the PV800. I will have to correct the error.
The PV800 being an ex-embassy vehicle makes sense as an explanation. I can see it having been used as the Swedish ambassador’s limousine, even though “Suggan” (“Sow”) is a rather inelegant name for a VIP car. Having seen the rather modest Volvo that the Swedish ambassador to the U.S. currently uses, the PV800 would be relatively lavish in comparison.
Although not familiar with the PV800, I have read an article about the TPV, the 4WD military vehicle based on the PV800. It was in a British car magazine back in the 1980s (I read a lot of them back then). It looked like quite an impressive vehicle, much like the Dodge 3/4 ton 4×4 that became the civilian Power Wagon after the war. It apparently was quite rare, with the Wikipedia article mentioning only 210 being built. I would like to find one of those!
No need to worry, the PV800 is such an unusual and obscure car, I’d dare anyone to recognize one in the flesh. They were quite common in the 50’s to 70’s, then they just disappeared. I’d guess upkeep with the wooden body and wooden rot just made it unpractical for every day use. The ones that are left are kept by enthusiasts.
Incidentally, I grew up in a military town with five regiments, and the PV800-based military TP21 was quite common, at least into the 80’s. I had a neighbor that had one standing in the yard for a decade or so, bought army surplus most likely. Wikipedia says 720 were made, but at least 50-100 of them were stationed in my town, so I always thought they were more common. The Swedish Hummer of the 50’s, or something…
Pls find my text that I sent to Carmine and hope it will also be useful for you.
There was an article about Volvo PV800 in Turkey in Volvos magazine “Ratten” many years (dacades?) ago. IIRC correctly they were exported to Turkey as taxicabs. How big this export was I have no memory off.
Great article. The stretch jobs appear to have been very good based on what can be seen. Even trim was stretched and added. And, it appears that the stretch was frequently more like a factory built limo with the stretch coming aft of the rear door – requiring a somewhat complicated addition of an additional window and some modification of the roof line – and the top of the rear door – and the rear door glass.
It would seem like a cottage Turkish stretch business would have been more inclined to add the stretch aft of the B pillar using fairly straightforward (and straight) sheet metal and simple rectangular windows – especially if they were dealing with several brands of cars.
It’s hard not to think that some of these were factory ordered customs – or came from an American after market coach builder. Especially when you may be dealing with multiple 1955 models Chevy cars that look alike.
Compare picture four above with this standard 1955 Chevy sedan……
I was thinking the same, they look to good to be hacked, I wonder if any of them were stretched factory LWB livery/taxi type vehicles. Also, if there ever was a ready made market for a Checker, I wonder why they never made an attempt to sell those over there, most of these stretched sedans have a Checker like look to them.
It almost looks like they swapped the sedan back doors for wagon ones and used the rear half of a 2-door sedan.
That ’54 Plymouth pictured above most likely started as a 2-door sedan, and the rear door section was grafted on – the same model Ghia would use for the ’57-65 Crown Imperial limousines. If you didn’t start with a long-wheelbase body, a la Chrysler/DeSoto/Dodge through ’54 (Dodge through ’52), it was the standard way coachbuilders created a limo from a standard wheelbase car, until Lehman-Peterson invented the modern stretch with the ’64 Lincoln. A big reason why Chrysler dropped its standard long-wheelbase models was that New York City finally changed its taxi specs in 1954, allowing regular 6-passenger sedans. Checker kept on plugging, but the bulk of the long-wheelbase taxi market simply disappeared.
They were definitely not hacked nor a Turkish factory could or would supply the necessary materials and services for modification. Average Joes (Turkish Hasan), unlike in America, in Turkey couldn’t have had the skills or the tools to execute such a flawless finish.
I was stationed in Ankara from 1979 -80 and took these cabs often. The interiors looked so much different than U.S. domestic 50s cars. Brightly colored sparkled plastic. Even the engines sounded wierd, i wounder how much modification went on there?
Yes there were still quite a few of these operating in Turkey as late as the mid-1990s… among others I remember a black 1959 Impala in surprisingly good condition… quite impressive!
I learned something new today. Great history.
Robert, thank you for this article. This is an arena I had no idea existed.
Seeing cars such as these, used hard for years upon years, really drives home the point of how rugged these cars were. Sure, the beatings were obvious, but to simply keep going for hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of miles is truly amazing.
As everyone else has said, I never knew this existed. Anyways, very factual and entertaining.
Truth be told, the majority of the Mopars WERE factory cars. Through 1952, you could order 8 passenger limousines in all Mopar divisions. After ’52, Chryslers’ overseas affiliates (Belgium, South Africa), continued to build 8 passenger variants well into the 1960s. CKD’s from the outset of Turkish Mopar assembly would have been the source from 1960 on; before that, it is most likely that these were imported from European Mopar assembly sites. Also remember that many European/South American/South Pacific/African countries received the overseas only Desoto Diplomat – which in itself was Desoto trimmed Plymouth (or later on, Dodge Dart) This included 8 passenger versions, usually Windsor sourced.
I’ve seen one of these export only Mopars, it was a 58 Plymouth body badged as a Dodge, complete with export KM speedometer.
Probably like the Plodges we got but with metric speedo
In 1958 Chrysler took over the NEKAF plant in Rotterdam. That was the Kaiser-Frazer factory where military Jeeps were made.
Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths were assembled there. Even full-size Chryslers, so I’ve read.
In the fifties and sixties (rich) industrials bought Buicks, Cadillacs, Chryslers and such. What else was there to choose from, in that era, if you had the money and you wanted to drive a big fully loaded car ?
More to see and read here:
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/factories/rotterdam.html
Even a picture of a 1956 Plymouth with a Perkins diesel.
Edit: a better word for rich folks would be “industrialists”.
Dont forget some overseas assembly concerns didnt change models like the US and just kept stamping the one they already had Australia was one market that didnt upgrade either Fords or Mopars every model change perhaps some of these are not year correct either.
European assembly of extended wheelbase cars by Chrysler is a factor that I did not know about, and it could be the source of many of the Mopars seen in Turkey. It would explain why a disproportionately large number of Dodges, Desotos, etc. appeared in the dolmus population. However, it may be only a partial answer, because there are still several important unanswered questions.
First, I have found references to Chrysler assembling trucks in Turkey starting in the 1964, but not passenger cars. So there would have been no local assembly of passenger cars in Turkey by Chrysler during the 1950s. My information on this issue is fragmentary and may be inaccurate, so if you have found additional information, please relate it.
Second, did GM produce extended wheelbase Chevrolets in Europe? 1955 and earlier Chevrolets appear to have been common dolmus cars.
Third, why did 1950s American cars make up the majority of the dolmus fleet, with nothing newer than that? It appears that in 1960 or earlier, the supply of American cars completely stopped. I have seen one photo of a Forward Look Dodge or Plymouth, and one commenter mentioned seeing a 1959 Chevrolet. They are the latest model years that I have seen or heard of.
The ultimate answer may be that there were multiple sources of cars (European-assembled extended wheelbase cars imported into Turkey and purchased new, cars from the same source purchased in Europe and imported secondhand, standard-size USAF privately owned vehicles sold locally and then extended in Turkey, etc.). It is an interesting mystery to unravel. It may be impossible to resolve without looking at VIN plates of surviving cars in Turkey, though. One Turkish website emphasized that these cars usually changed hands repeatedly over the years, between non-enthusiasts who bought, repaired and used them as appliances, without any concern for where they came from or their histories. So there may be very few or no instances where anyone can state the history of any of the few surviving cars.
Through the 50s, American cars were very common in Europe. Not exactly in huge numbers, but a common sight. They pretty much owned the market for larger, more powerful vehicles, since the European industry pretty much abandoned that market after WW2.
I rode in American taxis in Innsbruck, and have written about it. They were used as taxis, by wealthier folks, by hotels and institutions, etc. Their comfort and size were unequaled by anything else, and they had a reputation for being very well built.
All that changed during the 60s, although some countries continued to buy American cars at a higher level, like Switzerland.
There little doubt in my mind that the Dolmus vehicles were common in Turkey in the 50s for that reason, and they look “factory built” or at least coach-built by a facility that worked closely with the factory. It would not surprise me that in addition to the Chrysler lwb 8-pass cars Billy talks about in the comments here, that there were the Chevy versions available through some channel as mentioned: either a European branch plant or designated coach builder.
And the drop-off after 1960 is not surprising, being undoubtedly the result of Turkey’s changing import duty, as well as the Americans not making/marketing these vehicles anymore in Europe.
Between Billy and Paul, I think that we have the most thorough answer that we are going to get without going to Turkey to read VIN numbers and build plates. Actual knowledge and first-hand experience should trump internet research on a subject that no one has ever bothered to write about in the English language. I noticed that this CC article is already the #1 Google search result for “Dolmus American car,” which indicates that we are studying uncharted territory.
It does make sense that factory or factory authorized extended wheelbase American cars in the general European sales chain would account for the large number of such cars in Turkey. They may have been supplemented by used examples from around Europe being shipped to Turkey, somewhat like the flow of used Mercedes from Europe to Lebanon during the 1990s. Attributing the presence of American cars to the American military presence seems like a too-easy explanation. The occasional U.S. diplomat or military officer departing Turkey may have sold a car locally, but that would have been a small number. I should note that during the 1950s, Incirlik Air Base was used primarily by spy planes like the U-2 and would not have had a large number of airmen stationed there.
Billy and Paul – Thank you for your knowledge! We may be THE experts on a subject that no one cares about (yet).
The taxi company that I worked for in San Juan, PR sold their used units, most likely to brokers, who then found buyers in the middle east. We ordered 100 new 1964 Dodges and prepped them before they went into revenue service. Manual star adjusters replaced the automatic brake adjusters; the outboard headlights and trim were removed and replaced with thin aluminum blank-offs where the turn signals were relocated; the high beam headlights and zinc trim were removed where they were replaced by the low beams we had taken off the outboard locations; same thing on the rear-outboard lights were removed and replaced with aluminum blank-offs; the 1 and 2 pushbuttons for the TorqueFlite were removed and replaced with an aluminum blank-off plate; and the front and rear bumpers each received a pair of heavy duty overriders. The interiors were standard Dodge civilian units rather than taxi vinyl, but were covered with embossed clear vinyl that was popular at the time (done locally). When it came time to sell the used cabs, all of the lights and trim that had been removed during prep were replaced. The bumper overriders were removed and recycled for the next batch of new cabs. And of course, the plastic seat covers were removed to expose minty fresh upholstery. We used cabs for three years and sold them while they still had decent market value.
Why the change on the brake adjusters? I can see the logic with the rest, but this one is more elusive.
Possibly to ensure regular brake adjustments carried out as part of the service routine actually happened, some automatic features may not be reliable or universally trusted
Canucklehead knows. Ask him to comment.
For further viewing enjoyment, here are two websites in the Turkish language about the dolmus. I found them after writing the article, as they had not appeared in my earlier searches based on the English language.
http://blog.milliyet.com.tr/nostaljik-dolmuslar/Blog/?BlogNo=316371
http://eskiistanbul.net/ekler/skylife/dolmuslar.htm
The first website is especially interesting for showing a wide variety of cars other than 1950s American cars being used in the dolmus role. Skoda fans will find one in the photos from Ankara.
Hi,
As a 35 year old Turk, I vaguely remember riding those Dolmus taxicabs in my childhood in the mid 80’s. I also remember my uncle being a Dolmus owner and driver of a 52 or 53 Caddy or Chevy (Can’t remember for sure) in Istanbul and later in Ankara. I listenend many stories about creatively modifying or fixing those big old American cars from my uncle and his friends.
The second link on your post actually tells a bit about how those cars were imported to Turkey. In short, year 1950 was a milestone for the Turkish Republic because a new government opened international trade doors to foreign companies first time in Republic’s history. That caused a huge flow of imported cars, mostly American cars. One reason is the US military personel use in bases. Another is with the new NATO membership, the famous Marshall Plan to help Turkey build it’s new liberal economy, thus donating a lot of machinery and cars. Another reason is the Turkish Military personel training in US where they brought their American cars back to Turkey with them for free with military ships.
The new Turkish rich saw those cars as the symbol of their status. Owning an American car in the 50’s was every man’s dream my uncle says. There was also a great deal of black market or illegal activities where those cars were used as payments or donations instead of cash. A lot of American companies that were interested in doing business in a newly opened market “donated” those cars to high ranked officers as well as the local rich for favors. I think that was one of the main reason those cars were imported to Turkey.
So, by late 50s and early 60s, the major inflow of foreign investment to Turkey has slowed down. The foreign trade policies were changed towards limiting imports. The country had a period of scarcity of big ticket goods. The increasing city populations caused by the earlier expansion now created a major need for cheap transportation. But old busses, streetcars, trolley system were not up to par. City streets were narrow and rugged mostly and power was becoming very expensive. The Dolmus business started by simply becoming alternative to the public transportation and going to narrow routes that no buses could go. The need was for a vehicle that’s not too big and insufficient like buses, and not expensive and small as taxicabs. Thus came the American cars by being very simple, so they could be modified, usually extended, easily and strong enough to carry 6-8 passengers on narrow rugged streets and not crack in the middle 🙂 .
By the 70’s and 80’s, the Dolmus sytem had expanded to a level that was greater than any other public transportation system in the cities. The vehicles also started to change towards more efficient mini-buses that could carry 16+ including standing passengers 🙂 (Yes, not a lot of fun traveling that way). So, the old Americans started to go extinct and replaced by first the European minibuses like Deutz or Magirus, and then the Turkish knockoffs like BMC, Otokar.
Today, the Dolmus system still exists in many Turkish cities. The Ford Transit, or Otosan minivan models are used mostly.
Hope I was able to contribute.
There was a huge stand of the 1950s Dolmus cars at Taksim Sq. when I was in Istanbul in 1992. Our hotel was close by, but I had no occasion to utilize their services. For some reason, several sported Studebaker 15″ wheel covers, even tho’ they were Dodges, Plymouths and Fords. Those cars, along with the huge number of FARGO trucks were found all over Turkey that year.
Sadly, in my return trip to Turkey in April of last year, I saw only one FARGO truck, out of service, clearly parked for the long-term, and none of the 1950s-era Domus cars. When I visited Taksim, an enormous protest by students was underway that day. Two months later, of course, Taksim became the battleground site that dominated the news…
In 1992 Turkey felt still to be a country with one foot in the past. That was not evident now, not even in the eastern city of Kayaseri.
Here’s another Plymouth. I took this pic in April of 1972 at Istanbul’s airport. I was with a group of students from Rhode Island School of Design, on a two week jaunt over from Rome. Our Director, Jim Fowle is paying the dolmus driver. Dean Richardson, Chief Critic of the European Program, is unloading the trunk, and Robin Harrity a fellow student is smiling at left. Robin, a fashion major, had a beautiful custom made sheepskin coat made by an artisan at the bazaar. There’s an Anadol directly behind her. I took quite a few slides of old American cars during our stay in Turkey. They reminded me of photos I had seen of Havana. As you can see, the PLymouth wears Chevy wheel covers. Are those Caddy caps on the stretched Volvo in the article?
I think this (8-seater intercity taxis) is not just a Turkish phenomenon, the story of the Israeli equivalent, the “Monit Sherut” (Service Cab) is very similar to the dolmus and was commented on here briefly in the past. I can confirm the LWB Chryslers and Desotos were factory cars by the way. The Israeli versions of these US-made cars (which included Checker also, later the dominant American cab) were all diesels and had competition from Peugeot (with its 403, 404 and 504 wagons), the Fiat 2300 and Mercedes Benz with all of its smaller models in their stretched form; there were also some oddities like the Israeli stretched Studebaker lark, the Opel Omega (like a stretch Catera) and the 740 Volvo. All are now – like their Turkish equivalent – have been replaced in Israel (if not in the Palestinian Authority areas) by minibuses. The below is a typical 50s-60s picture of Haifa, with Mount Carmel in the background.
…and a bit later, one of Exner’s creations (pic by Y. Klein):
Here’s a Peugeot 403 Break:
Last one, a scene from the old town of Jaffa:
I was in Turkey about 10 months ago and neither saw nor even heard about these, and I must have missed the original CC article, so wasn’t really looking for anything like this. Did see a few Fargo and DeSoto trucks and a few older (’70-s to ’90’s) American cars and pickups. Current Turkish metered taxis seemed to be mostly “tall wagon” Fiat Doblo and the similar form-factor Dacia from Romania. For larger numbers of passengers it’s the ubiquitous Sprinter or VW Crafter equivalent.
Wanna reflect on this article, especially about the part which is mentioning the Cold War era and the destiny of the North-American made cars on the “other side”… Here is a shot taken in Belgrade 1961 at the front of the then Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia…
This is pretty esoteric, and the author couldn’t be expected to know it, but if it’s pronounced “dolmoosh,” then there’s a cedilla under the S: dolmuş.
Fascinating article!
The “Lada” on the other side of the street might be a turkish made Fiat 124 alias Tofaş Serçe…
This article inspired me to dig out some slides from my art class trip to Turkey in the Spring of 1972. They are companions to the one I posted above, and have never been scanned before. It’s a view of Istanbul, with the Bosphorus and its Asian side in the background, and a few of the many smoke puffing ferries that filled the harbor.
Then, there are the dolmuses. Check them out!
I lived in Ankara from 1960-1963 while my father, a US Army Officer, was stationed there. My father shipped his 1954 Pontiac SuperChief to Ankara in 1960. When we returned to the US in 1963 my father sold the car and I recall him telling me the car was worth twice as much in Turkey as it would be in the States.
Dolmuses were common in Ankara in the early 60s. While full sized American cars were still on the road in service as dolmuses, the VW Mini-Bus was beginning to capture the dolmuse market.
I don’t recall many Americans riding dolmuses in Ankara in the early 60s. Prices for everything in Turkey were amazingly cheap then and a taxi ride was cheap enough my American friends and I often took taxis around town when I was only 12 and 13 years old.
I visited Ankara for a few weeks last year found the city to me huge compared to the Ankara of old. Fortunately the house in which my family lived then is still standing.
I specifically googled American taxis Turkey because I remember them from a trip to Istanbul in 1980,, so it was nice to find this page. My recollection is that most of the ones I saw were Dodges from the late 1940s to early 1950s. Egypt at that time had even earlier American taxis, which some dating to the early 1930s.
I gave a hard copy of this to an expat Turk who’s one of the regulars at my local coffeehouse. As I write this he’s reading (and enjoying) it at the next table. He says the typical dolmus passenger was better-heeled than the typical bus passenger.
I was in Istanbul in 1967, being English I was delighted to see so many of American cars, didn’t see many in England then. Took a few photos, I was mostly interest in the 1930s ones then, the best was this ’30s V16 Cadillac, driver showed me engine to prove it, it had the V16 emblem on back as well. I went back in late ’90s when I heard they were all about to be phased out and took short rides around Istanbul, district to district in lots of them, but no ’30s cars left then, mostly mid to late ’50s
just come across a few of the photos of the dolmus’ in Istanbul in 1967 which may be of interest. This is the V16 Cadillac, I did take photos of the V16 emblem on boot and the negine but can’t find those unfortunately. It was amazing that it still had the original engine as a lot of the 30s and 40s car’s engines had been replaced by diesels.
A 1939/40 ? Packard
39/40 Chrysler ?
and a general view of the Galata Bridge from the Southern side of the Golden Horn.
It was the lovely recent post of photos of London (my home town) in teh ’70s which made me think back to this photo taken on my overland trip to Istanbul in 1967 which was before I had visited USA so was fantastic for my growing love for the style of early American cars
The “dolmush” system is a rather common solution for transportation needs in poorer countries. After WW2 the existing network of streetcars, buses etc was not able to comply with their fast growing population and there was no money for taxi rides. Bicycles were not cheap and some climates didn’ t help. In Brazil we had something called “lotações” (fully loaded cars) which apeared during the conflict because fuel was rationed. The preferred vehicle was the prewar Lincoln Zephyr with a flathead V8 transplant; they held on until 1955 more or less. By then 2nd hand American 1-ton trucks were rebodied for passenger service until superseeded by the locally manufactured VW bus.