(Updated 1/29/2026) Back to Asia for this fifth edition. I’ve only been to what is now officially called Ho Chi Minh City once, so I really can’t be much help with identifying most of the buildings here (though I do know the above is the train station). Click on the pics to see them full-screen and keep your eyes peeled for one of the most various automobile fleets we’ve seen thus far.
1952 — French colonial times still, as reflected by the Peugeot/Citroën omnipresence. The Traction Avant on the left is a 15-Six, on either side of which we have a Peugeot 203 découvrble and a wagon.
Early ’50s — again replete with Tractions Avant and 203s, though we now have a Chevrolet, some Jeeps and a Simca 8. Also a couple of Renault 4CVs, which will become the ubiquitous local taxi in short order.
The municipal theater, soon to become the Parliament building, in 1956. The French are gone and there are more American cars now…
We’re going to see this hotel a few times. Here’s a mid-’60s shot, with a very nice variety.
This 1964 picture is a bit more US-centered. Hard to imagine so much colour in the streets today.
1965
1965 again, with a white Traction Avant cabriolet. The blue and white 4CV taxis are now a fixture.
Still 1965, with a prewar Ford (or Matford) and a brand new Sunbeam Alpine, among other goodies.
1965 again
The Parliament building again, now in 1966. Borgward Isabella on the left.
A rather sweet Renault Floride in 1966.
1966
The Continental Palace again in 1966.
Free World Military Assistance Forces Headquarters building, 1966.
I had to study this photo a bit before I could guesstimate the date. It looks overwhelmingly ’50s — the Tractions Avant, the ’58 Chevy, the Panhard Dyna X… But that blue 2CV has six windows and, it seems, no suicide doors, so it’s a ’67 model.
1967 under the monsoon.
1967 in the dry, with a Corvair and an Austin-Healey. Toyotas have started to appear…
Saigon City Hall, 1968.
1968
1968 again — the Japanese cars are more common now, but the American and French metal remains.
Still in 1968 — this street has more of a German feel…
1968
Lots of excellent spotting in this shot of the rue Pasteur in the late ’60s.
That Hillman is just about to fall apart!
The Hôtel Majestic’s pure Art Deco facade still looked great in the late ’60s. That building is now long gone, unfortunately. As are most of the cars in this pic, I imagine… Maybe not the Benz…
1969
Tough Cits: that gray Traction Avant was at least 17 years old when this picture was taken in 1969. And there’s another one in the distance.
1970
1970 again. The Mini Moke seems like an ideal vehicle for this climate.
1970 still — a car-spotter’s paradise.
1971
Standard 8, Willys Jeep, Fiat 850 coupé and a cute little Honda N360 in 1971
1973
1974 — a brand new locally-built Citroën La Dalat and a row of ageing 4CV taxis.
1979 — Hanoi has taken over, but some remnants of the past still remain…
… including those brave rear-engined Renaults. It’s 1992 here and they’re still working for a living.
Checking back to the Continental in 1993. Things have evolved a bit and Japanese cars seem to have taken the lead. Still, there’s a Citroën BX, so some folks are loyal to that brand. Which is more than I can say for nowadays — I went to Vietnam a few times, as aside from museum exhibits, I don’t think I’ve seen any French cars there.
Hope you enjoyed this little five-city tour. If I have the time, I’ll put together another post with various bits and pieces from around the world that I found while trawling the web for these and other posts.
I drove in Saigon in 1969 and 1970.The vehicle was a 1943 Dodge M37. One is captured in the first 1970 picture. The trips were semi authorized.
That’s an M35. M37 was 3/4-Ton Dodge.
By the time I was aware that Viet Nam (or is it Vietnam?) was a country, it wasn’t much more than a war-torn place on the nightly news. This post teaches me that it is so much more.
Because I wasn’t really aware of things, none of these photos were anything I really considered. I remember catching a glimpse of John Wayne in “The Green Berets” playing on a TV somewhere and thinking to myself, “WTF is John Wayne doing driving a Citroen??” and had to dig back to some corner of my memory that Vietnam was indeed a place before the war, and that it was a French Colony, and it would make perfectly good sense that a US Army Colonel would be driving a locally-appropriated French sedan.
That poor Citroen was running on 3 cylinders.
A tous!
I was in Vietnam in l968-69 and again 1971-72 ..Saigon and Ban Methot. I saw many Renault
Cv’s as taxi, some Citroen….otherwise…not many French and/or American. Although one day
while sitting on the porch of the Continent Hotel….a Kaiser and a Chevrolet go bay…yes a Kaiser.
I liked Saigon and Vietnam
All I see is Jeeps everywhere 🙂
What I got from these photos is that the four door hardtop was the preferred American car in the market.
The 1964 photo shows lined up: ’58 Chevrolet; ’59 Mercury; ’58 Ford; ’59 Buick; another ’58 Ford; what may be a ’59 Pontiac. All seem to be four door hardtops. In 1979 there is still a ’58 Plymouth four door hardtop on the road.
I can only guess that when A/C was a very expensive luxury that the American four door hardtop, with all windows down, was the most comfortable way to travel.
A fascinating collection of photos.
Hi,
congratulations for the nice pictures!
– 16th picture from the top, dated 1967 because of the blue Citroen:
Yet this date seems a bit strange as there is no other mid-sixties car in sight, and not a single american one (ok the jeep…).
Was not the third lateral window an after market thing that could be ordered from some accessory maker before it was installed by Citroen ? The car looks a bit customised, with more chromium that it should.
– Why so many british cars from the mid-sixties?
– Also on the 1973 snapshot, the 4CVs look in great shape. The one I was driving in the early ’70s (a hand-me-down from my mother…) was far more rusted in spite having spent its life in a dryer climate.
[ C.C.effect, I was re-watching ‘Apocalypse Now’ yesterday, but the film was not shot in Viet-Nam.]
Happy new year everybody, with a lot of nices posts like this one.
AFAIK, the extra backlight in the 2CV was premiered on the Belgian-made cars in 1965 and took two years to reach the French ones. Not aware of any aftermarket version of it…
I’m seeing a 1958 Chevrolet sedan in that picture, along with the Jeeps and other US heavies.
I’m just as surprised as you to find so many British and German cars, and relatively pristine 4CV taxis well into the ’70s. That’s why I posted these photos – they depict an automobile fleet that is more varied than any of the ones I posted before.
They did seem to like the older Hillman Minx…
The influence of US military vehicles in the 60s and early 70s is very evident, The 1987 monsoon picture with the almost definitely government owned IH Scout in the foreground has a Ford pickup in the right background with what looks like USAF style markings on the door and the Suburban on the left also looks US owned. You see another Scout in 73 followed by either a Scout or Bronco. Also lots of Ford station wagons.
Going through the pictures, I immediately saw the scout in the picture from 1973. I had to go back and look at the 1967 picture to see that one.
For only making some 500,000 vehicles in a 20 year run, it’s amazing to see how far they emigrated…
That picture dated to 1964 with that line of pristine big American 4 door hardtops all from 1958-1959 makes me wonder if the date is off (which I found to be the case not uncommonly with images on the web). Those cars all look essentially new, and I wonder if they’re in front of a dealer of some sort? It seems almost impossible to think of that being a random collection of parked cars, especially in 1964.
Yes, it does seem an unlikely coincidence, seeing as it’s so different from the other photos. But what importer or dealer would have that blend of Ford and GM? The other cars on the street that can be made out are no help, either – the ubiquitous 4CV taxis… The stated date could be off, of course. IIRC, I found this one in a page in Vietnamese, not that this makes the date any more credible.
But what importer or dealer would have that blend of Ford and GM?
An independent importer of almost-new four door hardtops. 🙂
Looks like the cars are parked in front of a hotel. What was the state of the rental car industry in Vietnam in 1962-5?
Driving a bright blue Plymouth, is way too capitalistic… too capitalistic especially in that environment
Well, there’s always Havana.
But seriously, when I searched later (post 75) photos, car traffic became noticalbly sparse. Lots of two-wheeled traffic, cyclos more common than taxis, etc.
Cars reappear in numbers by the late 90s. By the time I visited that city, in 2013, cars had turned 90% Japanese, like most of Southeast Asia. The two-wheeled (90% motorised) traffic is amazingly thick, dwarfing other means of transport.
Great pictures. I visited Ho Chi Minh in 2002, unfortunately after the government instituted an old car cleanup. But up in Da Nang there were still a bunch of mid-60’s medium-duty Dodge and International stake trucks in service, along with some Renault and Peugeot passenger vans.
Outstanding photo research and final selections Tatra. Many of these images come to life!
So much work is evident here.
Fascinating photos. A Corvair Monza is the last type of car I expected to see in Vietnam.
Full marks from AntiSuv to Tats. Keep up the great work.
I spent a week in Saigon in 2013 – the old French city centre where most of these pictures were taken is still a delight to walk around in, with treed boulevards and parks giving respite from the heat. Interesting sights, great food (and beer!), and inexpensive accommodation make it a great city to settle into and observe for a while. And despite its communist government (no outside media was available at the time) it’s as commercially exuberant as any other city in Asia.
This fine piece exploring Vietnam and its car history made me think of the man inexorably linked to both the country and the auto industry – Robert S. McNamara. Just think of what might have changed for both if he had stayed at Ford in 1961 instead of going off to join the New Frontier. Often mistakenly dismissed as a dour bean counter who fancied plain Jane cars like the Falcon, McNamara also realized that cars like the T. Bird and Lincoln brought profits in the door and was instrumental in approving the iconic Bullet Birds and Continentals of 1961. He also understood that American cars had gotten too big by 1960 and his simple, basic Falcon blew away the complex Corvair and weird Valiant. A managerial genius who, with his fellow whiz kids, saved the company after WWII, his automotive instincts were usually spot on. Not bad for not really being a “car guy”.
Too bad these skills deserted him in his next job, where he learned the hard way that managing a war was not the same as managing a car company. Proof that brilliant men are not infallible.
They’re sure not. He was a stats genius who helped advise some brutally cold decisions for US bombing operations in WW2 (for eg, working out from stats that planes weren’t dropping their bombs from the right height through fear – threat of court martial if returning bombs aboard changed those stats, and many other examples). But the Vietnam responsibility did him in, as it’s very clear he had a monumental breakdown by ’67. I’m sure you’ll have watched the doco the Fog of War, I mention it for others who might not have. It’s centred on a long interview about his life, and is utterly compelling, and recommended.
Hillmans, Anglias, Cortinas, Standards, ADO16’s, why, it’s almost as overrun with miniature England as the Trocadero was in those Paris shots…
I reckon the sun got to people, for who would willingly board a Standard (Of Misery), or a side-radiator Morrie 1100 in that heat and traffic? They overheated here when the sun came out. In winter. The Saigon ones can’t all have belonged to Graham Greene. Perhaps they belonged to folk who wanted to be The (Very) Quiet American(s) (ie: cooked).
Great post.
Pretty cool series of pictures .
Maybe do an article on Tuk – Tuks ? .
-Nate
I did 2 tours in Vietnam back in 66-69, one year each. I was in country though, so never saw that many cars.
Interesting pictures. Thanks.
My father was there in 1970. Transited through Saigon on his way to be deployed in the highlands. I recently went to the city for work and it is quite modern. He was amazed at the pictures I sent him.
Motorscooters are the main transportation. They flow and adjust like schools of fish.
This is for all the men and women who answered the call and served in Viet Nam.
Your duty will never be forgotten.
May we never, ever, forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Great collection of photographs, thank you for having assembled this collection! One minor note, the first photograph is the “Saigon Central Post Office” (see Wikipedia), not the railway station.