A Phenomenon Called, Pride

Khodrocar – almost half a century ago right by the time Paykan (Iran National’s built Roots Hunter) came to Iran in 1967 as the first nationally produce vehicle, this very vehicle was what to Iranians as VW Beetle was to Germens. Economical and capable so soon took the nick name as "the Chariot of the Iranians”.

Paykan took a deep steep path down the history of its production as the time passed. More important design specifications omitted from the ride such as the warm wooden interior, soft cushion seats and adjustable steering column and a great down ward step in assembly quality made IKCO (Iran National after Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979) to let go of Paykan's production in 2005.

The substitute

Even before Paykan farewells the production line, its substitute was almost selected in the market by people choice as it was plenty on the streets, the Pride. The selected was a vehicle with almost the same monetary characteristics of Paykan. Pride was first produced by Mazda Motors and Ford Motors after wards. Kia Motors took over and the sold the entire production line to Saipa Group in 2001. Pride as well as Paykan was economical, cheap and easily available. Thanks to great effort of Saipa Group and its Co-part producers, various designs and models of Pride were produce throughout time bearing different names but yet known to mob as the very same Pride. Plenty of spare parts were also easily at hand so the vehicle turned into a great choice for every day drive and that’s how it took the conceptual title as the Second Chariot of the Iranians. The platform of Pride was substituted with the so called X100 platform in 2010 bearing new models with numerically coded names but still called Pride by people.

Pride, the Result of the Mission Impossible

Pride was questioned so many times about the matter of its price range. The vehicle was always priced extremely lower than what the production costs could convince questioning people’s minds. This vehicle family also was revised during the time just like Paykan with great decrease in quality from the incoming raw materials to assembly precision. So many other unofficial reasons like the decrease in number of bolts or welds point in the platform were talked in to justify its really cheap price. No matter what, Pride family’s price was always low, from 70 million IRRs in the beginning of 2000’s, reaching 150, 200 and now 280 million IRRs (roughly 7000 USD) at the level of purchase power of Iranian majority. That is exactly why Jamali, Saipa Group CEO could insult Prides’ costumers with his own words.

No ENCAP safety videos are available from Pride’s family, it was either never tested or Saipa Group never published one, the vehicle family does not have anything to say regarding safety measures is an obvious fact to everyone.

Saipa 111 was officially out of production run yesterday in Saipa Group production line of Kashan, the same line dedicated to Saipa-Citroen deal. On the other hand Iran Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trades declared the year 2018 as the final production year for Saipa Group’s X100 platform family so the important question pops. What is the substitute for Pride or X100 family or from the other view point, the Third Chariots of the Iranians?

Two years ago, in an Iranian media meeting held in Tehran to discuss Renault based matters, Payman Kargar, Renault-Pars Co. CEO and MENA Director of Renault Group at the time, in answer to the question whether Renault Kwid is going to substitute Pride or not, said directly that Pride was the occurrence of an impossibility. Production of a vehicle to exactly replace pride is impossible now. Just to pass the required standards for a new vehicle in order to be let to be produced at least two air bags are required. Considering other requirements of a new vehicle productions it is obvious that even Kwid will easily pass beyond Pride family price range therefore cannot be a suitable replacement for it. In the other hand Pride is a rare example in global automotive industry and cannot be replaced.

Khodrocar Reporte: Mostafa Anisi