Iran is, of course, all over the news these days after last week’s presidental election turned into a nationwide protest, with supporters of defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi claiming that the election was rigged in favor of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If you’ve missed out on the news, catch up with pictures of the demonstrations or read Robert Fisk’s report from the streets of Tehran, in defiance of the regime’s crackdown on foreign journalists.

While cars in Iran these days are mostly used as fuel to burn, it’s a big country with lots of cheap gas and a wealth of domestically produced cars. Presented here are a selection of photos and stories about cars which are either built in Iran or have connections to Iran.

Laleh Seddigh

Meet Laleh Seddigh, Iran’s most famous racing driver. It’s tough to be a female athlete in Iran with its strict Islamic dress code, but motor racing offers a quick escape: both men and women are generally covered from head to toe.

She is quick and has earned the respect of men, not an easy thing to do in motor racing anywhere. In an interview with Seddigh in The Observer, a fellow racing driver had this to say: “When she sits behind the wheel she sheds her feminine shell and turns into a man.”

Rest assured: when she is not racing against men, her feminine shell is very much intact.

Photo Credit: HENGHAMEH FAHIMI/AFP/Getty Images

Iran Khodro Paykan

This is the Paykan, Iran’s ubiquitous homemade car. Based on the 1967 Hillman Hunter, 2.3 million of them were made over four decades as the car incorporated new technology but few styling changes. Manufacturer Iran Khodro, the country’s largest domestic carmaker, has ceased production in 2005, sold off the production line to the Sudanese and introduced its replacement: the Samand.

Photo Credit: Fabien Dany/Flickr

Iran Khodro Samand

Debuting in 2005 and building on the long-standing relationship between Iran and France, the Samand is made on the platform of the Peugeot 405, a midsize sedan which was European Car of the Year in 1988.

Although it’s named after a breed of fast horse, the Samand is no Secretariat: power from its 1.8-liter inline four tops out at 97 HP.

Photo Credit: hapal/Flickr

Maserati 5000GT

Preceding the Samand by half a century, the Maserati 5000GT has power aplenty. Commissioned by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the CIA-backed monarch of Iran toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the 5000GT was an absolute monster.

Its five-liter V8 was derived from a racing unit and produced a healthy 340 HP. The first two cars went to Pahlavi, while Maserati made another 32 examples in the following 6 years. Enrico’s Maserati Pages has a wealth of pictures and data.

Photo Credit: Enrico’s Maserati Pages

1971 Lamborghini Miura SV

He may have been a despot who squandered away his country’s oil wealth, but at least Pahlavi spent it with good taste. His midnight blue Lamborghini Miura SV is perhaps the most gorgeous Lambo ever. The shah purchased it in 1971 and used it extensively until he was deposed in 1979. The car remained in Iran until 1991, when it was smuggled to Italy, then made it into the caring hands of Joe Sackey, who has had it restored to absolute perfection. Lamborghini Registry has the details.

Photo Credit: Lamborghini Registry

Riots in Tehran on June 15, 2009

This is what cars are used for in Tehran these days. The car is most likely a Paykan and these guys are supporters of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. They are protesting against the killing of their fellow demonstrators by Iranian security forces.

Photo Credit: -/AFP/Getty Images

Pin-up Paykan

This young man in Tehran proves that Paykans can be put to much better use than impromptu bonfires. Political Islam may be against the public display of women, but what goes on inside one’s vehicle is nobody else’s business.

On the other hand, pin-up girls have a way of transcending both nations and religions.

Photo Credit: kamshots/Flickr

Saipa Miniator, Meet the Democrator

Here’s the man the demonstrators would like to see out of office: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is pictured here in at the inauguration ceremony of car company Saipa’s new production line in December 2008. Saipa is Iran’s second-largest carmaker and it has always manufactured handed-down French designs. Until now.

The car Ahmadinejad is riding in is all-Iranian and has the greatest name since the Corvette Sting Ray: it’s called the Saipa Miniator.

Photo Credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

Iranian Peugeot Factory

The Miniator does not mean the end of Iranian production of French cars: when these guys are not taking a break, they make Peugeot 206’s in a Tehran factory.

Photo Credit: BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

Renault Tondar

Eastern Europeans will immediately recognize the homely rump of this car: it’s a Dacia Logan, manufactured by Renault’s Romanian subsidy. It is also made in Iran, where it’s sold as a Renault Tondar—that’s Persian for thunder.

Photo Credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

An SLK In Tehran

Bridging the gap between the deposed shah’s Italian exotica and the Paykans are European imports like this Mercedes-Benz SLK, burdened in Iran with heavy import tariffs. The owner of this Benz will have no problem filling it up with cheap Iranian gas, but he has paid an average Iranian’s lifetime wages for the privilege of driving a white German droptop in Tehran.

Photo Credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

Women-Only Taxi Driver

Let’s round up things with another Iranian lady. Sodabeh Kiyali is a taxi driver employed by a women-only taxi agency in Tehran. Buses are segregated in Iran, with women traveling in the back, but taxis are not: Nesvan Taxi is an option for women who don’t want to squeeze into a back seat with other men.

Photo Credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

10. DeTomaso Bigua (1996 - Present)

In the mid 1990s, DeTomaso developed the Biguà platform as a replacement for its aging Pantera model. The name was eventually changed to Mangusta and the design sold to Qvale, which hoped to produce enough of the models to remain profitable. Eventually, the design and plant were sold to MG Rover Sport, which resurrected the platform to underpin the MG X-Power and its variants. It's basically an Italian car powered by an American Ford V8 and then transplanted to Britain. Wasn't that the plot of Keen Eddie?

9. MG F/TF (1995 - Present)

Not to be confused with the MG company reproducing Qvale Mangustas, the non-sports-car side of MG/Rover was sold to a Chinese company, which has the rights to produce the original last MG two-seater model: the MG F/TF. The MG F/TF platform was developed as part of a reincarnation of the classic MG sports car and was relatively popular in Britain. When the company was sold to the Chinese they took over ownership of the MG F/TF design and are now reproducing them under the same name, including a MG TF police car.

8. Peugeot 405 (1987 - Present)

The Peugeot 405 was a popular sedan in its day, offering a sharp-for-the-era Pininfarina design, good performance and sporty-yet-refined handling. It was also the last Pug officially sold in the United States. The 405 was replaced in 1997 for most of the world, but still carries on in Egypt as the Wagih Abaza/Peugeot 405. Our favorite current variant, however, is the Iran Khodro Samand. It's the sexiest way to drive through an axis of evil.

7. Ford Ranger (1982 - Present)

The Ford Ranger, introduced in the early 1980s to take on rival Japanese compact trucks, has always been a capable compact truck. While the rest of the market moved into larger, mid-sized trucks with "modern designs" and "interiors that don't look 20 years old" the Ranger remained what it always was. Though there have been significant changes in the body style, engines and other key parts through the 25-year life of the Ranger, it is fair to say it is essentially the same platform. We continue to be told of the death of the Ranger but it continues to be produced and, though volume is low, is actually seeing sales declines significantly lower than the F-Series, which is due for replacement.

6. B2 Volkswagen Passat (1981- Present)

The second generation Volkswagen Passat platform, which was launched in 1981, was replaced in 1987 by the third-generation Passat familiar to many of us for its classic boxy design. Shanghai Volkswagen Auto started building B2-based VW Santanas in 1985 and liked the car so much that they've never stopped. Currently, the Santana is one of the most popular cars in China and has been updated numerous times to include MP3/CD radios, ABS brakes and electronic fuel-injection. In addition to being a passenger car, the Santana is like the Crown Vic of China in that it sees significant use in taxi and civil service fleets.
[Photo Credit: Flickr]

5. Ford Panther (1979 - Present)

The Ford Panther has the current record for the oldest platform sold in North America now that Volkswagen has finally stopped making Type-1 Beetles. Originally sold as the Ford LTD way back in 1979, the Panther still underpins the current generation Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car. Sure, it may be old, but we also kind of love it. If it ain't broke, right?

4. MK1 Volkswagen Golf (1974 - Present)

Thanks to Volkswagen's flexibility with design exportation, the very popular Mk1 Golf lives on in a perpetual state of hatchback bliss as the South African Volkswagen Citi. Variants of this Citi Golf abound, including versions not too-far-off from the original GTi, but the car is remarkably similar in style and design to that original and classic VW hatchback look.

3. Fiat 124 (1966 - Present)

The Fiat 124 may be the most prostituted car platform in the history of the automobile and, thanks to semi-solid Italian design and Russian thrift, it may never die. First produced in 1966, the 124 was the Turkish Murat 124, the Spanish Seat 124 and continues life, in reduced production, as the Russian Lada/AutoVaz Riva.

2. Morgan Plus 4 (1950 - Present)

While the Morgan Aero 8 may look like a car designed around the mid-century mark, the Morgan Plus 4 was actually designed and produced in the 1950s. This post-war two-seater was produced until 1969 as the company moved onto other models. In the mid 1980s the company needed the Plus 4 to fill a gap between two other Morgans so it continued its reproduction until 2000. Then, in 2005, the company thought "what the hell?" and started re-reproduction of the Plus 4, which now caries a Ford 2.0-liter Duratec fourbanger, as part of their "classic" line. [Photo Credit: AvonHill]

1. Morris Oxford (1948 - Present)

Celebrating 60 years in production, we're sort of curious if the original designers of the original Morris Oxford knew it would live on in-perpituity. The Oxford design was carried, with some major changes, through multiple generations in Europe. The folks at Hindustan Motors in India, however, never thought there was much need to improve over the third generation Oxford and continue to make the Ambassador in a form not too removed from the original. Though not the official car of India, it is one of the most popular cars in he history of the country and one of the oldest continually produced cars in history.
[Photo Credit: Picasa

This car parks in front of the same house that was once home to the '85 Peugeot 505, and it's visible in the background of the shots of that car. However, that 505 sedan is now gone… replaced by a 505 wagon. Don't worry, Peugeot fans, we'll check out that car later on.


Only 2,223 Peugeots were sold in the United States in 1991, prompting Peugeot Motors Of America to say "See ya!" and close up shop. This car sold new for $17,770, which wasn't too bad for a European sedan at that time; the BMW 318i came with a price tag nearly $2,500 higher. However, when you could get a Honda Accord sedan for $12,825 that year, Americans weren't going to roll the dice on a brand that never was able to shake a rep for abysmal reliability built up during the Malaise Era.