Last European production cars with chassis?

I think you're pretty much on it tbh.

Funnily enough, I was just having this conversation.

The only 'moderns' I could think of would be the likes of TVR and Lotus Elise, tho i think you'd be hard pressed to find an economical donor from those stables

Most 4x4s such as Suzuki, Diahatsu etc, but not particularly suited for 'normal' car basis, and you'd probably run into trouble with the 8 point system by the time you've got it sitting right.

Does a floorpan chassis (like Beetles have) count as seperate chassis for purpose of BIVA/IVA in regards to body mods etc.?? That kind of design seemed to live longer than pure separate chassis which seems to disappear in saloons around the mid-late 50's

Most small cars moved to unitary body with the movement away from the pre-war design in the late 40s/early 50s.

Morris went monocoque in '49 with the Minor.

Ford went monocoque in '53 with the 100e.

The Mini ('59) is monocoque, as is the Imp ('63).

The Hillman Minx moved to a monocoque with the Phase 1 in '39 (production resumed unchanged post-war).

The Herald was very unusual in keeping the chassis, and was, I believe, widely criticized in the motoring press for that reason.

Bigger cars seemed to take a little longer - probably because they weren't big sellers at the time, so the companies concentrated on the booming small car market. For example, the Rover P4 (chassis) was only replaced by the P6 (monocoque) in the early '60s. (As an aside: the P5 ['58, monocoque] wasn't a replacement for the P4: it was bigger and ran alongside both the P4 and P6.)

I think the Beetle requires both the backbone and the floorpan (both unmodified) - but not the upper bodywork.

I don't know about the 2cv or Renault 4 though - nor do I know what else has something similar.

EDIT: thinking about it, the 2cv 'shell is so flimsy that the chassis must count as a proper chassis by itself. But don't take my assumption as truth.

EDIT2: Some Lotus (Elan, Elite, maybe others?) used a backbone chassis, but I'm fairly sure that the DVLA regards these as linked subframes bolted to a glass monocoque.

yes, lotus bodies carry the v5/vin etc



what about the people carriers?
I'm sure I was told a while back that one them, possibly a citreon or renault, used a GRP body and chassis

What about the Reliant robin was made into the 2000's l think

Astons are built on a chassis be it aluminium extrusion glued/bolted together, the outer panels are cosmetic as to save money the crash car's didn't have outer panels.

There are probably other small car companies but to me the last proper volume car with chassis would have to be the TR6 which finished in 1976.

Thats the kind of info that I love to stash away in the dark recesses of my mind in the vain hope that I might actually use it one day. Another "late model" euro with a seperate chassis was the Wartburg Knight, the later ones even used a Golf engine as the 2 stroke triple was an emmisions disaster. Just a thought, but that would be an ideal basis for the powered caravan project that popped up again recently.

I believe the Disco 3 is as I've heard comments about the body having to be lifted off the chassis to do certain maintenance jobs.

Not strictly european but the toyota CROWN was built with a seperate chassis up to 1995.....