Oltena

A relaxation of the state control occurred in 1994 and a new, privatised company was set up, accompanied by a name change to OLTENA.

Oltena developed some five door prototypes on an extended platform which never went into production.

Later that year a joint venture between Oltcit and South Korean industrial giant Daewoo called Rodae (Romanian Daewoo) was set up to both sell the Oltena and import Daewoo cars.  The Oltena was restyled at this time and given a new nose (right) which looked not unlike that of the Talbot Solara and Samba.  Two versions of this car were built – the 11 E (powered by the 1129cc engine) and the 12 E (1299cc).

Above and below - Oltcit cabriolet

With the withdrawal of Citroën, there was a change in logo as evidenced on the Oltena brochure above.

In early 1996, there was another name change to SC Axa SA Craiova and the decision was taken to end production of the Oltena since each car was sold at a loss of $1500.

SC Mecatim SA Timisoara, producer of the Lastun car indicated that it wanted to transfer the manufacture of the Oltena to its factory in Timisoara but to the best of my knowledge, this never happened.

A commercial variant of the Oltena was also available, called the Cargo or 12 CS, this was a pick up.   The first prototype was built in 1988 and used the floor pan of the proposed five-door version (see above) but due to high development costs, this was abandoned in favour of a version using the three-door Oltcit floor pan.

The Oltcit World Car
According to Gilles Colboc and Jean François Ruchaud's excellent book, "Les Citroën du monde", in the mid nineteen eighties, US automobile manufacturer Chrysler, having sold its European operations to PSA found it needed a new small car to distribute in the USA and Canada.  Chrysler was put in touch with Oltcit’s Romanian management and an American delegation visited Craiova where they were astounded to discover an up to date automobile factory; more modern than anything the company owned in the USA.  The Oltcit management decided to adapt the Oltcit to North American norms but experienced great difficulty with achieving the requisite emissions from the air-cooled boxer.  A prototype was fitted with a Magneti Morelli monopoint injection system and catalytic converter but this failed to meet either US or European emissions standards.
Olda
A prototype Oltcit was also produced in Romania in 1986, Called Olda (Oltcit Dacia), this made use of the Dacia 1300 engine and transmission but there were major problems in getting the ensemble to work but some of the ideas found their way into the RM.

Above and below - Oltcit had developed a cabriolet but was unable to get this homologated for road use – there were major structural problems which were not helped by the lack of a roll bar and the use of a horizontal piece of veneered wood between the rear wings did not do much for rigidity.