Neckar

NSU had built a large car factory in Heilbronn, but ran into trouble in the economic crisis and sold it to Fiat in 1929. In the summer of 1929 NSU Automobil AG was formed from it, with two million Reichsmark of capital – a company that built and sold Fiat cars in Germany. The first Heilbronn cars were six-cylinder Fiat 521s; the NSU 7/34 carried on with a Fiat engine.

The small models followed in the nineteen-thirties: the Fiat 508 Balilla as the NSU-Fiat 1000, the 1500 from 1936 and the 500 “Topolino” from 1937. After the war the 500 C was built from 1951 to 1955, 9,064 of them. Then came the Jagst on the Fiat 600 and 770 (1956 to 1969, 171,355 cars) and the Neckar, or Europa, on the Fiat 1100 (1953 to 1968, 159,731 cars). 1962 was the best year: more than 50,000 Neckar and Jagst. Bodies and accessories came from Weinsberg: from 1938 the coachworks there belonged to Fiat as well, but remained a separate company.

The name came out of a dispute. When NSU at Neckarsulm began building its own cars again in 1957, the badge on the Heilbronn cars became a problem. On 1 January 1960 the company became Neckar Automobilwerke AG Heilbronn, vorm. NSU Automobil AG. On 1 September 1966 the NSU name was dropped altogether, and in 1968 “Neckar” went as well.

Three different years are quoted for this change of name, for a simple reason: “Neckar” stood for three things in turn. First it was a model name – the Fiat 1100 built in Heilbronn was already called that in the nineteen-fifties. Then it became a brand name, after the settlement with NSU in October 1959 and at first only for export. And only on 1 January 1960 did it become the name of the company as well.

At the end, Heilbronn assembled Fiat 124, 125 and 128. Assembly stopped in 1973. From 1929 until then, 412,085 vehicles had been put together at the works.