Back to the future for favoured family-friendly classics

A bizarre scheme to revive long-dead cars from manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot and Ford has been cooked up by a South African marketing executive.

Johannesburg-based John Storey has won tentative support from the South African Government to attempt local production of cars such as the Peugeot 404, Ford Cortina and 1960s Mercedes-Benz models.

Storey says he dreamed up the scheme after talking to residents of Soweto about the affordability of modern cars. He learned that African families mourned the passing of a generation of cars that were more rugged, easier to repair and capable of carrying a family.

Indeed, thanks to their strength and simplicity, the Peugeot 404 and 504 were hugely popular in West Africa.

Storey also discovered that modern European cars built in South Africa - typically Volkswagens, BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes - were too expensive for most of the country's citizens. In fact, the local new-car market is collapsing as the used market continues to grow.

He is now searching the globe for the manufacturing machinery to recreate one of the classic models. Storey says his born-again car will cost less than $20,000.
- Hilton Holloway