Authi

The Authi car company of Pamplona, Spain, was founded in 1965 as a result of a collaboration between BMC (the British Motor Corporation) and NMQ (Nueva Montaña Quijano).

The Authi firm was officially registered on 12 November 1965 under the chairmanship of Eduardo Ruiz de Huidrobo y Alzurena, with its head office and premises at Arazuri, a few kilometers to the west of Pamplona.

The share capital was held by a Santander metal working business called Nueva Montaña Quijano S.A. (NMQ) which had originally been founded in 1899.

Other parts including axle, suspension, windows and smaller components were produced locally and in Barcelona in order to comply with the government's determinedly protectionist trade policies.

This broadened the appeal of the range in the still acutely price-sensitive Spanish auto-market, but it also dragged the Authi brand down-market which would compromise the company's future ability to price its cars at a premium against competitor Fiat and Renault designed products.

After-sales service suffered because the cars, in some ways more sophisticated than the old models offered by SEAT and Renault, were often not sufficiently understood by workshop personnel at the Authi dealers.

General Motors had been interested in buying the Authi production facility in 1974, but these talks collapsed, and the company set about building its own factory in the country, finally opening a plant at Zaragoza in 1982.