Welcome to the first foray into The Carchive of 2014. For those of you not aware of this series, it’s a global phenomenon beloved by anybody with a penchant for old car brochures that should have been disposed of years ago.

Last year, if you remember that far back, we finished up with The Maserati 3200 GT. Today I can offer you, well, more or less the exact opposite.

“A Luxurious Workhorse”

This is a thin but informative presentation, published in 1995 by the famed Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych, or FSO. 1995 was the year this splendid contraption began to accumulate on British roads, chosen almost exclusively on grounds of lower cost than competing vehicles.

“A top class versatile one-ton truck. It’s the first pick-up to combine efficient transport of goods with the comfort of a luxury car”

It all comes down to expectations, really. If, in 1995, you were still driving around in a 1960’s Austin pick-up that you had owned from new, you might indeed be overwhelmed by the wealth of modern amenities that the Polish export could offer. Such dazzling features as a glove compartment, a radio placement panel (radio wiring provided), a clock and an electrical method of lighting cigars. If your only experience of commercial vehicles had been with examples from the pre-Vietnam era, then yes, this was a luxurious vehicle.

Other than that, FSO were possibly stretching things a touch. In fact, being brutally honest, the FSO Caro wasn’t exactly an S-Class rival, even in the non pick-up version.

“You’ll find that the Caro Pick-Up’s cabin is surprisingly well equipped, just as the saloon version”

Truthfully no FSO was ever sold in the UK on a promise of luxury, more on the concept of receiving a lot of vehicle for a surprisingly meagre amount of cash. The Caro was a rolling update of the Polonez, itself a rebody of the 125p (P for Polski), a warmed over Fiat from the days where the dust hadn’t quite settled after the big bang. The Polonez, incidentally, was a Giugiaro design, which links nicely with the Maserati 3200 GT we saw recently. This series doesn’t just fall into place, you know.

Though FSO were never a big player in the UK, there nevertheless a sparse but loyal following for the company here. The cars did have some appeal; you were talking about a car which was almost Sierra sized yet cost little more than a Fiesta. They were sturdy, too. In 1978 tests the original Polonez was the Eastern European car built that passed U.S. crash tests.

It was logical, then, that a pick-up model with the same promise of strength and robustness would garner fans in equal measure.

“FSO Caro Pick-Up- Spacious with a big payload”

The cargo bed was five feet wide by six and a half feet long, with three dropsides that could be removed in any combination. You could even carry some pretty serious crap back there, up to a metric tonne of whatever old nonsense you had that you needed to shift. Old car brochures perhaps. The engine, too, was proven; a PSA 1.9 litre diesel from the XUD stable, not a potent unit but fairly unburstable. All things considered, it was a surprisingly adequate load-lugger.

But, ultimately, disposable. I used to see these knocking about, driven by assorted frugal odd-job-men on a fairly regular basis. They gradually grew more and more decrepit until, one day, they seemed to disappear altogether. This was probably ten years ago, which would tend to indicate that, however many standard features there might have been, adequate rust protection may not have been one of them.

(Disclaimer: All images are of original manufacturer publicity material, photographed by me with the white-balance set up wrong. Sorry. Copyright remains property of FSO, who currently build recycled Daewoos. Sigh.)