Auto Industry In IRAN   1- Brief History The first car imported into Iran was a Ford that Mozaffaredin Shah, the king of Qajar, had purchased it from Belgium. This car which puffed much smoke was renowned as "smoky chariot". Following urbanization process since 1920, the importing trend of cars increased. Most automobiles of that time were brought from the USA and England. The first car manufactured in Iran was called "Paykan". It was produced in "Iran National Industrial Corporation" licensed by British Talbot Company and offered to market in 1967. Later on, Iran National Company, on a gradual basis, assumed the manufacture of other vehicles like pick up, minibus and passenger bus. In the same year, two models of American "Rambler" cars locally called "Aria" and "Shahin" were produced by Pars Khodro, however, one year later, in 1968, a model of French Citroen named "Dyane" was offered by SAIPA company to the national market.   In 1972, Pars Khodro transformed into "Iran General Motors" and started manufacturing two models of Chevrolet (Opel) 2500 cc and 2800 cc as well as three other cars licensed by American General Motors, namely; "Buick", "Cadillac" and "Chevrolet Nova". The production of these cars continued until 1981. In SAIPA Company the production of "Citroen Dyane" stopped in 1980, however, the manufacture of "Renault 5" that had already been launched in 1975 went ahead. In recent years, the production of innovative cars such as "Pride", "Peugeot 405 and 206", "Nissan Patrol" and "Mazda 323" could be mentioned. 2- Auto Manufacturing Companies Automobile manufacturing companies in Iran are as follows: Iran Khodro, SAIPA, Pars Khodro, Shahab Khodro, Iran Khodro Diesel, SAIPA Diesel, Morattab, Kerman Khodro, Raniaran and Zamyad. 2-1 Iran Khodro Company (Ex-Iran National) Iran National Industrial Corporation (Iran Khodro) which is the biggest automobile manufacturing plant in Iran was established on 19 March 1962 and one year later, on 19 March 1963 came into operation. The company started operating of "Paykan" assembly line then followed by the production of "Mercedes Benz Bus 302" and "Minibus 309" as well as "Paykan Pick up". After Islamic Revolution, the title of Iran National changed into Iran Khodro.     Afterwards, following the closure of British Talbot Company, Iran Khodro purchased related production line machinery and launched it in Iran. At the same time, this company concluded an agreement with French "Peugeot" to target the production of "Peugeot 405". Furthermore, Iran Khodro initiated the production of nationally optimized model of "Peugeot RD" and "Hyundai" minibus in 1997 which followed by the manufacture of "Peugeot Pars" (Persia) and "Peugeot Station". In this context, this company is expected to begin the production of "Peugeot 206" and "X7" or "National automobile" as of June 2001. 2-2 Morattab Industrial Company LTD Morattab Industrial Company was established in September 1957 to serve as dealer and local agent of different types of cars. However, since 1970 its general regulations witnessed some changes and the company began to assemble different types of "Land Rover" four wheel drive cars including pick up, ambulance and station wagon. It also engaged in production of different accessories. In recent years, this company further to the manufacture of a model of 4WD car "Pazhan" (Land Rover) is committed to produce some accessories such as propeller shaft, clutch, etc.