Milintica seeks to export car

The Milintican Ministry of Trade, in cooperation with the Milintican Autoworkers’ Union and MNAC (Milintican National Automotive Cooperative), have announced they will begin exporting the MNAC Model 1 sedan.

The MNAC M1 has been manufactured in Milintica for domestic use since 1965, and is originally based off of foreign models built under license by MNAC. The M1 is currently in its fifth generation, having received substantial updates and modernization over its long production run. “The MNAC M1 in production today is well-suited to provide affordable, comfortable, fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly and reliable transportation to the masses,” MNAC Director Aika Arona told DTNS. “It is the true peoples’ car of Milintica, and it can now provide that same benefit to people around the world.”

The M1 is something of an iconic vehicle in Milintica, being the predominant passenger car available in the country. The car is often featured as a cultural symbol of the country, as well as a touchstone of the country’s independent spirit. Reviewers have described the M1 as being exceptionally fuel-efficient and low on emissions for a traditional gas-powered car. It is also equipped with modern safety features and has fared well in crash tests. But it has been panned for being an extremely basic car with very few modern comforts. “The M1 is basically a box with four wheels and an engine,” a review in DTNS from 2020 said. “Modern amenities like navigation? Heated seats? Um, no. The M1 just started offering aircon as an option last year, and having an M1 with both aircon and a radio seems to make some Milinticans consider you just a touch bourgeois.”

The main selling point for the M1, other than its rock-bottom cost, is its reliability, the review continued. “Unlike just about everything else produced in Milintica, the M1 is incredibly tough and utterly reliable. The thing never breaks down and you have to try really hard to kill it. Its reliability and sturdiness have actually become the stuff of videos and meme fodder online, showing people doing things like dropping an M1 off a cliff or driving it into the ocean and still being able to drive off in it afterwards. Of course, the M1 has been produced in its same basic form for over five decades, so one would think they had worked out the bugs by now.”

The M1 will be first exported to Huenya, where MNAC will reopen an automotive factory in Acalan in a joint venture with the newly created Huenyan Automotive Ventures Company (HAV). From there, MNAC is expected to seek permission from many other countries to begin offering the vehicle for sale. It will be called the Milinticar in export markets, and is expected to promote itself as a “cheap and cheerful” car available to people who otherwise might not be able to afford a vehicle.

The cooperative made it a point to declare that the vehicle would not be offered to “any nation whose government follows an authoritarian or otherwise oppressive path, in accordance with our cooperative principles.”

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