page_title: Vanajan Autotehdas
section_title: Exporting efforts
hierarchical_section_title: Vanajan Autotehdas / Exporting efforts
caption_attribution_description: English: The very first Vanaja to be exported in Turku harbour. The ship is S/S Regulus.
context_page_description: Vanajan Autotehdas Oy was a producer of heavy vehicles based in Hämeenlinna, Finland. The company was founded as Yhteissisu Oy in 1943 by the Finnish government and a number of major Finnish companies with the aim of producing lorries and buses for the Finnish Defence Forces. World War II was over before the company could start series production; it was renamed Vanajan Autotehdas and the marque became Vanaja. Subsequently, the production consisted of outdated lorry models, partly built from military surplus materials. After overcoming initial difficulties, the company modernised its products, became profitable and grew until the mid-1950s. Many major components, including engines, were imported. Diesel engines became widely available in 1955, and in 1959 VAT introduced its most significant innovation, the full load lifting tandem axle mechanism, which improved off-road capability significantly; the system is now used in Sisu vehicles.
  The company started producing bus chassis in 1950, and the superstructures were built by a number of Finnish coach builders. The last models were appreciated by a number of bus operators, and missed after production was stopped.
context_section_description: In September 1958 VAT, together with other Finnish companies, participated in the Thessaloniki International Fair. The vehicles shown were one Vanaja VAK lorry and a mid-engined VLK550 bus chassis. Due to the AEC engines, the Vanajas did not raise interest among the potential Greek customers, as relations between the UK and Greece were bad at the time. The lorry was finally sold in Greece but the bus chassis returned to Finland and was sold to a bus operator which built a tourist bus body on it.
  VAT signed a contract to sell 200 lorries to Turkey in 1959. The first two vehicles were shipped from Finland in 1959 but the contract was terminated in an embarrassing way because the Bank of Finland refused to take Turkish liras in payment.
  At the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s, VAT and the French Camions Willème SA had plans for joint production, but only one jointly produced prototype was ever made; the chassis was from Vanaja, the engine was from AEC, and the cabin, which was a forward control type cabin and partly made from glass fibre, was from Willème.
  Four Vanaja's were shown at the Barcelona international fair in June 1961. The vehicles were taken to the fair by driving them through Europe. The fair was considered successful, but no vehicle sales resulted from it.
caption: The very first Vanaja to be exported being lifted onto a ship in Turku Harbour in 1958
exif: {}