At a time, Isuzu imported Bellett and Florian passenger cars into the Netherlands. This started back in 1963 when the Dutch company Seinen in the Hague started importing the Isuzu Bellel and Bellett. In fact, Isuzu was the first Japanese car company to set foot on Dutch soil. The Bellel (with diesel engine) was mainly sold to taxi operators because what better way to prove reliability than running it as a taxi. Naturally, this also backfired when they proved to be far less reliable than their European counterparts. Toyota repeated the same strategy with the Crown and was successful as the Crown proved to be a reliable car. You could argue Isuzu was a pioneer and Toyota followed and succeeded.
Near the end of the decade, the Bellel was replaced by the Florian. By 1972, the Bellett was replaced in Japan by the Isuzu Gemini. The Gemini is an Opel Kadett C built in license through General Motors. Opel has a very strong foothold in the Netherlands and therefore the Gemini couldn’t be sold in the Netherlands.
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