DAF

DAF founder Hub van Doorne was born in 1900. His brother, Wim, was born six years later. Thy were born in America, a small village in the Netherlands. Hub van Doorne's Machinefabriek was set up in 1928 as a metal fabrication workshop. The firm made trailers, so by 1932 the name changed to Van Doorne's Aanhangwagenfabriek NV (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory Ltd) or DAF. The company began to make lorries in 1949, becoming a major force in the European truck industry. From 1957 the famous 2000 series of trucks was developed, along with the smaller 1000 series. In 1958 DAF launched their first car, the 600, leading to the Type 30, the Daffodil, the 33, 44, 55, 66, 46 and the Volvo 66 after the Swedish firm took over DAF car production in 1974. The 2600 truck appeared in 1962, and the 2800 in 1973. In 1985 the Space Cab was launched, followed by the DAF 95 in 1987. DAF trucks expanded in 1987 by buying the UK Leyland truck division of BL. This created a new international truck maker, Leyland-DAF, and added a full range of vehicles from vans and light trucks developed in the UK to the heavy trucks for which DAF had become famous. The timing was unfortunate, however, as in the early 1990s Europe hit a recession and the truck sector was particularly badly hit. Leyland-DAF went into receivership in February of 1993. The Dutch-Belgian division was reconstructed and became Europe's most efficient truck maker. 1994 saw the introduction of the Super Space Cab. DAF was sold to US truck maker Paccar (Peterbilt and Kenworth). A few years later, Paccar, which already owned Foden in the UK, also bought Leyland. This allowed DAF to rebuild its truck range, bringing Leyland's light trucks back in-house, but van maker LDV remained outside the deal and gradually faded into bankruptcy in 2009. In the 21st century the CF, LF and XF were added to the range. In 2102 the Euro 6 was launched.