Shinjin Motors or Sinjin Motors (, ) is a defunct South Korean car manufacturer.
A related bus manufacturer called "Shinjin Bus Manufacturing Company" was founded in 1955 as an independent company. It is now a part of Daewoo Bus Corporation.
History
The Shinjin Industrial Company started as a parts producer in 1954, branching into the automotive field in 1958 as a rebuilder for the U.S. Army, with actual assembly commencing in 1962.
The Government of South Korea enacted the "Automotive Industry Promotion Law" in 1962. Under this legislation, the importation of assembled automobiles was outlawed, subsidies were made available to assemblers who were also afforded tariff exemption on the importation of parts. Responsibility for deciding which firms would be authorized to undertake automobile manufacturing was held by the Minister of Trade and Industry, who at the time opted to appoint just one company for each product segment to maximize economies of scale. The minister initially favored the Sammi Corporation for passenger automobiles. Preference was shifted to Saenara Motors after the latter made alleged political contributions to the party recently established by the military government. Consequently, Saenara signed an agreement with Nissan who provided the company with technical assistance and a 35 million loan to facilitate the construction of a factory in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon. Saenara Motors began importing duty-free Datsun Bluebird (310) semi-knock-down kits from Nissan in November 1962 at a cost of per unit. The assembled cars were then retailed at —thus producing large profit margins that allowed Saenara to provide political donations to the government. Due to a shortage in foreign currency, the junta later forbid the firm from importing further kits, leading to the cessation of manufacture in May 1963, having built only 2,773 cars. Saenara collapsed that July, thus resulting in its ownership transfer under joint management by the ministry and Hanil Bank.
In November 1963, Shinjin released the Shinsungho (alternatively spelled Sinsungho)—an exact copy of the Saenara Bluebird except they were fitted with Jeep engines. Shinsungho models continued until 1966, by which time just 322 Shinsungho cars had been produced.
The ministry unveiled a new automotive plan in August 1964 that envisaged a parts and components sector that revolved around a sole automobile assembler. The government reassigned Shinjin as the authorized automobile producer in May 1964 via a new Shinjin Automobile Company division, with the manufacturer taking control of the Saenara plant in November 1965. The selection of the Shinjin bid was again attributed to sizeable contribution to the political party in power. However, according to Odaka (1983), the government's selection appears to have made provision for the technological capability of Shinjin.
Initially, Shinjin formed a technical venture with Mitsubishi Motors, assembling 100 units of the 1500 cc Mitsubishi Colt model with imported and semi-knock-down parts. This was denounced by other firms as it acted contrary to the government’s objective of localizing the parts industry, and as such Shinjin terminated the deal a year later.