Imperia Standard Vanguard (Imperia-assembled) History

With its own car programme exhausted by 1948, Imperia signed an assembly agreement with the Standard Motor Company of Coventry. Parts were shipped from England in completely-knocked-down (CKD) form and assembled at the Nessonvaux factory, with the finished cars sold in Belgium bearing the Imperia name. The Standard Vanguard was a modern three-box saloon powered by a 2088 cc four-cylinder engine producing around 68 hp.

For the Belgian market Imperia's coachbuilders created a convertible version of the Vanguard — a body style Standard itself never produced — giving the assembled cars a degree of local distinction. The arrangement kept the Nessonvaux workforce employed but offered no long-term security: when Standard Motor Company decided to establish its own dedicated assembly facility in Belgium, Imperia lost its contract. The factory closed in 1957, ending half a century of car manufacture in the Vesdre valley.