We remember Simca as an honest French brand. At Chrysler we think of deeply roaring V8s. And Talbot? Oh yeah ... Something about cars? The turbo car from Spirou and Fantasio? Oh no: those terminal Simca's. Recovery: European Chryslers.
The Simca / Chrysler / Talbot 18oo / 2 liter is the best example of how marketing can cause confusion.
The car that most closely resembles a Hillman Avenger treated with growth hormones and is designed to be sold as Humber in England.
And then the Managers & Marketers at the American Chrysler decided that they should also anchor their Brand Name in the Old World. The Yanks bought the entire Rootes group. And Simca. The Yanks decided to have the powertrain of the First European Chrysler developed at Simca, which they now also owned. The 1800 engine was just on, the French fiscal 1600 clearly too little, the later 2 liter engine was pleasantly touristy. It often came with an automatic transmission attached to it. The handling was comfortable French / American week.
Chrysler later sold the British and French possessions to Peugeot. For $ 1 plus the debts. The Chryslers were wearing them
last days as Talbots
Partly Humber, part Simca. Part of the production came from Spain. The quality was often questionable. The rust sensitivity is enormous.
The driving dynamics were absent. The appearance of the car was so neutral at the time that it was almost invisible.
And now? Now a surviving Simca / Chrysler / Talbot is an underrated rarity. For today's viewer, the carriage has a certain understated elegance and the two-liter engine with automatic transmission is suitable for today's traffic.
I drove such a beautiful Chrysler at the time. He was about three years old and was already falling apart from the rust. A few more welding attempts, but he was irretrievably lost. The moter lok subframe, the sills, the fenders, everything rusted under your butt. Motor looked like a charm. In the end I was afraid to drive it and it disappeared to the scrapyard.
As a former simca mechanic and owner of a few simcas, it must be of my heart that this does not fully correspond to reality.
Personally had an 180gt around disc brakes manual beautiful thing.
Then an 2.0 automatic transmission on top almost 200 km was really not bad for that time
This in the period from 1976 to 1982
Comparison with the cars of that time such as Ford Taunus Opel rekord and Peugeot 504, the choice was easily made.
Unfortunately undervalued by the general public.
I only have good memories of this car and last year I bought one from Brabant for an acquaintance, a party of recognition.
Dear Brant, Good memories are worth gold. My brother had one too. By the way, that was a copy that kept rusting 🙁 But these texts are about the success that some cars emphatically did not have and what possible reasons for that.
I would now like to be punished with a 2 liter ...
Yours faithfully,
Dolf Peeters