A luxury Chrysler Simca middle class with MPS
And that multiple personality disorder was perhaps not so strange either. Because apart from the fact that this large middle class was known as Chrysler, Simca and Talbot, his history was, to say the least, rather unclear. La pauvre enfant was and remained a bastard.

French. No, it's British
At the end of the sixties, both the Rootes Group in the UK and the French company Simca were busy developing a model in the upper middle class. The Routes Group worked steadily and stoically on their C-Car, the joyous French enjoyed the Project 929. That sounded rather mysterious, but it was nothing more than the development of the successor of Simca's large model, the earlier Vedette, and an addition to the already running 1501. Until then, that was Simca's top model, but parent company Chrysler wanted more. And bigger. Downsizing was still far away.

Limp on two thoughts
Chrysler Europe finally abandoned the idea of ​​bringing both models to market simultaneously. Wise. A place at the top of sales statistics was not their natural habitat anyway, they realized that themselves. Perhaps also whispered by the British branch, with some self-mockery. So a choice had to be made. It fell on the design of the British Roots Group, which was renamed Chrysler UK, and the concept was transferred to Simca, which now continued as Chrysler France. For example, the Chrysler 1970 and 160 were introduced in 180 by the resulting Chrysler Europe. With clear American styling influences, to make the confusion about the newcomer even bigger. Because what was the intention?

Best of both worlds
That was the intention. The idea was not bad: a European driving car with an American appearance. The practice proved more difficult. American styling enthusiasts ... ... bought an American. They almost never went for a compromise. The same applies to those who follow the European way of driving. They also bought European ones. So it was no blunder that this multi-cult Chrysler was not a hit in sales statistics. He had a bad start and later adjustments and upgrades to Chrysler Simca 1609 / 1610, Talbot 1610 / 180 / 2 liters or Talbot Simca 2 liters meant no flattened doors at the relevant dealers. They were already too busy anyway with the almost continuous adjustment of the facade advertising.

Unknown, unloved. Except in Spain
The best-selling market for this nice bastard was probably the Spanish one. In the Mediterranean oasis flooded by pale elderly people, relatively many of this top Chrysler were still sold. And that multiple personality disorder was perhaps not so strange either. sold even in a diesel version. This was of course mainly due to the fact that Chrysler had moved the production of the unsuccessful model from the French Poissy to the Spanish Barreiros. It was not the proverbial sweet sandwiches, but partly due to the diesel version and locally manufactured station wagon variants, quite a reasonable number were sold.

A silent death
In the rest of Europe, Chrysler Simca's top spot remained. It remained a worry. Despite all plans, in the concept phase there was even a thick six-cylinder version. But he never got going, people didn't know what to do with it. He was certainly comfortable, but again not American comfortable. His driving characteristics were okay, but again not at European top level. He really did not excel in anything, it was neither meat nor fish. European production finally stopped in 1981, for the Spanish home market it was produced for another year until the last one rolled off the line in 1982 and still nobody knew exactly what was meant by this extremely sympathetic schizophrenic.