Difference between revisions of "Chrysler Europe"

In the 1960s, [[Chrysler Corporation|Chrysler]] sought to become a world producer of [[automobile]]s. The company had never had much success outside North America, contrasting with [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]]'s worldwide reach and [[General Motors Corporation|General Motors]]' success with [[Opel]], [[Vauxhall Motors|Vauxhall]], [[Holden]] and [[Bedford Vehicles|Bedford]]. In 1967, Chrysler succeeded in purchasing the '''[[Rootes|Rootes Group]]''' of the [[United Kingdom]], '''[[Simca]]''' of [[France]] (in which they already had a substantial stake since 1958), and '''[[Barreiros (manufacturer)|Barreiros]]''' of [[Spain]]. These entities were combined to form '''Chrysler Europe'''. Although the original marques were retained at first, from 1975 British-built cars were badged as Chryslers, while the Simca badge appeared on French versions (though with the Chrysler pentastar, in some markets the cars were sold as Chrysler-Simca). Chrysler used the [[Dodge]] marque on commercial vehicles produced by both Simca and Rootes ([[Commer]] and [[Karrier]], but in addition using ''[[badge engineering]]'' to sell vehicles overseas under the [[Fargo (truck)|Fargo]] and [[DeSoto (automobile)|DeSoto]] brands).  In addition, in some countries, such as [[Spain]], the Dodge and Simca marques would be used for other vehicles, mostly Spanish-designed (ex-Barreiros) trucks and buses and locally-built versions of US-market vehicles or local versions of Simca cars.

In the 1960s, [[Chrysler Corporation|Chrysler]] sought to become a world producer of [[automobile]]s. The company had never had much success outside North America, contrasting with [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]]'s worldwide reach and [[General Motors Corporation|General Motors]]' success with [[Opel]], [[Vauxhall Motors|Vauxhall]], [[Holden]] and [[Bedford Vehicles|Bedford]]. In 1967, Chrysler succeeded in purchasing the '''[[Rootes|Rootes Group]]''' of the [[United Kingdom]], '''[[Simca]]''' of [[France]] (in which they already had a substantial stake since 1958), and '''[[Barreiros (manufacturer)|Barreiros]]''' of [[Spain]]. These entities were combined to form '''Chrysler Europe'''. Although the original marques were retained at first, from 1975 British-built cars were badged as Chryslers, while the Simca badge appeared on French versions (though with the Chrysler pentastar, in some markets the cars were sold as Chrysler-Simca). Chrysler used the [[Dodge]] marque on commercial vehicles produced by both Simca and Rootes ([[Commer]] and [[Karrier]], but in addition using ''[[badge engineering]]'' to sell vehicles overseas under the [[Fargo (truck)|Fargo]] and [[DeSoto (automobile)|DeSoto]] brands).  In addition, in some countries, such as [[Spain]], the Dodge and Simca marques would be used for other vehicles, mostly Spanish-designed (ex-Barreiros) trucks and buses and locally-built versions of US-market vehicles or local versions of Simca cars.