Rootes / Talbot (Hillman, Humber, Matra, SIMCA, and Sunbeam) Resource
Chrysler Europe (later Talbot) was a combination of Rootes Group, SIMCA, and Matra. Rootes Group itself included Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam, Singer, and Talbot.
Rootes Group companies were generally known for performance or quality when they were absorbed. Some were among the earliest makers of motor vehicles, from the days when a good year meant hundreds of cars produced.
(UK Chrysler owners may need this car insurance.)After Rootes took car companies over, some became mere nameplates, and others found larger markets. When Rootes was failing, Chrysler injected capital and rationalized the product lines. When Chrysler itself failed, due largely to ill-timed investments in performance and large cars (not to mention Rootes Group), it sold its European companies to Peugeot, which temporarily renamed them Talbot.
The Horizon was the last “Chrysler Europe” car to be produced, surviving in the US into 1990. (The last true Rootes car, arguably, was the Arrow/Hunter series). The Rootes Group tale is not one of inspired leadership, though there was a good amount of inspired engineering... an all too familiar tale for Chrysler devotees.
Car companies of the Rootes Group
Singer started out with bicycles, moving to cars in the late 1800s, though its first successful car came out in 1912. Singer was known for being nimble and technologically advanced before World War II, and afterwards gained a reputation for being good, solid, reliable transportation.
William Rootes got his start in the auto trade by buying fifty Singer Tens at their launch and reselling them at a profit. Ironically, in 1955, Rootes was able to buy Singer, the company that launched his car career.
Sunbeam started out as the project of a tin-plate maker; the first cars were sold in 1901, with Sunbeam’s first modern and popular cars launched in 1906, based loosely on a Peugeot design. Sunbeam saw a number of racing successes before and after merging with Darracq (which had just bought Clement-Talbot) in 1920. Racing turned out to be expensive, though, and the company remained unpaid for work done in World War I. Sunbeam was purchased piecemeal by Rootes, which dropped Sunbeam's factory and cars, turning it into Rootes’ the luxury carmaker. Rootes then dropped the Sunbeam brand entirely, but it came back later as Sunbeam-Talbot.
Hillman, Humber, and Rover all started in Coventry, a center of the cycle trade. Bicycles made engineer William Hillman a millionaire; his first car started in 1907 with 24 horsepower. His company ran to success with a 9 horsepower model introduced in 1913. A brand new luxury straight-eight (2.6 liters) was introduced just as the Depression began, leaving Hillman’s company cash-poor; it merged with Humber, which was already under Rootes control. After the merger, Humber was positioned above Hillman, though the cars were mechanically similar in many ways.
SIMCA, Matra, and Talbot: the French car connection
Henri Pigozzi founded Simca (Societe Industrielle de Mecanique et Carrosserie Automobile - roughly translated, it means “car mechanicals and bodywork company”) at Nanterre, France in 1934. Initially the company built Fiat (roughly translated, “Italian car company of Turin”) cars under license. The successful Aronde models of 1951-60 marked the end of Fiat control, though they used a Fiat engine design. The Fiat influence carried through to the 1000 series of 1960-79, of which over 1.6 million were built.
In the 1950s Simca bought Unic, Talbot, and Ford of France; 15% of SIMCA shares were optioned to Ford, but they were sold to Chrysler instead. Chrysler became the majority holder in 1963 and in 1969, merged SIMCA with Matra’s automotive division. In 1970, Chrysler took over just about all outstanding stock, and dropped the SIMCA name in favor of their own.
The new model programme initiated by Chrysler produced the succesful (2 million made over 1967 to 1982) 1100 series, which formed the basis of the Chrysler Europe Alpine and Horizon (and Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon too), and was briefly fielded in the States in the early 70's as the Simca 1204, one of the Chrysler's trio of captive import subcompacts (along with the Plymouth Cricket from Hillman and Dodge Colt from Mitsubishi). In 1978, Chrysler sold SIMCA to Peugeot, along with Rootes, for an almost impossibly small figure, SIMCA’s success being balanced by Rootes’ tendency to lose cash. After the Peugeot takeover, Chrysler Europe was renamed Talbot Groupe, after Sunbeam-Talbot in the UK and the French concern Talbot owned by SIMCA. The Simca name survived until 1981; Talbot was used thereafter.
Matra is a small company, but they have been responsible for some influential and well remembered vehicles.
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Rootes Group cars including Singer, Sunbeam, Hillman, Humber, SIMCA, Chrysler Europe, and more!