Chrysler (1967–1978) In June 1964 Rootes Motors announced
Chrysler would take a 30 per cent interest in their ordinary capital offering current shareholders double the market price and a 50 per cent share in the non-voting preference capital for almost three times market price. The purchase would leave control in British hands. On completion Rootes family holdings would still exceed those of Chrysler. The purchase was completed in October 1964. During 1966 the holdings were increased to 45 per cent of the ordinary shares and 65 per cent of the non-voting shares and in January 1967 holdings were increased to about two-thirds of Rootes Motors capital. It was renamed Chrysler UK on 30 June 1970. It has been suggested that the demise of Rootes began with losses due to industrial relations problems at their
BLSP plant in London, with knock-on problems down the supply chain. By the mid-1960s, Rootes was progressively taken over by Chrysler of the United States, following huge losses amid the commercial failure of the troubled Imp. The company's financial year ran to 31 July, and in the year ended 31 July 1967 Rootes was able to report a pre-tax profit of just £3.8 million. It was the first reported profit since 1964 and compared with a pretax loss of £10.7 million in the year ending in 1966. Lack of funds for new model investment was a striking feature of the company's final decade. Chrysler was also keen to take control of the struggling firm as it wished to have its own wholly independent European subsidiaries like archrivals
Ford and
General Motors. Chrysler took over
Simca of France and
Barreiros of Spain at the same time, merging it with Rootes to create
Chrysler Europe. In 1970, the Rootes name was replaced by Chrysler United Kingdom (correspondingly the French arm
Simca was renamed Chrysler France at the same time), and subsequently disappeared from the public sphere. The various Rootes marques were progressively phased out during the 1970s. Only Hillman was left by 1977, when it, too, was shelved in favour of the Chrysler name. The Commer name was also phased out in the 1970s; the van and truck models mostly assuming the
Dodge nameplate by 1976. In
Iacocca—an Autobiography, former Chrysler chairman
Lee Iacocca was disparaging of the Rootes operation, writing that Chrysler should never have bought it. Chrysler UK continued with a range of rear-wheel-drive family cars such as the
Hillman Avenger (introduced in 1970) and
Hillman Hunter (introduced in 1966), while the Imp — which by now had most of its teething problems ironed out — was largely ignored by the new management. The Imp's commercial chances were not helped by the launch of new imports in the early 1970s including the
Fiat 127 and
Renault 5, which not only showed that front engined,
front wheel drive hatchbacks would become the industry standard format in the entry level market segment, but spearheaded an influx of popular imports. In the late 1960s, Chrysler endeavoured to market the Rootes cars in the US. These efforts proved unsuccessful. Marketing in the US was impeded by an inability to offer cars for sale during part of 1968, as the Rootes cars could not comply with exhaust emission requirements. was produced between 1970 and 1981 In the early 1970s, with the rise of interest in sub-compact cars, Chrysler offered the Hillman Avenger in North America as the
Plymouth Cricket. This attempt was aborted after only two years. At the same time, Chrysler's Dodge Division offered the
Dodge Colt as its subcompact, sourced from
Mitsubishi in Japan. The Colt proved a popular and reliable car, hastening the Cricket's demise. However,
Chrysler Fevre Argentina commenced manufacturing the Hillman Avenger-based Dodge 1500, and this car continued in production until 1990. During its last 10 years of production it was badged as a Volkswagen after that firm acquired Chrysler's Argentine business. There was also a Brazilian variant until 1980. By the early 1970s, Chrysler Europe was working on the development of two new family car ranges which would be produced at both its British and French plants, and sold under both the Chrysler and Simca marques on the relevant markets - similar to the integration of British and German model ranges which its rivals Ford and General Motors were carrying out at the time. The
Chrysler Alpine (sold in France as the Simca 1307/1308) was introduced in 1975, being produced at the former Rootes plant at Ryton as well as the former
Simca plant at
Poissy, near
Paris. The
Chrysler Sunbeam a three-door hatchback based on the Avenger floorpan, was introduced in 1977 as successor to the Hillman Imp. Also, Chrysler UK made a significant contribution to the design of Chrysler's European range. As well as the Alpine and Sunbeam, there was the saloon derivative of the Alpine, the Talbot Solara (launched in early 1980 after Chrysler sold its European operations to
Peugeot), and
Chrysler/Simca Horizon. The Alpine and Horizon were both voted
European Car of the Year on their launch, and the Horizon was the basis for the US
Plymouth Horizon and
Dodge Omni, which were very successful for Chrysler and continued in production in various guises for more than a decade. The Imp was finally discontinued in 1976, and the Hunter followed it three years later (although it continued to be produced in Iran). Indeed, componentry for the Iranian version of the car was a successful UK export during the 1980s. kept the company going in the later 1970s Only the Avenger-based
Chrysler Sunbeam hatchback, launched in 1977 kept the Rootes lineage alive, although the Alpine name was still in use and later Alpine and Solara special edition models were given the old Rootes model names, Minx and Rapier. The rights to the Rapier name remained with the successors of the company, and were eventually resurrected again on a few limited edition
Peugeot models. There was also a special Sceptre edition of the 205, 405 and the 605 SRi models. This used a black plastic badge with the chrome effect Sceptre cursive script similar to that on the sideflashes of the '60s saloons. In the case of the Peugeot cars, the Sceptre badging was applied to the bootlid and lower aft part of the front wing. Chrysler had spent much of the 1970s unsuccessfully trying to integrate its Rootes and Simca ranges into one, coherent whole. The traditionally engineered, rear-wheel-drive cars of the British division had limited appeal outside the UK, although the Avenger and Hunter—the first locally assembled car to reach a total of 30,000 units sold in its 12-year lifespan—were both relatively successful in New Zealand. Hunter production continued there and in Ireland until 1979, and it was built in Iran by Iran Khodro as the
Paykan for many years more. Unfortunately, with its problems in the US, Chrysler did not have the capital to invest in refreshing their entire product range, and sales of the older designs stagnated in the face of more modern competition. Also, the production facilities were outmoded, industrial relations problems were persistent, and the products had a poor reputation for quality. In the face of massive losses, and the risk of high unemployment in the surrounding areas if the factories closed, the Ryton and Linwood factories were the subject of frequent government bail-outs.
Peugeot-Talbot (1978–2007) Despite the government assistance, the weight of problems bearing on Chrysler Europe resulted in its collapse in 1977, leading to the company's 1978 takeover by
PSA Peugeot-Citroen. PSA soon wielded the axe over the troubled Linwood factory in Scotland, and exhumed the
Talbot marque from the pages of Rootes' history to re-badge the former Chrysler and Simca badged models. Whilst Ryton was saved, PSA took little interest in the heavy commercial vehicles and the former Commer/Dodge/Karrier truck and van factory was run in conjunction with the trucks division of
Renault. After the withdrawal of the last Dodge-derived trucks (latterly badged as Renaults) it became an engine production plant for
Renault Véhicules Industriels. was the first Peugeot assembled at the Ryton plant The first Rootes model to be discontinued under Peugeot's ownership was the Hunter in 1979, and its production tooling subsequently went to
Iran, where the
Paykan went into local production, which continued until 2004. It remains a common sight throughout the
Middle East, especially as a taxi. The closure of Linwood in 1981 spelled the end (in Europe at least) for the Avenger. Chrysler had retained the rights to the car, and continued its production in
Argentina. The demise of Linwood also meant the demise of the Talbot Sunbeam after just four years in production. Its successor was the French built
Talbot Samba, based on the
Peugeot 104, and which went on sale in the UK in February 1982. By this stage, however, Peugeot was a year away from unveiling its highly acclaimed new
205 supermini, although it was originally planned that Peugeot would launch a Talbot badged supermini on the 205 platform as well as a
Citroen some time around the mid-1980s. The Simca-based models (the Horizon, Alpine and Solara) continued to be built at Ryton, using the resurrected Talbot badge from 1979. However, the Talbot-badged models declined in popularity over the next few years, with sales dropping from nearly 120,000 on the UK market in 1979 to around 25,000 in 1984, while at the same time the Peugeot brand was gaining ground thanks to the success of the 205. By 1985 PSA had announced that it would abandon the three-marque strategy on passenger cars, and the Horizon replacement, developed as the Talbot Arizona, became the
Peugeot 309 when it was launched in the autumn of 1985, and was the first Peugeot-badged car to be assembled at the Ryton plant. The Arizona's styling was mismatched with the rest of the range, making it resemble an enlarged Simca 1108. The Talbot badge was discontinued on passenger cars, with the Alpine, Solara and Samba all finishing production in May 1986, and the last Horizon models leaving the production lines in Spain and Finland a year later. The Talbot brand survived on the
Express van - part of a venture between Peugeot and
Fiat - until 1994. The Ryton plant was initially retained and went on to assemble the
Peugeot 405 alongside the 309 from 1987, as well as the 309's successor (the
Peugeot 306) from late 1992, and finally the
Peugeot 206 from 1998. Ryton began assembling its last Peugeot, the
206, in 1998. At the height of the car's success, the plant was working at capacity to satisfy demand. Ryton's importance in PSA's overall strategy was as an assembly operation with limited production capacity compared to PSA's main factories in France and Spain - particularly as its location between two main roads made expansion impossible. In April 2006, after years of speculation surrounding Ryton's future, the
PSA Group announced that production of the
Peugeot 206 would be shifted to
Slovakia and the Ryton plant would close within the next year. Production at the plant ceased on 12 December 2006. It marked the end of nearly 60 years of car manufacturing at Ryton, and severed the motor industry's final remaining direct link with the Rootes Group. More than 2,000 jobs were lost as a result of the factory's closure. It was demolished soon after. The only physical remnant of the Rootes Group still in existence is the
Whitley research and development centre - originally established during the Chrysler era, but subsequently sold by PSA and is now owned by
Jaguar Land Rover. The intellectual property owned by the former Rootes Group (including dormant marque and model names) was divided up between Chrysler and PSA Peugeot-Citroën following the divestment of the company's assets in 1978; and still appear from time to time on both companies' products - for example Peugeot has used the names Minx, Rapier and Sceptre on various occasions, and on one occasion considered a second resurrection of the Talbot marque as a new budget brand - whilst Chrysler has reused the Avenger nameplate on the
Dodge Avenger, and more recently on the
Jeep Avenger in 2023. In 2021 the successors of both conglomerates, namely
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and
PSA Group merged to form
Stellantis - effectively bringing together the surviving fragments of the Rootes Group back under one umbrella. ==Commemorations==