Simca was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bought Ford's French subsidiary, became increasingly controlled by Chrysler. In 1970, Simca became a brand of Chrysler's European business, ending its period as an independent company. Simca disappeared in 1978, when Chrysler divested its European operations to another French automaker, PSA Peugeot Citroën. PSA replaced the Simca brand with Talbot after a short period when some models were badged as Simca-Talbots.
Plymouth was a brand of automobiles produced by Chrysler Corporation and its successor DaimlerChrysler. The brand was launched in 1928 to compete in what was then described as the "low-priced" market segment that was dominated by Chevrolet and Ford. It became a high-volume seller for the automaker until the late 1990s. Plymouth cars were marketed primarily in the United States. The brand was withdrawn from the marketplace in 2001. The Plymouth models that were produced up to then were either discontinued or rebranded as Chrysler or Dodge.
The Dodge Rampage was a subcompact unibody coupe utility based on Chrysler's L platform and manufactured and marketed from 1982 to 1984 model years. Plymouth marketed a rebadged variant for model year 1983, as the Scamp.
The Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries are mid size cars introduced for model year 1981 as the first "K-cars" manufactured and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation. The Reliant and Aries were the smallest cars to have the traditional 6 passenger 2 bench seat with column shifter seating arrangement favored by customers in the United States, similar to larger rear-wheel drive cars such as the Dodge Dart and other front-wheel drive cars such as the Chevrolet Celebrity. The Reliant was powered by a then-new 2.2 L I4 SOHC engine, with a Mitsubishi "Silent Shaft" 2.6 L as an option. The Reliant was available as a 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan, or as a 4-door station wagon, in three different trim lines: base, Custom and SE. Station wagons came only in Custom or SE trim.
The Hillman Avenger is a rear-wheel drive small family car originally manufactured by the former Rootes division of Chrysler Europe from 1970–1978, badged from 1976 onward as the Chrysler Avenger. Between 1979 and 1981 it was manufactured by PSA Peugeot Citroën and badged as the Talbot Avenger. The Avenger was marketed in North America as the Plymouth Cricket and was the first Plymouth to have a four-cylinder engine since the 1932 Plymouth Model PB was discontinued.
Talbot is a dormant automobile marque introduced in 1902 by British-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot business during the First World War.
The Talbot Horizon is a compact hatchback designed by Chrysler Europe and produced from 1978 to 1987. It was sold under the Simca, Chrysler and Talbot nameplates. The successor to both the Simca 1100 and Hillman Avenger, the Horizon adopted a front-wheel drive, transverse-engine layout.
The K-car platform was a key automotive design platform introduced by Chrysler Corporation for the 1981 model year, featuring a transverse engine, front-wheel drive, independent front and semi-independent rear suspension configuration—a stark departure from the company's previous reliance on solid axle, rear-drive unibody configurations during the 1970s. Derived from Chrysler's L-cars, the Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni, the platform was developed just as the company faltered in the market, at first underpinning a modest range of compact/mid-size sedans and wagons—and eventually underpinning nearly fifty different models, including all-wheel drive variants—and playing a vital role in the company's subsequent resurgence.
The Dodge Omni and the nearly identical badge engineered variant, the Plymouth Horizon, is a subcompact car manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Corporation for model years 1978-1990. The first Chrysler model line produced with front-wheel drive, the Omni and Horizon were also the first front-wheel drive economy cars assembled in the United States. Marketed for eleven years with very few changes, around 2,500,000 Omnis and Horizons were manufactured, with the Plymouth variants more popular than the Dodge-branded models.
The 2.2 and 2.5 are a family of inline-4 engines developed by Chrysler Corporation originally for the Chrysler K- and L-platforms cars and subsequently used in many other Chrysler vehicles. After its launch in 1981, it became the basis for all Chrysler-developed 4-cylinder engines until the Chrysler 1.8, 2.0 & 2.4 engine family was released in 1994. It was the first Chrysler engineered four cylinder engine since the Chrysler flathead four cylinder was discontinued in 1933.
The Simca 1307 is a large family car produced by Chrysler Europe and subsequently PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1975 to 1986. Codenamed 'C6' in development, the car was styled in the United Kingdom by Roy Axe and his team at Whitley, and the car was engineered by Simca at Poissy in France.
The Chrysler M Platform was an intermediate-sized automobile platform used by Chrysler motors from 1977 to 1989. It was a successor to the F-body, as used on the Dodge Aspen/ Plymouth Volare. The M-body was also the successor to the short-lived R-body, as the Chrysler New Yorker and Plymouth Gran Fury moved to it following the R-body's demise in 1981. The M platform was the final production passenger car with a solid rear axle mounted on Hotchkiss-style, parallel semi-elliptical leaf springs sold in the U.S.
Chrysler Europe was the American automotive company Chrysler's operations in Europe from 1967 through 1978. It was formed from the merger of the French Simca, British Rootes and Spanish Barreiros companies. In 1978, Chrysler divested these operations to PSA Peugeot Citroën.
TorqueFlite is the trademarked name of Chrysler Corporation's automatic transmissions, starting with the three-speed unit introduced late in the 1956 model year as a successor to Chrysler's two-speed PowerFlite. In the 1990s, the TorqueFlite name was dropped in favor of alphanumeric designations, although the latest Chrysler eight-speed automatic transmission has revived the name.
The Simca 1100 are a series of French compact family cars – mainly C-segment hatchbacks, but also a compact wagon and popular delivery vans – built for over 15 years by French car-maker Simca, from 1967 through 1982/1985. There was even a very early 'hot hatchback', and a family cross-over: the Matra Simca Rancho. The hatchbacks were replaced by the Simca-Talbot Horizon.
The Dodge Omni 024 was a modified version of the popular Dodge Omni made from 1979 to 1982. Analogous to the VW Scirocco, this car was a lower, sportier three-door hatchback coupé version of the Chrysler/Simca Horizon, using the five-door hatchback's floor pan and chassis as a basis. The cars were designed in-house at the prompting of Lee Iacocca.
The Simca Poissy engine, commonly known as the Simca 1100 engine, was a four-cylinder Overhead valve engine developed by Simca for use in its superminis and economy cars, designed by the engineer Georges Martin. In spite of its common name, the engine actually predates the Simca 1100 model, and debuted in 1961 in the Simca 1000. It was developed and produced by Simca in the late 1960s at the manufacturer's factory in Poissy, hence its name.
The Dodge Charger (L-body) is a subcompact two-door hatchback/fastback built by Dodge from 1981 until 1987. It is based on Chrysler's front-wheel drive L platform. A companion model, the Plymouth Turismo, was also marketed.
In the context of the automobile industry, downsizing is a practice used to transition vehicles from one size segment to another. Commenced during the Malaise era, downsizing is done in response to consumer and government demands influencing vehicle design. As vehicle product lines completed their model cycles, automobile manufacturers developed the next generation of a vehicle with a smaller exterior footprint to allow for weight reduction and increased fuel economy, using a shortened wheelbase and body length.
The first-generation Chrysler minivans are a series of minivans produced and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation from the 1984 to the 1990 model years. Introduced as the first minivans from an American-brand manufacturer and popularizing the minivan as a vehicle, the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager were launched ahead of chief competitors Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari and Ford Aerostar.
