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23-544: The plant at Poissy had been built by Ford France between 1937 and 1940, but after the war the economic direction of France was uncertain. Ford had equipped the plant to produce the V8 engined Ford Vedette but the government was imposing punitive levels of car tax on cars with large engines and sales fell well short of expectations. In addition, the Poissy plant experienced above average levels of industrial unrest. Simca purchased

46-562: A new plant of its own at Poissy in 1937, with the stated intention of pulling out of the Strasbourg based Matford project. By the time the Poissy plant came on line in 1940, France had been invaded. Poissy itself was occupied by German troops on 14 June 1940. Ford's new plant there would spend its first years controlled by German automakers operating from Ford’s Cologne plant. Production was dedicated primarily to trucks and military vehicles, initially using existing French designs. After 1943

69-418: A number of coupé, cabriolet and station wagon adaptations. The 13CV was valued by customers for its interior space, comfort, style and performance. However the car’s fuel consumption also put it at a competitive disadvantage against the market leading Citroën 11CV . That coupled with a post-war France tax policy intended to heavily discourage cars with engine sizes above 2-litres put a damper on sales. In 1947

92-690: A prototype developed in Dearborn in 1941. This model, launched in October at the 1948 Paris Motor Show as the Ford 12CV Vedette now replaced the F-472A. The Vedette was joined in 1952 by its upmarket counterparts, the Vendôme , and Comète sports coupé, cars that were not shared with any other Ford subsidiary. In November 1954 Ford merged the entire French operation to Simca at first keeping 15.2 per cent of

115-483: A still influential former prime minister, to introduce in December 1956 an additional savage annual car tax for owners of cars with larger engines. The Suez crisis simply built on the economic case for a small engined version of the car, and Simca was therefore ready to respond very nimbly to the changed circumstances created by the crisis, fitting a 1290cc "Flash" series engine from their successful small family car ,

138-763: Is the French subsidiary of the American automaker Ford Motor Company , which existed as a manufacturer under various names between 1916 and 1954, when Ford sold the manufacturing business to Simca . After 1954 the residuum was renamed "Ford France" and became an importer of models such as the British -built Ford Anglia and the West German -built Ford Taunus . The company was formed in Bordeaux as Société Française des Automobiles Ford in 1916 by Percival Perry ,

161-638: The Aronde , into the most basic version of their V8 engined Simca Trianon, which was one of the models in the Vedette range. The new car was badged as the "Simca Ariane" and was soon available in several versions. Fitting the body of the former first-generation Simca Vedette with a 1290 cc (7 CV) Flash four cylinder engine from the much smaller Simca Aronde produced a car that focused on economy rather than speedy acceleration. Presented in April 1957,

184-560: The Ariane filled the gap between Aronde and Vedette. In October of the same year, the Ariane 8 was presented - a version powered by the same Aquillon 2351 cc (13CV) V8 unit that powered the Vedette. The Ariane 8 effectively replaced the former Simca Trianon, which was a bottom-of-the-range Vedette, as the Vedette range was moved upmarket. The Ariane 8 would be discontinued along with

207-552: The Ford F-472 and, after the first 300 had been produced, the Ford F-472A. The car’s handling had been criticised in the 1930s, and vehicles produced from 1946 benefitted from anti-roll bars at both ends as well as hydraulic brakes, which combined to make it easier to control through corners. In addition to the familiar four-door sedan/saloon, chassis with front half bodies were also made available to coachbuilders, who built

230-602: The big Simcas competed in France against the Citroën Traction which was still popular despite its twenty-year-old design and the Renault Frégate which struggled to find buyers thanks to a poor mechanical reputation and, it was suggested, from the reluctance of France's haute-bourgeoisie to buy a big expensive car from a state owned enterprise. The Suez Crisis of October 1956 was a catalyst that undermined

253-408: The company but selling this share as well in 1958. Apart from the plant, Simca also acquired plans for a new Vedette, with the 2351 cc V8, which was made until 1961 (with a substantial modernisation for 1958) as Simca Vedette (although still marketed in some markets as Ford for some time). The Poissy factory has an interesting later history - after the incorporation of Ford SAF into Simca, it

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276-436: The company produced 3,023 of its 13CVs, which in 1948 increased to 4,270 units. The Citroën was far more plentiful, as it was being produced at more than three times the 1948 production rate of the 13CV. These production volumes were far below those envisaged when the Poissy plant was planned, and ever since the end of the war Ford’s French boss, Maurice Dollfus had been negotiating with US Management to be permitted to adapt

299-583: The company's Poissy plant had switched to the new Simca 1000 . The most direct replacement for the Simca Ariane/Miramas would be the Simca 1300/1500 , introduced in 1963. The Ariane Miramas, were made in Argentina by Metalmecánica. Approx. 507 units built until 1967 in two versions: "Std" and "Lujo". Ford France Ford France (formerly, Ford SAF , Ford Société Anonyme Française)

322-514: The company's other V8 powered models in 1961, however. For the 1959 model year the company introduced an Ariane Super Luxe with increased levels of chrome trim on the outside as well as vanity mirrors on the inside and a windscreen washer to help the view out. All the Arianes also received restyled tail light clusters at this point which resembled those already used on the more flamboyantly styled but broadly similar Vedette models. Further upgrades to

345-719: The head of Ford of Britain . Like other European Ford subsidiaries, Automobiles Ford initially assembled the Ford Model T and this continued at Bordeaux until 1925 and then at a workshop in the quai Aulagnier in Asnières-sur-Seine near Paris until 1927. Model As were made from 1927 to 1931 and Model Ys from 1932 to 1934. The company also imported the US-built V8-powered Ford Model B , but import taxes made them very expensive and so not very popular in France. In 1934 Maurice Dollfus ,

368-454: The head of Ford Société Anonyme Française (SAF), was looking for a larger manufacturing plant and reached an agreement with Emile Mathis to enter into a joint venture with the Mathis company forming Matford in Strasbourg and Asnières. The new company name was Matford SA. Ownership was split 60%/40% with Ford having the larger share. The new company was controlled directly by Dearborn which

391-555: The interior trim were implemented for 1961, and newly available options included bench seats that could now be folded flat to form a double bed of sorts. There followed yet another new name: for the final two years of its life the Ariane was branded as the Simca Miramas . The Ariane was manufactured until 1963, with 166,363 produced. Towards the end, production slowed strikingly. 33,733 Arianes were produced in 1961, which slumped to just 14,284 during 1962. By this time attention at

414-525: The plant began assembling "German" Fords for Cologne. Meanwhile, a small number of 13CV Matford V8 passenger cars, now branded as Fords, continued to be produced, at least until 1942. After the war the company re-introduced the smaller 2,225 cc V8-engined Matford model, but it no longer carried the Matford name. The car was known in France as the Ford 13CV, although subsequently it is also called more formally

437-528: The plant from Ford in 1954, together with rights to build the latest version of the car produced in it, which now became the Simca Vedette , relaunched by Simca with different model names according to equipment levels. The Simca Vedette competed in France's large car market at a time when the economy was finally returning to growth, and enjoyed moderate success with their fashionably American style finished off by an Italian designer called Rapi . In 1954

460-532: The position of the V8 Simcas, however, due to the fuel shortages and price increases that it triggered. By this time domestic competition was in any case much intensified by the arrival of the Citroen DS which, despite getting off to a slow start, and despite being stuck with an engine design that had changed little since the 1930s, now became increasingly dominant in France's market for large family cars. It

483-516: Was also a subject of Simca's takeover by Chrysler in the 1960, and during the 1970s it manufactured the first (and, as it later turned out, only) French-made car to bear the Chrysler brand, the Chrysler 180 . At the end of the decade, Chrysler in turn divested its European operations (including Poissy) to PSA , which first rebranded the Poissy production to Talbot . Finally, in the second half of

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506-566: Was important to Maurice Dollfus , the president of Ford France, who was keen to avoid finding himself reporting to Percival Perry , President of Ford of Britain in Dagenham, England. Relations between Mathis and Ford became difficult during the later 1930s with Ford, as the majority investor in the Matford partnership, insisting that development and production of the by now aging Mathis model range be discontinued. Ford had commissioned

529-605: Was often asserted that the Simca Ariane's launch was a direct result of the Suez Crisis, but it is now clear that by 1956 Simca's project for a big car with a little engine ("une grande voiture à petit moteur") had already existed for several years. The urgency of the project was increased in the summer of 1956 when the Simca chief learned of a dastardly plan by Paul Ramadier , the Minister for Economy and Finance, and

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