Chrysler Motors
of Mortlake Road, Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey
British arm of the Chrysler Organisation.
Associated company - Dodge Brothers (Britain) Ltd. Also see Chrysler International
1925 Maxwell Chrysler Motors was at the Kew address.
1928 Chrysler purchased Dodge Brothers
1929 Exhibited the first of the Fargo 30-cwt. models at the Commercial Motor Exhibition.[1]
1933 Dodge commenced UK manufacture of chassis at their works at Kew with associated company Chrysler Motors but imported engines from the USA.
1938 The first truly British Dodge was built with a Perkins engine.
1946 Dodge production re-commenced at Kew with a range from 2-ton to 6-ton and with a cab similar to the Leyland Motors Comet.
1951 Exhibitor at the 1951 Motor Show in the Car Section.
1957 Produced a 7-ton chassis with a Perkins P6 engine.
1959 Makers of Fargo commercial vehicles.
1959 Distribution of the Simca car was added to the Kew factory's activities[2]
1961 Employed 850 persons. Subsidiary of Chrysler Corporation of Detroit. [3]
1961 Manufacturers of commercial vehicles and distributors of private cars.
1963 Exhibitor at the 1963 Motor Show. Importer of Polara and Dart GT models
1964 Acquired 46 percent of Rootes Motors which was in financial difficulties[4]
1966 Chrysler expanded into Europe, by taking over the Rootes Group, Simca of France and Barreiros of Spain, to form Chrysler Europe.
1967 Chrysler took a controlling interest in Rootes, which had announced a £97 million loss.
1967 The Kew plant closed and production switched to Dunstable.
1970 Change of name of Rootes Motors to Chrysler United Kingdom Ltd. The brand names of vehicles — Dodge, Commer, Karrier and the various car marques — would remain the same.[5]
Subsequently Chrysler acquired the minority interest in Rootes and suppressed the Rootes brand, using Chrysler instead.
1971 The extended and modernized truck plant at Dunstable was capable of turning out around 50,000 trucks and vans a year (1970 production was 32,025 units). It is the main element in Chrysler United Kingdom's truck manufacturing group — which also includes facilities at Luton, Maidstone and Canterbury. Dunstable is primarily an assembly plant, undertaking no machining. Three main assembly lines are operated, one for light vehicles from the 1-ton Commer van upwards, one for "mediums" from the 2-ton WalkThru upwards and the third for the heavies starting at the 7-ton-gvw Commer. The latter line includes the Dodge range and also the Fargo export versions of the Dodge 500 series.[6]
1973 Chrysler gained control of Commer and there was much badge swapping with the Dodge badge appearing on Commer trucks
1976 CHRYSLER commercial vehicles were renamed as Dodge to achieve greater impact. Dodge gained a selection of vans and trucks from Commer. The old names of Commer and Simca would disappear, although Karrier was retained for municipal vehicles.[7]
1978 Chrysler sold the business to Peugeot
1979 TALBOT was the new name adopted for Chrysler Europe — but commercial vehicles continued to be called Dodge. The new name and logo were applied as part of the PSA Group's policy of maintaining separate identities for its three divisions, Talbot, Peugeot and Citroen.
PSA took little interest in the heavy commercial vehicles, and the from 1990 the former Commer/Dodge/Karrier truck and van factory was operated 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.
1993 Renault closed the Dunstable factory and production ceased.