Anyone have pointers to Rootes history? Here's what I was able to dig up.
Patrick Guinn
patg(at)sequent.com
67' Sunbeam Alpine
P.S. Are there any Plymouth Criket owners out there?
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Title: The Complete History of Chrysler Corporation 1924-1985
Author: Richard M. Langworth, Jan P. Norbye
P. 209
Chrysler had established ties in the early Sixties with Rootes Group, the
British manufacturer of Hillman, Humber, Singer and Sunbeam cars and Commer
trucks. In retrospect, it was a move that Chrysler may prefer to forget. The
firm bought controlling interest in Rootes for $56 million, while the British
government invested $4.2 million in order to retain a small say in it's
affairs. Rootes was one of Britain's traditional "Big Four" automakers, but
always a distant third to British Motor Corporation and Ford of England.
It's individual makes had been gathered together between the Depression and
1955 by Lord William Rootes, a dynamic entrepreneur who was one of the first
Britons to recognize the potential of the American export market.
Unfortunately, for Chrysler, this amalgamation was already in serious trouble
by 1967, facing a cash flow crisis created by sagging sales of a generally
aging product line.
For the time being, Chrysler allowed continued production of the rapid
Sunbeam Tiger. An Anglo-American hybrid, it was basically the neat Alpine
sports car, a design that dated from 1960, powered by the potent 289 Ford-V8
instead of the usual asthmatic four. Chrysler-Plymouth dealerships sold the
Tiger briefly in 1967, but when it became obvious that the corporate 273-cid
V-8 would not fit the engine bay, the Tiger was dropped. An abortive Sunbeam
fastback based on the ordinary Hillman Hunter sedan was brought to the U.S.
for 1968-70, but it failed to sell and was likewise dropped. Then Chrysler
tried a federalized version of the subcompact Hillman Avenger. Called the
Plymouth Criket, it was a dreadful little buzz-box that rusted with abandon
and suffered reliability problems. Predictably, C-P canned it after 1973.
Meantime, the corporation had strengthened ties with Mitsubishi of Japan,
which by 1970 was supplying Dodge dealers with a group of much more salable
small cars marketed under the Colt badge. The Oriental products were far
more successful than the British ones ever hoped to be, a forecast of the
future.
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