In the 1960s, Chrysler sought to become a world producer of automobiles. The company had never had much success outside the United States, contrasting with Ford's worldwide reach and General Motors' success with Opel and Vauxhall. In 1967, Chrysler succeeded in purchasing the Rootes Group of the United Kingdom and Simca of France. These entities were combined to form Chrysler Europe. British built cars were badged as Chryslers, while the Simca badge appeared on French versions.

The company systematically retired the previous marques from Rootes, including Hillman, Humber, and Sunbeam in favour of the Chrysler name, but retained the French Simca and Talbot names. Branding of the vehicles was confused, and profits failed to materialize, so Chrysler sold its European operations to Peugeot in 1979.

The first European Chrysler was the 1975 Alpine hatchback, which was sold in France as the Simca 1307. It was voted European Car of the Year for 1976. Three years later, the smaller Chrysler/Simca Horizon also won the award.

Chrysler also created the Britain-only Sunbeam three-door hatchback which was based on the Rootes-designed Avenger chassis but was aimed at the likes of the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo.

In 1979, Chrysler sold its European division to Peugeot, who badged all the models as Talbots but within eight years had scrapped the marque on passenger cars - retaining it for commercial vehicles only.

See also

• Talbot