Simca Car Production By Model : 1947-59

The brand name Simca is an acronym of 'Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile' or 'Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company' in English. In other words 'Car Maker'. The company was founded in 1930's by Fiat, and all its early cars were based on Fiat models. The downside of that was export cars were not allowed to compete directly with Fiat.

In 1951 the first Simca not based on a Fiat was released, the Aronde. It's success led to Simca wishing to expand and consolidate. It so happened that Ford had a plant in France which they wanted to dispose of and Simca bought that plant in Poissy c. Paris in 1954. Along with the plant came the rights to make the new Ford Vedette model, sold mainly as a Simca.

In 1957, Simca brought out the large Ariane car with a small motor, ideal because the French government had introduced a heavy tax on cars with large engines. By 1959, Simca was producing more cars than either Peugeot or Citroën, and was second only behind Renault.

Here are production figures for Simca and below a brief model description. Only one model was made from 1951-53.

	Year	Aronde	Ariane	Vedette	6	Total
		8			5
	1947	7851	-	-	3945	11,796
	1948	14071	-	-	4100	18,171
	1949	15857	-	-	11111	26,968
	1950	26047	-	-	5419	31,466
	1951	42495	-	-	-	42,495
	1952	69062	-	-	-	69,062
	1953	61577	-	-	-	61,577
	1954	92440	-	2335	-	94,775
	1955	115643	-	42432	-	158,075
	1956	133105	-	44788	-	177,893
	1957	138064	14679	17893	-	170,636
	1958	143543	35015	28223	-	206,781
	1959	192424	26852	15947	-	235,223

Data source: Freyssenet.com

5/6: The 5 was a small car that was basically the same as the Fiat 500 Topolino. It had some advanced features for the time and was miserly on fuel. Production commenced in the 1930's and ended in 1948. It was replaced by the 6 which while still based on the Topolino, but was less similar in design. When it ended production, it was not replaced for the time being.

The 1955-58 Aronde

8/Aronde: Like the 5, the 8 started before the war in 1937 and was based on the Fiat 1100. This medium sized car came as a 2 or 4-door saloon, a coupé and cabriolet. Then came the Aronde with three models introduced during the 1950's, each progressing nicely in style.

Vedette: As mentioned, it was a large Ford model inherited with the Poissy factory. Designed in the US, it came with a small V8 engine. Some continued to be sold in some markets in Europe as Ford cars after the purchase of the factory. A second generation was released in 1958.

The Ariane model

Ariane: This car slipped just under the Vedette in size although also a large car. Production numbers look disappointing but I am unsure what was expected of it by Simca.

Summary: Simca was going well in the 1950's. Chrysler bought a small stake in the company in 1958, and that was soon to increase dramatically as Chrysler sought to establish itself in Europe. 

For others in the series, simply click on the dates: 1960-69, 1970-79, and 1980-87. 

Sweden Car Sales By Brand : 1960-64

The Ford Taunus P3 was produced between 1960 and 1964

Sales were growing strongly in the early 1960's. It was a good time to be making cars...for most anyway. Some brands were not growing very much if at all and many of them soon ceased existence. DKW, Simca and Rootes were a few that were not doing that well.

Volvo consolidated its place at the top, with the next four all doing nicely too. Vauxhall was contributing just under 10% of the total Opel Vauxhall sales. Ford Germany was now the larger supplier of vehicles, with the UK supplying about a third of the cars and the US down to a few percent only. GM US was a mixture of brands, led by Chevrolet and Leyland was almost totally Triumph. Rootes was mainly Hillman. Borgward had ended its run, although it is currently being revived I believe. There was some controversy as to why it failed but I won't go into that.

	Brand	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964
	Volvo	40,154	45,329	48,978	53,665	58,402
	VW	30,791	34,871	37,016	42,656	45,886
	Opel/Vauxhall	26,562	26,941	27,211	35,739	42,170
	Ford	16,381	16,629	20,481	28,686	32,974
	Saab	13,726	20,580	25,213	27,022	28,930
	Mercedes	6,320	6,575	7,604	8,321	8,933
	BMC	3,826	3,626	5,696	7,235	7,987
	Renault	3,915	5,429	5,077	4,946	5,662
	Peugeot	2,139	3,081	2,670	4,191	5,278
	Fiat	2,582	2,927	3,486	3,647	3,578
	DKW	4,080	5,350	3,944	3,764	3,354
	Chrysler	919	1,735	1,793	2,399	3,001
	Simca	2,272	1,735	1,617	1,647	2,790
	BMW	578	596	686	1,308	2,060
	GM US	917	1,185	1,389	1,369	1,755
	Leyland	19	187	791	1,105	1,320
	Citroën	764	753	508	656	646
	Rootes	603	408	329	455	551
	DAF	67	98	258	123	325
	Skoda	153	653	661	600	298
	AMC	187	184	234	295	287
	Neckar					240
	NSU	227	237	232	198	222
	Porsche	241	183	111	154	216
	Jaguar	81	153	210	207	212
	Moskvitch	54	102	72	81	175
	Volga	14	16	20	41	121
	IFA/Wartburg	46	102	95	64	21
	Borgward	1,834	1,055	72	3	1
	Others	377	291	263	303	254
	Total	159,829	181,011	196,717	230,880	257,649

Data source: ABStatistik.

All other articles in the series: 1950-54, 1955-59, 1965-69, 1970-74, 1975-79,
1980-84, 1985-89, 1990-94, 1995-99, 2000-04, 2005-09, and 2010-14.

The BMC Mini MK I was ahead of its time

Fiat Brand Production By Model : 2000-09

The Punto getting admiring stares.  

Trying to get production figures for some car makers is a challenge, but I managed to cobble this list together from various sources. It is better to have one source, so ways of allocating who made what is sorted are consistent. Sometimes a car that has insufficient local content is attributed to the originating factory. Getting data from two sources can lead to double counting. I think I have avoided that here.

First of all the list, then a light reference to each model shown. The number 739.8 equals 739,800 units produced. The total production figure comes from OICA. A lot of time went into the collecting and sorting the data, but for those who want detail of Fait by model it is probably unique.

	Year	Punto	Palio	Panda	500	Bravo	Qubo	Idea	Linea
		Uno	Siena			Brava			Marea
						Stilo
	2000	739.8	317.0	94.1	-	171.3	-	-	89.0
	2001	661.4	287.2	95.2	-	155.6	-	-	48.5
	2002	547.2	220.2	102.1	-	194.2	-	-	21.1
	2003	501.6	200.7	150.2	-	181.8	-	12.7	8.8
	2004	427.7	257.3	236.6	-	116.9	-	61.7	4.7
	2005	430.3	260.3	232.0	-	80.8	-	55.4	2.7
	2006	577.8	303.6	262.2	-	58.3	-	63.0	1.9
	2007	580.6	384.0	260.7	65.1	141.1	-	63.8	23.7
	2008	465.7	368.5	247.1	201.5	104.8	13.2	44.3	23.0
	2009	565.0	405.0	298.0	184.1	74.0	48.9	40.0	31.3
	Tot	5497.1	3003.8	1978.2	450.7	1278.8	62.1	340.9	254.7

	Year	Doblò	Albea	Croma	600	Multipla	Other	Total
	2000	3.3	11.0	-	236.3	48.7	92.2	1,802.7
	2001	42.1	-	-	175.1	50.4	58.6	1,574.1
	2002	41.1	6.4	-	143.9	31.1	102.7	1,410.0
	2003	34.6	18.0	-	115.5	21.7	74.7	1,320.3
	2004	35.6	17.4	-	69.3	25.1	40.7	1,293.0
	2005	36.9	23.4	25.4	54.9	29.7	50.4	1,282.2
	2006	50.0	20.0	35.0	46.1	26.9	16.5	1,461.3
	2007	44.7	18.0	25.0	36.0	19.8	44.0	1,706.5
	2008	34.5	10.6	26.8	25.2	16.0	35.6	1,616.8
	2009	23.4	11.4	11.4	10.8	9.8	17.2	1,730.3
	Tot	346.2	136.2	123.6	913.1	279.2	532.6	15197.2

Punto/Uno: The Punto is a super mini model that replaced the Uno. It was introduced in 2003 and the Grande Punto in 2005. It is a good selling car.

Palio/Siena: These also replaced the Uno but for emerging markets. The Palio was a 3 and 5-door hatch and wagon, while the Siena was the 4-door model. It is proving increasingly popular.

Panda: This tiny city car was a series one model until 2003, when the second series was introduced. Production picked up after that.

500: It is a modern interpretation of a classic city car made as a 3-door hatchback. A retro model that has succeeded.

Bravo/Brava/Stilo: The original Bravo/Brava was replaced in 2001 with the Stilo, then they came back and took over from the Stilo again. They play the role of the small family car for the make. A disappointment for Fiat no doubt.

The Qubo leisure activity vehicle.

Qubo: It is a leisure activity vehicle made along with Citroën and Peugeot models.

Idea: This is a small 5-door MPV model. Not that strong a seller but nothing wrong with the idea.

Marea/Linea: The Marea was a medium 4 or 5-door family car that was replaced by the 4-door Linea in 2007. The latter appears to be a model for emerging markets. Production numbers are variable.

Doblò: A leisure activity vehicle, made also for GM Europe, at Fiat's plant in Turkey. It is larger than the Qubo model.

Albea: This is a car based on the Marea but for emerging markets. I thought of combining data with that model but decided it should have it's own category. Is Fiat happy with those production numbers?

Croma: The second generation of this 5-door large family car arrived in 2005 after a nine year break. I would have to call this car a 'belly flop'.

600: It was a small 3-door hatchback city car made in Poland. I am surprised they persisted with it as production dwindled.

Multipla: One of the weirdest looking vehicles of all time, it served as a compact 5-door SUV for Fiat.

Unknown: This figure comprises in part (up to 2006) models being phased out. There could also be a production facility I overlooked too. The rest would be production in China and India, the latter may have been insufficient in local content to have been classified to another nation anyway. I only have sales rather than production numbers for those nations as it happens. If anyone can assist with that, or wishes to ask anything about the data, please contact me by leaving a comment or on rdc1234@gmail.com.

Summary: Fiat specialises in small cars. They are difficult to make money on, especially when produced in Europe. Turkey and Poland are used as production sites to help in that regard. Latin America manufacturing is where the profit has been.

The Multipla. Lateral thinking gone berserk