Chrysler 160/180/2 Litres/1610

The Chrysler 160, 180 and 2 Litres, later sold as the 1610, were a large saloon range that Simca launched at the Paris motor show in October 1970 under the Chrysler name, which confused some buyers who wondered whether they were American cars. The design came out of the combined engineering of Simca and Chrysler's newly acquired British Rootes group, which ended up with a body from Rootes inspired by the Hillman Avenger and four-cylinder overhead-camshaft engines from Simca's Poissy design office, the first overhead-camshaft engines Simca made. The 160 used a 1,639 cc engine and the 180 a 1,812 cc engine; a 1,981 cc 2 Litres model followed in 1973 and was sold only with a Chrysler three-speed automatic gearbox, a first for a mass-produced French car. About 275,000 were built in ten years, and production ended in May 1980, with the Talbot Tagora as its replacement.