In the 1960s,
Chrysler sought to become a world producer of
automobiles. The company had never had much success outside North America, 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 (in which they already had a substantial stake since
1958). These entities were combined to form Chrysler Europe. Although the original marques were retained at first, from 1975 British-built cars were badged as Chryslers, while the Simca badge appeared on French versions (though with the Chrysler pentastar, in some markets the cars were sold as Chrysler-Simca). Chrysler used the
Dodge marque on commercial vehicles produced by both Simca and Rootes (
Commer &
Karrier). In addition, in some countries, such as
Spain, the Dodge and Chrysler marques would be used for other vehicles, mostly locally-built versions of US-market vehicles or local versions of Simca cars.
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