SIMCA 1000 Classic Cars for Sale

The Simca 1000 was produced between 1961 and 1978 by French car manufacturer Simca. The 1000 is a saloon car with four doors, and the engine mounted at the back. Although built by a French company, the Simca 1000 had links with Italy, as Italian car giants Fiat was a major shareholder in Simca, until 1963.

The history of the Simca 1000

The Simca 1000 came about as a spin-off of Fiat's development of a replacement for the Fiat 600. An agreement was reached between Simca and Fiat to allow the French company to utilise mock-ups of a 'boxy' new car, and turn it into a new small car for Simca. The original 1000 was cheap to buy and very modern. It utilised a 944 cc Poissy water cooled engine and was given a very high profile marketing launch at the Paris Motor Show in 1961. At the launch, the fact that the design of the car owed a lot to the collaboration with Fiat was played down.

The Simca 1000 was only available initially in red, white or blue. It soon became as much an iconic symbol of Paris as landmarks like the Eifel Tower. The car had a healthy market overseas and was sold as either a right or left-hand drive vehicle in the US and South Africa. During the span of its production, because of its international popularity, factories were set up in Spain, Colombia and Morocco.

The Simca 1000 utilised the RR layout, which was innovative for the French company even though it was very common with other car makers in Germany and France. One of the selling points used by Simca was the fact that because of its design, the model was very light and very spacious in the cabin. The 1000 could be purchased in several versions which featured different levels of comfort and equipment. Customers had the choice between the normal manual gearbox and a semi-automatic three-speed gearbox that had been developed by Ferodo. When the new Simca 1000 made its debut in Paris, at the 1968 motor show, it had new bumpers, hubcaps taillights and headlights.

For the highly competitive UK market, it was possible to purchase a Simca 1000 with expensive cabin features like a walnut dash.

Commercial success of the Simca 1000

The Simca 1000 was a very popular model in France and enjoyed some success in selected export markets. In 1962 in the first year that the car was produced, 154,282 were made. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Simca 1000 was always near the top of the French automobile sales charts, and annual sales were normally above or around the 100,000 mark. During the 17 years that the Simca 1000 was in the showrooms, nearly two million were sold.