Seattle Citroën
1963 - 1967
(British Columbia)
UPDATED
2/2026
1963
The Citroën scene seemed pretty quiet in 1963 and 1964, when we believe only Sargent Sales & Service was selling new Citroëns in BC. Remember that Regal Motors, LeMans, Double Nine, Clarke Simpkins, Docksteaders, Broadway Motors, and Caledonia Motors had by now all tried......and failed.
1965
FRANCE AUTO LTD.
After a relatively stable year or two, a new dealer showed up in Vancouver in late 1964 at 1383 Hornby Street; France Auto Ltd. So by early 1965, there were two horses (so to speak) in the race for BC sales; Sargent Sales and France Auto Ltd. Precious little information was found for France Auto Ltd. but they did advertise a few times (see example below).
CITROEN's OWN SHOWROOM IN VANCOUVER
By July, 1965 the cat was out-of-the-bag with the following announcement by Citroën:
“…Citroën of Canada Ltd has established its Western Canada headquarters in Vancouver and will build a $250,000 showroom and service department here next year. The building, to be located at Drake and Burrard, will occupy a quarter of a block, and space will be provided for used cars on a lot at the rear facing Hornby. Construction of the one-story building, designed by Gerald Hamilton and Associates, is scheduled for completion in November or early December. George Benson has been appointed sales manager at the new Vancouver headquarters and Andre Milaire service manager. Jean Huyghues-Despointes, a director of the Citroën company of France for many years, is in Vancouver to make final arrangements for the new facilities...”
It looks to me that the corporate Citroën Canada Ltd. initially took over France Auto Ltd.'s facility as both listed 1383 Hornby as their location. A few years later, Citroën would open their brand new showroom of their own on Burrard Street. We will cover this new location more in the '1966' section.
Remember the name Andre Milaire? He was the guy who used the old Docksteaders building at 2030 W. Broadway to work on Citroëns in 1962. Now in 1965, he landed a job as Service Manager at the Citroën Canada Ltd.’s newly set-up headquarters in 1965 (see articles below).
A couple days after the big announcement of a new fancy headquarters, a startling headline in the Vancouver Sun appeared:
“…Docker Struggles from Dunked Car… a longshoreman kicked and struggled to safety today after he plunged into 60 feet of water off Lapointe pier trapped inside a car… he said he was steering an imported Citroën car to a waterfront compound after it was unloaded from the French freighter Chili. “The brakes didn’t work and the next thing I knew I was in the water and sinking in the car.” He said he managed to get a window open as the car was sinking and when it came to rest on the mud on the bottom he forced the door open. “I swam up to the surface but my lungs nearly broke,” he said. “I must have been a good 2 minutes under water.” Police said the car jumped an 8 inch guard rail and sank immediately. “When we arrived, we found a half-dressed longshoreman gasping for breath on a pier,” a constable said. He said a lifeboat from a neighbouring ship picked him up…”
So did he jump in a DS and drive off before sufficient hydraulic pressure had built up after its’ long boat ride from Paris? Scary!
1966
The prior decade was a confusing blur of many short-lived Citroën dealerships that came and went in BC. With Citroën factory backing in the form of Citroën Canada Ltée, one would think that the chaotic scene would become a bit less chaotic…but one would be wrong.
First of all, it looks like Sargent Sales and Service gave up in 1966. With Sargent gone, Citroën had two dealerships in Vancouver, both set-up and operated under Citroën Canada Ltd’s auspices:
1383 Hornby Street. This was the address where France Auto Ltd. briefly operated a year earlier in 1965. Apparently, Citroën briefly took over this location.
1290 Burrard Street. This is the new $250,000 headquarters and showroom that was announced in 1965.
1960's BROCHURE FROM CITROEN CANADA ON HORNBY STREET IN VANCOUVER
The new headquarters at 1290 Burrard was ready to be staffed in 1966, and of course columnist Jack Wasserman had the low-down:
“…When the Citroën company went looking for a French-speaking gent to head the new local factory branch they came up with George Bihaly, who was born in Hungry, raised in France, and is a Brazilian citizen…”
With Citroën Canada Ltée. now in full control of marketing, and presumably with more marketing budget than the struggling independent operations that existed prior to 1965, advertising was prolific in the local Vancouver newspapers. Following are some examples.
As an interesting side topic, this 1966 Vancouver newspaper ad jumped off the digital page: A first year Traction Avant Roadster?
We were lucky enough to make contact with Roland Milaire, Andre Milaire’s son. Roland still lives in BC and provided us with several wonderful period photos.
1967
(British Columbia)
HORWOOD BROTHERS MOTORS LTD.
Back to Victoria BC....remember previous attempts in Victoria (Regal Motors and Caledonia Motors) had both tried and failed. In July of 1967, a new dealership appeared; Horwood Brothers Motors Ltd. on 810 Johnson Street. This is the dealership NWCOC member Greg Long's second DS came from. Greg Long bought a Rouge Corsaire 1968 DS in 1978 from its original owner, Dr. Friedmann. Greg remembered this car as a young student at Frank Hobbs Elementary School when Dr. Freidmann was dropping his daughter off as he drove to the University of Victoria as a Physics professor. It was the first DS Greg had ever seen. Frankly, Greg thought it was pretty weird and perhaps somewhat ugly especially as Greg's friend Rick was riding in a Camaro Pace Car in bright white with orange stripes that his dad had just bought for his mum. Peer pressure and ‘fitting-in’ were certainly high on Greg's list as a 9 year old, but thankfully that clearly didn't last long and he became ‘enlightened’!
VICTORIA CITY ARCHIVES, 1962
DR. FREIDMAN’S ROUGE CORSAIRE ’68 DS19
As long as we are on the topic of the rouge corsaire 1968 DS19 that Greg bought from Dr. Freidman, here’s more Long Family BC content: The photo below is the car at their family cabin at Green Lake in the Cariboo, December 1978. It was an honest -58F degrees BELOW ZERO (-50C)! There was no way the old girl (who actually wasn’t that old) was going to start. Our friend’s brand new Chevy wouldn’t start either. They manually jacked the DS up enough to slide a Coleman stove under the oil pan and put these blankets and insulation in and around to keep the heat in. Yes, it was dangerous. Yes, they were stupid. But it still wouldn’t start so they called a tow truck and he quickly zapped it with 24 volts and she started right up. But that was not the end of the affair: Greg had bought new spheres from NORI, a Citroën parts catalogue of the era, and their sphere diaphragms were clearly not made to withstand these temperatures. The rubber disintegrated and sent little rubber particles throughout the hydraulic system. Then Greg noticed that the car wouldn’t shift properly — 1st was 3rd, 2nd was 1st: something like that. We had the car towed the 2 hours to Kamloops to a Renault dealer who figured out that the connector from the ‘shifting wand’ to the brain had become out of adjustment because the fluid, we assume, was so thick and they had pulled the gearshift wand too quickly. Where is the car today? The Longs drove it across Canada to Ontario to go to Queen’s University in 1984 and, even though they religiously oiled the frame, it didn’t make it: Rust eventually destroyed it, and another wonderful DS was gone.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY GREG LONG
In the early 1980’s someone mentioned to me that Horwood Bros. stopped selling Citroëns because the brothers were both killed in a DS. We had never confirmed this claim until researching for this history and came across an article in the Victoria Colonist in April, 1968:
“...Formal committal of a 28 year old man charged with criminal negligence causing death Feb 17th of Victoria businessman Clifford Horwood will be made Wednesday in central magistrate’s court. Mr. Horwood, 61, was killed in a two-car collision on the Malahat (Highway), along with his wife Pearl, 63, and Mrs. Eleanor Tait, 66, and Mrs. Martha Bannerman, 74. Richard Bradley, a truck driver, said he was driving north on Trans-Canada Highway near Goldstream Shell service station when he noticed car approaching him from the rear. The car finally passed him without incident in a passing zone near Goldstream Park. “When this car didn’t seem to slow down very much, my impression was that he didn’t know the road because he didn’t exercise caution,” Mr. Bradley said. “In my opinion, the car was going too fast for these turns. As I looked down a straight stretch approaching a turn, I noticed the car drifting over the white line. My impression was that he was in trouble. Then I noticed a set of headlights approaching southbound... and they collided.” He estimated the car that passed him, a 1968 Chrysler, was traveling at no less than 60 miles an hour in the turn. He said to defense counsel he was unable to say which side of the road the 1968 Citroën being driven by Mr. Horwood was on. The constable who arrived at the scene said he saw the driver of the Chrysler seated in the front seat and he detected a strong odor of alcohol from the driver’s mouth...”
Clearly a horrendous event that proved the story was partially true. Again, a massive loss of human life due to drinking and driving. As for giving up their Citroën dealership that doesn’t seem correct as they carried on with limited Citroën newspaper ads until mid-’69 when they became a Mazda dealer. Late December 1966, an ad appeared in Victoria for European Car Centre which serviced Citroën among other European marques. And the fact Horwood’s couldn’t sell their ’69 Pallas demonstrator until sometime after April, 1970, says volumes about how difficult it was to sell Citroëns on Vancouver Island (see ad right). Horwood lasted as a Citroën dealer until mid-1969. The Horwood Brothers building at 810 Johnson Street is long gone, but we were able to find a photo of the original building at this address, taken in 1949 when it was a Kaiser Frazer dealership (below).
TIMES COLONIST, JULY 27, 1967
VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST, APRIL 24, 1970
SOURCE UNKNOWN
HORWOOD BROTHERS BUILDING AT 810 JOHNSON STREET. PHOTO TAKEN IN 1949 WHEN IT WAS A KAISER FRAZER DEALERSHIP
EUROPEAN CAR CENTRE
In late December 1966, an ad appeared in Victoria for European Car Centre which serviced Citroën among other European marques (repairs only, not a new car dealership). They were located at 949 View Street. Nothing else is known about European Car Center.
Another example of how sales may not have been meeting quota is the inclusion of Fiat into the new Citroën flagship dealership in Vancouver in April of 1967. This same thing occurred in Seattle in 1964 when Automobiles Internationales included the Fiat line.
THE VANCOUVER SUN, 1967
ROTARY MOTORS
We have absolutely no idea what is behind these ads we found in the Vancouver Sun in 1967. Somehow, a company called Rotary Motors ended up with a large stock of Citroën parts that they were trying to sell in the local newspaper. Undoubtedly, this is left-over stock of parts from one of the many failed Vancouver dealerships.
Any readers know anything about Rotary Motors?
SOURCE UNKNOWN
THE VANCOUVER SUN, 1967
THE CANADIAN SPECIFICATION DS
An interesting and article showed up in a Vancouver newspaper in 1966, Titled, “Special Assembly Line Set Up.”
The smaller print declares that the Citroën (DS) has been redesigned to meet the demands of the Canadian market on a special assembly line.
“...Last year Citroën met their shortcomings head-on and obligated them completely with bodies specifically designed to cope with Canadian climatic conditions. Two heater-defrosters are standard and the body is fully rust-proofed...” (Editor: Ahem...)
You can read more about the Canadian Specification DS HERE.
MONTREAL GAZETTE, APRIL 1966
One last thing from 1967....Citroën Canada Ltd. apparently had a DS convertible for sale in Vancouver. We wonder what happened to it? Anyone know? Is this the same car as shown in the photo in the '1966' section? It is likely.
THE VANCOUVER SUN, 1967
JOHN & MURRAY MOTORS
Colleagues John Zlindra and Murray Zylstra initially worked for a Studebaker dealership in Vancouver between the late 1950’s to the mid-1960’s. John Zlindra’s son (also named John) remembers that in about 1960, the owner of this dealership decided to take on the Citroën marque, in addition to Studebaker. We believe that this dealership may have been Broadway motors (see the 1961 section for information on Broadway Motors).
John Zlindra also remembers that the dealership’s owner imported Citroëns on his own, outside of any formal factory support. We believe he was one of the people behind the independent company, Citroën Cars Distributors BC Ltd. that was housed in the glorious Seymour building. Citroën Cars Distributors BC Ltd. evaporated about the same time Citroën themselves decided to come into Vancouver in the form of Citroën Canada Ltd.
John and Murray were among the few mechanics of the era that enjoyed working on Citroëns. So in 1967, they came together and formed John and Murray Motors, specializing in off-beat cars, such as Citroën. (See period advertisement below).
Their business was originally located at 3386 Fraser Street in Vancouver, but moved to 1911 Quebec Street in 1974, where the business is still located.
For many years, there had been an old, un-used house on the property adjacent to John & Murray motors’ Quebec street address. They were using it to store car parts, including a large number of Citroën parts. In 2006 the house burned to the ground, taking all of the Citroën parts with it. The suspicion was that homeless people had broken into the house and somehow a fire broke out. I recently found a vintage photo of this old house, with a glimpse of their main shop next door (see below).
In 1985, Murray Zylstra left the business, leaving John Zlindra and his son John (junior) to continue running the business.
CITY OF VANCOUVER ARCHIVES - 1978
PARTS STORAGE HOUSE BEFORE FIRE
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JASON VANDERHILL, 2019
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JOHNNY MACGREGOR, 2019
2019 PHOTO OF JOHN & MURRAY MOTORS AT 1911 QUEBEC STREET IN VANCOUVER
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JASON VANDERHILL
1970’S PHOTO OF MURRAY ZYLSTRA’S PERSONAL CARS