Seattle Citroën
THE EARLY YEARS
(Oregon)
UPDATED 8/2026
NORTHWEST LIGHT CAR
Much to our amazement, we found that a company named Northwest Light Car was selling new Citroëns in Portland, Oregon in the late 1930's! Starting in the spring of 1939, they started running newspaper advertisements for new Citroën Traction Avants.
Oregon Daily Journal, October 1939
Oregon Daily Journal, June 1939
HOLT WARRENS BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CITROEN
Oregon Daily Journal, July 1941
Northwest Light Car first opened in 1938 and initially sold American Bantam cars. They added the Citroëns soon after, in early 1939.
The company’s original owners were a husband/wife team of Holt and Virta Warrens. Holt's wife, Virta, was by all accounts, a remarkable figure: A former Miss Portland beauty queen, she became an accomplished businesswoman and mechanic. She also raced cars at Portland Speedway, potentially making her the first woman in Oregon to compete in auto racing.
It is documented that Virta was the manager of the Northwest Light Car business.
To promote the cars, she performed a variety of diving stunts around Portland. An interesting short video exists that features Virta’s daughter sharing memories of both Virta and the dealership. The video shows some of her driving antics, including driving a Bantam up a stairway. It can be seen HERE.
Screen grab from "Meet Virta Warrens" on YouTube
VIRTA WARRENS
Oregon Daily Journal, July 1940
VIRTA WARRENS TEST DRIVES A CITROEN
Screen grab from "Meet Virta Warrens" on YouTube
NORTHWEST LIGHT CAR
Sunday Oregonian, Nov 1939
VIRTA WARRENS
But it wasn't to last very long. War came to France in September of 1939, bringing production of civilian Citroëns to a standstill. Also, Bantam's production had been already declining sharply in 1939 and 1940 due to poor sales. It seems that the Warrens saw the writing on the wall and decided to back themselves out of the car business. At about the same time, Virta and Holt divorced (in February of 1940).
They found a Portland businessman named J. Kendall Hockensmith to buy the company, and so by late 1940, Virta and Holt were out. Virta went on to become involved in the restaurant business and Holt remained involved in the automotive world.
There is no way to know how many Citroëns they had sold, but based on newspaper advertisements from the era, I would not be surprised if it was at least a few dozen.
THE WAR YEARS
Hockensmith managed to keep the business open during the war years, apparently by buying and selling used cars and performing repairs. Hockensmith was advertising himself as a Crosley and Austin dealership in addition to Bantam and Citroën throughout the war, presumably to capture repair business on cars that had been sold before the war, noting that virtually no new cars would have been available for him to sell until late 1945 or 1946 when post-war civilian car production resumed. American Bantam never resumed production after the war.
1940 NEWSPAPER ARTICLE FOR NORTHWEST LIGHT CAR
Oregonian Newspaper, Dec 1940
eBay
NORTHWEST LIGHT CAR BROCHURE
By the 1950's, Hockensmith was selling a variety of English cars, including Hillman, MG, and Jaguar.
In 1953, the Northwest Light Car dealership came to an end. A new owner named Fred Illingworth stepped in and renamed the business, Motor Cars Ltd., operating from the same address, but without Citroëns. Hockensmith stayed on as secretary and treasurer.
WHERE WERE THE CITROENS COMING FROM?
Where was Northwest Light Car obtaining its Citroëns? There are really only two plausible possibilities. The first is that the company imported the cars directly. The second is that they acquired them through Challenger Motors in Los Angeles. Although I have not found direct evidence to confirm either scenario, I believe the latter is the more likely explanation.
As discussed in Part 1 of the Challenger Motors story, Don Billings, the company's owner, established his business not only as a Citroën retailer but also as a wholesaler. His journal indicates that he planned to charge a US $25 commission on each Citroën he wholesaled to another dealer. We also know that he was actively supplying Citroëns to several Southern California dealerships, including Fred R. Dean, Howard Darrin, and Fred Fudge Motors. Given this established wholesale network, it seems entirely plausible that Northwest Light Car was another of Billings's wholesale customers. Further support for this theory comes from the fact that in the late 1930's, Citroëns were raced in stock car events up and down the west coast, a sport that Virta Williams was also active in. It is therefore likely that Virta Warrens would have been exposed to Challenger Motors and their Citroëns through the west coast racing scene.
SLOUGH BUILT CITROENS
There has been a suspicion that some of Northwest Light Car's Citroëns were coming from the Slough factory in England since a handful of British-built Traction Avants were known to exist in the Portland area in the 1950's. One can even find a handful of classified ads in Portland newspapers from the 1950's that were specifically identifying the Citroëns as English-built.
I am however reasonably convinced that all of the Citroëns Virta Warrens had sold before the war were French-built cars. The origin of the British Traction Avants in Portland is a mystery, but there is a possibility that Hockensmith imported a small number of left-hand-drive Citroëns that the British factory had built after the war (remember that he was still advertising himself as a Citroën dealership, well into the late 1940's).
OREGON VS. CALIFORNIA LAWS
In order to get their Citroëns licensed and sold in the state of California, Challenger Motors in Los Angeles had to claim that they were a manufacturer and re-badge their cars as "Challengers." However Northwest Light Car was able to sell their Citroëns as "Citroëns," apparently with none of the legal hassles that faced Challenger. This is presumably due to the fact that Oregon's laws were different than California's. it is worth noting that in this era, there were effectively no federal automotive laws, meaning that each state had their own rules. You can read about Challenger Motor's licensing challenges in part 1 of the Challenger Motors story, HERE.
THE LOCATIONS
The first address we could find for Northwest Light Car was 722 SW 18th Avenue in Portland. By the 1950’s, they had moved a few blocks away to 1503 SW Morrison. Neither building exists today.
LEGACY
Virta re-married in August of 1940, but she sadly contracted a liver disease and passed away young, at the age of 42 in 1954. Virta has become a bit of an icon in Oregon state history. She was not only a beauty queen, but an accomplished athlete, business woman, and race car driver.
Her first husband Holt passed away from Cancer in 1969. James Kendall Hockensmith passed away in 1989.
EUROPEAN MOTOR SALES
The very first indication of a Citroën DS in Oregon was in 1956 when European Motor Sales of Portland indicated that they would soon become a dealership for the newly introduced DS19, in addition to Panhard and Renault cars. The company was owned by a man named Robert E. Brown.
Much to my amazement, European Motor Sales actually had a very early DS19 demonstrator car on their premises on September 28, 1956 along with 2CV's. The local press covered the event in the next day's newspaper (see below).
The year 1956 is very early insomuch as DS production is concerned. According to most sources, a small number of DS’s, about 62, were manufactured as model year 1955. In 1956, that figure increased to 9868 cars, and in 1957 the production numbers increased again to 26528 cars. (A good list of DS production numbers can be found HERE.) It was 1957 when DS’s started to be imported into the U.S. in any measurable quantity. But somehow, as we shall see, more than one of these 9868 cars from 1956 found their way to Oregon!
Oregonian Newspaper 1956
Just a few years after the above demonstrator car arrived in Portland, there is evidence of more 1956 DS's in Oregon: One more demonstrator car located in Salem, Oregon that we will read about later, and two that showed up in local Portland newspaper classified ads, one listed as black, one white. (See the classified ads below.)
Does this mean that there were four 1956 DS19's in Portland? Or are the two in the classified ads the same two demonstrator cars? There is no way to tell, but given the global rarity of 1956 DS's, it is possible that they are the same two cars. After all, the colors match as the demonstrator car from European Motor Sales in Portland was black and the demonstrator car in Salem was white (champagne).
SEPTEMBER 1960 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT IN THE OREGONIAN NEWSPAPER
Oregonian Newspaper 1960
AUGUST 1961 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT IN THE OREGONIAN NEWSPAPER
Oregonian Newspaper 1961
European Motor Sales was also there when the ID19 model was introduced in 1958. See the 1958 newspaper article (below).
Oregonian Newspaper 1958
Oregonian Newspaper 1958
1958 ADVERTISEMENTS FOR EUROPEAN MOTOR SALES
Oregonian Newspaper, June 1958
European Motor Sales was located at 1104 W. Burnside in Portland. While this specific address no longer exists, it appears to be the same building in downtown Portland where the Pantagonia outdoor clothing store is currently housed.
European Motor Sales had advertisements that started in late 1956 and disappeared abruptly in 1959, indicating that it only lasted three or four years.
We came across a newspaper article from June of 1958 indicating that European Motors had entered a Renault Dauphine in a local fuel mileage contest, and who was the driver? None other than Jerry Flemming who would go on to start his own French car dealership in Portland and then in Seattle, named, Economy Car Imports. We will read more about Economy Car Imports later. Does this mean that Jerry Flemming was one of the players behind European Motors along with Robert E. Brown? It kind of looks like it, doesn't it?
Google Street View 2018
EUROPEAN MOTOR SALES BUILDING AS SEEN IN 2018
EUROPEAN MOTORS BROCHURE THAT SURFACED IN 2020
CONTINENTAL MOTOR CARS
At about the same time that 1956 DS's started being sold at European Motor Sales in Portland, an established dealer in Salem, Oregon picked up the Citroën line.
The business, owned by a man named Richard N. Don, started out in early 1956 as a Renault dealership using the name, Renault Sales and Service, located at 3040 Liberty Road in Salem. There were periods of time that they called themselves Vista Garage. But the name seemed to morph to Continental Motor Cars. In October or 1956, they added the Citroën and Panhard marques. Much to our astonishment, it looks like yet another 1956 DS demonstrator car appeared in Oregon, this time at Continental Motor Cars (see article, below)!
Capital Journal (Salem), October 1956
In February of 1958, a newspaper article was published in Salem's Statesman newspaper indicating that Continental Motor Cars had been recently appointed as a Citroën dealership. But this article seems over a year late since they had a 1956 DS19 on display 16 months earlier?
As noted above, the name Vista Garage seems to have been used interchangeably with Continental Motor Cars for a few years. We found advertisements as early as October of 1956 listing Vista Garage as a Citroën dealer. Perhaps the company name change to Continental Motor Cars caused this 1958 announcement?
Statesman (Salem), February, 1958
By the middle of 1958, they had moved to 900 S. Commercial in Salem and there appears to be another move to 990 S. Commercial in late 1958. Also in 1958, their company name changed slightly from Continental Motor Cars to Continental Imports Ltd.
Sales must have not been going too well, because in December of 1959, Continental Imports Ltd. was taken over by a Portland Company called, World Wide Imports. When the takeover occurred, the Citroën and Panhard lines were dropped. World Wide Imports went on try to sell Peugeot, Renault, and Vespa scooters.
But things did not go well for World Wide Imports either. They closed-up at the end of 1960 (see going out of business ad, right).
It looks like none of the original buildings still exist and we were unable to find any period photos.
Capital Journal (Salem), November 1960
FITZPATRICK FOREIGN CAR CENTER
The third authorized Citroën dealership in the state of Oregon was in a suburb of Portland called Milwaukie. The dealership was called Fitzpatrick Foreign Car Center. In their advertisements from 1958, their address is simply listed as “…the stop lite in Milwaukie…” suggesting that there was only one stoplight back then?
As is so familiar with the Citroën dealership stories from this era, Fitzpatrick Foreign Car Center seemed to have only lasted as a Citroën dealer for a very short time, perhaps less than a year.
We also wonder about their commitment to the Citroën marque considering that their newspaper ads spelled ‘Citroën’ incorrectly and identified the car model "ID19" incorrectly…
Oregonian Newspaper 1958
JUNE, 1958 NEWSPAPER AD
ECONOMY CAR IMPORTS
The next authorized Citroën dealership in Oregon was Economy Car Imports. Economy Car imports started advertising in April of 1959 and operated from the address 1022 W. Burnside in Portland.
Economy Car Imports was operated by the same people who started a business in the Seattle area (Renton) using the very same company name. A man named Jerry Fleming was listed as the owner of the Portland dealership. The same Jerry Fleming and partner Richard Wald were listed as the business owners of the Renton operation.
A Portland newspaper article from late 1958 indicates that Economy Car Imports was named as an authorized Citroën dealer for both the Portland and the Renton operations. It looks like the Portland operation started earlier since we can find advertisements from 1958 and 1959. The Renton operation was incorporated as a business in Washington in August of 1961.
NOVEMBER 1958 ANNOUNCEMENT
Oregonian Newspaper 1958
It seems that Economy Car Imports had no better luck in the Seattle-area than they did in Portland. The Portland operation seems to have shut down in about 1961. The Renton operation closed-up shop in 1962. So, it looks like they had about two years selling Citroëns in Portland and an overlapping two years selling Citroëns in Renton. Despite trying to sell other marques as well as used cars, both locations of Economy Car Imports ultimately failed.
ECONOMY CAR IMPORTS BROCHURE
Oregonian Newspaper 1961
JULY 1961 NEWSPAPER AD
JANUARY 1959 ADVERTISEMENT
Oregonian Newspaper 1959
The building that Economy Car Imports operated from (1022 W. Burnside) is still there. It has been broken up into a series of smaller fancy shops with a pathway through to the opposite street. called Union Way.
Google Street View 2018
ECONOMY CAR IMPORTS BUILDING AT 1022 WEST BURNSIDE
Photo by Chris Dubuque 2022
FRENCH MOTOR CAR SALES & SERVICE
For a few years, a business called French Motor Car Sales & Service in Eugene, Oregon sold the usual French marques; Peugeot, Renault, and Citroën. The business was owned by a man named James W. Edgar. We found advertisements for their Citroëns in the local papers starting in 1958 and ending in about 1961. They were included in Citroen's official dealer directory for 1960.
By about 1962 or 1963, they had basically dropped all of their French cars and started selling NSU's and a few other foreign makes, such as Alfa and Lotus.
The owner of French Motor Car Sales, Jim Edgar, was also the owner of another business in nearby Springfield, Oregon called, European Import Sales. We will discuss European Import Sales below.
Eugene Register-Guard, May 1960
1960 ADVERTISEMENTS FROM EUGENE NEWSPAPER
Eugene Register-Guard, May 1960
Google Street View 2020
SAD LOOKING FRENCH MOTORS BUILDING TODAY
French Motor Car Sales operated from several locations in and around Eugene, but settled into a building at 1501 W. 7th Avenue in May of 1958 (above). This building was at one time an interesting structure made by a local Oregon company called Timberib who built curved arches out of wood that allowed for rapid building assembly. At the right is a photo of the this building when it was under construction in 1952. Looking at the 'current' photo of the building indicates that it has been extensively expanded over the years.
After they dropped their French cars in about 1963, they moved to a different building located at 1915 W. 11th St.
Eugene Register Guard, July1952
FRENCH MOTOR'S BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Eugene Register Guard, 1963
FRENCH MOTORS DROPS THEIR FRENCH CARS AND TAKES ON NSU, ALFA, AND LOTUS
And to prove that French Motor Car Sales actually sold a few cars, a 1960 2CV surfaced in late 2020 that was originally sold there on June 7, 1960! Notice the 7-inch sealed-beam headlights that were installed on all USA 2CV's of the era.
Bringatrailer.com 2020
Bringatrailer.com 2020
Jim Edgar was also involved in other non-automotive businesses in the Eugene area. For example, in 1961 he bought a local restaurant called Embers. Jim Edgar passed away in 2012 at the age of 84.
EUROPEAN IMPORT SALES
The 1959 Eugene Register-Guard newspaper has a handful of ads from a company called European Import Sales in Springfield, Oregon that handled Citroën for a brief time. We initially had trouble learning much about this company but we recently discovered that European Import Sales was owned by Jim Edgar, the same man who ran French Motor Car Sales (above). Note that both locations ran simultaneously for a few years and were located only 6 miles from each other.
European Import Sales offered the same cars that French Motor Cars did, but had a few non-French makes as well, such as Goliath cars and trucks. But it didn't last. By 1960 European Import Sales was gone. Poor Jim Edgar. He tried.
We have found several addresses for European Import Sales, all from 1959:
258 N. 5th in Springfield, OR
264 N. 5th in Springfield, OR
266 N. 5th in Springfield, OR
1492 W. 6th in Eugene, OR
Springfield
Eugene Register-Guard, June 1959
Eugene Register-Guard, August 1959
Eugene Register-Guard, December 1959
A DS AT EUROPEAN IMPORT SALES (a.k.a. FRENCH MOTOR CAR SALES) IN 1958
Eugene Register-Guard, March 1958