Seattle Citroën
The 1970's and Beyond
(Oregon)
UPDATED
2/2025
THE MOTOR WORKS
Citroën mechanic extraordinaire Carter Willey worked at many different dealerships and repair shops on both coasts of the USA. These included Richard's Citroën in the Bronx (New York), Citroën's facility in Los Angeles, a shop of his own in Maine, a dealership in Buffalo New York (that I think was called, French Car Service), and of course at Dave Burnham's shop in New York. I am also pretty sure that he worked briefly at SL Motors in Springfield, Oregon.
But when SL Motors closed in about 1970, it looks like Carter struck out on his own in Eugene, Oregon. The following is a brief article he placed in a 1971 edition of the Citroën Car Club newsletter. He was announcing his new Eugene-based business called, The Motor Works, specializing in the 2-cylinder Citroëns.
But how many 2-cylinder Citroëns could there have been in Central Oregon? Probably not many. As such, this was a very short-lived endeavor.
Citroën Car Club Newsletter, 1971
COOTY’S GARAGE
As noted in the previous section, the only authorized dealership in all of Oregon in the ‘70’s was Sagner’s Motor Mart which started in 1961 and remained operational until the late ‘70’s. There were however a few independent repair facilities that worked on Citroëns. One of these was Cooty's Garage which frequently advertised Citroën repair capability.
Oregonian Newspaper 1974
1974 NEWSPAPER AD FOR COOTY'S
Cooty's was run by a man named Paul Nuttal who still lives in the Portland area and was a Citroën owner himself. In the mid-1970's Cooty’s wanted to capitalize on the fact that Sagner’s operation was winding down and specifically advertised as such. Cooty's Garage itself seemed to wind down in the late 1970's.
Cooty’s operated in Portland, initially from 8503 SW Terwilliger and later from 2244 E. Burnside. The Burnside building is still there, but has now been mostly hidden by a pet store that was built in front of the original building in 2014.
Google Street View 2009
Google Street View 2020
2244 E. BURNSIDE AS SEEN IN 2009 AND 2020
BILL LONSETH
By the late 1970's, the surprisingly active Citroën scene in Portland was sadly winding down. After Roger Sagner's Motor Mart came to an end in about 1980, the only real Citroën support network in all of Oregon was from Bill Lonseth.
Bill became involved in Citroëns from an early age and by the late 1960's, he had landed his first automotive job working for a Citroën dealership in the Oregon city of Springfield, called S.L. Motors. S.L. Motors handled several marques, including Citroën, Peugeot, Renault, Studebaker, Mercedes, and Datsun. Within a year so of working for S.L. Motors as a parts manager, Bill was asked by Citroën to move to Los Angeles to help run the parts department for Citroën L.A. By about 1974, Bill moved back to Portland to work for Portland's Citroën dealer, Roger Sagner, where he was the parts manager. Throughout these various jobs, Bill's skills dealing with parts books, ordering, and stocking parts for cars, especially French cars, was finely honed. His skills even landed him a job at a Citroën dealer in London, England for 5 years called, BWB Motor Services.
After Roger Sagner's Motor Mart came to an end, the once thriving Citroën support network in Oregon had pretty much dwindled down to just Bill. He helped local owners keep their cars running for a number of years. But eventually Bill retired from working on cars as his health became an overriding issue.
Bill was very gracious to help us prepare the Oregon section of this website.
Bill passed away on January 7, 2023.
Provided by Vlad Gladkov
BILL LONSETH AT A CITROEN MEET IN THE 1980'S
SUMMARY
We are a bit sad that Oregon has been very quiet in the Citroën world for several decades now. We find this kind of surprising since Oregon got a very early and robust start in the world of Citroëns in the 1950's and 1960's. In fact, at times Portland was more active than its larger neighbor to the north, Seattle. There are however several dedicated Citroën owners in Oregon.