1965

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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 right).

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CITROEN 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. took over France Auto Ltd. as both were at 1383 Hornby, leaving Sargent to now compete directly against the corporate store.

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).

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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!

Forward to 1966

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The 1990's

MIDDLETON-OFF-MAGNOLIA

The late 1980’s brought an end to this author's shop in Issaquah as career and family took precedence. Fortunately, Chris Middleton, the talented son of a Boeing aerodynamics engineer stepped into the picture to continue with Citroën repairs in the Seattle area.

By the 1990’s, routine maintenance on DS’s and SM’s had largely given way to complicated and extensive restoration work as the cars aged. Chris took on the challenge and in a few short years, managed to be able to perform full restorations, including rust repair, mechanical, and hydraulic work.

Chris rents a large shop with several colleagues on the east side of the Magnolia neighborhood, just north of downtown Seattle. Chris has had staying power, since he has been in Magnolia restoring Citroëns for 30 years! He has restored dozens of the local cars, including Dr. Paul Joos' beautiful 1966 convertible.

The Magnolia shop is also full of other interesting machinery from France, Germany, Italy and England. Chris’s personal cars include a Peugeot 404, a DS wagon, and a rare 1965 DS19 Pallas.

CHRIS MIDDLETON AVEC UNE ROUE ROUGE EN 1997

PAUL JOOS's CONVERTIBLE

MIDDLETON'S MAGNOLIA SHOP

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RHINO MOTORS

Another Seattle-area enthusiast who grew up around Citroëns was Greg Bruninga. After owning several DS's in the 1980's, Greg opened a repair shop in Seattle called Rhino Motors. It was briefly located in the Interbay neighborhood of Seattle, but soon moved to its more permanent location at 310 NW 100th St. in North Seattle.

Rhino Motors opened in the early 1990’s and specialized in parts and repairs for Seattle's aging fleet of Peugeots, but occasionally worked on some of the local Citroëns.

RHINO MOTORS JUST BEFORE CLOSING UP - 2008

Eventually income from the dwindling supply of Peugeots dried-up and as a last ditch effort to stay in business, Rhino started to work on Jeeps and other cars, but to no avail. After a somewhat controversial decade and a half of working on cars, Rhino Motors closed in about 2008.

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