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.

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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.

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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.

RHINO MOTORS

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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.

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.