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 right).
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!
1968
1968
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1966/1967
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1989
1989
coming soon
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2012
1971
1971
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US and Canadian DS's - Introduction
US and Canadian DS's - Introduction
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THE EARLY YEARS
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! We found advertising literature for Northwest Light Car for as early as September, 1939 (see ad below).
By 1940, a local newspaper article indicated that they had become a distributor for new Citroën Traction Avants (see article below right). We suspect that this was not a factory sponsored activity, so these cars were likely imported independently.
Oregonian Newspaper 1939
1939 OREGONIAN NEWSPAPER AD FOR NORTHWEST LIGHT CAR
1940 NEWSPAPER ARTICLE INDICATING NORTHWEST LIGHT CAR ARE TAKING ON THE CITROEN LINE
Oregonian Newspaper 1940
We believe that Northwest Light Car sold a decent number of Tractions, since Portland-area newspapers from the 1940’s and 1950’s contain advertisements for a reasonably large number of Traction Avants, some as early as 1939 models (see examples below). Note that in Seattle, three hours north of Portland, there was only a single Traction Avant for sale in the Seattle Times classified advertisements between 1935 and 1955, and the ad noted that this car was independently imported by the owner from France. In Portland, there were dozens of Tractions in this era. It is reasonable to believe that most of these cars came from Northwest Light Car.
Oregonian Newspaper 1950
Oregonian Newspaper 1952
The last paragraph in the above newspaper article hints that these cars might have been English-built (from the Slough factory), but the wording is unclear. However, several of the newspaper classified ads specify that the cars had leather interiors, something typically only delivered on English cars. Some ads even go as far as stating that the car had English origins (see below).
Citroën USA guru Richard Bonfond has found that the Slough factory produced 317 left-hand-drive Tractions between 1949 and 1954, and that some ended up in North America. Based on all these clues, evidence is mounting that many of the Tractions Northwest Light Car was importing, were English-built.
Oregonian Newspaper 1955
Oregonian Newspaper 1955
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. By 1953 Northwest Light Car had disappeared.
J. Kendall Hockensmith, owner of Northwest Light Car, was prominent in the business community in Portland in the 1940's. His name shows up in dozens of newspaper articles of the era, most of which were covering the introduction of some new car line that he was selling. Many of the car marques he handled were British, but he did handle cars from other parts of the world, such as American Crosleys and French Simcas.