page_title: Rootes Group
section_title: Peugeot (1978–2007)
hierarchical_section_title: Rootes Group / Peugeot (1978–2007)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Peugeot 309
context_page_description: The Rootes Group or Rootes Motors Limited was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. Run from London's West End, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dealers business in the south of England. In the decade beginning 1928 the Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, made prosperous by their very successful distribution and servicing business, were keen to enter manufacturing for closer control of the products they were selling. One brother has been termed the power unit, the other the steering and braking system.
  With the financial support of Prudential Assurance, the two brothers bought some well-known British motor manufacturers, including Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam, Talbot, Commer and Karrier, controlling them through their parent, Rootes' 60-per-cent-owned subsidiary, Humber Limited.
  At its height in 1960, Rootes had manufacturing plants in the Midlands at Coventry and Birmingham, in southern England at Acton, Luton and Dunstable, and a brand-new plant in the west of Scotland at Linwood.
context_section_description: Despite the government assistance, the weight of problems bearing on Chrysler Europe resulted in its collapse in 1977, leading to the company's 1978 takeover by PSA Peugeot-Citroen. PSA soon wielded the axe over the troubled Linwood factory in Scotland, and exhumed the Talbot marque from the pages of Rootes' history to re-badge the former Chrysler and Simca badged models. Whilst Ryton was saved, PSA took little interest in the heavy commercial vehicles and the former Commer/Dodge/Karrier truck and van factory was run in conjunction with the trucks division of Renault. After the withdrawal of the last Dodge-derived trucks (latterly badged as Renaults) it became an engine production plant for Renault Véhicules Industriels.
  The first Rootes model to be discontinued under Peugeot's ownership was the Hunter in 1979, and its production tooling subsequently went to Iran, where the Paykan went into local production, which continued until 2004. It remains a common sight throughout the Middle East, especially as a taxi. The closure of Linwood in 1981 spelled the end (in Europe at least) for the Avenger. Chrysler had retained the rights to the car, and continued its production in Argentina. The demise of Linwood also meant the demise of the Talbot Sunbeam after just four years in production. Its successor was the French built Talbot Samba, based on the Peugeot 104, and which went on sale in the UK in February 1982. By this stage, however, Peugeot was a year away from unveiling its highly acclaimed new 205 supermini, although it was originally planned that Peugeot would launch a Talbot badged supermini on the 205 platform as well as a Citroen some time around the mid 1980s.
  The Simca-based models (the Horizon, Alpine and Solara) continued to be built at Ryton, using the resurrected Talbot badge from 1979. However, the Talbot-badged models declined in popularity over the next few years, with sales dropping from nearly 120,000 on the UK market in 1979 to around 25,000 in 1984, while as the same time the Peugeot brand was gaining ground thanks to the success of the 205.
  By 1985 PSA had announced that it would abandon the three-marque strategy on passenger cars, and the Horizon replacement, developed as the Talbot Arizona, became the Peugeot 309 when it was launched in the autumn of 1985, and was the first Peugeot-badged car to be assembled at the Ryton plant. The Arizona's styling was mismatched with the rest of the range, making it resemble an enlarged Simca 1108. The Talbot badge was discontinued on passenger cars, with the Alpine, Solara and Samba all finishing production in May 1986, and the last Horizon models leaving the production lines in Spain and Finland a year later. The Talbot brand survived on the Express van - part of a venture between Peugeot and Fiat - until 1994.
  The Ryton plant was initially retained and went on to assemble the Peugeot 405 alongside the 309 from 1987, as well as the 309's successor (the Peugeot 306) from late 1992, and finally the Peugeot 206 from 1998.
  Ryton began assembling its last Peugeot, the 206, in 1998. At the height of the car's success, the plant was working at capacity to satisfy demand. Ryton's importance in PSA's overall strategy was as an assembly operation with limited production capacity compared to PSA's main factories in France and Spain - particularly as its location between two main roads made expansion impossible.
  In April 2006, after years of speculation surrounding Ryton's future, the PSA Group announced that production of the Peugeot 206 would be shifted to Slovakia and the Ryton plant would close within the next year.
  Production at the plant ceased on 12 December 2006. It marked the end of nearly 60 years of car manufacturing at Ryton, and severed the motor industry's final remaining direct link with the Rootes Group. More than 2,000 jobs were lost as a result of the factory's closure. It was demolished soon after. The only physical remnant of the Rootes Group still in existence is the Whitley research and development centre - originally established during the Chrysler era, bu
caption: The 309 was the first Peugeot assembled in the Ryton plant.
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