The range continued to be produced until 1975, when Simca unveiled a replacement, the Simca 1307, which went on to become the 1976 European Car of the Year.
The car was originally manufactured in Poissy in France, in Ryton in the United Kingdom, from 1977 in Villaverde in Barreiros, subsidiary of Chrysler Europe in Spain, and assembled from CKD kits by Todd Motors (later Mitsubishi Motors NZ) in New Zealand between 1977 and about 1983.
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The names were sourced from the corporate ancestor of Chrysler Europe, the Rootes Group, having been used on the Sunbeam Rapier and Hillman Minx.
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Between 1979 and 1985 the car was also built by Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki factory in Finland and assembled in Colombia as Dodge Alpine between 1978 and 1982 at the Chrysler Colmotores in Bogotá.
Simca | Simca 1307 | Simca 1100 |
Named after the panther from The Jungle Book, the Bagheera was created using stock Simca components, including the engines, gearbox and suspension elements, but unlike the Simca cars it shared them with, it was a mid-engined car (the Simcas in question, Simca 1100 and Simca 1307, were front-wheel drive).