French Automaker Hotchkiss Produced the Gregoire Luxury Car

Hotchkiss Gregoire 1950 - 1953
By Kieran White from Manchester, England (1950-1953 Hotchkiss Gregoire)
[CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Gregoire is a luxury car produced from 1950 to 1954 by the French automaker Hotchkiss. Only about 247 were produced, with serial numbers 500 to 747.

Hotchkiss Anjou 1950
By Akela NDE (Own work)  [CC BY-SA 2.0 fr], via Wikimedia Commons

The Gregoire was a modern-looking four-door saloon. Reportedly as a response to disappointing sales for the saloon, special-bodied coach-built coupé and cabriolet versions also appeared at the 1952 Paris Motor Show,^[1] including a streamlined Gregoire-based coupé with an eye-catching 'panoramic' rear window bodied by the coachbuilder Henri Chapron.^[2]

Hotchkiss Gregoire 1950 - 1954
By Buch-t (Own work) [GFDL or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire 1951
By dave_7 [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire Coach Chapron (1951 - 1953)
By AlfvanBeem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire 1951 - 1953
By Buch-t (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire Coach Chapron
By AlfvanBeem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

1951 Hotchkiss Gregoire Rear View
By dave_7 [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire Rear View
By dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada (1953 Hotchkiss Gregoire)
 [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

For more than thirty years, each new Hotchkiss had represented a gentle evolution from the previous model. With the Gregoire the company made a radical bid to create a new generation of cars. The car carried the name of its designer, Jean-Albert Gregoire, a man who had made his name in the 1930s as a car designer, with experience in designing front-wheel-drive cars, and a man who had spent much time during the war working on the application of aluminium to car production. Directly after the war, with European demand for war planes abruptly curtailed, the recently developed aluminium industry found opportunities in the more radical designs coming out of the automotive sector, and the Hotchkiss Gregoire was notable for its lightweight chassis, which incorporated much aluminium. The car also featured a new 2180 cc horizontal boxer water-cooled four-cylinder engine capable of delivering a claimed 70 or, from 1952, 75 HP.^[1] The flat-four engine permitted a low bonnet/hood line but was fitted well forward which enforced an extensive front overhang. The gear box was a four-speed unit with synchromesh on the upper three ratios and overdrive on the fourth.^[1]

Hotchkiss Gregoire Coupe
By Crwpitman (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire -This car was the only one of this model exported to North America for Mack Corporation of New York.
By dave_7 [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire 1952
By Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England (Hotchkiss Gregoire c.1952)
 [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotckiss Gregoire JAG (1953)
By AlfvanBeem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire JAG 1953
By AlfvanBeem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire c. 1952
By Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England (Hotchkiss Gregoire c.1952)
[CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire Coach Chapron 1951 - 1953
By AlfvanBeem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hotchkiss Gregoire Interior
By dave_7 [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Gregoire’s commercial performance was affected by the company's 30-year record of producing worthy but conservative saloons. High development costs had to be amortised over the number of cars sold, and the low sales level led to a high retail price which, in turn, depressed sales further. By 1952 the Gregoire was retailing for twice the price of the similarly sized six-cylinder Citroën Traction 15CV.^[1] An additional challenge came from government taxation policies during the early 1950s in the French market, which heavily penalised larger cars. At the 1952 Paris Motor Show with several French luxury auto-makers clearly in trouble it was noted that for the Gregoire, despite its upmarket aspirations, the company was only able to distribute a very skimpy brochure, provided without any colour pictures.^[1] By 1953 output had slowed and only about 40 were produced,^[1] and by the time production ceased towards the end of that year, only 247 Hotchkiss Gregoires had been built; of these 235 had been four-door saloons.

References

1. 
   

"Automobilia". Toutes les voitures françaises 1953 (salon Paris oct 1952) (Paris: Histoire & collections). Nr. 14: Page 38. 2000.

2. Gloor, Roger (2007). Alle Autos der 50er Jahre 1945 - 1960. Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag. ISBN 978-3-613-02808-1.

• This entry is based on the Italian Wikipedia entry concerning the same car.

External links

• page about Grégoire in histomobile-website






















• page about Grégoire in autoweek-website

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_Gr%C3%A9goire

Alteration:  Gregoire is used without accent aigu.