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Berliet - The car brand with the locomotive

Name: Berliet 19-CV-3,3-Liter 1973
Brand: Berliet

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Created on June 1, 1973

Text:

Wolfgang Schmarbeck

Photos:

Archiv

Artistic painting of an idyllic family outing in a Berliet 12 CV (1923).

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Family in a Berliet 14/40 (1927) on a family outing - excerpt from a file.

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Renault Type II (1921) - Built in the interwar period from 1921 to 1923.

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Berliet Limousine (1910) - Narrow-chested and long-legged.

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Berliet Limousine (1911) - The rear of the narrow, high-legged luxury vehicle from 1911. Luggage was not yet stowed on a luggage rack at the rear, but on the roof.

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Berliet Limousine (1911) - Stylish lighting.

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Berliet Limousine (1911) - Handle bar for boarding and ear trumpet for the driver to transmit commands from the rear.

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Berliet 4-cylinder tonneau (1902) - 8 hp was a lot by the standards of the time. Today that is unthinkable.

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Leather-covered accelerator pedal on the Berliet saloon (1910).

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Berliet 10 CV (1927) - View of the engine block.

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Berliet 10 CV (1927) - Sketch of the chassis.

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Summary

The Berliet car brand is particularly well known for one detail: The special company logo. This shows a vehicle from outside the industry: A locomotive. The history behind the Berliet car brand is no less exciting. Not least because this company "survived" both world wars and continued to exist almost into modern times, as this article explains.

This article contains the following chapters

Everyone starts small
The course is set
Steadily growing international fame
Curious company logo
International, but not known everywhere
Models for every budget
X-chassis as a common feature
Dauphine as the last passenger car

Estimated reading time: 8min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Before the turn of the century, French metalworking companies turned to a new line of business with increasing interest: the construction of motor cars. Berliet was one of them, as the development history of this company shows. In Croix-Rousse, a district of Lyon, Marius Berliet ran a small mechanical business. His father had been a weaver, and his son had become interested in the problems of mechanical drives at an early age. He was fascinated by the new engine, which - first used in France by Panhard - could be used as a driving machine in a carriage without being tied to a specific location. With sufficient experience and the help of three friends, Berliet was able to build the first car in his 90 square meter workshop in 1895, having already developed and marketed petrol engines.

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