What’s the link between Berliet’s and Renault’s Dauphines?

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There won’t be many motor aficionados who think about Berliet when the model designation of Dauphine is mentioned. French motor manufacturer Berliet, based just outside Lyons, was first using the name, way before Renault. And the cars seen here are all 9CV and 11CV Berliet Dauphines of around 1936-vintage. The Berliet PR department surely seemed to know that ladies were the best promotion to sell cars and 83 years later these are still lovely photographs, aren’t they? By the way, does anyone recognise that bridge in the background?

But we also wondered who made the bodies of these cars. Berliet themselves? Remarkably perhaps, there certainly are resemblances with the Renault Vivaquatres, Primaquatres and Celtaquattres of its day. But these were made in-house by Renault, weren’t they? Or did they use the same coachbuilder after all?

By 1967, when Renault had just phased out its own Dauphine model, Berliet was in dire straits and was taken over by Citroën only to be sold a few years later to… Renault. Coincidences?

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures Berliet brochures.

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