Commer
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- For the town Commer, Mayenne, in France, see Communes of the Mayenne department. For various meanings, see comma.
Commer was a British manufacturer of commercial vehicles which existed from 1905 until 1979.
The company was formed as the Commercial Car Company based in small premises in Lavender Hill, South London. In order to go into volume production a site was bought at Biscot Road, Biscot, Luton, where production of the first truck, the 3 ton RC type started in 1907. In 1909 the first bus was made. With the outbreak of First World War the factory turned to the manufacture of military vehicles for the British Army and by 1919 over 3000 had been made.
In 1926, after being in receivership several times, Commer was taken over by Humber, which in 1931 became part of the Rootes Group.
The Commer name was replaced by the Dodge name during the 1970s following the takeover of Rootes by Chrysler Europe. After Peugeot purchased Chrysler Europe in 1978, the Commer factory was run in partnership with the truck division of Renault, Renault Trucks. It continued to produce the Dodge commercial truck range for some time, with Renault badges and a small amount of product development, eventually cancelling these in favour of mainstream Renault models and switching production at the factory to production of Renault truck and bus engines in the early 1990s.
Many Commer vans and lorries are notable for being fitted with the Rootes TS3 engine, a two-stroke diesel three-cylinder horizontally-opposed piston engine, which came to be known as the "Commer Knocker" due to the unique noise it produced. Newer Commer vehicles had Perkins and Cummins diesel engines, and less commonly Mercedes diesel engines. [1]
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[edit] Spacevan
Commer was famous in later years as a maker of vans for the British Post Office — particularly the Commer FC which was introduced in 1960 with many body styles, including a 1500c van. After engine and interior upgrades it was renamed the PB in 1967 and the SpaceVan in 1974. As noted above, it would be sold as a Dodge and Fargo model (until 1976, with both Commer and Fargo names were dropped). These were rounded-front forward control vans with narrow front track — a legacy of their car derived suspension. Utilising at first the Rootes Hillman-derived 1500cc 4 cylinder engine in the PA series, then the larger 1725 unit in the PB (a Perkins 4108 diesel was also available).
Reportedly, one condition of the bailout of Chrysler's British operations was a commitment to upgrade the Spacevan, which was praised for its brakes, cornering, and price, but criticized for its power, comforts, and top speed. A revised Spacevan was thus introduced in 1977, using the same mechanicals but with numerous cosmetic changes, conveniences, and a new interior. Although outdated by its demise in 1982, by which time Commer had been taken over by Peugeot, the Spacevan remained a familiar sight in the UK thanks to its role with British Telecom and the Post Office - who were almost solely responsible for it remaining in production for so long. By this time, there were three engines (two 1.7 liter engines of 37 and 42 kW) and a small diesel (31 kW), with a four-speed manual transmission and no automatic available. The last Spacevan was built in 1983.[2].
[edit] References
- ^ "allpar.com" section on Commer
- ^ Dodge Spacevan / Telecom Van (Commer PA and PB vans, Dodge K-series). allpar.com. Allpar, LLC. Retrieved on April 2008.
[edit] See also
- Dodge 50 series
- Dodge 500 trucks
[edit] External links
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