Matford F917WS

French built Ford truck in Pyrenees, France

Ever since the inception of Ford France, the company was marketing its American trucks in the French market, starting with the Model TT. During the later years, they would follow with the Model AA and Model BB trucks. With the launch of the Model BB in France, it became one of the most powerful trucks in the country. Nevertheless, the "bonneted" styled American trucks were never too suitable for the French market even in these years so there was always a need for a cab-over model.

Ford would continiue to import and/or built its American truck models for the French market as the F598 model until 1947.

Matford F917WS

Starting in 1939, a cab-over truck was produced in France by Ford's local subsidiary and partner Matford as the F917WS model in their Poissy factory. It was, except for its cab styling, heavily based on the British Fordson 7V with only minor mechanical changes and was mainly designed for the French army in the outbreak of World War 2 but only around 600 were delivered to the army before France was seized by Nazy Germany. The Nazis used a number of these trucks, but sabotages made by the French workers who were not fond of their ideals led to production ending the following months and the army using only German Ford trucks while the Poissy plant only delivered parts to Germany to keep production running. After the war, the truck was relaunched under the Ford brand as the F698 model for the civilain market.

In 1949, the F698 was heavily modernized both mechanically and stylistically and was renamed as the Ford Cargo F798WM (not to be confused with the later Ford Cargo range). This time, the Ford V8 was extensively reworked for the vehicle with the help from Hispano-Suiza. The truck's grille and headlight placement was now similair to Ford's American 1940s-1950s Ford F series line. Apart from its home market, it also saw some export sales.

In 1951, the French Ministry of Defense placed a major order for 2000 diesel engine trucks with 6x6 all-wheel drive. However, such a model hat yet to be developed. As a temporary solution, Ford delivered 560 trucks with gasoline engines. Later that year, a tractor unit with a diesel engine was also available. Because of the austerity plans in 1952, the government withdrew its order and Ford France boss Lehideux immediately dismissed several hundred workers. As early as 1950, there had been repeated violent strikes at the Poissy plant. These strikes and low sales led Ford to look for a buyer for the plant. On July 4, 1954, Simca took over most of Ford France and thus also the Poissy plant. Until 1958, Ford still held 18% of the shares. At the end of 1954, sales of the Ford Cargo F798WM were discontinued but the truck ended up being relaunched as the Simca Cargo in 1955. From that time on, a military version was also available. In 1956, production was moved to Unic's plant in Suresnes. The engines were now supplied by Bugatti although they were still being based on the Ford V8 design. During all of production, more economical 4- and 6-cylinder engines (provided by Hercules) were also available.[1] Since 1953, an engine of the Cargo was also used in the Ford Vendôme luxury car.

Since 1960, the model line was only sold as a Unic. Production of these trucks ended with no direct successor in 1966, the same year Unic was bought by Fiat.

Simca SUMB

However, this was not quite the end for the French Ford trucks. Since the French army was looking for a small off-road truck in the style of the Unimog and no French automobile company had such a vehicle in its product range, the Simca SUMB was developed. The Simca SUMB shared the same transmission and engine as the Unic Cargo but had a new cab and slightly shorter chassis which was provided by Unic, while the axles came from Marmon-Herrington; the body was styled by local company Bocquet. Therefore, SUMB stands for Simca Unic Marmon Bocquet.[1]

The SUMB came into many versions for the military, many including various special bodies, allowing for payloads up to 2 tons. Over 6,000 were produced and delivered to the French army before production ended in 1973. The tooling was sold to Renault which however did not procced further with the design, instead providing their own Saviem TP3 to the army as the successor. After 1994-1995, a number of SUMB vehicles were converted to use Renault engines as the outdated Ford design was very much uneconomical by now. Since 2005, SUMB vehicles started getting retired from military service and sold as surplus products.[1]

During the later years, Unic would be merged into Iveco, who would produce an off-road oriented version of its Iveco Daily van named the Iveco Daily 4x4, also be marketed in France under the Unic brand - thus effectively filling the gap left by the Simca/Unic SUMB with one of their own models.

Interestingly, there were some tries, albeit unsuccesful to replace the uneconomical and somewhat unreliable Ford V8 even before Renault came in. In 1971, Unic-Fiat proposed a new version of the SUMB to be put into production. This version was named the VLRA. It had an elongated platform and was equipped with the Fiat 806A diesel engine (most famously used in the OM X-series and its derivatives) that developed 120 hp and had proved its reliability. This vehicle was to be distributed both as a Unic and Fiat.

The UNIC design office adapted the VLRA military prototype for use in forest firefighting and launched the VIRDI - Diesel Fire Rapid Intervention Vehicle, in 1972. Despite the considerable qualities of the model, its style differed too much from conventional vehicles and only 155 copies were produced for the fire department. It was succeded by the more conservative Fiat Iveco 65-75-90 PC 4x4.